Matt Hyatt

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How to Begin to Start (Again)

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Blogging is something I’ve known I ought to do since I first heard the term 20-something years ago. Knowing I ought to do something and actually beginning to do something are two different things, it turns out. My list of things that I know I ought to do and fully intend to start doing (again) include:

  • Running
  • Working out
  • Getting an annual physical
  • Shopping prices at renewal time for auto insurance and mobile phone service
  • Cleaning the gutters

Sounds like fun, huh? No wonder I’ve been putting off getting started! But blogging – blogging ought to be fun and fulfilling. It’s an opportunity to share my story. The excitement, heartache, stellar wins, dismal losses, leaps forward, painful setbacks, and the adventure and pure joy of starting and running a successful business. These are things that ought to be shared with other active and aspiring entrepreneurs. These are the reasons I must begin to blog. Again.

Beginning something new can be hard. Here are several things I’ve done to get over the initial hump in the past:

  1. Imagine failure.

    2. There’s always a good reason we think we ought to start something new. If I’m having a tough time getting started, it’s sometimes helpful to imagine myself several months or years down the road if I don’t move forward. Tony Robbins wrote about this idea in his popular book, Awaken the Giant Within. He asserted that people are more motivated by pain than pleasure. According to him, most of us would be better off imagining the pain of failure than the sweet taste of victory when working towards a goal. In the many years since I read the book, I’ve found pain to be a very effective motivational tool for change.

  1. Make it a game.

    2. Gamification is a great way to get started at a new routine or habit. Let’s say I want to start running regularly again (we’re just pretending here, ok?). One way to make running a game is to set a goal to hit an 8-minute mile within a month. Or to be able to run a 10K by Thanksgiving. Either way, having a time-bound goal is a great way to get back out there and start running again.

  1. Go public.

    2. Most of us feel a sense of duty and responsibility to do what we say we will do. We don’t want to be seen as people that say one thing, but do another. It makes sense, then, that a public proclamation can be a powerful tool to help us get started doing something new. Let’s say that you want to add a new service offering to your business this year, but you know that it will take a lot of careful planning and hard work to achieve that goal. What would happen if you went public with your plans? How hard would you work to ensure that your new service launched on time if your employees and customers were expecting it to happen? (You don’t have to go public to the world, you know. If it makes more sense, share the goal with your team, or perhaps with several of your closest clients. The point is to get the commitment out there and get started!)

  1. Participate with friends.

    2. Sometimes, there’s nothing better than the rallying cry of a group of friends to motivate us towards starting something new. In this sense, peer pressure can be a very good thing! I’ve lost count of all the crazy group runs and adventure races I’ve done with friends, all in the name of fitness and comradery. When we’re in it together, there’s no way around it – we’re going and I’d better get started!

So here I am. Beginning to blog. Again. Want to know which of the above methods I employed this time? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s all four, but it began with a recent email from my friend and fellow blogger, Jason Montoya. He challenged me to join a group of his friends (see #4 above) aiming to blog every weekday for a month (see #2). I told Jason that I’d participate, then I confirmed with the group last week, and now I’m posting it on the Internet for all to see (#3). Leading up to this post, I came up with lots of good reasons this is not a good time for me to start blogging. I’m awfully busy, you see. Lots of important things to do, and all that. But I kept thinking about what Jason and his friends might think of me if I never even started. How embarrassed and ashamed I’d be that I didn’t follow through on my commitment (#1). That would never do, so here I am, blogging my little heart out.

Here’s a list of the other bloggers participating in the Weekday Blogging Challenge this month:

What about you? What methods do you use to begin to start something new? Comment below and share your best ideas with us!

The 100 Year Business Plan, Revisited

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Have you ever thought about your long-term plan for your business? A local startup entrepreneur, Sanjay Parekh, recently told a group of entrepreneurs and other community leaders that he likes to maintain a “2100 Plan” for his business ventures, keeping an eye towards what things might look like in the year 2100. I think it’s a great idea to have a long-, long-term plan. In fact, I wrote about the idea of developing a 100-year plan back in 2013.

Seven or eight years ago, I was contemplating the future of my business and considering what I might like to do with it. It occurred to me that the business I’d built could be engineered to serve its employees and customers long after I’ve moved on. “What must I do to transform my business such that it could potentially outlast me for many years?,” I wondered. Several answers came to mind:

  1. The business must serve a universal purpose.
  2. A culture based on shared purpose and values must be built.
  3. The vision for the organization must be compelling and very long term.
  4. A leadership team must be appointed and developed.
  5. An adaptable system of documented processes and standards must be established.
  6. The business must be financially healthy.

Of course, none of these actions would guarantee that my business would last even 5 years without me, let alone 100. But if I wanted to create a strong foundation, on which a 100-year-old business could be built, I thought this plan would be a good start.

And start I did! I’ve made significant progress on all six of the action items I’ve listed above and my business has thus been totally transformed. It is bigger, more profitable, and healthier than ever before. It serves more people and has more impact than ever, too. And importantly, it is not nearly as dependent on my personal, day-to-day involvement as it was for its first 15 or 20 years.

Will my business make it to its 100-year anniversary? I’ll never know. Not unless I make it to age 125 myself, that is!

As I look ahead for this blog, I plan to write about each facet of my six-step plan to build the foundation of a business that might last 100 years. I’ll come back here to link those articles as I make progress. In the meantime, what do you think it would take to build a business that could last 100 years or more? What would you add to my list?

Why Blog?

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Several years ago, around age 40, it occurred to me that I would soon reach the halfway point of my professional career. I started my business when I was 25 years old, I would soon be 45, and a lot of people retire around age 65. What would I do with the second half of my career? Would I continue to run my business for another 20 years? Start a second business? Invest in other entrepreneurs? I wasn’t quite sure, but one thought was clear: I want others to benefit from my experience.

I love being an entrepreneur. I think it’s a noble profession and a great way to live. I wish everyone could have the experience of building a business from the ground up. It’s a humbling, challenging experience that I find highly rewarding. If done successfully, the reward is multiplied many times and for many people (think employees and their families, customers, suppliers, communities … perhaps even humanity itself). For me, entrepreneurship is the greatest profession in the world.

I heard a friend speak recently on the topic of leadership multiplication. He pointed out that approximately 55 million people die every year. Sadly, only a small percentage of them have wills in place to pass their wealth and other assets to their heirs. That is a shame, but the real travesty is this: An even smaller percentage of people who die will leave behind their knowledge. This is a call to action if I’ve ever heard one. You, dear reader, will literally have a lifetime of experiences and you will learn many things in the process. What will you do to ensure that all those powerful lessons are not lost with your eventual and unavoidable passage from this earth?

So here we are today. I’m 47 years old and I’m almost certainly on the downhill side of my professional career. I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my adult life. It’s time to share my experiences and knowledge with others. My intent is to add as much value to you as possible by sharing details of my experiences as an entrepreneur and leader. What’s worked. What hasn’t. What mistakes I’ve made along the way. How I’m changing and improving over time. Stick around, dear reader, because there’s a lot to share!

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About Matt

I'm a long-time entrepreneur that built an award-winning, purpose-driven business that helps people thrive. Now I'm sharing everything I know to help you build your own great business.

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