Ripple Effect

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
- Voltaire

About a year and a half ago, I started a business--my third, in a city that was new to me and where I didn’t know many people.

Every day, I would get up, get myself ready and walk to work, which was located in my dining room, just a few feet from my bedroom.

Those first few months were tough. In fact, the first year was tough, but those first few months were especially hard and I recognized that I needed to do something to stay motivated and positive. You see, where I worked, there was no one to say hello to each day, no one to check in with to make sure I was on the right track and no one to tell me I had a done a good job.

More than any other time in my life, I needed to be valued, appreciated and reassured that I was doing good work that would produce positive results.

One day, I’m not sure why or how, I remembered a letter that my grandmother had given me years ago when my grandfather passed away. I dug it out of my storage area to take a look at it.

The letter was written to my grandfather by his boss in 1939. In fact, the letter was an “inter-office correspondence” so it was also addressed to all of my grandfather’s co-workers in addition to my grandfather. In the letter, my grandfather’s boss writes about how my grandfather had worked tirelessly and gone above and beyond the call of duty one day to fulfill the needs of a prospective client. Because of his persistent effort, my grandfather won the client’s business and my grandfather’s boss wanted everyone to know of my grandfather’s hard work.

I decided to put this letter in a frame and set it on my desk as a way to keep me motivated and inspired while I worked alone at my new business. I thought, “if my grandfather could work tirelessly to achieve results, I could certainly do it as well.”

Yet, every time I re-read the letter, there was something about the letter that would always stop me to think beyond the value of persistence.

At the end of the letter, after praising and recognizing my grandfather’s extra efforts, his boss makes a comment that will stay with me forever. In the very last paragraph of this interoffice correspondence, my grandfather’s boss writes, “But, without wishing to, in anyway, criticize any other man’s thinking or accomplishments, I want to leave the thought that here was a salesman with the right thinking and the ability to put it to the test—he knew his future depended upon his retailers and he took care of them to the nth degree.”

It’s the comment at the end that somehow goes beyond a simple thank you and recognition of persistence. The boss doesn’t just end with a short closer of “thanks again!” Instead, he says something bigger. He says, “without wishing to, in anyway, criticize any other man’s thinking or accomplishments.” In other words, he’s saying “I value all of you, just as much as I value him! And, I am simply acknowledging something extra here.” It’s that expression of appreciation that is more meaningful and goes beyond a simple thank you.

It’s this feeling of sincere appreciation that I like so much when I look at and think about this letter.

The funny thing is that not long after receiving this letter, my grandfather also won a sales award. In fact, I have a picture of him receiving the award in the back of the frame that holds the letter. But, what’s interesting is that my grandfather never kept the award—he kept the letter.

What’s more is that this letter of appreciation didn’t just impact my grandfather--it has impacted me. It’s as if my grandfather’s boss had thrown a rock into a pool of water that created a ripple effect that has lasted for more than 60 years--a ripple of effect of appreciation.

As managers and leaders, you each have the power to impact the lives of people you work with. It could be a letter of appreciation, it could be a note, it could be something special that you do for someone—and you may never know the long-term impact you have, but you will certainly see the positive short-term results from people who feel valued.

© 2005 Lisa Edwards

Direction

"Keep looking up.” - Dick Damrow

All of us have a mid-life crisis at some point in our lives. Some of us have it later in life, others have it early on. I was lucky. My mid-life crisis happened in my early thirties.

Several years before then, I had returned home after grad school to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, when I discovered that my family’s printing business was in deep trouble. As an only child with a great sense of responsibility, I chose to help my family with the business rather than pursue my own interests. At first, I thought I was helping to save the business and turn it around, but after ten years of trying to turn it around, I recognized I was there to help my dad close the business. As we struggled to keep that business alive, we had created a new business in an attempt to save the family business. It is quite an experience to have one business that is dying and another that is prospering all in the same moment and I found it easy to lose my way.

Both situations have many moments of uncertainty, but one carries a feeling of great sadness and the other carries a sense of hope and optimism.

During this time, my relationship with my dad became strained and I sorely needed a wise friend and mentor who could help me during those moments when I felt uncertain about what to do next. I needed someone removed from the situation who could keep my best interests at heart and give me advice and direction. I can’t even remember how it all came about as everything during that time period is a blur, but somehow I ended up with just the mentor I needed.

Dick was a wise and caring mentor and treated me as a daughter. He gave me advice—some of which I actually took, and gave me the reassurance I so needed during that time of confusion. Since that time and over the years, Dick remained a dear friend and mentor. We stayed in touch throughout my many moves across the country and I could always count on him to provide me with just one more bit of advice or just a few more reassuring words. Whenever I faced a crossroads or needed to make an important decision, I’d call Dick to ask him what he thought.

In the most recent years, Dick rarely gave me advice, but just having him listen to me talk through my thinking was all the reassurance and affirmation I needed to go forward with a decision. Just a few months ago, I went home to work with him on some planning for my book. It was a change in our relationship because for the first time, he wasn’t my mentor, offering free advice or counsel, but my consultant, who allowed me to pay him for the work he normally charged only to his clients. I felt liberated in a funny way. Like an adult. And, I think he looked at me in an new way, too. It was a beginning and an end.

About a month ago, I got a call from a mutual friend of ours from home one evening. She called to tell me that Dick had fallen down the stairs at home the night before. He had hit his head and had undergone surgery to relieve the pressure his skull was causing on his swollen brain. He was in ICU under constant watch, and though everyone was hopeful he’d make a full recovery, he had not yet regained consciousness.

Dick passed away within a week.

Those moments during that time were perhaps the saddest moments in my memory. Before his celebration of life ceremony, one of his friends posted a profile on Facebook for everyone to post their comments about Dick. More than forty pages of comments were posted. The first few posts talked about how Dick was their mentor, but as more people posted, the more we each began to realize that we were not the only protégé! There were hundreds of us!

Talk about making a difference in the lives of others.

I think about Dick a lot and miss our conversations. Sometimes I wish I could hear his voice just one more time. Tonight, as I was home alone, contemplating a few decisions I need to make, I felt an ache to call Dick and ask him for his advice. Knowing I should be quiet and still, instead I searched for something to do. I got on the computer, opened my inbox and saw Dick’s name attached to the emails he had sent to me in the last year. Emails I can’t bring myself to delete from my inbox. And in that instant, I remembered how he started to sign his emails to me when he began to stop giving me advice, and I realized that he had left me with the best advice of all “keep looking up.”

In memory of my dear friend and mentor, Dick Damrow (2/19/49 - 2/24/09). I miss you.

© 2009 Lisa Edwards

Olympreneur

"Everytime you wish for something, keep your eyes wide-open, focus and know exactly what you want. No one hits the target with eyes closed."
- Paulo Coelho

Recently, I was in a friend's office and noticed on his wall, a framed picture of his tickets to the Olympics. I thought it was interesting because he is an entrepreneur and it reminded me of another friend, also an entrepreneur, who uses the idea of becoming an Olympic athlete as a metaphor for entrepreneurship.

I love entrepreneurship. I love entrepreneurs. And, when I was an entrepreneur, I loved the experience of being an entrepreneur.

The one thing that stands clear in my mind about entrepreneurship, is that the primary intention of entrepreneurship has very little to do with the practical issues of building a business and everything to do with living out your purpose and creating a life of meaning. It's about passion and purpose and honoring your Personal Legend.

In my experience of being an entrepreneur, I have discovered a formula for entrepreneurial success... and perhpaps it's a formula for Olympic success, too.

My simple formula for entrepreneurial success requires three steps:
1. Dream
2. Focus
3. Discipline

These three steps need to experienced in this order and the cycle is never complete.

Dream
Essential to living large is dreaming big. Consider the Olympic skater -- they must have the dream, the idea, the vision and the heartfelt desire to become an Olympic skater. Can you imagine an athlete achieving Olympic success without a passionate dream?

Yet, most people rarely have the courage to dream big. Instead, they are practical. They use duties and obligations to justify a smaller, realistic dream. You can recognize the dreamless by their words. Can't and but are sprinkled throughout their conversations-- especially when the conversation inches close to topics about passion, purpose and living a life of meaning. Some of these people may even be successful by objective measures of success. Their bank account and personal balance sheet may be full, but they are forever searching for something greater, their passionate dream having been sacrificed along the practical path to success.

Focus
Focusing can only happen after dreaming and it, too is a continual process. Imagine the Olympic skater. That skater may have dreams of being an speed skater or a free-style skater or part of an ice dancing pair. At some point, when they decide they want to become the best, they make the choice to focus.

The misconception about focus is that it is a one-time event. Instead, focusing is a continual process. After the Olympic skater decides what kind of skater they are going to become, there are many opportunities along the path of becoming an Olympic skater to change their mind and become a different type of skater. This is especially true when they face an obstacle or failure; an inevitability for anyone on the path to something great. Faced with an obstacle or failure, they may be seduced by another possibility and drift off-focus. It takes great strength to remain focused on the original dream.

Many years ago, I co-founded a poster publishing business. One of the reasons we were successful and became profitable quickly is that we were focused on our mission. People would say, "why don't you do t-shirts?" or "how about doing framed prints?", and I would say, "Posters! We do posters!"

T-shirts? Nope! Doesn't fit!

Art prints? Nope! Doesn't fit!

By eliminating the ideas that didn't fit our mission, we freed-up mind-space and were able to get closer to realizing our dream.

Discipline
While dreaming and focusing are mostly activities of the mind, discipline is revealed in actions and acts as announcement to the world that you are serious. The Olympic skater may dream about becoming an Olympic skater and focus their mind on becoming a specific type of skater, but until they take action, their mission cannot be realized.

I used to teach a class on entrepreneurship to aspiring entrepreneurs. I started to notice that these entrepreneurs would rarely share their business idea and dream to the class at the start of the class. At first, I thought this was because they thought someone would steal their idea. Over time, I learned that people were genuinely afraid to make a public committment about their business idea for fear that then they'd have to actually do something about it.

In business, we are frequently faced with challenge and failure. Only by facing these challenges and failures, do we emerge as a success. Often, when we see the Olympic athelete, we only see their success. They make it look simple. Yet, we only see three minutes of success-- we don't see the lifetime it took to get there. We don't see the first time they put on skates and wobbled around on the ice. We don't see the effort they put into their dreams of greatness. We don't see the choices they had to make along the way-- passing up opportunites that may have looked great, but didn't fit their focus. We don't see all of the competitions that they lost. We don't feel their defeat and we don't hear their mind-chatter of self-doubt.

The path to entrepreneurial success is no different than the path to Olympic success. Do you take the time to refresh your dream, adding new texture along the way?

Do you have the courage to eliminate all of the opportunities that don't fit your focus?

And, when you face defeat, can you muster up the strength to try agin?

******
p.s. I wrote this nearly 12 years ago and found it in a stack of stuff today. My writing-style from this time seems a little bit stilted to me and it needs some work, but the underlying message is as true today as it was then and it seemed a timely topic with the Olympics. Dream. Focus. Discipline.

I think I'll go lie on my bed now, and focus on the discipline of dreaming. ;-)

DragonTree

---for Mei-Mei

Did you ever see a dragon be
happy living in a tree?

He's in a gnarly, knotty stump,
but never will you see him grump.

With dancing eyes to circle about;

a snorty snout that never pouts.

His goofy grin shouts, "Oh Hi!"
to all the walking passers-by.

And even though his cigar's exploded,
his simple joy has not eroded,

'Cuz with a purpose he's come to say,
"Hi Mei-Mei! Do you wanna play?!"


© 2010 Lisa Ann Edwards

Shout! if you can see the dragon in the tree!

Power

"Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."
- Frank Outlaw

A few years ago, I became acquainted with a man whom I believed could be instrumental in helping me with my business at that time. He seemed to be just the right connection and I was eager to win his approval. More accomplished than me, more successful than me, I believed I would have to work extra hard to earn his respect. He was the Donald Trump of my world.

Serendipitously, I finally had to chance to meet with him face-to-face not long after that first introduction. I was excited and couldn't stop pinching myself over that lucky opportunity. I thought with careful detail about all of the right things I would say to prove my worth and impress this most accomplished man.

Yet, when we met, things didn't go quite as I had planned.

Believing this man to be better than me, every sentance out of my mouth was punctuated by a weak-voiced, "um... I think." And, I began to notice that he responed in-kind with an immediate discredit of my carefully thought-out ideas. Quickly back-peddling, I found myself qualifying my statements as a way to deperately defend myself. Yet, all that happened is that he became more confident in his own ideas, and I began to feel like a deflated balloon.

By the end of the meeting, it was clear that he held little respect for me. And, in the process I had grown to dislike him.

Feeling frustrated and a little bit confused about what had happened, I headed out to the Columbia River.

Driving has a way of clearing my mind and freeing my emotions and as soon as possible, I diverted my way to old Highway 30, the scenic route along a series of waterfalls. "Wow", I thought to myself as I reached the first one. I paused for a few minutes to admire its beauty and then continued on. Each waterfall seemed to be more impressive than the last one and each time, I held my breath in amazement as I watched and listened to the water crashing off of the mountain.

Although it was getting dark and time to turn around, I decided to see just one more.

As I came around the bend to the last waterfall, I was suddenly struck by the power demonstrated in this waterfall. I pulled my car over and turned off the engine to listen to the waterfall and think.

Realizing that the waterfall actually began as one tiny molecule of water at the top of the mountain, I could imagine how that one tiny molecule of water joined with another tiny molecule, soon forming a single drop of water. And, that single drop of water collected with other single drops of water, eventually forming a small stream. And, that small stream gained momentum and strength as it rushed down the side of the mountain.

The result was a powerful waterfall.

I quickly saw how my beliefs were no different than that first tiny molecule of water. My one microscopic belief that this man was somehow better than me had grown into a larger drop of an idea that I needed to work hard to impress him. This idea showed itself in the way that I related to him and how I expressed my ideas.

No wonder the dynamic between us went crashing downhill.

Not long after that trip to the river, I had the opportunity to experiment with my molecule-belief theory. Attending a function where that man I had sought to impress was the guest speaker, I decided to change my beliefs about him. Not listening to his words, I focused instead on what I could genuinely appreciate about him. Like a molecule of water, I allowed that belief to grow in my heart and mind, and by the end of his presentation, I felt a genuine sense of gratitude towards him. My feelings of inferiority and my pressing need to impress him had completely dissipated.

More importantly, I was reminded that power isn't in a person, a name or a title, but in the beliefs we hold in our mind. And, each microscopic-sized belief has the power to dramatically impact our destiny.

© 2010 Lisa Ann Edwards

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Change

“They always say that time changes things, but you have to actually change them yourself.”

-Andy Warhol

I work in the media industry, an industry facing big challenges due to the economy as well as the shifts in the way that our customers think about and purchase media-related products. When I think about our business and where the growth opportunities are going to come from I am reminded of the experience I had with my family's printing business.

Fifteen years ago, the printing industry was going through everything the media industry is going through: consolidation, competitive pricing pressures and prices that drop below the actual costs of doing business. My family ended up closing the printing business, but while we were struggling to keep the printing business alive, we launched a poster business that still exists today.

The way that we discovered the poster business was by exploring ideas and testing them out. At first, we thought we wanted to design and make book marks by using the scrap end of the stock. As we pursued that idea, it grew to the idea of doing art prints, which after testing the market (and failing at that), grew to the concept of large inspirational art posters. The concept was unique at the time and the focus groups told us the product would never sell, but in fact, it did. It was our willingness to explore something new, focus on something we were passionate about (art and inspirational messages) and really persisting even in the face of the market data telling us it wouldn't work.

The first year we took our full line of 20-posters to the trade show, we were the only poster company. The next year, there were four new competitors copying our products, but because we were the market leader our posters stood the test of time. Today, some of the poster titles have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It's still a small business, but it's a market leader in its category.

At nearly every business that is struggling today, I think that this is the perfect time to focus on what the people are most passionate about, have the willingness to pursue a new idea and make it acceptable if the business model for the new idea isn’t immediately defined. It’s the time to allow for experimentation, but also not to give up when something fails. It’s a time to explore and test things out.

In the business where I work, I always come back to our owner/founder's original idea for the business. At the time, he was so visionary, that the marketplace wasn’t ready for his idea. Maybe now is the perfect time. Maybe it’s the same for the company where you work. Maybe you have an idea that you’ve been incubating for a few years. Maybe now is the perfect time to pursue the idea.

It’s hard to think about investing in a new idea—whether it be a new product or new business when everyone is thinking about cutting back and trimming expenses. Investigating a new idea doesn’t mean you have to invest all of your resources into it. Instead, a very small team of people could pursue the idea. They could do this as an extra activity in addition to their normal job duties. And, if they are passionate about it, they will do so willingly! Entrepreneurial ideas come to fruition during times when we are faced with huge challenges, few resources and an outlandish dream. In fact, Google was started during a recession. GE was founded during the depression. With the passion, focus and openness to experimentation at your company, just think what you could create.

And, as time changes things over the next 5 years, you could change your business into the great brand that Google became just a few years ago.

© 2010 Lisa Ann Edwards

Crush

you whispered me over
that first time we met
wrapped yourself around me--
and in your embrace, i did melt

with your zippers and buckles
and dreamy soft leather;
you made me forget last year's love:
---my suede boots with gold buttons.

© 2010 Lisa Ann Edwards
Author's note: In honor of love and Valentine's day, a simple little post about my infatuation with my new motorcycle jacket.

Outlook

"Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success."
-Brian Adams

As of this morning, my outlook is fixed. Finally.

It all began a month and a half ago. It was just about the same time that the place where I live, Seattle, began to live up to its reputation of being one of the greyest, rainiest and most dismal places to be. I wore my rain gear every night after work for my evening walk. Each night I rotated between three pairs of running shoes. One pair was usually dried-out enough to wear; the other two, still by the heater, working their way back to wearable. On top of the rain was the daily deluge of bad news about the economy. Unemployment is at an all-time high. The US deficit is the highest ever and Greece’s economic turmoil is now rippling out to other countries. And, it looks as though we’ll have a jobless recovery.

The commute into work each day has become eerily light and I can actually drive the speed limit on the freeway: the bumper-to-bumper traffic has disappeared.

But, back to my story about my outlook being fixed.

A month and a half ago, I had upgraded my Microsoft Office to the 2007 version. Yes, finally. Everything seemed to be just fine. As the machine was shutting down that first night after the upgrade, I could see that three automatic updates were being installed. "Good news," I thought. "Microsoft is keeping my machine safe from viruses, worms and other nasty internet threats."

The next day, I opened my newly upgraded Microsoft Outlook. Catastrophic Failure. Not just one little pop-up window made that announcement, but seven. I contacted Microsoft. They told me to contact Dell. Dell told me to contact Microsoft. And, on this went for several weeks—each company passing me back to the other. In an effort to get the darn problem fixed, I searched thru the WebPages of notes from others with the same problem and tried, unsuccessfully, to fix it myself. Finally, I contacted Geek Squad where my newly assigned Geek Squad Agent seemed more than delighted to fix my outlook.

I know it sounds silly, but I liked the way my Geek Squad Agent took responsibility for fixing my problem. He seemed confident and even though it took several attempts over the course of a few weeks to get it fixed, he persisted. Patient throughout each step, he would acknowledge each of the problems he resolved. “This problem has been resolved” he’d tell me through my chat window. At one point, when it seemed we hit a roadblock that could not be surpassed, I worried that he would send me back to Microsoft or Dell. But instead, he continued on—persistently, confidently, focused on fixing my outlook. And, as of last night, all problems have been resolved. My outlook is fixed.

As irony would have it, I woke up to a sunny day this morning. Giving my rain gear a break, I put on a dry pair of sneakers and headed down to the lake for a cup of coffee and to read the New York Times. While one economist painted yet another bleak picture of our economic recovery, another pointed to the indications that the economy seems to be improving. While unemployment is the highest it's been in 25 years, the stock market is lifting, retail sales have stabilized, and while still weak, auto sales have improved slightly in February. Houses have been selling in greater numbers and consumer spending appears to have leveled off after plummeting last year. Credit markets have even have even improved.

I know it will take a long time for our economy to recover, but it's important to notice the progress we're making. My condo is still underwater, but, with patience, confidence, decisiveness and a rational outlook, I know things will turn around. And, before we know it, our economic outlook will be fixed.

© 2010 Lisa Ann Edwards

Potluck

“Mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get”. - Forrest Gump

Several years ago and in my mid-thirties, I decided it was time to pack up my little Ford Escort and head west. I’d lived in Iowa for many more years than I had ever planned, and I had decided it was time to make something special of my life. So, I packed up some boxes of my stuff and moved to the biggest city I’d never been to before: Portland, Oregon.

Portland was a big, huge city to me at the time. Lots of fast moving cars, busy roads and super busy people always checking their blackberries and talking on their cell phones. I knew I had moved to an important city and I felt important just to be there witnessing it all.

It took me a while to make friends in Portland. I hadn’t really appreciated the long-standing friends I had in Iowa, so it was a bit of a shock to realize that I had absolutely nothing to do on the weekends. No friends to go for walks with. No mom to watch TV with. No Grandma who needed an errand run. There wasn’t even an Applebee’s or Burger King nearby. Just one not-so-busy Dairy Queen. On a Sunday afternoons and as a special treat to myself, I’d go through the DQ drive-thru and order a hot fudge Sundae with whipped cream and nuts on top. I’d pull over to the parking lot and eat the hot fudge Sundae in my car before I’d drive home. It really took me a while to fit in.

After living there for about nine months with just about 10 boxes of all of my stuff, my mom who lives in Iowa, called to tell me that she’d met a possible friend for me. My mom is a realtor and she was showing houses to a woman in Iowa who had a daughter-in-law living in PORTLAND OREGON!!! What luck.

Here was a woman with connections to my hometown who was living in my new town and just possibly open to a new friend.

I was so excited.

Within days, my possible-new-friend had called to invite me to a potluck at her home. I was elated driving over to her house. A just-out-of-the-oven TaterTot casserole sitting in the passenger seat beside me, I realized that I hadn’t been to a potluck since living in Iowa.

I love potlucks. Everyone brings one of their favorite dishes. Some people bring a fun snack like cream cheese with raspberry jam on top, served up with Wheat Thins. Someone always brings green bean casserole, though everyone’s got their own unique twist to that dish. And, there’s usually some kind of chocolate dessert with lots of chocolate goo inside. You never know what everyone’s going to bring, so it’s always a surprise and there’s lots of recipe-sharing after the evening is over.

After arriving at my new friend’s house, it didn’t take me more than 3 minutes to recognize that the TaterTot casserole was not a sophisticated west coast dish. People had brought things like spreadable roasted garlic cloves and grilled salmon with capers. TatorTot casserole in hand, I was embarrassed to take the tin foil cover off the top to reveal what I had brought to the fancy party.

But, the hostess, my new friend, was gracious and smiled as she slipped my casserole into the oven to be warmed up.

While I was waiting for my dish to be warmed up and served to the guests, I tried to make small talk with my new Portland party friends and noticed that they started to disappear. Soon, there was only one person left in the living room. I asked my new conversation companion where everyone went and he nodded to gesture that I follow him. So, I did. And, in I walked into a smoke-filled second bedroom where all of the guests were inhaling from pipes that bubbled water. It suddenly dawned on me that this was not the potluck I thought I was going to get!

Not wanting to be rude, I went back to the kitchen to take my casserole out of the oven, and served up huge helpings of my TaterTot casserole to my new red-eyed friends. I should have looked at my watch, because they ate my casserole in record time; and, I went home that evening with an empty casserole dish. A good sign at most potlucks.

Disappointed that the new friendship didn’t work out, I went in to work on Monday and told my new co-workers about the potluck. They all roared with laughter, except one of them, the one who I thought was the ‘coolest girl in school’ and who surely would never be my friend. Yet, within a couple of weeks, that cool-girl invited me to a party at her house-- a party without the potluck.

That simple invitation began a long and dear friendship between me and that cool-girl. Since her party-without-the-potluck, she and I have each moved to different cities, not once but a couple of times. And, in spite of the distance, our friendship has grown stronger through career changes, lay-offs, new jobs, boyfriends and break-ups.

Yep, sometimes you don’t get exactly what you think you’re going to get, but if you are lucky, you will get something even better.

© 2010 Lisa Ann Edwards