Starting a Business and Yoga
I have been suffering from lower back pain for almost a year now - I've tried just about everything, short of back surgery...including going to a chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist, and more recently Pilates yoga. Of all the methods, Pilates yoga seems to be giving me the best long term prospects of overcoming my back pain. For the uninitiated, Pilates yoga consists of a number of movements that stretch and strengthen the area known as the "core" - the joints and muscles that support the abdomen, hips and lower back. By doing the regimen of elaborate crunches, kicks, backward tumbles and "teasers" each morning and evening, I'm feel my core region tightening and increased flexibility in my lower back.

It occurred to me that running a successful business is in some ways similar to doing yoga. In some regards a business needs to focus on buiding its "core" strengths, what it is that it does well. A common mistake small companies (especially technology-oriented ones) fall into is pursuing too many projects or ideas at the same time, rather than sticking with one or two "bread and butter" business ideas. It has been my experience you end up spreading your "butter" too thin and not do justice to any of the projects. But at the same time, you also have to adopt an almost contradictory attitude of flexibility to react to market trends, competitive threats and macroeconomic shifts. It's the balance between focus and flexibility that makes for a successful business venture and the challenge that small business managers must face every day.

It is business and it is personal...
Anytime anyone says to you "It not personal, it's just business," you need to be prepared that this person is about to do or has done something that is borderline unethical or callously disrespectful to you. The two times I have heard this spoken to me, it has resulted in at best a broken trust and at worst, potential legal action against the speaker of those words.

It is very disheartening to me that some people out there believe that doing things in the name of business absolves them of any modicum of consideration or regard for the people and/or communities around them. Call me naive, but I still believe at the end of the day, your reputation and integrity is your business and chosing between doing good business and being a good person is a false dichotomy. If that is not the case and I need to screw over the other guy to get ahead in the marketplace, then I should just pack up my bags and do something else besides running a business because that is not what I'm about.

What I'm listening to right now...
To pass the time on my commute to and from the office these days, I am listening to an audiobook of "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi, networking guru and accomplished business leader, mainly to learn how to be an effective networker and how to use it to advance my company and my career.

Ferazzi talks about the concept of the "blue flame" in the book - that burning hot passion that one has in his life. He claims that part of the secret to success is to figure out what it is you really want to do in your life and then set goals to achieve it. He cites the oft-heard statistic that more than 50% of people work in jobs they are not fully satisfied with, even if they are successful or make money doing it. It got me thinking what is my "blue flame" - what is the one thing I would do regardless of being paid for it? I decided it has something to do with writing .

Hence the blog... my putting thought to paper (or computer screen) is not so much for fame or notoriety, but to follow, as the writer and lecturer Joseph Campbell would say, "my bliss."

I blog, therefore I am.