The tortoise is the official SBI! mascot. S/he should be yours, too. Why?
Because the world is spinning too bloody fast and noisy! It's been accelerating for centuries, of course. The pace has picked up progressively over decades, years, months, and now it seems, each week!
The Web is perhaps the major noise and speed accelerator. And RSS and blogging have pushed "the pedal to the metal."
What's a small business person to do? We've only got 24 hours per day and we need at least 1 or 2 to sleep!
The tortoise is the perfect mascot for today's world. Steady. Persistent. Unperturbable. A thick shell to pull into when needed. Poke your head out and look around -- take a chance, at the right time. And you know what?
They live a long, long time... and they get there!
Overwhelmed By It All?
You're not alone. Even if we limit this discussion to the world of small business information and resources, there is just so darn much. But there's a solution. First...
Relax. Breathe. Have fun.
I live by "The Three Life S's Of The Tortoise," and I hope this helps you, too. Life is...
1) Short
Life is too short (even if you make it to 100 like many tortoises!) to put up with nonsense, anxiety, unhappiness. Chop ruthlessly. Drop those who drain your life. Prioritize with discipline. And live in the moment -- enjoy yourself. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, do something else.
2) Small
Each of us, even each of The Google Twins, is but a speck of sand amongst all the beaches on the planet. The best each of us can hope for is, in our own way, to leave the world a little better than we found it. Some get to have a bigger impact. But overall, we are all replaceable.
So keep things in perspective. Nothing you are sweating over really matters that much. So again... whatever you're doing, enjoy!
3) Slow
Life is not a sprint. We all want to get so much done, and not today. Yesterday!
This is perhaps the biggest problem of all. There is just so much...
- information coming at us from every direction -- we don't dare miss any of it
- hype and fraud -- irresistible Get-Rich-Quick copy gets you thinking, "but what if this one is real??"
- advertising by big companies that advertise "quick-cheap-easy" -- bait and switch
- hot new "must know"... trends like Web 2.0, the long tail, social this and that, yada, yada.
- to do when building a business online -- we want to do it all now!
The reality (point-by-point) is that...
- most of that information won't make an iota of difference to you or your business
- Get-Rich-Quick is always a fraud -- who in the world would really sell a golden goose!
- "Quick-cheap-easy" bait-and-switch ends up costing you thousands of dollars and a failed year of your life
- the hot new trends are only important to media companies that love to talk about what's cool, and "the cool" who love to read about it
- you can't build a business in a day. No one can. So relax and breathe. Tortoises realize it takes time. The Internet does not suspend the law of gravity, nor does it repeal basic business common sense. So stick close to the ground and realize that it takes time to build a genuine, enduring, ever-growing online business.
Like the tortoise, plot a steady course. Ignore noisy distractions and stay on course. Each day, move a little bit further ahead.
We all try to do too much, too fast. I know, I'm the worst that way. SiteSell is a beast to run. The "I want to do it all now" instinct combined with the intense noise (it is part of my business to follow it all) can roil me into an absolute frenzy.
Prior to smoke coming out of my ears, I re-read "The Three Life S's Of The Tortoise." It all comes back into perspective. I love what I do. Our customers do, too. And...
We'll get a little more done tomorrow. So...
Ignore the hares... the cool, hip, noisy, hypey hares. They are not getting anywhere, despite the very best appearances they can muster (hares are all about coooooooool).
Be a tortoise. You'll do just fine.
All the best,
Follow Ken at Twitter
One would think you were my father talking to me. Info-overload is indeed the biggest trap I find myself in now.
Until recently, I had subscribed to over 1,000 feeds (and yes, I mean actual feeds, not feed items). And my e-mail address seem to be on 99% of all lists on the web.
And all these in pursuit of what? I really don't know. So I call it "nothing." Yet I was so trapped in it ... that I felt I should subscribe to every single site someone suggested, and afterwards I felt it a duty to read what I've subscribed to.
So most of my day is spent behind the computer, reading: e-books, e-zines, reports, blogs and what have you.
But even though I regret for the wasted times, I'm very hopeful for the future (which is now) as the prune-up has already begun, both online and offline.
Thank you once again for this Just-In-Time reminder.
Posted by: George Appiah | November 28, 2006 at 12:21 AM
Ken,
Everything you said couldn't be more true. I know there have been many times with my SBI experience where I start to panic and try to do a hundred things at once.
The same certainly applies to life. No matter how many things you have on your plate, you can only do one thing at a time. You have to think about this very moment in time and what you can do right now.
Living the life of the tortoise can certainly be applied beyond the realms of just building websites but life as well.
Take it one day at a time. Take it one moment at a time. And in the long run everything will work itself out.
Posted by: Ryan Whiteside | November 28, 2006 at 10:06 AM
I just have to comment on this "Drop those who drain your life." but first I like to say that SBI is a great effort and you have my support. But when it comes to dropping the negatives, or the people who are "draining" then I have to say that you are completely wrong in terms of compassion, which is our basis of life and every religion and philosophy. I say that if you are overwhelmed by the "negative people" then it your weakness and responsibility. People can get really hurt when feeling rejected like they have some disease and in a way it is disease because people are most of the time stuck in their negativity or way of behaving. Just look at all the people who are further ahead than most of us in terms of compassion. They hardly never rejected anyone. Everybody was and is welcomed in their heart even if they burned themselves. But then again it is not always so simple. So please do not encourage other people to reject other people. I see you as a server of the world and kind of knowing it within yourself. So be careful what you say. Serving others comes with great responsibility. Again great job, keep on going. The internet needs positive impact like yours. The internet is probably more important then many realise.
But then again after all these words, we are only humans trying to do our best and learning at the same time.
Posted by: Gudni Einarsson | December 10, 2006 at 03:45 PM