Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

One thing I like to do is choose a date for an annual "report." I use my birthday, simply because it isn`t around a typical holiday. Each year, I take a week around that date to reflect on where I was a year ago.

A birthday is helpful because it stands out in memory to some degree. It`s easier to say, "I remember last year, on my birthday," this or that was happening.

It never fails that I`m amazed at all that`s changed, all that I did, and how different my life is a year later. It`s like watching kids grow. If you`re a parent, you don`t really notice it so much, other than always buying new clothes. But for someone who sees the child only once a year, they seem to grow a couple of feet each year.

Done doesn`t even exist in the vocabulary. I`m not even sure that "caught up" does either! But I know these words do.

1. Buried 2. Swamped 3. Exhausted 4. Fatigued 5. Behind 6. Stress              7. Stressed 8. Debt 9. Broke 10. What!! 11. Again? 12. Damn 13. Sh*ttt!!!

:-) Jcrew, you`re like a whole lot of other people. The problem is that you don`t have time for a life, which, one would think, is fairly important....right?

It`s hard, though, to maintain a balance.

What`s come out of this topic is that people either get the concept of folding their busy startup work into a lonnnnng-term plan.....or they don`t. People who allow themselves to get overwhelmed, I think are caught up in exactly what I`m proposing. They`re looking at things from the point of view that it SHOULD be done!

That`s the problem: Expectations that thing SHOULD come to an end, SHOULD slow down, SHOULD be controlled, and shouldn`t be in a constant state of chaos!

ANY new venture is chaos! That`s part of the creative process! How could something new come into existence if there isn`t room for it---if all that`s possible has already been done? Only in chaos can creation and *organization* take place. Chaos is the realm of potential---what might be. Organization and being "done" is stasis---what`s already happened.

As an entrepreneur, I believe we should come to terms with Chaos. Understand it, know the benefits, discover how it works, and learn to swim between what "is" and what "might be." Let go, don`t try to be "done," and look at it as a grand adventure. ;-)

Now that...my brother was good food for the soul. Thank you. I will try to internalize that and make it a part of my philosophy. It reminds me of Bruce Lee saying "be water my friend". Take the shape of the container your are in, use it as a vessel, go with the flow, not against it.

Yes, many of the Chinese sayings--aphorisms--are metaphorical "nuggets," compressed into their tiniest space. Unfortunately, to understand them means knowing how to de-symbolize metaphors. That used to be part of an ordinary education. It`s not so much anymore, and so people are left only with a general "feeling" of what these aphorisms mean.

Part of my intent is to go through many of these, extract their actual meaning (or maybe expand them again), and put them into plain English. That means adding words, which makes for "lots of words." In todays world, many people think that anything more than 3 sentences is "too many words." :-)