Random thoughts on Entrepreneurship, Building Systems and Forest Gump was a great Entrepreneur!

"Whatever obstacles appear in your path, put your head down and get past them. Those obstacles aren't real. They're just God's way of testing you. He's asking you, "Do you want to make it or not?" ~ Russell Simmons Quotes from Do You!

Myself and a colleague named Gary that runs Garlison Group International, a major watch company, we have been re-learning marketing techniques for the Internet, i.e. Social Networking or Virtual Business Marketing, Facebook.com, Linkedin.com,Myspace.com, Twitter.com, and the whole world of “Getting your product known” theories on the net. Well, in about the last 3 months, I think we have crossed that threshold of “What works” and “What’s hot” on the net in terms of marketing, however after registering for all the “Social Network” sites, after all, it’s called “Social Networking”! After all, you can definitely experience, feel and understand where the future is headed in terms of promoting products, selling and marketing goods on the net.

“Building Systems” will be my next discussion and strategy session with Gary in the coming weeks, we met about 9 months ago at an entrepreneur event in SF, each week, we have discussed Entrepreneurial issues, growing pains and ways to get bigger faster. However, in about three more weeks, I think myself and Gary will have eclipsed the knowledge and skills we need for that area of the Internet. Of course, all this stuff will change fast; we are blogging more, networking with the top bloggers to get our products known; testing out concepts; and working on podcasting. Sounds like a lot, hah? Wait a minute, here’s the key component missing: “Systems”! How to do you stop recreating the same set of actions when you know what to do once you figure out how to make good cookies?

For example, you know how to bake great cookies, you have all that is necessary to bake them, however when people call you on the phone, order via the net and want your great cookies, the question becomes: “Where’s my stuff”? Okay, then you run into the kitchen frantically looking to bake cookies, all of a sudden you cannot find the flour, the old oven breaks because you should have ordered a new one months ago, then you look for the sugar, oh you didn’t reorder the sugar, no one ordered more bags, no sugar ordered, no new ingredients, etc., you get my point? Systems would have stopped all this from happening once you learned how to bake cookies, so there you go with this big demand for your cookies and no darn system of how to keep up the pace! Also, if you were launching your next Billion Dollar idea, your ability to have your Systems working will enable a “Mission Impossible” type of roll out each time. Remember on the old TV series, how all these people, plans and strategies were all brought together, well that’s a system. My next weekly phone call with Gary will be about “Systems” in the coming weeks because we have become Jedi’s at how to get mass promotion fast on the net!

Next trippy thought of the week. I watched Forest Gump, the other night I realized why that is one of my favorite movies of all time, remember when Forest went down to the South to start a “Shrimp Boat” business and everyone told him: “Forest” you are a dam fool, why do something like that, boy are you dumb?” Forest being stupid knew no better, he knew he could not loose, he was “too dumb” to listen to people, he just kept going, going and going till he got some shrimp! I watched that movie, I started having all types of thoughts about that scene when that guy told Forest he was dumb, I thought about how incredible it is to feel that you knew you could not loose; I thought about how Forest was not smart enough in a book sense to know he could loose! Guess what? Forest Gump got rich…Next quick thought while I’m blogging is “Do You” by Russell Simmons, okay you know I love “Personal Development” books, however Russell Simmons book is really good, a good chapter in the book to review discusses “Letting go of the outcome” a little bit of Deepak Chopra quotes and guess what? That’s in the bible about being attached to worldly possessions. How much money or what type of life could one have if they totally let go of the “outcome” in the sense that the “Outcome” was not important and the biggest and greatest prize was “Going for it without fear of failure”! Simple lesson, the same lessons, however Simmons’ book is live, I love it!

Forest Gump, he was cool…whatever that big goal is, “Go Get it” I have not blogged in awhile, so some people might not know what the heck I’m talking about, click delete then, I’m not attached to your decision! J LOL

Bye for now…..

Jonathan Fleming is a professional real estate consultant, entrepreneur and author. He blogs at www.localhouseblog.com and he writes occasionally about "The Road to the Big Dream" for Entrepreneurs.