I really like this blog.   It’s got the best readers and comments on the web.  So when Chris told me I should go ahead and submit a new post, I was totally game.  In the interest of full disclosure, I’m out and about a little more than usual today because my new book, Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success, has just been released.

But back to the task at hand: goals. Well-defined goals can be the difference between success and mediocrity. But goal setting does have a dark side. The large-scale financial disasters of 2008 were in large part due to executives who blindly set and followed goals without paying attention to developments around them that should have prompted them to stop and think.

Sometimes, setting a goal works so well that we become irrational and unethical in our attempts to achieve it.

A classic example is the top-notch student who cheats on tests and plagiarizes term papers in order to maintain her straight-A average. In 1999, psychology researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons set out to investigate the phenomenon that goals can have a negative effect on performance.

They told subjects to watch a video and count how many times the people in the clip passed a basketball among themselves. The subjects concentrated so intently on the goal that they failed to notice anything else taking place in the testing room – including when a woman in a gorilla suit took her place among the group!

The bottom line? You’ll get an edge by setting goals for sure, just be aware of the potential pitfalls.

Success won’t happen overnight, so you need a series of long-term goals in order to get to where you’re meant to be. I generally advise on gaining an edge in the workplace, but your aspirations might include artistic, family, financial, physical, and public service goals.

Spend some time thinking about the areas that are most important to you, and keep working until you have just a handful of goals to concentrate on.

Please make sure these significant goals are truly your own, and not your partner’s, family’s, or employer’s. The motivation to achieve won’t be very strong or last very long if it’s driven by someone else. Once you have your short list, use your goals to gain an edge by answering these questions:

• What exactly are you going to do, when, and how? For instance, it is better to say that you will attend three sales meetings this month than simply to remark that you plan to increase your knowledge of sales. Make sure you phrase the goal positively (i.e. not “Sacrifice my weekends to attend sales meetings,” but “Make good use of my Saturdays this winter to master the mechanics of the sales process by March.”)

• How should you determine if you have achieved your goal? How will you tell if you’ve made progress along the way? For example, you might say: “I will know that I am making progress toward my goal when I am able to complete the meeting exercises the other sales reps are responsible for.”

• Is your goal something that you can realistically achieve in steps? While there should be a challenge inherent to the goal, you don’t want the task to be so large or difficult that it destroys your motivation. Also, you don’t want your success to be based on factors that are out of your control (i.e. the economy, the weather, fate).

• Why is this goal important to your long-term success in this area? Will completion of the goal actually bring you closer to getting what you consider to be truly important in life?

• When are you going to start working on achieving your goal, and what is the deadline for completion? At what point should you stop and revisit your goal to make sure it’s still a worthy exercise?

Did you write down your answers? Don’t be lazy, because writing is half the battle. For even more of an impact, turn the page and jot down some notes on your own strengths and weaknesses, obstacles you’re likely to encounter, sacrifices you may have to make, knowledge you may need to acquire, and the people who can support you as you work to achieve your goals.

Make your action plans for each goal short-term so that goals don’t fall off the radar while you’re coping with your boss’ latest meltdown.

Immediate to do lists are a great idea, but don’t let your Sharpie get too excited. Too many tasks on a checklist will either spread your attention too thin or cause you to feel so overwhelmed that you won’t do anything.

Remember that no one experiences overnight success, so you’ll need to be patient and focused. Periodically review your goals to ensure that you’re on the right track and to determine if they need adjusting. And when you achieve a goal, don’t just nod and smile and move on to the next big thing. It’s important for your self-confidence and motivation that you celebrate the accomplishment and reward yourself for your hard work and dedication. Analyze what the experience taught you and what that means for future goal setting.

Overnight success is a myth, and so are many other things that sabotage your career even as you accept them as conventional wisdom.  Stop the cycle.  Grab your copy of Blind Spots, available everywhere books are sold.

As I advise and strategize with entrepreneurs, I am noticing a trend, particularly amongst those driven by creativity and passion.

It’s that their biggest strength- the creativity that sets them apart- is often their biggest weakness in business.

I have gone deep with the owners of some of the coolest, most interesting business concepts around, who are doing phenomenal, creative, impactful things with their businesses.  From the outside, it looks like they have a veritable goldmine.  But as I get to look at their financial statements, many of them are not making enough to get by.  Some aren’t making profits at all.

For many of these high-touch or creative businesses, the uniqueness that sets them apart is what keeps them from growing, reaching the next level or in some cases, even turning a profit.

For some, their unique service is in demand, but only at a price point that won’t support the business’s viability.

For others, their high-touch services are so specialized, it is difficult for them to be replicated- the owners are burnt out because they are working too many hours or they are having a hard time teaching their staff to deliver on the value proposition.

What do you do when the vision that drives you is what’s keeping you from being successful?

In these circumstances, compromise has to happen.

If you are in this position, are you willing to let your creative vision inform you, but also to scale back some of the uniqueness for the sake of growing the business (or staying in business)?

I hope you can make that mindset shift.  You don’t have to give up your values or your mission, but you may have to implement them in a way that cuts out some of the smaller details in order for the business to thrive.

The challenge is to do that in a way that is still appealing to the customer, as well as to you as an entrepreneur.

Is what’s setting you apart holding you back?

The following is a guest post by Rick Clemons.

 

Clipping along on my daily 25-mile bike ride. Cars zipping past me at 60 mph. And suddenly there it was. A dried up apple core of unknown variety lying by the side of the road. I almost ran over it but saw it at the last moment. Maybe it was the adrenaline of knowing if I had hit it just right I could have been propelled into traffic or over the side of the road. Regardless, that little apple core got me thinking…How did it get there and where did it come from?

Seriously, how many miles, hands, boxes, buildings, trucks, planes, trains, automobiles had that one little apple core endured before landing on the side of the road in Riverside, CA.

How many families, have been impacted by that little apple core’s journey to the side of the road? To start, whose ancestors started the apple orchard that grew the trees that produced this apple? How many families did that apple orchard support? How many families suffered when that apple orchard didn’t produce in less productive years?

Once harvested, did this apple go to a warehouse or go immediately to some form of shipping container? Regardless, how many people were involved in the chain to ensure this apple made it to the store/fruit stand to be purchased and consumed? Once purchased, how many people were involved to ensure whoever purchased this apple, was able to get it home, get in their car, on their bike and take it with them. Yep, there were people producing the gas for the car, building the store or fruit stand, creating the technology to ring up the sale of the apple, and then those involved in displaying the apple to make it look appetizing. And that only scratches the retail, supply chain involvement of humans and machinery.

Then somewhere along the way, who ever was eating the apple decided they wanted to retrieve it from the refrigerator that is run by electricity being delivered by some energy conglomerate employing hundreds of thousands of people. That person then got on their bike (designed, crafted, marketed, and sold by hundreds of other people)  took the apple as a energy snack, ate it and threw it on the side of the road so that it could decompose and nourish creatures whose lives thrive at the road side.

And all this from an unknown, dried up, apple core laying on the side of the road that I discovered on a bike ride.

Funny how an apple core that may have arrived from as far away as Chile, or Russia and sold for around $.50 had such a large impact on life and my bike ride!

Brings a whole new meaning to the apple of my eye!

Rick Clemons is a personal and professional coach. You can find him at Life Incognito.

[Photo: Flickr Member meddygarnet, licensed for use under Creative Commons license Attribution 2.0 Generic]

Most of my online friends seem to have the same affliction.

“Acute internet attention deficit disorder”.

(I am not making light of people who have real ADD here, it just seemed like an appropriate name for the trend, and the trend seems real to me)

We have too many options. Many of these options are more exciting than what we are currently meant to be doing.

For example I am writing this post instead of getting through my action to-do list.

Last year I bought LifeSnips.com from a friend because he needed the money and I thought it would be an interesting project. Since then I have written one post and let the site go stale.

Do you really want another project?

Lately I have been working out how to control this behaviour in myself. Not all of my approaches have had a measurable impact but one idea seems promising.

Next time you have what seems to be a great idea for a new project, ask yourself what exactly you would be committing to. For example with the new website owning the site seems like a cool idea but is writing on the site, redesigning the site, promoting it and somehow finding a way for it to pay for itself something I have time to do? (Clearly not if recent history should be believed).

Now combine this with asking yourself why you are not doing what you know you should be doing. There will be a reason why you are looking at the “ooh shiny” rather than what you already have one your plate.

Bottom Line:

We are hard wired for instant gratification but we do not have to act on the impulse. Well, not always

In order for us to move forward in our lives and our businesses, we need to take on risk.  However, there seems to be a pervasive feeling that being willing to sink or swim is required to be successful.

In my experience, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  In fact, one of the best things you can do is not take on more risk, but rather, mitigate risk.

Let’s say that you have a new business idea.  For many people, the logical next step would be to try to find an investor for the idea, or perhaps even fund it themselves.  But ideas don’t get you anywhere today- it’s all about the execution.  So, how can you take the risk out of this new business idea for yourself or an investor?

-Can you find some paying clients who will be willing to test or even better, purchase, the product or service?

-Can you build a working prototype to show your product’s functionality?

-Can you start out on a small scale and demonstrate that not only you can get customers, but they come back as repeat business?

-Or can you accomplish any host of other milestones that demonstrate your ability to execute the viability of the business model and the customer demand?

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have any risk, but it certainly mitigates the risk for you and for any other people (aka investors, employees, partners) you may want to get involved.

There will always be situations and circumstances that pop up that you didn’t or couldn’t plan for.  But the key is that if you plan for the situations you can plan for, at least you can focus on solving one issue that may arise- instead of having to put out a dozen fires at once.

I’ve yet to hear anyone say, “I’m so bummed that I prepared for that.  Boy, was preparing a waste of time.”  But I have dozens of examples of regrets for not being well enough prepared.

I’d err on the side of preparation any day.

In my previous post here on Escape Velocity I talked about Boostrapping. That particular article was about business, but as many people remarked, the same argument can be made for your personal life also.

Taking Control

Back in 2005 when I left my cushy job to leap into the chasm of self-employment my wife and I were in serious debt. Not crippling debt like a lot of people experience, but still enough that it caused a fair few sleepless nights when things got too real.

Much of the debt was self-inflicted through poor financial management, but the bulk was a legacy from when I had been made redundant six years earlier. Being “let go” from my job came during a particularly stressful period of upheaval, coinciding with my wife going on maternity leave. Not a time I would like to repeat. Having to call debt collectors and the tax man from a hospital pay phone isn’t ideal let me tell you.

I’m glad to say we turned things around, and we did it in a straightforward way (not easy, but simple).

Overcoming Debt

1. Stop spending money you don’t have.
2. Reduce your debts.

Easier said than done, right? Disaster does strike and we don’t always have enough savings (if at all) so having credit is a necessity for most of us. What can we do?

This is where bootstrapping comes in.

Bootstrap to Boost Your Earnings

I like this because it applies even if you don’t have debt, it is especially cool if you are doing ok but want to spike your income upwards.

My original solution was to start accepting the spare-time gigs that were coming to my via my growing profile in the programming geek world. My day job was never going to increase my income, so I added additional sources of income via books, providing training and freelancing work. It meant my spare time reduced to almost zero, in fact it cut into my sleep, but it made a huge dent in our debts.

Other people would advise a different order to these sorts of tips but I put this idea first because of the psychological value.

A lot of the stress of debt comes from a feeling of being out of your control, that the debt is a burden you don’t have much influence over, that negative spiral of futility and inevitability. Having a way that you can “fight back” is a huge morale boost.

Just make sure you use a system that does not require huge investment or risk in order to get moving, otherwise it could be counter productive.

My approach to quick spikes of income is outlined here.

If you follow that approach or something that works as well, when the debt is cleared you will have tools that allow you to create surplus income for savings and new purchases.

Manage Your Overhead

Just like in business, in our personal lives there is a lot of waste.

You can start with the big stuff, but don’t overlook the little stuff that adds up. Most of us are spending on things we don’t really need. I was buying a LOT of coffee for example. Because every day I was commuting over three hours, I was supping the wakeup juice thinking it was helping me keep productive, plus I was working so hard I felt I deserved to treat myself. That all added up to hundreds of dollars per month alone.

Some people record a spending diary, I think this is clever but I didn’t have the discipline. I did however have online bank accounts that allowed my to check my credit and debit payments. When you are looking at your outgoings, see if there are big chunks and tiny details.

Once you clear the easier stuff, then you make some tough choices. A lot of money can be saved by doing stuff you have probably had in mind anyway, like cutting out cigarettes, booze, junk food treats and snacks, and TV.

Simple Equation

When your income exceeds your outgoings then you can repay or invest.

Most debt advice focus on reducing your outgoings, which is fair enough but no fun, and really there are limits. By starting on the income side we not only added to our earning ability to recover from the debt situation but learned useful skills for growing that income for when we escaped the debt completely.

Now when we can see a big spend approaching, or when we particularly want to buy something, we have a way to make the money first.

Summary

Chris B called his affiliate banners “worry reduction buttons”, for me it is having the ability to do a quick, profitable product launch. It doesn’t matter which approach you use, just having a “way out”, or the ability to boost your income can be a huge comfort. But don’t start when you are desperate, my advice would be to start putting money away now and start funding purchases and expenses from “new money” so you never have to panic in the first place!

Most people in business have a story of selling baseball cards in the school playground or other “Pre-Teen-Donald-Trump” type anecdote. Maybe you have one of those stories? I don’t. As far as business is concerned, I was raised to the “steady job” school of thought. Entrepreneurial habits did not come easy to me, but rather than limit me, I think missing some of those lessons actually helped determine my business growth.

Despite coming from the “dotcom” world, and having been a founding member of some startups, I have never personally borrowed money to start a business. Oh I have borrowed, been in some pretty hairy debt in fact, but never for business. The reason I wouldn’t accept even a penny of business loan is precisely because of those startups and personal debts.

Everything I have founded in my own business has been bootstrapped. People have called me fool, particularly venture capitalists, and people have offered me money.

Instead, my investment has come from revenue. My business was profitable from the first day, the overheads are low, and I would like to keep it that way.

The mindset of a funded business versus a bootstrapped one are significant

Bootstrapping changes how you think about making money, and forces you to focus on profit as the key metric from day one. Contrast this with funded companies who focus on eyeballs, brand awareness, membership numbers, and so on. A funded company can take staff on 1st class all expenses trips and buy foosball tables, have in-chair massages, use dentist chairs rather than office chairs. The bootstrapped company would like to do those things but wonders how it will increase the margin, bring more customers, or cut costs.

When I want or need something new, I launch a new product and fund it out of the proceeds

My trip to SXSW is being covered by a product launch, just as my trip last year was. I’m looking at buying a truck, I will pay for it the same way.

If you have the systems where you can get a new product to market quickly that people actually want to buy, then that is your go-to funding source. If you are interested in rapid product creation and launches, this is the exact process I use.

I would say the most important thing though is not even that. It is the mindset that you are working for your clients, it is your product serving a market. Funded companies have to consider many more outside interests in decision making. My goal for leaving my job and starting a company was mostly for the freedom that affords, when you have to answer to so many people then that freedom ideal becomes ever more illusive.

Anyone can spend money that does not belong to them and they didn’t work for.

A healthy company generates income from service and value, not by asking for it.

OK, your goal might be different, you might be in this purely for ego, to create the biggest, best known, most powerful organisation. It might be to knock Facebook/Twitter/et al off their perch. That’s fine, but to me that is sport not business. Businesses should make profit.

Here are my tips for bootstrapping:

1. Know your costs, and keep overhead down without sacrificing customer experience or the value you provide.
2. Build a war chest of bank balance for bumps and knocks that your business will face.
3. Be as productive as you can without taking on “walking overhead” (human beings are very expensive, especially when they are a net loss of profit rather than working to attract more profit). If you need more hands then hire freelancers on a project basis and manage them well.
4. Focus on your core business. Every organisation has a 80-20% rule where 20% gets most of the results and the remainder is either busy work, a distraction, or just inefficiency. Focus on your 20%.
5. Have systems in place to boost income quickly when you need to. This is the productivity and product creation process I use.

Bottom line is, like in personal life, it is tempting to gamble or spend in ways we can’t afford. Do you really need that swanky office? The herd of receptionists? That designer desk? Business Class travel? It’s not about being cheap, it is about getting your priorities right.

The following is a guest post by Ryan Barton.

Last week, I built my phone a home.

It doesn’t have antenna bumpers, nor does it boast one of those fancy battery charging pads. Frankly, it’s not much to look at, but it serves its purpose. It’s a resting place; a small bowl.

In a society that markets a new phone as the best way to get back to life, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Drastic measures must be taken.

We need to unshackle ourselves. We need to remove the phone clip from our proverbial belt. We need to escape our smartphones.

And here’s how we’ll do it.

Escaping the norm

Before we explore five ways you can cut your smartphone’s leash, we need to recognize the difference between the norm and how you escape from the norm.

What’s your day like?

Do you spend it in front of the glare of a computer screen? Maybe on your feet all day in a retail environment?

It’s an elementary question, but don’t underestimate its significance.

Articulating the difference between what you do and how you escape from what you do dictates how you’ll declare your smartphone independence.

How do you escape?

It’s different for all of us.

Meals, sleep, time with your loved ones, quiet moments alone, reading, even exercise — they’re all ways we escape the norm.

So why do you let a simple device pull you from your escape?

If you’ve ever been in a productive working groove, then suddenly interrupted, you understand how difficult it can be to find that rhythm and focus a second time.

It’s the same with your escape. Once you allow yourself to be interrupted, it’s exponentially more difficult to fall back into your escape.

Now, instead of pleasure reading, you’re contemplating the latest email. Instead of enjoying a quiet dinner with your spouse, you’re wondering who’s texting you, what they want, and how the world will end if you don’t reply now! now! now!

When the ship’s sailed

Cruise industry giants practically give away empty staterooms as a sailing’s departure date approaches. They figure once once the ship sails, those empty staterooms don’t earn any onboard revenue — that opportunity is gone.

But, sell the rooms for cheap and suddenly you’ve got a few more passengers on a ship in the middle of the ocean spending money on alcohol, excursions, and keepsakes.

Similarly, once you deviate from your escape, that moment’s gone.

The interrupting phone calls, Twitter’s @ notifications, the temptation to check your email (yet again) — you allow them to pull you away from your escape. And suddenly, instead of being in a moment away from the norm, that experience — that moment — has passed and will never be regained.

5 ways to declare smartphone independence

For some of you, I fully understand your phone is your escape. It represents a portal away from reality and into an online world where suddenly, you’re important (I owe it to my followers! They need me!).

Even still, I urge you to consider one of these five steps:

1. Leave it behind

There’s a mental checklist before walking out the door — keys, wallet, and phone. Misplace your phone and you’re suddenly clawing your way out of a panic attack. You’ve misplaced your “life,” your contacts, your “to do” list — they’re all missing.

But it’s a different feeling when you purposefully leave it behind; you’re in control, you pull updates when you want them, you don’t need your phone.

Next time you need to focus on your work, turn off your phone, eliminate any temptation to check it, and leave it in another room. Next time you need some fresh air to clear your mind, go on that nature walk without your phone.

Instead of dependence, you’ll soon realize the desire for more smartphone independence. You gotta have more of it. It’s freeing, it’s calm, it’s quiet.

2. Remove the leash

Before you balk at the idea of leaving your phone behind in case of an emergency, let’s talk.

I’m not suggesting you ditch your phone completely. I’m recommending you spend more time with your head up. Your phone’s a tool, not a time suck.

So what’s tying you to it? What’s seducing you to take it out of your pocket every three minutes?

When I examined my own smartphone use, I spent a lot of time in wonderfully-distracting games and social networks. But that’s just it, they’re distractions, taking time away from my core focus. They didn’t feed my revenue stream. They were a waste of both time and battery.

I understand, your smartphone is important, you’re a business person, always on the go, you need to stay connected.

Great — find a network that doesn’t drop your call. Congratulations, you’re connected.

So what’d I do? I uninstalled Foursquare, the games, the mobile chat services and suddenly had less of a reason for a phone distraction.

3. What are you gaining and what’s it worth?

Every time your phone’s not ringing and you’re still captivated by it, you’re seeking something — an answer to a trivial question, interaction with an online community, something to satisfy your short attention span. But at what cost?

Before picking up your phone again, weigh your decision carefully. Because that simple action of diverting your attention carries more impact than you might realize.

Over on his blog, Mark Schaefer asked a great question— is your smartphone more important than the person sitting across from you?

What a great visual of our rude behavior. Who’s more important? A client or your spouse? A mystery Twitter follower or your kid?

If you’re like me, a growing inbox is a daunting challenge. But checking your mobile email every three minutes isn’t the answer to your growing inbox.

Here’s your challenge: check your email twice a day — this is something that Tim Ferriss first recommended — first a bit before Noon, then again around 4:00 PM.

Now, of all those emails, how many were of the absolutely, must, have to answer right now, variety?

I experimented with this approach myself and found just two emails in a week’s time that needed to be answered immediately. Sure, there were important emails in there, a couple new business opportunities, but nothing that was more important than spending time with my family or friends.

And this realization changed the way I use my smartphone — and at the same time, made me significantly more productive, focused, and more respectful with the people I’m with.

With this new information, I’m no longer tied to my phone to answer email — there’s no need for my immediate response. There will always be something else to do. But seldom is it so important that you need to drop everything else.

It’s far too easy to justify answering your phone just this once, maybe a quick text before the appetizers arrive, or responding to an email during the commercial break.

But you’re stronger than that. You hold the power over your phone. Commit to who’s more important in your life and put your phone aside.

4. Separation of work and play

In my book, Smart Marketing I write about eliminating obstacles between you and your customer’s purchase. Remove barriers to information requests, make it easier to checkout, empower your customers to share their purchase with their community.

And it’s a similar approach to using your smartphone — eliminate any temptation that would cause you to become dependent on your smartphone — because sometimes, our own self will just isn’t strong enough.

Julien makes a strong case for using two devices — one being a weekend phone that lacks anything extra. Now, you have no choice; there’s no self will battle to be waged.

Or consider John’s Phone — the perfect weekend phone — a device that comes with a physical address book, a pen, and lets you make a call, that’s it. No widgets, no apps, just a phone. Maybe that’s why the battery lasts three weeks?

It’s almost shocking isn’t it? We’ve come to the point where, as a society, we’ve become so dependent on our devices we’re seeing new technology designed to escape the new technology.

5. Give it a home

Let’s circle back to the beginning of this post — I gave my phone a home; a small bowl in the kitchen.

It has nothing to do with charging the battery, nor is it the best place in the house for reception.

When my wife and I sit down for a meal, putting my phone in its home is part of setting the table. Grab the napkins, the plates, the condiments, light a candle or two, turn on some Linda Rondstadt, and put the phone in its home.

When it’s in its home, I’m not accepting calls, I’m not breaking away to respond to a text message, I’m not monitoring the latest Twitter updates, and I’m not refreshing my email inbox.

Without saying a word, that action tells my wife I respect and value my time with her more than anything or anybody attached to that little device — she has my undivided attention.

This isn’t just about meals and time with your spouse though; your own independence is equally important.

If you’re like me, your smartphone is a fixture on your nightstand just as much as a lamp or a book. But when that’s the case, your morning ritual is centered around your phone.

Press “Snooze,” roll over, throw your alarm clock against the wall, check your email while still in bed, take a shower, lather, rinse, dry off just enough to check your phone yet again, and repeat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, your phone is your alarm clock. Rubbish. Grow up you big businessperson and pony up five bucks for a proper alarm clock so your phone can have a home of its own.

Create a new morning ritual — wake-up and read, make some breakfast for your spouse, or get out and exercise.

Smartphone independence and new technology

There’s no denying it — it’s amazing to consider the potential of new smartphone technologies — its apps, its design, its aesthetic lure.

And yet, it’s important to remember that just because your smartphone is capable of A, B, and C, you don’t need to always use it.

Take back your independence from your smartphone. Physically take control — give your device a home, actually remove the battery, show your phone who’s the boss.

I know all too well how difficult it may be for a smartphone addict to consider these recommendations. So try out one at a time, nobody’s asking you to quit cold turkey.

Remember who’s real and breathing, who has emotion and cares for you, and who’s more important. Now, commit to make them a priority. Your phone can wait.

Ryan Barton is the author of the “Smart Marketing” and he writes at The Smart Marketing Blog for Small Business Success; you can follow him on Twitter, where he shares entirely too much information. He wrote “Smart Marketing” with the intent that small businesses would glean insightful information and tangible marketing strategies so they too, could compete competitively with industry giants.

When you are working with others as a partner, service provider, co-worker or otherwise, it’s important to be able to compromise.  You will need to make concessions, and sometimes painful ones, in the sake of progress.

But while you may encounter situations where you need to compromise, you should never compromise your standards.

I have had many situations lately where this exact situation came up.  But as I am about 4 weeks away from the official release of my first book, The Entrepreneur Equation, it makes me reflect to almost exactly a year ago when I had to “break up” with my first publisher.

My draft manuscript- all 80,000 words worth- was finished in July 2009.  I had a major publisher secured just a few months later (yes, I know that’s the backwards route, but that’s another story) and we had set a September 2010 release date.

I knew going in that this type of partnership would require a lot of compromising.  However, it was a bit more painful than had been expected.

My brand is bold and provocative and I wanted the book title to be consistent with the brand and message, while also having other key features.  Then came January 2010, when I submitted my list of a dozen potential titles, each with a lengthy reason on why it made sense, to the publisher.

The feedback was that they were not acceptable.  But they had a better idea: “The Rules for Entrepreneurs”.

Not only was this the most boring title I could think of, there was another problem.  My book didn’t have any rules for entrepreneurs.  I could just imagine being interviewed on television:

Host: “So Carol, tell us your top 3 rules for entrepreneurs.”

Me:  “Well Bob, I would love to, but I have no rules for entrepreneurs in my book.”

I saw this as a huge problem- the publisher, not so much.

I wanted to compromise, so I asked them to give me guidance.  What was it that they didn’t like about my title selections?  What was it that they liked about The Rules for Entrepreneurs?  Was it the use of the word “entrepreneurs” for SEO purposes?  Was it a certain number of words?  What worked and didn’t?

There response: “There’s no special alchemy to coming up with a title.  Either it works or doesn’t.”

Fantastic.

They gave me 24 hours to come up with new titles.  My team and I scrambled to come up with another half-dozen acceptable titles, each with its own deep reasoning explained in painstaking detail.

Again, the committee didn’t like any of them.  They came back with the super-amazing, “The No-Nonsense Guide to Entrepreneurship”.

Clearly, they did not understand my brand, my message or my purpose.  Plus, “nonsense” is a word only used by Ned Flanders on the Simpsons.  I would at least say “bullshit”.  I couldn’t do it; the message was too important.

So I asked the publisher, in the spirit of partnership, what the options were.  The options were to take one of the two titles or to be released from my contract.

This was one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make.  I desperately wanted to get my message out into the market.  I knew that breaking up with the publisher would have severe implications.  It would delay publication for at least 6 months.  Plus, I may be blackballed in the publishing industry, because who wants to sign someone who just broke up with another publisher because they couldn’t agree on titles (especially a first time author)?

I decided that I was willing to compromise, but not compromise my standards.

I set the intention that, come hell or high waters, the book would get published one way or another.  We broke up.  And within several weeks, I was fortunate to have three options present themselves and ended up with a fantastic new publisher, who better understood collaboration (and my brand).  And this time, the book became The Entrepreneur Equation.

So, how can you decide when to compromise or when doing so would be compromising your standards?  Ask yourself the following questions:

-Are you making the decision personally or emotionally?  If you remove yourself and your emotions from the equation, does making the compromise make sense?

-Does making the compromise get you closer to the intended outcome?

-How will you feel about the end product after you make the compromise?

-Is the product important enough to pick the battle, or is there another more important battle to pick?

Hopefully these questions will help guide you to decide when to compromise and when doing so would be crossing that line for you.

And now for the shameless plug: if you want to check out what I was fighting for, you can download a free chapter of The Entrepreneur Equation (and pre-order it) at www.TheEntrepreneurEquation.com.