It puts you at risk; your credibility, your job, your future. It puts you at risk of losing these three things. So why do it? Why put some of the most important things in your life at risk?

Because they won’t change unless you do. Your credibility will never improve if you don’t take the risk, your career will never progress if you don’t take the risk, and your future will never become reality if you don’t stick your neck out. Will it get chopped off? Maybe… But it’s much more likely you’ll end up with a few stitches.

Sticking your neck out is taking responsibility, it’s doing something that your co-workers aren’t willing to do, it’s giving yourself the chance to make shit happen. It’s speaking up in meetings, it’s telling your boss that things need to change, it’s demanding responsibility for your piece of the business, it’s taking the beating when things go wrong, and it’s taking the next step when things go right.

It’s not going to work out every time… In fact, success will probably be a rarity. But when it does hit, it’s going to be big, and all prior failures will be worth it. The failures make you stronger, they harden you.

So stick your neck out there, often. The more you do it, the easier it gets, and the closer you get to success.

[image credit: nothing to hide via Flickr]

With the relaunch of this project I removed the commenting functionality of this website. I made this change for one important reason… You, like me, are a do-er.

This project’s most loyal followers are in the business of getting things done, that really matter…  And frankly, blog comments don’t really matter. Sure, I received a fair amount of comments (mainly from other bloggers), but the core audience of this site wasn’t commenting. I’m the same way… On an given day I consume a book’s worth of blog posts, twitter updates, and RSS feeds from people I follow… But I rarely comment, in fact almost never. If I have something to say, I’ll usually send the author a quick private message on Twitter, LinkedIn, or email.

So… For those of you who want to comment on these articles, find me on Twitter or shoot me a quick note here. Your comment will likely show up in a future post, but please make it thoughtful and inspiring. And for those who don’t have something important enough to send me a personal message… Go get something done. Commenting on blogs all day isn’t going to make you any money.

After a 3 month hiatus from any writing… I’m back. Re-energized with new ideas, a renewed focus, and big plans for The Corporate Radical Project. Yes, this is a relaunch post… And I’ve answered four of the most important questions I received during my time away.

Why haven’t you been writing?

Burn out. The original focus of Corporate Radical was to make money, but that pulled me in a direction that I didn’t always feel good about. It required intense work outside of what this project was built for. I was spending more time networking, building traffic, and finding new ways to monetize, than I was spending on writing or speaking! And frankly, the content here suffered as a result. I needed time away from the project to think about where it’s actually heading… And how that compared to the path I intended. Needless to say, they didn’t match up.

What is your intended path?

This has been a moving target for some time, and the vacation helped me realize I haven’t been clear about the purpose. Corporate Radical is more of a movement, than an entity. Sure, there’s an LLC behind it, a website address, a bank account, and probably some business cards floating around… But the idea of The Corporate Radical Project is that there are new and different ways of doing business that we haven’t yet discovered, that mainstream corporations would balk at even the thought of. But it’s also to re-energize our focus on the practices that do work, but that are easy to forget. Everyday I’m surprised by what seem to be obvious missteps, by companies of all sizes, on the basics of good business strategy. This project is designed to help us exploit the newest untested strategies, while weaving in the proven yet forgotten ways of doing business effectively. This project is designed to promote change, to promote creativity, and to promote innovation.

Do you have a lot of traffic?

As I mentioned above, my focus for a long time was to build traffic. I spent hours each week learning about the newest marketing tactics, testing different media, networking with people who could send me a lot of traffic, and watching my stats grow. It worked, but I didn’t feel good about it. In all honesty, I found myself building that traffic not with the intention of sharing ideas, but with the intention of making money… I felt like I was letting myself down, and exploiting those who visited this site. So, I wouldn’t say I have a lot of traffic, but the following here is strong and growing.

What are your most popular articles?

My most popular articles have been those focused on productivity. Which is good because I’m a GTD junkie, so I like writing about it. But there are two others that have interestingly been very popular.

Gain Trust, Now! – It’s fitting that the theme of this relaunch is about getting back to the core focus of sharing innovative business ideas without trying to make money, and one of the most read posts on this site is about giving value without expecting something in return.

Fight For It  - This is one of my favorites, so I was happy to see it being one of the most popular. It’s about the idea that the best companies want their employees to fight for the business… Even if it means fighting their boss. It’s inspirational, motivating, and I’ve received a lot of great feedback on it.

[Image credit: joiseyshowaa via Flickr]

I used to be terrified of asking questions; what if my boss thought I was dumb, what if the question had been asked a thousand times, what if the question demonstrates to my employees that I don’t know what I’m doing? Valid concerns…

But when you watch the corporate world’s best leaders, they ask questions… Lots of them. This is part of the reason many of you have told me you’re scared of giving presentations, you don’t want to come up against a question you can’t answer.

To lead, you’ve got to understand. To understand, you’ve got to ask questions. To ask questions, you’ve got to be confident in yourself… And that’s the hard part. We all struggle with confidence, especially when it puts us in a situation where we’re forced to show our ignorance.

What worked for me? I forced myself to start asking questions. I stopped assuming I should know the answer, I stopped assuming the person I was talking to would look at me like I’m an idiot for asking. I read everything Jeffrey Gitomer wrote on asking questions… He’s a sales guy, but great sales people are amazing questions askers! Then I practiced asking questions… A lot… Until it became natural.

Leaders ask questions… Simple.

[image credit: cathyse97 via flickr]

The money… The time… The commitment… Getting your MBA is a big deal. Especially if you’re working full-time while attempting to complete it… Like I did. I’d love to be able to tell you No, it’s not worth the money or the time, and to put that energy toward other things. But I can’t, because it is worth your money, your time, and the stress you’re going to experience while completing it. Here’s why…

We’ll get the obvious thing out of the way first… The title. Being able to say that I’ve got an MBA from an accredited school looks great on a resume. It gets my foot in the door for positions and promotions that I may not have otherwise been considered for. But you and I both know there are a lot of dumb broke people with an MBA’s, and your potential employer knows that as well. The MBA accreditation doesn’t tell your boss that you’re smart, it tells her that you’re willing to invest in yourself, you’re willing to seek out information to make yourself better, and you’re willing to stick with it until it’s complete. This is more valuable than you think… Especially if that boss has her MBA as well.

I could tell you that the homework you’re going to be up late doing, the books you’re going to read, and the lectures you’re going to sit through are where the real value is… But it isn’t. You won’t remember much from all of that work, and definitely not from the lectures. The real value of an MBA is awareness. Awareness of the world around you, awareness of how business decisions are made, and awareness of how the business world really works. You’ll generate this awareness simply by paying attention during the 2+ years it’ll take you to complete an MBA. Paying attention to everything.

Now, if your one of the good ones… This awareness is going to result in curiosity. Because once you understand how things work, you can begin to ask real questions toward why they work like that, and why they don’t. This is worth every penny you’ll spend. When you can question business practices from a place of understanding, you can drive change. For example; read my article on companies declining to be interviewed by the media. To drive change you have to understand why they decline… To understand why they decline you have to understand how it works behind the scenes… To do that you’ve got to be aware and curious.

Can you create this awareness yourself, without an MBA? This curiosity? Build great relationships with people of similar curiosity and awareness? Sure. But why haven’t you already?

There are a lot of really smart and really rich people without an official MBA. But those people already have what an MBA can provide, if held in the right hands. Keep in mind, that just because you get your MBA doesn’t mean you’re going to get that awareness and curiousity… It’s imperative that you immerse yourself in business outside of what your professor is “teaching” you… Question everything. One thing we’ve all learned over the past year is that many “business experts” have it wrong. Keep that in mind as you’re picking up what your MBA is putting down.

[image credit: wired_gr via Flickr]

Did you read my post back in January on how important sleep is and how to get more of it? If you haven’t implemented the 21-day plan I outlined in that post then maybe this will help. Tony Schwartz, author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working and CEO of The Energy Project, wrote an article on the Harvard Business Review blog about how sleep is more important to our health and professional performance than food.

The beginning of Tony’s article starts like this:

Say you decide to go on a fast, and so you effectively starve yourself for a week. At the end of seven days, how would you be feeling? You’d probably be hungry, perhaps a little weak, and almost certainly somewhat thinner. But basically you’d be fine.

Now let’s say you deprive yourself of sleep for a week. Not so good. After several days, you’d be almost completely unable to function. That’s why Amnesty International lists sleep deprivation as a form of torture.

Helps to put things in perspective… Right? I’m not going to add anymore to Tony’s article because it really stands on it’s own. So please, go read Sleep is More Important than Food now… Then take a nap.

[image credit: noahg via Flickr]

Business Owner = Parent

Let’s look at the owner first. I like to think of business owners as parents, they’re personally responsible for the health of their child (the company) and they take their job very seriously… Because if they don’t, they risk losing their beloved baby. The business owner can make decisions that result in short-term loss (unhappy toddler) to capitalize on long-term gains (successful teenager), and they only have to answer to themselves. Because of this responsibility, decisions are faster, the company is more agile, and it’s easier for the company to maintain stability. This mindset isn’t limited to private organizations, Apple is a great example of a public company run by what I would consider a business owner.

Public Executive = Nanny

Contrast that mindset to your standard appointed CEO of a public company. The CEO is very similar to a daytime nanny, still held responsible for the health and well-being of the child, still serious about that responsibility, but there’s something different. If the nanny feeds the child fast food everyday, they’re not going to have to deal with the teenage obesity that’s inevitable in the coming years (after that nanny is gone). That’s going to be left to the parents to straighten out. The nanny doesn’t have as much skin in the game as the child’s parents do. Unfortunately, with many public companies, the skin is spread so thin that no one feels like the parent. Which is why we continue to support failed companies and nurse them back to health so they can continue to operate poorly. Not all CEO’s think this way… But what we’ve seen over the past several years is that many do.

The Nanny’s Challenge

Compounding this issue; the CEO is held to a much more aggressive standard for short-term gains, because this person has to answer to shareholders who want their money to grow, tomorrow. The nanny has to do everything they can to keep that child happy, so the thousands of parents (shareholders) see what they think is a happy child when they get home from work… Even if it means doing the child’s homework for them. This results in an unstable organization, something that performed amazing last quarter, looks great in analyst’s reports… But as soon as the tiniest crack forms, the smallest inkling of instability, the whole thing comes crashing down (i.e. Lehman, Chrysler, Enron).

To a CEO (nanny), it’s their job… To a business owner (parent), it’s their life. Think like the business owner, even if you’re not.

P.S. This isn’t a stab at your nanny. Many are great, and would never put your child in harm’s way… Neither would many CEO’s.

So Market Samurai connects to the different Google (and other) keyword tools to help define phrases to target in articles for SEO purposes. It helps consolidate a wealth of information into an easy-to-understand format, quickly. The problem is, this tool is highly reliant on things that are outside of its control (i.e. Google, server load, etc). Recently, I experienced some problems within the software that were producing undesirable results. Last night, I received an email from the Market Samurai team saying “sorry”. They essentially explained exactly what happened (i.e. attacks on their servers, Google updating keyword tools, etc), how it may have affected me, and what they’re doing about it. This was totally unsolicited.

But the best part – without me asking, they provided an incentive for my troubles. Now, this isn’t a subscribed-to service, I had already paid the one-time cost for the software, and to my knowledge I wasn’t eligible for a refund if I would have wanted one. But since they value their customers, they essentially gave me an extra license to the software so I could use it on another machine, free!

So I ask you to think about the service you’re providing your customers… And especially those who have already purchased. Are you keeping them happy? Because if you are, they’re going to keep you happy.

[Image credit pasukaru76 via Flickr]

We all want to make our work life better. From a more equal work-life balance to how to be happier at work… Most of us just plain want things to be better. This article at one of my favorite sites, Lifehacker, shows us how to do just that… Make our work life better. Adam Dachis tells us to follow 10 specific tricks:

1. Set boundries to find balance between work and life
2. Eat a healthy breakfast
3. Find ways to bring things you love to the job you already have
4. Learn to negotiate
5. Ask for a raise at the right time
6. Prioritize communication by type and speed
7. Switch to a standing desk
8. Curb you negativity
9. Use your vacation time effectively
10. Learn to eat safely at your computer

For insight into each of these 10 items read the full article.

[Photo remixed from an original by Bart Everson via Flickr]