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

There are times when you just don’t feel inspired to write. I have had a patch like that and so my blog has been a bit thin for new material.  Then I reconnected with someone I admire.

About 5 years ago I went to an evening seminar in London given by a guy name Nic Askew. I had come across a video of his on the web somewhere and really liked his unique way of making short films which brought out the real essence of a person. His style is both intense and gentle at the same time.  I can’t remember what made me decide to go – curiosity most likely since I am almost terminally curious!

Through his interviewing, camera and editing and his guitar playing, Nic brings an interesting tone to his film making. I hired him to do a video and it was very good. We lost touch but I found him again and he told me that he had moved to the States. I am really pleased to see his work is flourishing there and I want to share a couple of his recent films on two important concepts for mediators, coaches, and others. Curiosity and Non-Judgment.

The first features Seth Godin and the second David Roche. I think they are beautiful and moving films. What do you think?

Thanks Nic, for inspiring me to write again!

CURIOSITY from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

THE SECOND GLANCE from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

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.

The latest in our “caffeinated conversations” Mediator Training and Preparation can be found at the following locations:

Mediation training and preparation podcast page

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Thanks to Diane, Tammy, Jeff and Vickie for a great conversation which could have lasted all night. I look forward to the next which will be on the gritty subject of credentials for mediators.