“What a Wonderful World”

Louis Armstrong woke me up this morning.

I’ve always loved his song “What a Wonderful World”.
Go read the lyrics.

So when my alarm went off at 5:15am with that song it put an instant smile on my face. Ten minutes later I was out on my morning walk with our dog.
The wind was blowing a steady rain into my face. But with such a great start to my day … it was all good. In fact, it was awesome!
Napoleon Hill taught that a positive mental attitude is fundamental to success. So is an attitude of gratitude. Together they will make the difference in your life and in your business.
For those who have eyes to see, it really is a wonderful world!

What is Wrong With This Picture?

Lately I’ve been struggling with some html code. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I know that there is something wrong with how it is loading in the three different browsers I use to test it: chrome, IE, Firefox.

There’s also something wrong in this picture … It took me a bit of time to recognize it and I still haven’t figured it out! I’m open to suggestions…

Like the puzzle in this picture, I will figure out what’s going on in my html. I will. I will.

Everything in My Toolbox Is a Hammer

Entrepreneurs need a huge number of different tools to build a successful business. Smart marketers leverage the work from one effort to another.

Taylor & I Working on Yet Another Project!

Being a serial remodeler, not long after we built our starter home we did an addition to accommodate our growing family. One of the framers was our favorite of the craftsmen we had on the job. His name was Doug Gay and he had a funny line he would use almost every day: “Everything in my toolbox is a hammer, except my chisel: that’s a screwdriver!”
Sure enough, over the months I saw him use everything he carried in his tool belt for more than one purpose. He may have been hard on his tools, but he sure did great work in a short amount of time.

I’ve enjoyed learning how to use all the tools of the trade – video marketing, blogging, article marketing … just to name a few. I’ve also learned to leverage the work from one application to the other. For example, when I write blog I also produce a rough script for a video – especially if it is something I feel passionate about. That way I can use the same material in two different media.

I thank Doug for introducing me to the concept that “everything in my toolbox is a hammer”.

Mom, Dad: I Cleaned the Garage

When you are feeling bogged down by your business or in your personal life it is time to clean something up. Take action; choose something to put in order – in your life and in your business – and go clean it up.

Kyle's Note - Age 11

A few years ago our 11-yr old decided to surprise us by cleaning the garage. When he finished he left this little heart-shaped note.

I believe that there exists a strong relationship between the success in your business and success in your personal life. To deny this seems to me to be … well, stupid.

But even as I say it I realize that there will be a few who point out all the exceptions to this statement. But exceptions just emphasize the general rule. In my experience if you try to decouple personal success from business success, one of the two will eventually fail. It is the law of integrity and consistency.

The week that I launched my home business I decided to do some cleaning. I spent 7 hours emptying my closets and drawers, sorting through things that I needed and things that I could donate, and throwing away all the collected junk. The fact that my family was out of town for Spring Break made it easier – there were no interruptions. It was great! And way overdue, as my wife dutifully pointed out to me: “What took you so long?”

Go clean your garage!

Tilt The Axis of Your World

Take a lesson from our planet: Tilt Your Axis and get the sun shining on that large rounded lower half of your body!

Go Tilt The Axis of YOUR World!

The axis of our planet is on a 23.5 degree tilt in relation to the sun. Without the tilt the world would have no seasons, no changing, no alternating periods of warmth and cold, of growth and dormancy.

Without seasons, the world would be a static environment, with constant sunshine on some places and perpetual twilight cold in other places. [We all know people like that!] Seasons drive the great cycles of migration on land, sea and in the air; it fuels the cycles of fertility in the plant and animal kingdoms. As the earth steadily and deeply inhales and exhales through the seasons it brings life and productivity and activity on the entire planet.

So … get up out of your chair, shut off the TV and get to work on renewing and following your dreams. There is too much good and productivity and contribution to be made for you to sit in stasis and do nothing. The world needs you.

Go Tilt Your Axis!

Plant What You Can

These photos come from the small farms around our home. Some are a few hundred acres, others are much smaller. But whatever size, the owners have put the land into production and planted what they could. We should take a hint from this in life and plant what we can with whatever space we have. It is related to the law of the harvest: magnifying and increasing what we have so that it can be a blessing to our families and to others.

A 10-acre field for producing grass seed

This is a neighboring home with a bit less than ten acres to use. The owners have planted grass. Oregon is the #1 producer of grass seed in the nation. I don’t what he earns from his crop, but it probably is a least enough to pay for his property taxes – a pretty smart use of the land he has available!

Several Hundred Acres of Rotated Crops

This farm is just down the street from us. The owner rotates different crops on his land, and this year he has planted wheat. The adjacent fields are alfalfa and fescue. This farmer has a huge amount of open land to tend to, and we see him outside almost every day.

Evaluate your gifts and talents and what amount of time you have … and then plant what you can with whatever space you have! What you sow you will reap in due time, and it will be richly rewarding!

I am Driven to Build!

Building something can be stressful, but is almost always hugely rewarding. So what are you waiting for? Go build something great!

I am a serial builder. I come by honestly: my father was a serial remodeler. As a kid, I spent way too many Saturday afternoons in the attic wading through musty old insulation and pulling new cable through walls. As a result, I love to build things, including new businesses and new entrepreneurs.

Five years after graduating with my MS degree and moving my family to Oregon, we left apartment life and moved into a home I largely built myself. It was hugely rewarding … but it almost killed me physically. And for a few years at least, I had my fill of swinging a hammer and stripping electrical cable.

But five years later the bug bit again, and we remodeled and added another 1800 square feet to our home to accommodate a growing family. And within six months of finishing, we looked for the next big adventure in life … and ended up moving to Israel for almost two years where we built not an apartment nor a home but some of the most life-changing experiences we ever had in our family [the subject of a whole different story].

Brian A Moore

Put Yourself Out of a Job … and into an Adventure!

I know an amazing mom who is fond of saying, “the job of a good mother is to put herself out of a job” – obviously meaning that a great mom (and dad!) instills in her children the ethics of hard work, responsibility and self-reliance. Children shouldn’t need to be “mothered” for long.

Likewise, your home based business shouldn’t need to be “mothered” forever. If it does need constant mothering, your income potential will be constrained because that business model is not scalable. But if you build appropriate systems your business will be automated to a large extent. And if done correctly, it should sustain itself in many ways, including generating traffic to your site where you present the great product or service you have to offer.

So put yourself out of a hours-for-pay job and launch into a new business adventure. Then build it into a self sustaining enterprise.

Be confident in what you are building, and build it to last!

Brian A Moore