Being in business is awesome!

A lot of people think the future is hard to predict, and that the future is waiting for them to come to it.

Personally, I know nothing is waiting for me. The future is like a sport. There’s an end goal that you have to aim for, there’s obstacles along the way, and a team will help you get there. But if you’re just going to sit, and wait for the game to come to you, how successful do you think you’ll be at winning?

When I was in school, I didn’t know what career I wanted to get into. What I did know, was that I want to see the world, I want a BMW M3 GTR dream car, I want to help save the planet, and I want to have at least 2 kids.

If I just sit in a chair and veg, do you think the world will come see me? Do you think a BMW will drive to me and throw its keys in my hand? Do you think the world will just immediately repair itself? Do you think I’ll be able to support kids if I don’t do anything?

If there’s any common sense in this world, the obvious answers to those questions are all no. If I am to do all those things, I need to have a firm foot-hold in success.

My initial plan was to get into the RCMP, and work for 10 years until my salary was high enough for me to be able to afford such things. Then my mentor pitched the career of business, and being able to work from where ever you are with the help of a little WiFi signal. A career where your salary is a result of your efforts, not just a set amount of money.

To this day, my income is fairly low. I’ve had people ask why I’m still here and working the amount of time that I am for such little money.

What they fail to recognize is that “working” on business is building skill sets, and solidifying your foothold. It’s pounding yourself to success. All that it requires is effort.

Again, with people asking why I’m still here, and me realizing how little I’m making, it’s just an obvious pointer that not enough effort is being put in. I’ve been waiting, not chasing.

Well, it’s time to change that and start chasing. What’s in the past, happened. There’s no changing it, and the only thing to change is myself and how I’m going to choose to go into an awesome future.

-Live today like you want to live tomorrow.

Life is like a game. You can win, or lose; it’s just up to you to put in the effort. Losing in a game however, has a lot less consequences than losing in real life.
So as I came back to Regina after my weekend at home, I got the lesson about holding a commitment.
Then, after a day of minimal sales and low productivity, my mentor was losing his patience with the dwindling numbers and the lack of proper action being taken to fix those low numbers at JCC Computers. So he sat me down one night and decided to throw another curve ball at me.
“Tomorrow, you’re going to the computer shop, and if you don’t make $200 in sales, you’ll be staying the night at the shop, with nothing but a sleeping bag, thin piece of foam to lay on, and won’t be provided with food the next day.”
I kind of had to think about it for a second. It was like someone just put a megaphone in my face and screamed, “You’re leaving your comfort zone!”
Comfort zones are evil. They’re a continuous slope to a pit of failure because once you get “comfy”, you forget your goals, you forget how to get to those goals, and you just sit on your ass until you become vegetable.
So being pushed out of mine was something that had to happen. In fact, some of the most successful people in the world constantly push themselves out of their own comfort zone.
The only problem with today’s society is that we find ways to make anything comfortable.
So my mentor drove me down to the shop. After a few rants, we finally said our toodles and the game had begun.

Integrity is something every entrepreneur needs. Integrity isn’t just about being honest, or making promises. Integrity is about living up to your true morals, and keeping those promises that you make.

During the previous Thursday’s evening, my mentor was dropping me off at the bus depot to go home for the weekend. As I was getting ready to get on the bus, my mentor asked me what I was going to commit to during my time at home.

While I was home, I said I’d set some time aside to work on a few fairly simple tasks.

Well, during my time at home, I saw friends, went to a club, got new glasses, and got a fix on my braces. However, minimal time was set aside to do those tasks I had committed to.

The weekend ended, and I was on the bus-ride back to Regina. The fact that I hadn’t done, what I said I’d do, burned in the back of my mind. It wasn’t a good feeling, and made the already uncomfortable bus-ride that much more so.

So I arrived at the bus depot, and called up my mentor, letting him know that I had arrived. At all previous times, he’d come and pick me up and bring me to the house.

Our phone call was brief, and ended with him saying, “So you didn’t complete what you committed to this weekend. So I’ll commit to come and pick you up.”

As soon as the phone hung up, I knew something was fishy. Just the way he worded it, I knew something was up.

I sat there and about 20 minutes went by. He still hadn’t arrived.

“Hmm.. okay.. he’ll be here soon, I guess.”

Another 20 minutes went by.

“I don’t think he’s coming…”

Another 20 minutes passed by.

“He’s definitely not coming.”

Another 10 minutes went by. I picked up my phone, and sent my mentor a text. It read “This is turning into one of your lessons, isn’t it?”

Sure enough, he called me back and was awfully glad to hear that I had caught on to the lesson. So, there I was walking 6 blocks with all of my luggage through rush-hour traffic to get to work. Not my definition of fun.

When you break your word, the person you committed to will most likely feel hurt that you broke your promise, and you’ll lose their trust. Trust is something that is very easy to lose, yet so hard to gain.

When you say you’ll do something, do it. My time was less enjoyable with my friends, because those tasks burned in my mind and I was constantly distracted. If I would’ve done what I said I would’ve done, and set that time aside to work on that stuff, I would’ve been able to live in the moment while I was with my friends.

Commitment means completion.

Well, for the last month, I’ve mainly been working in my mentors computer shop. At the shop, my co-worker and I, have been working on marketing campaigns, and on bringing a new video-editing system to the market.

The only problem is that the campaign for the video-editor has taken two weeks to create and it’s still not done. Yet, we created a process to follow that would make it something to be completed in under a week.

As you can imagine, this has been a frustration on my mentor, as he sees potential but we, more-so myself, have been failing to live up to our full standards. With this, my mentor has been losing quite a bit because he pays for all the bills on the store, and shares profits with myself and the co-workers. So he’s losing money with the shop.

Tonight I came home, with a very unsuccessful day. I had been working on a commercial for the video-editor, however, the software crashed at the last minute, and set me back a lot on the production of the video. Aside from this, the metrics of the store were not measured after he’s asked us, time-and-time again, to do so.

After I informed him of my day, I saw the rage building up in him while we were sitting down to eat supper. I had the urge to run for cover, though, that would be the action of a victim. So, I was ready for the consequences.

We finished supper, and he went for his routine bathroom break. I went into the office and started writing an e-mail. After a while, he came into the room with a grin on his face. I looked up at the heavens. He got my attention and laid out the losses that he’s been taking with investing in the computer shop. He said that it was time that I got a taste of loss.

“So, you’re going to dress warm, give me your cell phone, and you’re going to find a way to contact your girlfriend, and tell her that you won’t be able to talk to her until Wednesday morning outside of the house. You’ve got one hour to do so. If you’re not back in one hour, and if she has not contacted me in some way to confirm that you informed her, you will not receive your phone until you go home the next time around. Go.”

It took a sec for the reality to set in, but when it did I threw my jacket on, grabbed a toque and mitts, and I sprinted out of the house. Now, imagine running into the world without any possessions on you, no where near any family, and having to contact someone to tell them you can’t contact them.

I ran six blocks to the closest gas station to use the pay phone. Unfortunately, my cell phone was my phone book, so I didn’t know any numbers by heart. The only one I knew, was my house in Stonewall. So, I punched in my $3.00 for the long distance call, and it rang. My dad answered.

I calmy began to explain the situation. Everything was going good until the phone beeped and said that I only had 30 seconds left until I had to enter another $1.00. I didn’t have one… Panic started to grip me, and my words became rushed. My dad started to sound worried, and I quickly told him to get my mom to facebook my girlfriend and tell her to call my mentor’s number. My time was up. I was not convinced that the directions were clear, and that it was urgent.

I hung up the phone. I then began running back to my mentor’s house, where our tech’s place was just nearby. When I got there, the van was gone, and the lights were out. I was just about ready to give up, but I figured I might as well peek inside the door. I looked into the window of the door and saw lights on. Luckily, when I knocked, our tech came to the door.

I explained the situation to him, and with a nervous laugh, he let me use his phone and facebook to contact my girlfriend.

———–

Loss is often a great driver for some people. It truly is amazing what we’ll do, and how hard we’ll think, when something so important is put on-the-line. When you’re told you have to do something or else you will lose, it’s just nature to stop at nothing to make sure that loss doesn’t exist.

“Rules are meant to be broken.”

Whoever came up with that statement? I lived by it today, and boy, did I get my lesson.

In my mentor’s office, we call it the “no cell phone zone.” For obvious reason, a cell phone is a huge distraction from work.

Well, tonight I broke that rule. Take a look at my punishment:

Over the last week I’ve been working a lot with acting, filming and doing special effects on Adobe After Effects. The videos are for marketing for my mentor’s computers store.

It takes a long time when you’re first learning, but, like most things, the processes become easier and productivity comes a lot faster.

Every video is better than the last, and it completely opens up the mind to endless graphic possibilities.

You can check out the videos here.

Why do humans lie?

Is it to cover up insecurities? Is it an addiction? Is it to avoid consequences?

Actually, lying can be a combination of the above, or even all of them.

Lying is an act of a victim, though. Lying is the avoiding of taking ownership for the action you did, or didn’t do.

I, today, made myself a victim. My mentor was out of the house, and I just arrived from driving into the city. The plan was to get to work when I got home and work throughout the day.

However, when I got home, I decided to take the easy action and edit, and render a view videos which take about an hour to two hours to render. During that time, I could’ve worked on the other computer but decided to take a 30-minute nap.

Well, that 30-minute lap turned into a 2 hour nap due to laziness.

So when my mentor got home, my mind started racing, “Oh no, I didn’t get anything done. Oh no, I decided to be lazy. Oh no, I’m going to get in trouble.”

As my mentor came down the stairs and came into the room I said hi with a smile on my face and started working. He asked what I got done and I said I got a few videos rendered.

There was a long pause, and he said, “I know those videos take over an hour to render, and you look like you just woke up.”

I was caught.

That wasn’t all. My mentor logged on to the other computer, and it wasn’t working like earlier. He asked if I attempted to go on it at all, and for some reason (even though I didn’t even touch it) I said that I did and it worked fine for me.

Why would I say that? Was it an act of impulse? Was it because I didn’t succeed in my other lie, so I had to do another one?

Again, he knew I was lying.

But why did I lie? Especially on something like that? It’s not like the computer’s state was my fault. It’s not like there would’ve been consequences if I didn’t go on it.

Then I stepped back and wondered, why am I even lying in the first place?

Lying is avoiding ownership.

To be an entrepreneur, means you have to take ownership in everything you do. Otherwise, you’ll lose trust with your clients and/or with your team.

Lying is such a dangerous thing to do. Losing someone’s trust, is so easy. Gaining it back, however, is a much, much harder thing to earn.

Am I talking about the ‘+‘ side of a magnet? No, I’m talking about positivity within a person’s mind.

Every situation has two sides to it; the negative side, and the positive side. Which side is chosen, depends on the mindset of an individual.

Earlier this month, a week before my birthday, my grandma passed away due to a tragic accident.

The common mindset sees this as a negative thing, and most likely would be very emotional.

In October, after a month of being here in Regina, I was living the life of positivity. I was much happier about everything, I was present and living in each moment.

I went home for a couple days and spent wonderful time with my family, friends and girlfriend.

One day in particular, my mom and I decided to go shopping, and pick up my grandma to bring her along.

The car ride there was awesome. My mom and I had a great conversation, it was all positive energy.

Where as, before gaining that mindset, I would’ve disconnected from the world, and listened to music or watched a movie on my iPod.

As I spent the day with my grandma with that positive mindset, I was able to keep her in very high spirits, and constantly smiling.

One of her comments was that it was so cold, and I just smiled and said, “Yeah, but you look good in your fall jackets, so it’s all good.”

She immediately lit up and it was so great to see a smile like that.

That was the very last time I saw my grandma. But, you know what? I am so grateful that it was the last day, because I couldn’t have asked for a better time with her.

I have positivity to thank for that. Without positivity, I would’ve been living off in my own world, would’ve been in a pile of regret and would’ve been a much sadder person today.

I love you grandma, and we’ll see you later.

Before stepping into the shoes of an entrepreneur, I saw a lot of things as “impossible.”

For example, before getting the right mindset, I saw creating a website as a seemingly impossible task, or (since I’m so visual) a mountain that could not be climbed; even though I took a “Web design” class in grade 9.

After starting the process of gaining the right mindset, I’ve come to terms that nothing is impossible.

In the time that I’ve been back out here, my mentor has assigned me with completely reformatting two websites, creating numerous web pages, and I’ve also been assigned to create another website from the ground up.

Well at first, I thought, “Wow, that’s a lot of climbing I’ve got to take.”

I was even a little reluctant to start. When I finally decided I could do it, I took my first step.

In the beginning, it took me a little while to get traction, but with the help of Google, and Adobe Dreamweaver I was able to make my way up that steep mountain. I’ll admit, I messed up a few times and had to start over again, but it’s just a matter of keeping at it. Don’t quit.

At the present moment, I’m about half-way there. I’ve still got lots of learning to do with HTML, and coding a website, but I’m doing it. Nothing’s stopping me.

If you see doing something as a mountain, don’t look at the peak; you’ll just hurt your neck. Look at your first step, and then the next step. Sure, you may hit some slippery slopes but if you stay focused, the peak will come sooner than you thought.

Being productive is key to being a successful entrepreneur.

Just imagine where the world would be if everyone was paid for productivity versus a set wage.

A lot of people get caught up on convincing themselves that they’re being productive when they might actually be slacking, getting extremely distracted, or just being plain lazy.

I thought I was productive.

In September, my mentor and I started completely landscaping his front yard. We dug out 3 inches of half of his yard, laid a retaining wall, layed bricks around his hedges, shovelled rocks around the hedges, and into the 3 inches dug out in the front. We also had the plan to lay bricks along the whole perimeter of the yard. I was in charge of this and was about 2/3 done.

So my mentor sent me out to finish them off. Well, in a week I was going home to celebrate my 18th birthday (legalization in Manitoba) and see my friends from back home. I was texting away, skyping on my itouch with my girlfriend, and frequently changing songs on my iPod. I dug-out and layed about 1/2 of that last 1/3 to go in about 1 1/2 days of work. I just convinced myself that I did the best to my ability and ended up being productive in the end.

Well, I went home, celebrated my birthday, hung out with my girlfriend, hung out with my friends, and got to see my family.

11 days later, I came back out here with my mentor and his family. My mentor and I got caught up, and updated each other. He told me the rest of the bricks got layed as well. I was surprised, and asked him how long it took him to do it? He smiled and said he didn’t do it; his wife did and she finished the same amount that I did, in about 1 to 2 hours.

Talk about a slap-to-the-face. It wasn’t physical, it was a mental slap. It’s not like she’s this big, butch slave-working woman. It’s that she had the mentality to focus on the task, not let herself get distracted and get the task done. She even corrected some errors that I did on the bricks that I layed.

Ever since, I’ve cut down on texting, I’ve limited my time while on facebook, and I’m putting more focus on to the task at hand and compared to before, my productivity has increased substantially.

So the next time you think you’re being as productive as you can be, stop and think; “Am I being distracted, and just how productive am I being?”