Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you. Satchel Paige

As entrepreneurs we need to have a healthy respect for our competition but let’s not get carried away.

Often we spend way too much time fixating on them as if they’re some mythical being that knows our every move and is waiting to crush us. This only leads to paranoia that clouds our thinking and can lead to irrational decisions.

Remember, they have a learning curve too and make many of the same mistakes that we do like hiring the wrong person or taking bad advice. To be sure, bad moves cost us time, money and sometimes market share, but rarely are they fatal.

Instead of worrying about what they’re up to, we simply need to keep our face to the wind, strive for excellence and be who we are. Because at the end of the day, that’s what the marketplace is looking for.

D

The Navigator

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” James A. Baldwin

A cold fact of business is that it requires growth and as such often leaves some of our team members behind. And it does so in a very obvious manner leaving us and them standing at a fork in the road…they either catch up or walk a different path than ours.

If they are relatively new to the organization the parting is easy, however if they’ve been with us for a long time, perhaps from the very beginning, the decision is tough and sometimes paralyzing.

They have all the history we say and immediately think of worst case scenarios where it will be needed. We convince ourselves that should anyone of those situations occur all will be lost without their knowledge.

However, my decades of experience have shown the opposite. When any one of those doomsday scenarios occurs the team handles it easily and efficiently. The doors to the business open as usual the next day and life goes on.

To be sure we can keep them around out of loyalty, just know that they’ve become little more than a full time librarian.

Dwain – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Winning is the most important. Everything is consequence of that.” Ayrton Senna

In business we talk about crossing finish lines and where that’s always the goal, how we do it really counts.

There are times we get to the finish line stumbling, gasping for air and barely making it across and others where we sprint right through it. Either way is cool because both speak to energy, effort and our will to win. Besides, some races are just tougher than others.

But effort alone doesn’t always guarantee success and can make losing hard to accept. That’s OK because playing full out insures that we’re in every game, sharpens our skills and makes us better in the long run.

Indeed playing with and easily beating inferior competition may feel good for a while. But too many races won too easily can turn us into a half-fast competitor.

Dwain – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other websites www.RetreatOnWheels.com or www.DwainDeVille.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Alfred Hitchcock

How many times have we found ourselves literally paralyzed over a decision because all we can think about is the worst that can happen?

The crazy thing is that the outcome is rarely as bad as we projected, even when the worst case does occur. We still wake up in the morning and face another day filled with promise and do our thing.

So let’s remember that truth when finding ourselves paralyzed by another over thought decision. Hell, it’s already a problem so at this point we’re just fretting over a matter of degrees…just as soon go for it.

Or as Bob Parson’s once told me…“What’s the worst that can happen? They can’t eat ya!”

D

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.” Miles Davis

Some have described business, when played at the highest level, as jazz and the similarities are certainly there.

Jazz, like business is a combination of improvisation, syncopation, swing and the blues. Notes, be they good or bad, can seemingly come out of nowhere but always from the core…our heart and soul.

The great jazz bands are a collective of individuals who bring their own style to the gig. What makes everything work is their respect for each other’s music and an ability to follow or lead depending on the notes being played.

When you look at your core team, the composers of culture within the business, what do you see? Does the creative conflict that exists result in a recognizable tune or mere static? Do they riff off one another or is there one main player setting the chords?

Miles Davis always sat with his back to the band so he could hear the purity of the music without being distracted by their actions. What do you hear?

Because it’s all about the music…

D

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.” Jerry Garcia

As leaders we all face unpleasant decisions in business – win/lose decisions. And more often than not there’s a level of pain on both sides associated with the outcome.

But we have to make them or else the business doesn’t move forward or in some very real cases – survive. And this delta between slowed momentum and survival depends on our timeliness when facing the issue.

Unfortunately, at our level many decisions become a matter of prerogative allowing our tolerance for the situation to be the barometer. We find ourselves rationalizing a non-decision by telling ourselves “Ahh, he’s not that bad” or “We’ll live with it a bit longer”.

Remember that no decision is still a decision that in the short run may not be that big a deal but over time will take us to the edge leaving neither time nor choice. And somehow that makes it better because we ‘took every shot’.

At what cost? What did that span of time do to our team and business?

Instead we need only listen to our gut and act on its advice because it’s rarely wrong and when heeded delivers us from further evil.

D – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community.”  Aldo Leopold

I’ve a close friend whose motto from his days at the University of Michigan is to ‘do the next right thing’.

Each and every day we as a company have decisions to make and be it large or small, seemingly insignificant or important; each one affects our direction and velocity. Therefore our response often determines success or failure.

Stopping to figure out what is the next right thing before making our decision doesn’t always ensure success, but it helps us to remain on the right path.

D

Dwain – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.” Dee Hock

Don’t know about you but there are times when I have zero creativity and can’t think of anything new because my brain is filled with all that’s bombarded me.

And when faced with that mountain of work, looming deadlines and other obligations it’s hard to justify breaking away and just going for it…but we have to. If we don’t, the law of diminishing return kicks in and we begin working harder but getting less and less done.

No matter if it’s the middle of the week (especially if it’s the middle of the week) give yourself the OK to just get away. We all know the work will be there waiting for us but don’t forget, so are the back roads.

Besides, BikeWeek is coming so let’s saddle up, get some wind in our face and find a twisty road or two. Our businesses will be better for it…

D

Dwain – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” Joseph Campbell

I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend riding through the mountains and desert of California. It was a total blast but made more so because of my riding partner Bob.

One of the founders of my host company, Eagle Rider and an expert rider, he described our journey through the mountains with its twisty roads and gorgeous view. He talked of the different terrains and ecosystems we’d be riding through and then asked – “Want to sight see or ride?”

Having never ridden this part of the country I immediately envisioned soaking in the scenery, taking videos along the way and how it would give me great content for my memory file. And that would have been an excellent choice.

But how often do we get to follow an expert into the unknown and test our skills against the mountain? When’s the last time we really pushed ourselves in something other than our usual day to day?

To be sure, taking the time to casually sight see would have been very cool. But for an entrepreneur, excellence only comes when we put ourselves out there on the edge and make it happen.

I chose to ride.

Dwain – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other websites www.RetreatOnWheels.com or www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Happiness comes when we turn our passion into performance.” Dwain

My job is to daily work with really smart business people and there’s nothing better. But once in a while I run across a group that simply blows all the norms away.

This weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at the national convention of franchise holders for Eagle Rider, the world’s largest renter of motorcycles…or as they say instead…they ‘Rent Dreams’.

Eagle Rider has achieved incredible performance by understanding how to take people from all walks of life and match them to something they can be passionate about both inside the business and out. With a philosophy of serving others and having fun every day they’ve created an unstoppable force in motorcycling.

Yes, it would be easy to dismiss this example by saying their just a bunch of bikers out there filling a need and you’d be only part of the way there. But the truth is there is no middle ground with them in that they are as serious about business and serving their customers as they are about biking.

I’ve seen it in other companies even though the widget being sold is different and I think the key word in all instances where this environment exists is a word not often associated in business – dream.

At the end of our group ride (40 bikers) through the Joshua National Forest Chris McIntyre, CEO got off his bike with a huge smile on his face and said to me “And to think we get to do this every day!”

Each and every day we all open our doors to deliver others their dream…let’s not forget about our own.

Dwain – The Biker Guy

As always – These are my thoughts and I look forward to yours. And if you like what you read here, email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.com. I look forward to hearing from you.