When I meet people and tell them what I do, I often hear, “Oh, you are a motivational speaker,” with some amount of assuredness in their voice. While I realize there are many speakers that people lump into this category (some who are my friends and mentors), I strongly disagree with that label.

Do I speak? Yes.

Can I inspire, challenge thinking, provide ideas, input, and encouragement (and in smaller settings), provide feedback? Yes I can.

Can I motivate? No I can’t.

DIY

There is a channel on my television called DIY - The Do It Yourself Network. On this channel you can learn how to make drapes, redo your landscape, take care of your yard, build a deck, make unique crafts, and much more. Many people must watch it, because it has been on my television for several years.
Actually this doesn’t surprise me. People want to learn how to do new things. They want to avoid the cost of the expensive plumber, carpenter or painter, and they like the pride that comes with seeing the results of their efforts.

If people do the things they learn about (rather than just watching) they are doing it because they are self motivated. No crafty, clever, or comical TV host has motivated them - they have motivated themselves.

It is the same with our personal, professional and business projects - we may work with others and need expert coaching, advise, counsel and encouragement, but in the end these are “Do it yourself” projects too.

Five Suggestions

Here are five things you

Last week we talked about a few of the ways to test the feasibility of a business idea to help determine if the idea really had merit or just looked good on the surface. To recap, I said don’t bet the farm on the opinions of friends and family, consult with knowledgeable business experts, and conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis. This week let’s take it a step further and talk about the creation of a formal Feasibility Plan which will help you determine the true feasibility of your big business idea.

A feasibility plan is just that: a written plan that is created for the sole purpose of validating the feasibility of a business idea. Some call it a “Go/No Go” plan, because the results of a well-constructed feasibility plan will tell you whether or not the idea has a chance for success (that’s a Go) or if this idea would be best left on the drawing board (that’s a No Go).

Many entrepreneurs would rather have their front teeth pulled without anesthetic than go to the time and trouble of creating a feasibility plan; often because they are afraid of what it will reveal.

The last thing an entrepreneur (particularly one without prior business experience) wants to hear is that their business idea won’t fly, so they put on blinders and resist testing the idea using real world information.

In an entrepreneur’s head every idea is a good one, every hit is a home run, and every story ends

Many of us are unable to move forward with our lives because we refuse to let go of what no longer exist: YESTERDAY. The portal to yesterday is permanently closed; gone out of business. It is non-existent; a mere idea of what once was.

It is disconcerting that so many, many people are stuck in the unyielding grip of what happened to them in yesteryears. They experience great difficulty living in the present. Yes, their bodies are here, but their minds and souls float around lost in the non-existent twilight of yesterday.

Perhaps this misfortune is made even more tragic by the fact that many of these folks are just carrying around a lot of old trash that’s stale and stinky and need to be disposed of. The reason many of us cannot climb to higher heights is because the garbage we cling to weighs us down.

You know people and I know people who still carry grudges and hostility and resentment in their hearts over something some man or woman did to them yesterday. Some of us cannot maintain a decent relationship with our parents because of something they did to us or did not do for us years ago that we still carry around with us. Many a friendship has been sacrificed because one or both of the individuals cannot move beyond what happened yesterday.

It was Shakespeare who said, “What is gone and past help should be past grief” We cannot grow and enjoy our ever-so-fleeting present because we are regular