3 Roles You'll Play in a Business

Despite living in a world where we are one click away from getting practically any answer along with examples to solving almost any problem, why is it that most people who start a business fail?

Most people who start a business are entrepreneurs who risk capital for profit. The cold truth is, most people who start a business are Technicians.

The assumption is, if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work. This is far from the truth.

In light of this, most businesses are people dependent rather than systems dependent.

What is a system dependent business? It's basically a business that relies on people with minimum skills to operate the systems and procedures at a high level. As a result, the business won't die just relying on one person.

The Three Roles You'll Play In a Business

1. The Entrepreneur: The visionary who thinks and plans ahead for the future.
2. The Manager: Establishes order within the work environment. The goal is to create consistency.
3. The Technician: The person who carries our and does the technical work. Most business owners were technicians. They excelled at their previous job and often want to pursue their own business.  

From above, you can see the clear distinction between the roles that must be played within a business. One isn't necessarily better than the other. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. The key is to have all three in equal amounts for a business to be successful.

If you're the technician, you need the necessary skills to cut cost.
If you're the manager, you need to effectively train and manage other employees.
If you're the entrepreneur, you need to have the fortitude to know when to take a company in a certain direction, risks.

Conclusion
If you're running a business, you can't remain a technician. You also can't hire people to build the business for you and cross your fingers, hoping they get it right. The key is to focus on what you want the business to eventually become, using Systems. You definitely don't want to be doing everything as your business grows. Granted, you may have to be the designer, marketer, sales person, manager, book keeper and developer at the start. But as your business grows, you need to find the right people for the right job. Only then, will you see the success you want.

If you want more info from The World's #1 Small Business Guru Michael E. Gerber, make sure to grab The E-Myth Revisited. Voted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.

 

 

My name is Romario Villanueva.  Entrepreneur & blogger. I'm a graduate from Rutgers University with several certifications from top schools through Coursera. I love all things business, psychology, and basketball. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook and LinkedIn

Social Skills, Some Basketball, & Success

Your ability to have powerful social skills is crucial, whether it's networking, finding people to believe and invest in your vision, or to have someone take you under their wing to show you the ropes. It all comes down to a few principles.

1. Don't be intimidated. Intimidation brings forth fear. Contrary to popular opinion, all fear isn't bad. You should fear having a bad life. This will inevitably motivate you to do some work if it's in the right balance. When I'm talking about intimidation, I mean the insecurities that can pop up when we first start out something. Our minds quickly wrap around the idea that everyone is assuming we know nothing when starting out. But it's not always the case. Stay cool under pressure. Weakness breathes desperation and the truth is nobody wants to be around someone desperate. If you think about it, we all are going to end up with same fate as someone else so don't let it get to you. We're all in the same path. 
2. Don't be arrogant. When you're around real powerful people, shit you think impresses them probably won't. You might have a fancy car or expensive clothes. It really means nothing. They might have houses of expensive clothes or fleets of fast and luxurious cars. Stay humble. They may not even have an interest in either. Just stick with how you can contribute to them. How? By showing them what you know. In other words, knowledge & skills. 
3. What do you know? The first thing people jump to when discussing social-skills in business is networking. Persuasion also comes to mind. But, before doing these things...if you don't know shit people will figure that out quickly. It's easy to spot. An example of this is the NBA. I love basketball and have been watching it ever since I was 4 years old...Granted the team I root for has been inept for practically a decade (New York Knicks). So one thing you quickly can spot is, who is a good player and who isn't. Who can contribute and who can't. Now we aren't professional scouts or anything, but those who can't play will quickly be out of the league within a year or two. And majority of the time it's obvious even to passive fans of the game. The same applies to every field. This shouldn't scare you. This should make you excited. Why? Regardless of how much money you have or your status, you can almost always learn and know things. Libraries are free. There's Google, YouTube, free blogs, free books, and free online courses. But it takes effort and sacrifice to open a book which is why most people make excuses. 

Above are just some of the takeaways I got from the book. But there are also practical actions you can use, such as being a good listener, remembering people's names, and smiling. All these are wonderful tips, but they have to have substance to be built upon. Definitely pick up a copy of How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie if you haven't already. It's changed millions of lives and it can change yours too.

 

 

My name is Romario Villanueva.  Entrepreneur & blogger. I'm a graduate from Rutgers University with several certifications from top schools through Coursera. I love all things business, psychology, and basketball. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook and LinkedIn

Staying in the present and not letting your thoughts get interrupted with the bull

"A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening 'outside,' just by changing the contents of consciousness." — Mihaly Csikszentmihalvi

The quote above often hits home for most of us. At some point in our lives, we often question and ask what is this all about? What's the meaning of life?

This leads us to this mistaken notion that more means happiness. 

Have you ever found yourself asking:

"If I was just a millionaire all my problems would be gone and I would finally be happy."

"If I just had that new Lamborghini I would be happy."

"If I just had that huge house I would finally be happy."

But as you might already know, happiness doesn't necessarily work like that. Happiness stems from  changing the contents of our consciousness. 

And that is where we become so enthralled in an activity in which nothing else matters, FLOW. When you're in this state you lose yourself in time and there is no attention for any other problems that may exist. 14hrs may have passed and you realize you haven't checked your phone, email or even eaten. That is Flow. 

What's interesting when it comes to Flow is that there's a fine line between something challenging or easy. If it's easy you will get bored. If it's challenging, you create anxiety. Whether something is challenging or easy is dependent on your skill. The balance though, is where Flow exist. 

If something is a bit challenging, you need to gain the necessary skills. Once you gain the necessary skills, you move on to a greater challenge. And this process repeats and repeats thus created a sort of ecstasy experience.

 

It's one of the reasons why all of our energy should be wrapped around finding that one thing we absolutely enjoy and are curious about.

 

Contrary to the social norm, what I said above totally goes against what we were told growing up. In essence, we were practically told to find comfort. We practically live in a world chasing convenience and comfort. But comfort ( no challenge) bring us to an experience of apathy. This means spending hours watching TV or laying in bed for hours running through our FB feed.  

Often your mind might be left to wander thus creating tug and pull between boredom and worrying about every single problem you have. 

The key to an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. Finding meaningful goals allows us to take ownership of our decisions. We aren't left to react helplessly to stimuli, but our actions and decisions are motivated within. To experience Flow at home, at work, or even with our friends on a regular basis is something we all should aim for.

 

 

My name is Romario Villanueva.  Entrepreneur & blogger. I'm a graduate from Rutgers University with several certifications from top schools through Coursera. I love all things business, psychology, and basketball. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook and LinkedIn

Social Life: Exploring the power of relationships between people

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all thrive on being social creatures. Even our introverted friends need a certain level of interaction.

Fundamentally, our brains are wired to help us function in social settings.

It's one of the major keys that helps our world go around. We interact with friends, co-workers, family, whether we like it or not.

Yet, with something so fundamentally important, I am always left wondering why the information in this book is not taught in schools.

I see far more value in knowing this key component in our life as oppose to the state bird or an isosceles triangle. Don't get me wrong, I love math and some history, but those things should be in the backseat when it comes to the discussion of social.

3 Takeaway Points

1. We are more social than other animals. What does this mean for us? It allows us to live in relatively large groups. As a result, this requires complex social interactions. One of the reasons why we have larger brains. When we aren't occupied  or engaged in a specific task, we tend to think about our social relationships. Humans are so enthralled in the social world that it's our default thinking setting when we have free time. 
2. Can words hurt us as much as something physical? Yes, physical and social pain both are found to trigger the same areas of the brain. Regardless of the source, we feel the same pain. If someone punches you in the back of the head...guess what it's going to hurt. It's why when we see a fist coming, we tend to react and try to avoid it. The same goes for social. What is one of the biggest fears people have? It's public speaking and floundering embarrassing yourself. Isn't it crazy that of all things in our world, this is a tremendous fear many have. It's because this fear of feeling pain from social rejection is built in us through our evolution. 
3.  Is social pleasure as real as physical pleasure? We often hear the benefits of being physically active, the so-called runners high or the dopamine rush after lifting weights that makes you feel like a million bucks. It's obvious these both contribute to our well-being. Just as it's true physically, having a fulfilling social life can tremendously contribute to our well-being. Perhaps, it's one of the reasons we love posting pictures on our social feeds because of the positive social feedback. It's a great motivator and a renewable resource. With that said, give someone a compliment to someone or make an effort to start a small chat. You might make someone's day.

Conclusion

I often see a lot of our youth suppress emotions through drugs or some other harmful ways. We may not want to admit it, but we may be at fault. There are certain stigmas when it comes to social life. But simply understanding the natural process can put everyone at a much better frame of mind. Sometimes that's all it takes to make certain adjustments we want to make. 

Social by Matthew Lieberman

 

 

 

 

My name is Romario Villanueva.  Entrepreneur & blogger. I'm a graduate from Rutgers University with several certifications from top schools through Coursera. I love all things business, psychology, and basketball. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook and LinkedIn