In my personal quest to unravel the “happiness equation” I recieved this feedback from a reader of this blog. I had posted an article about happiness on one of my LinkedIn groups. I recieved a few comments and one of comments was:

“In the long run happiness just may stumble upon one who deserves it.”

I will have to admit, that the topic of happiness is one of my favorite to write about. There are so many different opinions and thoughts that people have when discussing this topic. Everyone is interested in finding happiness, but the definition is different for everyone. This naturally creates a different path for everyone, even when we are discussing this topic within a niche group such as Seasonal Business owners. Below you will see articles that explain some of my more recent and controversial view points on the topic of happiness.

Article: 1. The answer to YOUR happiness.

Article: 2 6 tips to create your own destiny in 2013.

In the end, happiness may not be a goal any of us should consider persuing.  Like in the quote above, maybe happiness does “stumble upon those who deserve it.” Stumble upon those who deserve it? What does that mean? It means happiness comes those who EARN IT. No matter what your definition of happiness is, the earning comes before the recieving. Putting in the hard work and dedication in your business and life comes way before the reward. Using your business to create a lifestyle that makes you feel good on the inside and makes you happy, is only the true path to happiness.

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7 Powerful Ways to Achieve Results through Personal Discipline

4 Leadership tips for your Service Business

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8 steps on How to take control of your day. One excuse at a TIME. Part 1

The Two Most Important Days in Your Life- According to Mark Twain.

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My first year at business school, I thought my professors were trying to kill me. Each night, I had more reading and homework than could possibly get done in one evening even if I stayed up all night. I quickly realized that one of the key lessons of survival was prioritization–figuring out what portion of the work was most important and what just was not going to get done.

I remember one night, working on a term paper with a group of students. We had worked hard on the paper and we all thought it was in good shape. We had other work to complete that night and were not anxious to pull an all-nighter so we were ready to move on. One of the team members, however, felt it was not “A” material and wanted to keep working on it. I remember thinking even back then that this guy did not “get it.”

My life building businesses has been the same experience as business school. To survive and flourish, you have to quickly figure out what is “important” and what is “noise.” You can’t do it all… Click here for more tips on getting more done.

At both of my current companies Window Brothers & Vance Properties, we have a saying: follow the 80/20 rule, technically known as the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle tells us that 20 percent of the inputs account for 80 percent of the results. You have to cut through the noise, figure out what tasks represent the 20 percent with the greatest leverage and focus on those tasks. Find those projects that make a big impact and ignore EVERYTHING else.

Is it difficult to step away from fire drills and turn away from the mounting volume in your inbox? Absolutely. But if you don’t, your days–and your team’s days–will slip away without having addressed the projects that will really drive your business.

The sooner you figure out how to apply the 80/20 rule and run with it, the better off you’ll be. There are 100 things you can focus on each day, and it’s up to you to parse the data, decide what projects or features have the greatest leverage, focus, and get it done.

Don’t forget, you can’t do it all….

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Learn more about how a steady diet of motivaton helps your business grow.

Click here to find out why slow growth is better than fast.

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Click here to learn more about calculating your profit.

Are you practicing these 4 Steps to find your Ideal Customers?

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Barriers to success are easy to overcome, but only when you know they’re there.

Why do some people achieve their goals while others fail? I believe it’s because successful people manage to overcome five barriers that, in many cases, guarantee failure. Here are those barriers and how to overcome them:

1. Uninspiring Goals

When most people set goals, they envision a “thing,” such as a particular amount of money, an object (like a new car), or a specific achievement (like writing a book). Unfortunately, these “things I’m gonna get or do” goals don’t appeal to the core of what motivates you, because they miss the point that what you’re actually seeking in life and work is the POSITIVE EMOTIONS that you believe those things will produce.

Fix: Rather than envisioning a “thing” as your goal, envision–with all the strength in your imagination–how you will feel when you achieve the goal. That way, you’ll be inspired to do whatever it takes (within legal and ethical bounds) to achieve that goal.

2. Fear of Failure

If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t take the necessary risks required to achieve your goal. For example

, you won’t make that important phone call, because you’re afraid that you’ll be rejected. Or you won’t quit your dead-end job and start your own business because you’re afraid that you might end up without any money.

Fix: Decide–right now!–that failure, for you, is a strictly temporary condition. If things don’t go the way you’d like, it’s only a setback that, at most, delays your eventual success. In other words, accept the fact that you’ll sometimes fail, but treat that failure as an unavoidable (yet vital) component in your quest.

3. Fear of Success

In many ways, this fear is even more debilitating than the fear of failure. Suppose you achieved something spectacular, like enormous wealth. What if it didn’t make you happy? What then? What if you ended up losing all of it? What then? Would your friends start acting weird? Would your family be envious? Such thoughts (and they’re common) can cause even a highly motivated person to self-sabotage.

Fix: Decide that you’re going to be happy and grateful today and happy and grateful in the future, no matter what happens. Rather than focus on possible problems, envision how wonderful it would be to be able to help your friends and family achieve THEIR goals. (Hint: Watch the last season of the TV series Entourage)

4. An Unrealistic Timetable

Most people vastly overestimate what they can do in a week and vastly underestimate what they can do in a year. Because of this, most people try to cram too many action items into the short term rather than spacing out activities over the long term. The inability to get all the short-term steps accomplished creates discouragement and the impression that the final goal is slipping away. Click here to learn more about SMART GOALS.

Fix: As you list the activities and steps required to achieve a goal, schedule only the 20% of the activities that will produce 80% of your results. Beyond that, set ambitious long-term timetables, but always leave some “wiggle room” when you plan short term.

5. Worrying About “Dry Spots”

It’s easy to get discouraged when you reach a point at which nothing you do seems to advance you toward your goal. For example, suppose you’re trying to master a certain skill. You make swift progress at first but then, after a while, it seems as if you’re not doing any better, or maybe a little worse. Some people use these “plateaus” or “dry spots” as an excuse to give up and therefore fail.

Fix: Whenever you reach a plateau or dry spot, it’s time to celebrate rather than give up. A plateau is almost always a sign that you’re on the brink of a major breakthrough, if you just have the patience to stick with it and trust that you’ll eventually achieve your goal.

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Click here to learn more about Michael Gerber’s best selling book the E-myth

Clich here to learn How to: Calm the chaos and get your life back.

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Sometimes we find the answer to the elusive questions in a simple combination of words.  Want more words? Click an any of the links below to learn more about happiness.

Click here to learn more about creating your own destiny.

Click here to learn more about being a happy entrepreneur.

Click here to find out how a refrigerator magnet inspired happiness.

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1. No Concept of the Ideal Customer

Many marketers have a completely product/service-centric view of the world. They know their product/service up, down and sideways, but have only a vague idea of who might actually want or need it, or how they’d actually use it. Worst case, the marketers don’t think that’s important because their product/service is so “state-of-the-art” that it’s obvious why it’s a good thing to buy.

2. No Time Spent Listening to That Type of Customer

Even when marketers DO have a concept of the ideal customer, they often spend little time actually listening to those customers. They do “market research” and run demographic numbers, but when it comes to just sitting down and listening (really listening)… that’s simply not on the agenda. Not surprisingly, the result is marketing messages that don’t mean anything to the people who are supposed to buy.

3. No Idea of What That Customer’s Customer Wants

Even when marketers DO listen to an ideal customer, they listen for the wrong things. They try to find ways that the product/service can fulfill the customer’s needs. While that sound’s smart, it’s actually stupid. In business-to-business sales (which is the bulk of most sales activity) what’s important is not satisfying the customer’s needs, but the needs of the customer’s customer. That’s what’s driving your customer’s business. Your product/service only counts if it counts to the end customers.

4. Inability to Formulate a Meaningful “Value Proposition”

Even when marketers DO understand their customer’s customer, they often have an extraordinarily difficult time formulating a value proposition that makes sense to both the customer and the end customer. Doing so requires an understanding of the business dynamics that permeates the entire supply chain, a concept that’s unfortunately beyond the ken of all but the most experienced marketers.

5. Inability to Articulate a Value Proposition in 25 Words or Less

Even when marketers DO have a great value proposition, they have a tendency to do “group writing” that always results in long-winded sentences, full of abstractions, biz-blab and jargon. Writing a crisp message is a specialized task that only a talented individual can accomplish. It’s a rare skill, as evidenced by the truly awful marketing messages floating around, even inside otherwise great companies.

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