“You don’t need leadership if there’s consensus…you really need leadership when there’s none…” Dr. Peter Linneman

It’s easy to be first in line when everyone agrees on the right decision or the most profitable path.

When our backs are to the wall and time is short we don’t need a meeting, we need action. Leadership isn’t a popularity contest nor is it being the first among equals.

The question is can we stand alone when the majority knows not what they need nor understands what to do? Can we maintain our position in the face of overwhelming numbers?

That’s it…that’s the test.

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.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Henry David Thoreau

My blog has been silent for two weeks partially because I had little to say but mostly because I’ve been too busy to think of anything clever or insightful.

It all started a few months ago when Orlando Inc., (The Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce), approached me to partner with them and the result is last week’s launch of the Entrepreneurs Academy. This cutting edge program brings together the main resources within Central Florida’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the entrepreneurs who need them in order to build stronger companies.

And that’s important because back when I started my business almost two decades ago there were virtually no resources available to me. Since then, over a hundred public and private resources have emerged making Central Florida one of the hottest areas for business in the country.

Unfortunately not all entrepreneurs knew of them making access a hit or miss proposition, but no more.

This two day program offers entrepreneurs a chance to hear from and network with resources that cover Innovation, Education, Funding, Advocacy, Professional Services, Talent and Recognition. In the span of two short days, entrepreneurs will both discover the right resources for building their company and immediately build a plan on how and when to use them.

So if you’re an entrepreneur within the Orlando Economic Center, I invite you to check out the Entrepreneurs Academy because entrepreneurship in Central Florida just hit overdrive…

Click here for more info and I look forward to working with you.

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.

 “Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.”  Dean Acheson

Give me the competitor who swings for the fences every time, who believes that all change must be sweeping and frequent.

Big ideas and big ventures require lots of energy to initiate and as a result sap tons of whatever energy is left when they fail. Then, like a drug they chase the next big idea banking on it saving the day…the year.

But they fail to understand that the higher the hopes, when dashed, result in the lowest of lows. This all or nothing mentality not only leaves everyone drained but eventually filled with doubt.

Every organization has an optimum pace and as such, change must be incremental and new ventures deliberate.

Remember the tortoise…

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 dmd@DwainDeVille.Com  or check out my other website www.ThreeDNavigator.Com. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation, i.e., companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well.” Naveen Jain

As entrepreneurs we’re blessed with vision – we see the entire field and along with it, every opportunity that comes along leaving us with an intense desire to go for it…all.

And once, not so long ago casting a wide net was good but not anymore cause the competition is fierce!

Today there are Incubators, Centers of Entrepreneurship and any number of various resources out there that will help us to turn our ideas into reality. However, there’s a very good chance that if we thought of it, someone else has too and is working on their version of it.

So then the key to sustained growth is paring down our vision into a singular focus. What is it our best customers are paying us for? What is it that attracts new ones to us?

Figure that out then focus on it, hone it and deliver it like no one else can.

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.

“If two people agree all of the time…one of them is useless.”  Dwain

Success often comes down to the ability to accept criticism and flexibility of thought.

In other words, when faced with overwhelming evidence that the path we’ve chosen or that our actions are wrong, do we have the intestinal fortitude to admit we are the problem and change our ways?

So much time and effort is wasted in an attempt to sooth the ego and prove us right while the business suffers. Months or even years spent casting a blind eye to the problem won’t make it go away, only worsen. All the while the cast of characters around us rotates in and out as we surround ourselves with only those who subscribe to our way of thinking.

It’s like being told we’re sick and not liking the diagnosis so we go from doctor to doctor in search of one that fits what we want to hear. Who tells us we’re not the problem and allows us to keep our heads comfortably in the sand.

Ignorance may be bliss, but what happens if we’re really sick?

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 lo

“But I absolutely believe that architecture is a social activity that has to do with some sort of communication or places of interaction, and that to change the environment is to change behaviour.” Thom Mayne

Wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a business executive say “We need to break down the silos!” Sounds good and makes for a great mental visual but really?

Hell, I often wonder if they even know what a silo is so here’s the definition. Silo is derived from a Greek word meaning “pit for holding grain”. Today it’s a structure for storing bulk materials like grain, coal, cement, wood chips, even ballistic missiles. Important stuff.

In business silos hold knowledge, information and production. It’s where focused work happens and without them there’d be distractions. After all, you don’t store grain in a missile silo so why should we insist on breaking down the production silo so some other department can run in and out at will?

Instead of breaking them down, we should spend our time figuring out the critical junctions where information and knowledge are bottlenecking; then opening them up and connecting them.

Looking to tear down silos because of poor productivity is akin to burning our car because we got to work late. Sure, there’s that momentary release that lets the world know that we’ve done something and it’s so very dramatic.

But how the hell do we get to where we’re going then?

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.

“In the absence of work, order disappears.” Stuart Kauffman

A successful life requires that we create a vision of success and go for it. Our plans, goals and accomplishments are the ingredients that eventually make up this ideal existence.

But plans don’t always work, goals are often missed and accomplishments hard to come by. And when things don’t go our way we look for mistakes made, errors in judgment and generally what went wrong.

Strategies are been canned, tactics modified and many a company restructured because of poor performance. The chaos must be because of something we ‘did wrong’.

But what if we simply needed to look for what wasn’t done, forgotten or missing?

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.

“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.” James Joyce

Too often I see entrepreneurs deny their passion due to convention. Hell, if we wanted to be conventional we’d have remained in the employ of someone else.

Let’s remember why we started our business in the first place – to exercise our passion for what it is that we do. Not necessarily to move into a position we’re not suited for.

The business classic First, Break All The Rules teaches us to play to our strengths as an organization. Put everyone in the right position so we get the most out of what they have rather than wasting time trying to put in what they’re missing.

And for the most part we do that…with everyone but ourselves. Why?

If we truly worked for ourselves and were judged objectively, would we spend our day doing what it is we do? If it coincides with what revs our engines then yes. But if not, why are we the ones doing it?

If we love to sell, why sit behind our desk doing paperwork while someone else does it? If we love to design, why are we out there selling while someone else works up the next generation of our widget?

Remember, if climbed blindly the ladder to success can sometimes take you right past happiness for hell is not always a downward journey.

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.

“Improvement lets you hit your numbers. Creativity is what transforms.” Ron Johnson

Numbers are the language of business and focusing there is a good thing because if we don’t hit them, we don’t grow.

When looking for a solution that requires major change remove the limitation of numbers from the process as they tend to give us a somewhat myopic view of the business landscape.

Indeed our solution will lack a certain amount of reality, but hey, true creativity doesn’t come from there anyway.

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.

“If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” Margaret Thatcher

Why do we strive for excellence but allow mediocrity to surround us? Why do we tolerate a lack of productivity when we know, in our bones there is no excuse?

Too often we try to make people fit within our organization when they don’t. We try them in position after position simply because they have skills and we feel can still add value to the business.

Instead of asking where else within the organization can they help we need to ask a different one. Having watched them in action and knowing what we know now, would we hire them again? If the answer is no…there’s your sign.

But it’s tough to bite the bullet and make the change because hiring is an arduous, inexact exercise based on the unknown. The whole devil you know vs. the one you don’t and all that.

Just remember that winning comes with a price and sometimes that means replacing good enough with the potential for better.

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.