The Successful Dilettante
November 20, 2006 Issue 10
Editor: Susan Henderson, coach@susanhenderson.com
Visit our website at: http://www.susanhenderson.com
The Successful Dilettante, published on the 5th and 20th of each month, is sent only to those who have subscribed to it - or was forwarded to you by someone you know. I value your privacy and never share my mailing list with anyone. If a copy has been sent to you by a friend or colleague and you wish to receive your own copies, you may subscribe by visiting: http://www.susanhenderson.com/newsletter.html.
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Greetings!
A very warm and toasty welcome to both old and new subscribers. Thanks for sharing my ezine with your colleagues and friends. I love to hear from you. I do believe that you, dear readers with your multitude of passions and interests, are some pretty amazing and fascinating folks. I invite you to email me directly and tell me about yourself - your challenges and successes with becoming a successful dilettante in your own right. I will never print your name or comments received in a private email without your permission.
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Entrepreneurial Spirit
Do you have it? Do you want to have it? What is it?
According to my handy, dandy Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, an 'entrepreneur' is "a person who undertakes an enterprise or business, with the chance of profit or loss." Well, that's pretty boring. Let's take a look at the word 'spirit', which actually has several different senses to the same word. Setting aside the ghostly stuff and the distilled liquor, I am happy to share these definitions: "the vital animating essence of a person..." and/or "a person possessing these: courage; energy; vivacity." Now we're talking.
Have you always had a burning desire to own and operate your own business based on what you are most passionate about? Possibly, you are lucky enough to already be doing that. Maybe, you started young with a lemonade stand or other youthful enterprise and got that taste of being your own boss which has followed you through your life nipping at your heels like a playful puppy while you worked for someone else. Could it be that you are an evening or weekend entrepreneur as part of a 'portfolio career' that includes working a day job for someone else? Are you an 'accidental entrepreneur' who is starting your own business because you got downsized? Or a stay at home Mompreneur who wants to be with the kids, but also add to the family income?
Wherever you fall in this spectrum, I say congratulations. Kudos to you brave, enterprising souls. All my clients, past and present, have an entrepreneurial spirit and I am honored to assist in their growth around that. It is my own entrepreneurial spirit's passion to help others let their's shine. In that spirit, I am featuring three books to help you in your growth as an entrepreneur.
I would be remiss if I did not give high praise to one of the best-selling small business books in the world: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. It is an absolute must-read for anyone starting a business or wishing to turn around a floundering business. His distinction between working on your business and working in your business is worth the price of the book alone.
I am so shocked at how many solo-preneurs and small businesses are working without a written business plan. How can you know where you are going if you don't have a map of some sort? I recently discovered Jim Horan's The One Page Business Plan: For the Creative Entrepreneur. This is an easy-to-use and empowering process that creates a clear road map for your business - plus it includes an Entrepreneur's Toolkit CD.
I have just started reading The Enlightened Entrepreneur: A Spiritual Approach to Creating and Marketing a Company by Grace Bulger. On the first page she says: "If your dream is to start your own company, then let's be clear about it: you're doing more than incorporating a business related to what you do or physicalizing an outgrowth of your personality. You are giving birth to a living entity, with a spirit and soul and personality. This is a sacred creative act that demands respect. This book takes you through a process to help you create and market your own company as clearly and consciously as possible."
Hugs,
Susan
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Featured Guest: Lyle Lachmuth
I became 'acquainted' with Lyle Lachmuth through repeatedly running into him on the internet. We frequented some of the same support forums where he is a prolific poster while I have been more of a lurker, I am sorry to admit. He is extremely generous in sharing his insights and advice and I have learned much from this inspiring Canadian. He owns blogs of his own and posts on many others. Of special interest to the readers here, Lyle is offering a call-in program called The Successful Careers for Genre Busters™ Series which are live interviews with folks who, like my featured guests, are living great multi-textured lives. The only cost to you is the long distance call charges. The next one is scheduled for tomorrow, Nov. 21st. Just send a blank email to gb-interest@aweber.com for information.
Q1: How did you come to live the life you enjoy today?
It’s been a torturous and, sometimes, tortured path. Coming out of highschool I didn’t really know what I wanted to be. I attended university with the goal of becoming a highschool chemistry teacher but dropped out after one year.
Not wanting to waste my education entirely I decided to attend technical school and after two years of hard work, I obtained an honours diploma in Chemical Research Technology. I’m proud of the fact that I graduated at the top of my class and won a silver medal from the Chemical Institute of Canada. I went through a series of jobs, including working as a milkman, before landing a position as a technologist in the research department of Canada’s largest oil and gas firm.
My interest in using computers was encouraged and I was soon working as a programmer full time and stopped doing lab work. After six years, I transferred into the systems department and began providing ongoing support to the production department. Over the course of the next nine years I ‘climbed’ the professional ladder in the information systems arena.
About 5 years into my IS career my 'Calling' began, well, calling me. I maneuvered my career so that I first began to do systems concepts training, finagled my way into becoming the training manager, and got a ‘job’ as an adjunct trainer with the human resources training group with hopes of transferring into human resources work fulltime. That didn’t happen.
The clash between the creative/artistic professional that was ‘coming out’ and the structured demands of the company precipitated a nervous breakdown and lead to my being ‘let go’ by my employer, being divorced by my then wife, and me deciding to leave the fundamentalist church I’d been a member of for 30+ years.
I decided to go back to school and enrolled in the Master of Science Organization Development program at Pepperdine University. Two years of concerted effort resulted in my receiving my degree. I decided to focus my work on applying my OD degree to small businesses. Over the course of the following 18 years I found myself more and more drawn to working with individuals more so than organizations. Out of my own struggles with creating a successful and rewarding career I developed a toolbox full of strategies and techniques to help my clients (and me) live and work successfully in ways that honoured their talents instead of suppressing them.
Q2: How do you balance your multiple interests into a meaningful career?
Sometime I think balance is a myth. ;-) It’s tough because I’m interested in so many things. I figure I need five lifetimes to do all things I want to do. Over the years I’ve created, refined and trademarked proven tools that I used on myself before I introduced them to my clients. My Destiny Plan™ consists of 9 Action Goals™. At any one time, I make three of my action goals my top priority. For example, for the next two months my top three action goals are: 1) my health (by the way, this is always my #1 goal), 2) my relationships, and 3) my work.
I know what my 'objectives' are in each of the other six action goals. So when I’m bored or need a break from working towards my big three goals, I spend time on the other six.
I find myself paralyzed by too much structure. And, I like to ‘bop around’ from goal to goal as the spirit and my 'muse' moves me.
Q3: So how do you manage your day? Do you make a plan?
For me the key is having just the right amount of structure. I rarely make To Do lists. My plans are pretty loose. I know my Top 3 Actions Goals™, I know the actions/steps I need to make to achieve them, and I work on them based on what attracts me or what MUST absolutely be done. For example, I publish a weekly newsletter and often don’t write it till the day before, or the day, it's due. I like to have as much freedom as possible in how I structure my day.
I do, however, have certain ‘practices’. I always go for a walk first thing in the morning. This keeps me sane. Then when I get back to my home office, I have committed to using the time to write.
Q4: Have you had any mentors along the way?
Mentors? Yes and no. Years ago I knew I wanted and needed an older man as a mentor. But, I couldn’t find anyone. As it happened a fellow named Joel Levey was presenting to our local OD group (back in the early 90s) and he lead us through a guided visualization he called “The Cosmic Skier”. During that visualization I tapped into four 'internal mentors' who have been my guides since then
Over the past 20+ years I’ve worked with some very talented psychotherapists who’ve helped me recover from the trauma of childhood sexual abuse and who've modelled effective communication and guidance.
I also have a terrific coach, Clarence Thomson, who is my spiritual advisor and mentor. Clarence is an Enneagram teacher.
The primary tools I use in my coaching/teaching work are the Enneagram, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and Strong Interest Inventory. I have a library of over 1000 books on careers, self help, health, spirituality, psychology, transitions, change, and entrepreneurship.
Q5: What advice or tips would you give our readers?
These are my Top 3 Tips for Finding and Living the Life of Your Dreams:
1. Know Thyself - Do whatever it takes to get clear about:
a) who you are;
b ) what you are good at;
c) why you are here; and,
d) what is your purpose and mission in life.
2. Love Thyself - Learn to love yourself. Create and protect your boundaries. Develop self care practices and DO them.
3. Be Thyself - God meant you to be you. Learn from the successes and failure of others BUT don’t try to be them. By all means take their ideas and suggestions – but make them your own.
Lyle T. Lachmuth is the Unsticking Coach™. He specializes in working with creative, eclectic, and/or multitalented professionals who are struggling to create the life of their dreams. Lyle helps them rediscover their unique talents, create a career that embraces those talents, teaches them how to courageously express and promote their talents, and shows them how to live a life congruent with their values. You can read his musings on the creative life at his blog: http://www.CreativeCareersUnleashed.com. You’ll find his web site at http://TheUnstickingCoach.com.
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If you would like to learn more about if and how Susan Henderson Coaching might be able to help you achieve your desired results, please contact me to set up a time to talk. We will start with a complimentary phone conversation where I can learn more about your current situation and goals. I will also answer any questions you may have about me, how I work with clients, and the coaching process. If we both feel the coaching relationship is a good fit, we will move on from there.
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2006 Susan Henderson, All rights reserved.
