Carol Roth’s new book The Entrepreneur Equation has just found a special place on my very small shelf of un-put-downable books. I have read it cover to cover and here is my one sentence take on it:

Carol Roth has achieved the impossible: she has made ‘pull no punches reality testing’ exciting and inspiring.

My home, office (and bedroom!) are full of books. Before you ask, yes! I have read them all. No, I don’t always get to the end of every single book although I do persist, sometimes past the point of complete energy drain in the hope that there is a point just around the corner.  Not so the Entrepreneur Equation.

Carol guides the reader through the building of the most important equation any aspiring business owner should try to (re)solve. She has also made it OK to say “running a business is not for me”. In a world where self-employed status is universally considered the holy grail of freedom and independence, which after 20 years I know it is not, it really had to be said in a way that people could relate to and without annihilating the spirit and motivation of the reader. After 20 years and three recessions, I have learned something new too!

What do I really like about the book?

• Carol approaches the subject just like you might approach reality testing in a mediation. You have to build the capacity for realisation with the parties and occasionally just say it like it is. Timing is everything. This book is quite simply a treasure trove of reality testing techniques.
• Carol builds trust from the first page. Not just through her credentials (which are impressive) but by telling great stories we might all recognise and relate to.
• She is American. The book is truly international. Not many business books have achieved that.
• It is absolutely relevant for mediators.
• This is the best book I have read on entrepreneurship and I am going to include it in course materials for trainee mediators on all future courses to support the sessions we do on building your practice.

It would have been easy to write the next ‘how to succeed in 10 easy steps’ but this is worth much, much more, especially if you are thinking about starting a business and equally if your existing business could do with a makeover.

Why is that so important? How is that consistent with her passion for building business? And mine too for that matter. Simply because a significant part of the world economy is in the hands of entrepreneurs and small business but progress will be exceedingly slow if over 90% of new businesses continue to fail within 5 years of startup.

You may not like everything you learn; you may be surprised at how you feel after completing her assessment of your motivations and resources to build your personal Entrepreneur Equation; you may even think she is painting a harsh picture of what it takes but you will thank her and you will not regret reading the book.

A special note for my colleagues: This is essential reading for mediators. So often, mediators miss the point: that when they start out in the business of being a mediator, they are starting out in a business. It seems obvious but obviously not if the emails I receive from many seeking help in getting their practice going are anything to go by! So many expect to be doing more of what they love doing/are good at. They don’t realise that it requires a whole new approach to life, work and the universe! There is no river of mediation work.

Carol has some great offers on the book and you should check out her site to pre-order the book which will be published on 22 March but you will have to hurry because the special offers are only valid until 18 February. I love the fact that international orders catered for. Well done Carol!

During this week Carol has pledged to match pre-orders with donations to Score to help them on their way to supporting 1 million new businesses by 2017.

And I love the doll so I have ordered mine and can’t wait for it to arrive.

Twitter is great for getting a wide selection of information on many topics from all over the world. If I don’t have time to read the articles, I send a DM to my Evernote account so I can catch up later. Here are a few items which really caught my eye and are worth sharing.

Small business, entrepreneur advice:
Six Dimensions that Characterize Small Business Owners. Possessing many or most of these factor may predict success in establishing, maintaining and growing small enterprise. Read the report here

Collaborative

Self-fulfilled

Future-focused

Curious

Tech-savvy

Action oriented

It won’t be long before conflict resolution skills are on the list! They are already on mine, of course.
The article came to me via @iamlucid and @triveraguy and is featured on http://www.inc.com

Interesting business books
The Shibumi Strategy by Matthew May is a new book I have on my list for reading over the holiday period. I discovered it through an interview with the author on Carol Roth’s website. Carol is a great resource for spot on business advice and has a great eye. Her own book is due out next year and is now on pre-order. The forward is written by our Mediation Summit Keynote Speaker, Michael Port. Don’t miss it

Danger + Opportunity

And it’s the setbacks, really, that harbor the power to transform our lives. The economy seemed the perfect crisis around which to weave a story, based in reality.  The word

for crisis in Japanese has two sets of characters: one for danger, and one for opportunity. A sudden, unexpected crisis is an opportunity, and if we view it that way, which admittedly is not easy when you’re simply trying to survive, like Andy is, but it can lead us in new directions,new  directions we perhaps should have taken anyway.

Eastern philosophy has interested me for over 30 years and influenced my work and life. I love Chinese and Japanese characters (as you can probably tell from the illustrations on this blog). I was introduced to the structure and meaning of the Japanese characters for crisis by Julian Gresser in the mid nineties and the illustration already appears on this web site. I am also fascinated by the tension of paradox in the work I do as a mediator. Looks like an interesting book.

Brainstorming: “Yes, and” Like an Improviser: Guest post by Liz Caradonna, an associate at Zócalo Group and a life… http://bit.ly/b2yPB7
This is a great post for conflict resolution skills. On of the most effective and successful shifts that participants make when they are doing their foundation mediation skills training is the one where they replace BUT with AND. It has incredible power for conveying understanding.

In improv, “yes, and” is shorthand for the state of being completely open, accepting and uncritical toward the contributions of your scene partner. So accepting, in fact, that you’re able to embrace and extend your partner’s ideas as if they were your own. Someone on stage just called you “Grandpa”? Accept and further that. Yes, you are their Grandpa. And… perhaps Grandpa has some riveting stories to share from his time serving overseas. Read more

In September I am co-hosting the Mediation Business Summit with Tammy Lenski . We are really looking forward to it. We have some great small business coaches and consultants lined up to help conflict resolution professionals take their business to the next level.

I'm not very technical...

Since we announced the telesummit we have had a lot of questions about how it will work over the three days and some questions about using the teleseminar format. So we have decided to run a free demo and Q&A session on Wednesday 4th August where you can try it out and ask questions about the event.

Tammy and I think it will be a great opportunity to connect with anyone attending and anyone thinking about attending.

So head over to the Mediation Business Summit site to register for the free teleseminar.

Denise Wakeman speaker at the Mediation Business Summit

If you search for “how to build a business blog” then the very first site listed on Google.com is www.buildabetterblog.com a blog hosted by Denise Wakeman. I’m not surprised because Denise has been practising what she preaches for a very long time. In fact, Denise has (at least) three blogs: Biz Tips Blog , Build a Better Blog and Denise Wakeman – The Blog Squad . Each has a different focus and each is crammed with useful content which can be easily assimilated and implemented by the newcomer and the experienced blogger alike.

I am in awe of how frequently and consistently Denise posts savvy and engaging ideas about building your online presence through blogging and how to build your blog through integration with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. When you read what she writes on any of these platforms, you soon get a sense of her energy, credibility and her personality.

I am sure these are qualities that every mediator and ADR professional would like to be known for, online and offline. Denise says that blogging is the one way you can present a public persona that is ‘congruent and authentic’ and then she tells you how to do that.

Dig a little deeper into Denise’s online presence and you will find a great ebook produced by the Personality Project called Women of Personality. A Compilation of 40 Extraordinary Women Sharing Their Stories of Success. It is now in its second edition and Denise is featured as one of the 40 extraordinary women. In the book, Denise talks about how she is naturally a ‘behind the scenes person’ and that until she started her own business, that was the way she liked it. I remembered how ‘behind the scenes’ I liked to be when I started out in my own business, and like Denise, I instinctively jumped on the internet when there were not so many people to talk to, very few had an email address and all we had was a shaky 56k modem. Like her, I just knew this internet thing was a place I wanted to be.

Looking back, I started blogging via telex in 1984, with a weekly newsletter and analysis about my industry and it allowed me to “get in front of” influential people in my organisation without the scary part. Looking back, it worked and probably because I thought it was only being read by a few people that I knew very well. I had no idea that people were distributing it much more widely and if I had I probably would have clammed up! Just occasionally, ignorance is bliss.

Today it’s different. The ‘noise’ out there is much greater and for some starting out or looking to take their business to the next level it can be overwhelming. So much so, some people just don’t know where to start. One of the challenges is personal marketing and branding.

In starting her own business Denise realised that

Being the sole person in my business put me in a new position. I had to be “out there”. And the internet helped me do that. I wasn’t shy online.

I think many of us feel shy about marketing ourselves. It is so much easier to do it for others! Marketing is the number one challenge I talk about with people who contact me wanting to know how I managed to build my practice. The good news is that the social media tools that we have today allow you to do both: market yourself and market others.

It is one thing to read what people write and to get a sense of their expertise and the effectiveness of their advice and experience. It is even better to hear them for yourself. That’s why Tammy Lenski and I have brought together our choice of the best and most relevant  business management, marketing and social media voices from inside and outside the dispute resolution world. This is our selection of people who have impressed us with their energy, credibility and personality and who know how to communicate their expertise in a way which is relevant for building a successful conflict resolution practice.

The Mediation Business Summit is accessible via web and telephone from 16 – 18 September 2010.

If you haven’t signed up yet, then you are missing out on some great free gifts to get you started. There are two from Denise: an audio chapter from her renowned programme: How Drive Quality Traffic to Your Blog ($97 value) and a bonus chapter with 19 specific tactics for driving traffic to your blog. These will be available to you as soon as you have completed the sign up process. And you can grab your badge too.

See you at the summit!

Mediation Business Summit 16 - 18 September 2010

Photo by Darwin Bell

In the latest episode of Cafe Mediate, Tammy Lenski, Jeff Thompson and I discuss the nature of isolation in our practice of mediation and dispute resolution.

It is apparent from the laughter we share and the descriptions of “isolation” that any isolation we experience is more solitude as part of independence than loneliness.  A solitude that comes from a conscious choice for our independent practice in matters that are confidential.

Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company.

Solitude is a time that can be used for reflection, inner searching or growth or enjoyment of some kind. Deep reading requires solitude, so does experiencing the beauty of nature. Thinking and creativity usually do too.

Solitude suggests peacefulness stemming from a state of inner richness. It is a means of enjoying the quiet and whatever it brings that is satisfying and from which we draw sustenance. It is something we cultivate. Solitude is refreshing; an opportunity to renew ourselves. In other words, it replenishes us. Psychology Today

Our work involves being with people (often large groups) who need us to be totally focused on them , very calm with lots of energy to manage long days. Solitude is a positive part of the way we work and it seems we all have strategies for making sure that the balance is right and that we have peers and close colleagues to share important conversations.

I am sure some of our speakers at the Mediation Business Summit will be addressing the nature of isolation in being an entrepreneur.