Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Insights and Opinions: Finding Your Driver
For our Insights and Opinions section today, where we feature contributions from the local community, we have an article from Ryan Blair, a local entrepreneur who was previously co-founded SkyPipeline, PathConnect, and is now CEO of Visalus--all based in Los Angeles. Ryan addresses how to break out of the day to day drudgery of a job, and become an entrepreneur. Ryan is also author of Nothing to Lose: How to Find Your Passion, Fire Your Boss, and Become an Entrepreneur (www.nothingtolose.com), which this article is based upon.
The Death Cycle. Day in and day out, you get up before dawn to make a grueling commute to a green-light-tinged building, where you spend eight, nine, or ten hours a day working at a job that doesn't fulfill you, doesn't exhibit your personal talents, and makes you dread each moment you have to spend thinking about it. By the time you get home to your family, you are too drained to enjoy their company and too tired from thinking of the day of drudgery ahead to make the most of your free time. The Death Cycle.
How do you break out of it?
The first step to consider, once you've determined that you have nothing to lose by taking a shot at entrepreneurial thinking, is to figure out what motivates you. You know the drill. In any crime show, the detective characters always ask these questions, What was the motive? What drove the person to act? Obviously, we're talking about something far better than a criminal mindset here, but I think it's essential to recognize how motivation truly surrounds us in every aspect of our lives—from personal choices to human interactions with one another, and within society at large.
Motivation can steer both our short-term and long-term decision making. It can affect our personality, temperament, and interests. It is one of the most powerful forces in our lives—and it is often subconscious. We rarely stop to question exactly what our motivation is in each circumstance, but I believe that by simply taking stock of the motives behind our professional decisions, each subsequent move will be more deliberate, directed, and effective.
In fact, the very first step in creating your business is rooted in motivation. You need to (Continued...)
Read the rest of Ryan's article.