Lesson for the Week
Since it's Friday, today's the perfect day to review any lessons learned this week. This week's lesson was taken from my personal life but applies to business too.
My brother is married and has 4 kids. He lives in Tulsa, OK. So does my Mom. So does several other relatives. My wife and I live in Dallas.
Typically we see my family a couple of times a year when we go to Mom's house for a holiday. For the last couple of years I kept thinking it would be nice to see all my family at the lake. Grill. Fish. Swim. Talk. As kids we used to camp out with our cousins on the river during the summer. It was great fun. So this year I decided we would start a new tradition.
We found a lake and river that is about the same distance from Dallas and Tulsa AND Little Rock (my sister lives there). We rented a cabin and invited everyone to join us. We had a great time.
We went horseback riding. We raced "go carts." We went on a float trip. We grilled. We talked. We played basketball. We told stories. We're going back next year. We've started a new tradition.
I have a brother overseas. He didn't join us. My sister and her family didn't join us. We knew they wouldn't. But that didn't stop us.
For several years I kept thinking "wouldn't it be great if . . ." I never thought about making the arrangements myself. I never thought it would ever happen. I thought it was just a nice dream.
I don't know what made me "wake up" and say let's just do this. But I went ahead and made the reservations. I went ahead and sent maps, directions, and times. I am so glad I did.
So what was the big lesson learned? If you've been thinking "wouldn't it be great if . . ." Go ahead and find a way to do it. Take a baby step. Make that call. Go to the library or buy a book.
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.
Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
That's my lesson learned. Ciao for now . . .
My brother is married and has 4 kids. He lives in Tulsa, OK. So does my Mom. So does several other relatives. My wife and I live in Dallas.
Typically we see my family a couple of times a year when we go to Mom's house for a holiday. For the last couple of years I kept thinking it would be nice to see all my family at the lake. Grill. Fish. Swim. Talk. As kids we used to camp out with our cousins on the river during the summer. It was great fun. So this year I decided we would start a new tradition.
We found a lake and river that is about the same distance from Dallas and Tulsa AND Little Rock (my sister lives there). We rented a cabin and invited everyone to join us. We had a great time.
We went horseback riding. We raced "go carts." We went on a float trip. We grilled. We talked. We played basketball. We told stories. We're going back next year. We've started a new tradition.
I have a brother overseas. He didn't join us. My sister and her family didn't join us. We knew they wouldn't. But that didn't stop us.
For several years I kept thinking "wouldn't it be great if . . ." I never thought about making the arrangements myself. I never thought it would ever happen. I thought it was just a nice dream.
I don't know what made me "wake up" and say let's just do this. But I went ahead and made the reservations. I went ahead and sent maps, directions, and times. I am so glad I did.
So what was the big lesson learned? If you've been thinking "wouldn't it be great if . . ." Go ahead and find a way to do it. Take a baby step. Make that call. Go to the library or buy a book.
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.
Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
That's my lesson learned. Ciao for now . . .
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4 Comments:
Boy I really needed that. I've been contemplating and idea for a while now and just today I made that phone call you were just talking about and things might turn out to be much better than I could've imaged.
I'm glad you're taking the leap. That reminds me of a couple of lines from one of my favorite movies, "Joe Versus the Volcano."
The whole movie is about Joe who works in a dark, dingy, "soulless" company for a terrible boss until he decides to leap into the volcano.
Near the beginning of the movie Joe (played by Tom Hanks) says:
"And why, I ask myself, why have I put up with you? I can't imagine but I know. Fear. Yellow freakin' fear. I've been too chicken shit afraid to live my life so I sold it to you for three hundred freakin' dollars a week!"
Near the end of the movie one of the characters played by Meg Ryan says:
"Joe, nobody knows anything. We'll take this leap and we'll see. We'll jump and we'll see. That's life." Then they jump into the volcano. The Volcano is bright and full of fire compared to his old life in the dirty soulless company.
So why not do the thing you're afraid of? Why not take the leap? Go for it. Be brave. Enjoy the ride...
Hi Doug,
This is unrelated to your post, and really a general question.
I have an idea for a start-up (service) and have thought of a name.
On searching for this domain name, I see that the domain name is taken, and registered to a US company (however on googling this company , no other information appears).
The name I had thought of conists of three words, one of which is a number. The already registered domain has the number written in letters, so my question is, is it worthwhile for me to go ahead and register the domain name with the numeric symbol?
Also is it acceptable (or foolish) to email the person who has this domain name to ask them if they are intending on setting up a business, or this practce generally frowned upon?
Finally, judging fro the name it seem fairly explicit that this "other" company would be going into the same business as me, so if this were the case, would having a name so similar be problematic in the future (even if initial start-ups were in different countries/continent?
I'm sorry to bombard you with questions - my approach has always been to ask people questions - the worst that can happen is that they say no. So if you say No, that's completely understandable, and if this is the case I would be really grateful if you could point me in the direction of some useful resources which deal with the whole naming/copyright issue.
I'm a scientist so just trying to hone my business skills at the moment!!
Many thanks for you time,
Aoife
QUESTION: "The name I had thought of consists of three words, one of which is a number. The already registered domain has the number written in letters, so my question is, is it worthwhile for me to go ahead and register the domain name with the numeric symbol?"
ANSWER: Using a number in a domain name is usually a good strategy.
1 - Numbers can look very good in a logo. It makes it easy for people to remember the domain name.
2 - Numbers show-up first in most alphabetic listings online. So a domain name that starts with a number will appear in web directories before the other listings.
3 - Some typical numbers used are 4 and 2. When a domain name you want is already taken you can almost always make a good domain by adding "4you" or "2go" on the end. EXAMPLES: widgets4you.com or widgets2go.com.
TIP: Network Solutions and Register.com are the top domain registration services. But you can get better deals. For domain registration price comparisons click here.
QUESTION: "Is it acceptable (or foolish) to email the person who has this domain name to ask them if they are intending on setting up a business, or this practce generally frowned upon?"
ANSWER: Yes it's perfectably acceptable to e-mail someone and ask about their business. It is more acceptable to ask them if they want to sell you the domain name since they aren't using it right now. Most of the time they will entertain your offer.
When asking someone if they want to sell their domain name, 9 out of 10 times they want some outrageous fee and it's better to just create another name. But it never hurts to ask.
FINAL QUESTION: "...judging from the name it seems fairly explicit that this "other" company would be going into the same business as me, so if this were the case, would having a name so similar be problematic in the future"
ANSWER: This really depends on the nature of the business. There could also be trademark issues and other legal issues. You can find out more about trademarks here.
I hope that helps you. Good luck with your new venture.
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