lobby art in "The Monarch" condo, downtown Austin

I’ve been juggling a bunch of balls for quite some time now. Here’s a quote from a previous blog post I wrote in 2007: The Law of Gravity: as it applies to Entrepreneurialism:

I compare all my businesses/projects to balls. I continuously throw up as many balls in the air as I can. Right now, all the balls are different shapes, sizes, and colors—-but there’s probably about 6 of them right now. I’ve learned to accept (and to look forward to) the realization that most of the balls will fall, roll around on the floor, and then ultimately get squashed. As a positive, that’s when you no longer have to pay attention to them. But in your heart, you know that you gave them a chance to fly…no regrets on your part. Some balls, though, stay up for longer than you would expect. However, the longer they stay in the air, they gradually grow in size and begin to get heavier and thus, harder to manage along with the others.

Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed about new “opportunities” that have come to me, that a year ago I would have jumped at—effectively adding them to juggling exercise. I’ve reached the point, it seems, where my mindset has shifted. I’ve now become a lot less interested in picking up new projects and more focused on the ones I’m already working on—those that I’ve grown exceptionally passionate about and have a high potential for sustained success. I still have a tremendous curiosity with the new projects that I’m teased with—and am in fact, admittedly addicted to curiosity. I would even make the bold statement that I’ve never met anyone more curious than myself. So, now as I’m refusing to allow myself to get wrapped up into these new ideas, I’ve realized that what has drawn me to them in the past has been my sheer curiosity of “what if” and perhaps my lack of full belief in my other projects.

Now, though, I’m confident and sure that the projects in front of me right now, are the ones I want to focus my time on. Yes, it stings a little bit to say, “no”, but perhaps the only way to reach massive success with one thing in life is to say no to countless others.

What balls are you juggling right now? Do you find yourself adding more and more to your collection? If so, maybe you should explore the true reason why. And if you’re not adding more and just focusing on one or two, then perhaps you’re a step ahead of me.

Some comments of interest so far:

• time zone changes are frustrating. In the beginning I thought it would be helpful to have such a dramatic time change between Sydney and Austin, thinking that I’d be able to knock stuff out and have it show up in my colleague’s inboxes when they wake up. Not so easy. I’ve started going out more at night (naturally) so it makes it near impossible to wake up at 5am or 6am as I was before. This morning I woke up at 9, checked the local time in Austin and it was already the afternoon—which kind of deflates my personal motivation—their day is already almost over.
• unexpected interruptions of flow. Whether it’s broken suitcases, discussions about what to do for lunch, or doing laundry, it’s all an interruption. If anything, it is training to be able to leave and then re-enter a solid state of flow. Difficult indeed, but a necessity in this environment. The only way I can think of that would counter all the distractions would be to wake up super early in the morning (which I was doing before) or having ‘closed door’ office hours. I do not want to do that, though, as it really is shutting off other people. But then again, maybe if they understand it’s for the best and only for a limited amount of time, that would be okay. Still debating the best method…Ah, perhaps a good alternative to an actual closed door is for me to put on headphones. I still feel a little guilty about that, though.
• fear of opening my inbox. I’m sitting here without having opened my gmail inbox because last time i was in there it was 276 unread messages. That was after a 4 day hiatus of not having internet access because I was staying at a lakehouse hundreds of kilometers outside of Sydney. Last night when I checked it after coming in from a night out I guess I COULD have processed it all and gotten it down to zero, but I tell ya that’s frustrating just thinking about. I guess the trick is just setting out the time and knocking it out. Not sure how to conquer it otherwise. My 3-4hrs/day of working are quickly dwindling due to extra distractions (mainly my parents have now arrived in Sydney, so there are 6 of us all staying together in a small 3 bedroom apartment.
• Hmmm…Okay, time to start processing so I can close some/all of the open loops. Speaking of, I wonder if this segment of my trip is teaching me to be more comfortable with having some open loops out there…time will tell.

Being an entrepreneur is a solo experience.  It is…  It isn’t…  We could go into a long discussion about it.  None the less, you spend a lot of time alone, very few people understand what goes on in your mind, so eventually you begin to distance yourself from people—realizing you’re a bit weird.  All of us entrepreneurs are weirdos in our own right—we’re crazy passionate people.  Obsessive, perhaps. And we want to do huge things—but we hate waiting for it.

Yesterday I worked with a bunch of other solo-ists out there.  And it felt good.  So, if you’ve cast off the company of others, I encourage you to check out a co-working event in your area.  My experiment was with my Jelly – Casual coworking.  Good times.

Truths I have discovered through my journey towards enlightenment.

1. Actions can be completed with exact delicacy and focus. Actions created in that matter prove to be more meaningful.
2. When time goes slower, you will learn to appreciate the slight occurrences of life. The sound of drinking your tea. Your fingers on the keyboard. The feel of objects on your skin. The slower and more deliberate your actions, the more you notice them. The quicker, and more automatic—the more they are erased.
3. It is not necessary to go back over tasks that have already been completed to 90% accurate. Value your time more than that, and put it somewhere it can help another task grow from 0-90%.
4. Never feel rushed. Time is of your own creation. If you rush any aspect of life, you not only create less meaning in your action, but you are allowing your own imagination to dictate your existence and state of mind.
5. Hunger and pain are sensations of the physical self. Do not allow your physical self to control your real self. When these sensations approach you, tell them, “Hello hunger. Hello pain. I see you. I understand that my physical self has created you. However, my physical self does not govern my existence. Goodbye hunger. Goodbye pain. Now I will let you go.”
6. To find the answer, ask yourself the question. And then meditate for 1-2 minutes. The answer will enter you upon awakening.I asked myself the questions below and then meditated to find the answers.How to make more money (quickly and easily)?
   
   Do more.How to accomplish doing more when I already seem so overwhelmed?
   
   Can still work the same amount of hours, but always focus intently and individually at the matter at hand. Make sure to spend your time where it creates the most impactful results.

   What do I do when I get behind in my tasks and start to feel behind the ball and so overwhelmed that I do not want to even start?
   
   Pick 2-3 tasks and plan out the days you will complete them. It is not necessary to complete them all in 1 day, so just spread them out. No longer will they feel daunting.

When people ask me how my business is going, I smile and tell them, “it’s going great.” However, what they may not know is that I’m not just speaking of the business that everyone knows about. It seems to me that most serial entrepreneurs out there, like myself, have the business everyone knows about, and then also, have all the little side projects that, in all reality, may not be little at all. At least in my case, though, I’m experimenting with all these side endeavors, and do not want others to know of all that I’m trying to do. Why? I’m not quite sure, but it’s probably because those side businesses fail so much, that I don’t want others to know how much I fail. However, any great entrepreneur knows that failure is a miraculous thing. But mainstream’ers just don’t quite seem to get the point. That’s fine, though.

My mindset…

I compare all my businesses/projects to balls. I continuously throw up as many balls in the air as I can. Right now, all the balls are different shapes, sizes, and colors—-but there’s probably about 6 of them right now. I’ve learned to accept (and to look forward to) the realization that most of the balls will fall, roll around on the floor, and then ultimately get squashed. As a positive, that’s when you no longer have to pay attention to them. But in your heart, you know that you gave them a chance to fly…no regrets on your part. Some balls, though, stay up for longer than you would expect. However, the longer they stay in the air, they gradually grow in size and begun to get heavier and thus, harder to manage along with the others. Once they reach a size/weight that I can no longer manage, I try and automate the project through systems or I try and delegate it to another passionate individual. So, I guess I look at the way I handle my businesses as a project incubator of sorts. I have tons of ideas, and hate not to give those ideas a chance for fruition–thus my method.

Just remember, the trick to success is failure. But the trick to failure is speed. Fail fast and then move on to the balls that are still in the air, all the while continually tossing in more.

David Askaripour over at Mind Petals made a solid post, 5 Tips to Improve Your Memory. Good tips, but I think he missed something key. Remembering something comes down to one thing—and one thing only in my opinion.

The key is to consciously decide whether or not you really want to remember.

It’s the same thing with waking yourself up in the morning. If you go to bed thinking “it’s not really THAT important that I wake up at 7am”, then when you wake up at 7am you will subconsciously remind yourself that it’s not that important to get up, so you’ll go back to sleep. So then, you’ll end up waking up @9:30 and curse yourself for not getting up when you planned to. “I don’t even remember turning off the alarm clock….” Has that ever happened to you?

Want to remember someone’s name? Then stop making stupid excuses like “I’m horrible with names, yadda yadda.” Excuses like that are for losers. Once you consciously DECIDE that you WANT to remember something it becomes a lot easier. The mind is an amazingly powerful machine, so the power of unconscious thought has a lot more importance than you may realize. Just test it out.

And if you really keep forgetting, then perhaps subconsciously, you don’t take your job/friends/future as seriously as you thought you did. The weak are a slave to their thoughts. Tame your subconscious thoughts and you have the power to do just about anything—-and yes, that certainly includes remembering that guy’s name you met at that place…

In reference to the post I made several days earlier, Officing Out of Coffee Shops in Austin, TX — everyone else is doing it too , I just found a great write up of The Open Coffee Club Movement.

The idea is simple. Events are arranged on a set date in a set location. Entrepreneurs and people interested in the industry come along to chat, discuss their ideas, and build relationships. VCs also come along and entrepreneurs have a chance to pitch their ideas to them – and discuss whether they might be interested in funding them etc.

Pretty cool idea if you ask me… Yay for coffee & entrepreneur interaction…hip hip hooray!

Given that you’re sitting at home or in a coffee shop for hours on end working on your latest entrepreneurial endeavor, you probably don’t experience as much day to day interaction as you would if you were in a “normal” office environment. Sure you have your days where you’re out and about networking it, but when it comes down to it entrepreneurship is solo sport. Don’t forget that there are others out there that are doing the exact same thing as you, going through the same things. I recently joined the DigitalPoint community where I have discovered others in my same shoes. It’s one thing to get ideas/techniques for your businesses, but it’s a whole new experience to get moral support from the online world. It’s great feeling. I especially liked the discussion, You ARE Lazy, Get a REAL Job! Online Frustrations , and appreciated some of the responses from various members of the DP community.

I divide my working time nowadays between my home office, my partner’s apartment, and quite significantly— coffee shops. Coffee, free wireless internet, and people always bustling around energizing the place—an entrepreneur’s perfect virtual office. I’m always surprised to see how many people are out in the middle of the day. What do these people do? Are they students? Are they unemployed? On their day-off? Surely not all entrepreneurs… A good chunk of them may be though.

In my business dealings I am continuously making decisions that will allow me to manage processes virtually from any place in the world (as long as I have a high speed connection). It’s a wonderful luxury that the generation before us did not have the ability to do. So I’m taking advantage of it to my best abilities. This trend is probably why you’ll see an increasing number of entrepreneurs officing out of coffee shops. It’s just not hard to stay connected anymore. It allows the business world and the personal world to seamlessly integrate. It’s beautiful, really.

About a year or so ago I started up and moderated an entrepreneur get together where we would meet and discuss our ideas at local coffee shops. It was a big success and I made some solid contacts. Worth it for sure.

I guess there’s just something about the coffee shop atmosphere that gets your mind energized and your thoughts flowing…