by Nathan Coumbe

Art and plumbing are more similar than you think

Zig Ziglar relates a story in one of his talks about a man traveling through Native American tribes early in the 20th Century. What the man discovered was not a single person he encountered in those tribes stuttered. 

This phenomenon fascinated him, but he could never find a reason why. Finally, he asked one of the elders in the tribe why this was so. The elder informed the man there was no word in their native language for “stutter.” 

No label, no problem. 

In a fantastic article in The New Yorker, the author writes about the phenomenon known as “writer’s block.” What’s most interesting is this problem is not world-wide. The idea did not penetrate Europe until the 1800s, and even today, most Europeans don’t know what it is. It seems to be almost strictly an American issue. 

No label, no problem. If you don’t have a way to identify something as a problem, it can’t be a problem. 

We are all creative at something. We don’t get blocked: we get scared that what we create isn’t good enough. We feel there is some ethereal muse that must speak to us before we can make anything worthwhile. 

That’s crap.

Seth Godin has, what I believe to be, the most profound podcast episode I’ve ever listened to called “No such thing (as writer’s block).” One of my favorite sayings in the episode is this: “plumbers don’t get plumber’s block.” No plumber says he’s feeling too overwhelmed or uncreative enough to fix a pipe. They just fix the pipe. Surgeons don’t wait until they hear the muse speak to them to operate – they practice their craft every day and perform when it’s time to perform. 

Your art, whether it’s writing, music, painting, communicating, or leading people, is a craft – it’s a trade! Like blacksmithing, welding, or some other trade, it’s something that you learn, practice each day, and use to make something. 

If you’re a writer – write! Every day. Write something. Set a timer for 30 minutes and write. If you can’t think of what to write, write “I can’t think of anything to write,” over and over again until a new thought pops into your head. When that thought pops into your head, write it down too. Don’t worry about it making sense, being fantastic, or winning a literary prize. Just write. 

Insert your own art into the statement above and adapt it to your own situation. 

You aren’t blocked – you’re scared. Don’t wait for the muse. Do your work. 

It’s a trade like any other. 

Join 845 other subscribers

by Nathan Coumbe

Why criticism doesn’t work

Criticism sucks. At times, it’s necessary for growth, but it still sucks.

How did you react the last time someone criticized you? I’m guessing you retreated inward, or perhaps you did the opposite and lashed out to defend your actions.

People don’t like to be wrong, and they like it even less when their wrongdoing is pointed out. Criticism only creates a need in others to justify their actions.

Really, when someone does something wrong, the only useful thing to do for either party involved is to respond proactively. On the lowest level of proactivity, this means living by Jesus’ principle of “turning the other cheek.” Simply choose not to react–easier said than done, I know, but it can be developed with practice like any skill or muscle. At a higher level, this might mean never taking offense to the wrongdoing in the first place. This idea is the epitome of stoicism.

As you go about your day, assume that each person you meet is angry, negative, reactive, and will blame everyone and everything he meets for his circumstances…except himself. If you do this, you’ll soon realize that criticizing or reacting to him does nothing except, perhaps, to make you feel better.

It won’t solve the problem; he won’t learn the lesson you want to pound into him; and the only growth anyone makes will be that of resentment and ill will between each party.

Don’t be a critic; be a model of what you wish others to do. It’s the only way to create the change you seek. Learn how right here.

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

Motivation, management, and bathing

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.”

–Zig Ziglar

You cannot read a book one time and consider yourself done with it. You have not learned it all or digested enough of it to make any difference in your life. The same is true of motivation – one speech will change your life, but only for a day. You must revisit and remind yourself daily of the message that so inspired you. You must practice it daily. 

I’ve found the same idea to be true of working with people in any sort of leadership or supervisory position. Managing people is also like bathing: you have to do it every day. 

I found myself in previous roles aggravated by having to remind people of the same tasks, duties, and responsibilities. In my mind, if I delegated something to someone, that should have been the end of it. It should have been taken care of from that point forward. 

It rarely was. I found myself constantly having to remind teammates to do this or remember that. This frustration had nothing to do with anyone’s  incompetence or irresponsibility and everything to do with my mindset. Managing people requires setting a goal and then helping your people along the path to that goal. They will not achieve it on their own with all the competing priorities set before them during a typical workday. It must be made fresh in their minds daily. Don’t let the need to remind your people daily of what you expect from them cause irritation or frustration on your part. It’s part of the job. 

The lesson for today is to bathe every day, motivate every day, and manage every day. 

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

How to get into the Hall of Fame

What does it take for a Major League Baseball player to earn a spot in the MLB Hall of Fame?

It takes failure.

Not a little bit of failure – it requires failing almost two-thirds of the time.

The best baseball players who’ve ever played the sport only average a hit 3 out of 10 times they come up to bat. That means they fail at their job 7 out of 10 times. And yet we still regard them as the best.

Why then, in our own lives, do we strive so hard to avoid failure at any cost? What if the avoidance of failure is preventing us from succeeding at a level that would cause us to stand out from the pack?

We don’t learn how to succeed through books, lectures, or seminars – we learn through failure, the greatest teacher of all. The books and seminars can help us avoid mistakes committed by others who’ve walked the path before us, but we have to fail on our own, in our own way, to find what works and what doesn’t.

To paraphrase Seth Godin in his webinar a few days ago: success requires time and failure.

Failing not only teaches you lessons from which you can improve, it also makes you more resilient to future failures. Each time you fail, you build a reserve for the future, which grows your confidence and allows you to try bigger and better things the next time. It’s a cycle that only spirals up.

What could you do in your life where you would consider batting .300 to be Hall of Fame-worthy success?

Don’t fear failure – fear never taking the chance of doing something great.

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

Why is freelancing so terrifying?

We human beings like security – it encompasses the first two levels of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” It’s fundamental.

To get that feeling of security, we work hourly wage jobs; we try to get hired at famous companies for regular, unchanging salaries with hopes for a 3% raise every year (which doesn’t outpace inflation).

Freelancing – being “a knight without a king” as Seth Godin likes to say – seemingly goes against that feeling of security. There is no guarantee; you don’t get paid simply for showing up somewhere for a specified amount of time.

But it’s better.

The illusion

There is no security in hourly rates; there is no security in working for a famous company. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, the moment something bad or unexpected happens, your security is at risk.

The security is an illusion. No longer can we work at the same company for 20 years, slowly moving up a corporate ladder, waiting for that day when we call it quits and HR hands us a gold watch and the envelope containing our pension information.

There is no security anymore. There is only you.

“Security lies in our ability to produce.”

–General Douglas MacArthur

Make your own security

What do you already know or do well?

Can you write? Create websites? Draw and paint? Build things with your hands? Sell?

Maybe you’re a whiz at smoothing customers’ ruffled feathers. Perhaps you have a knack for motivating and encouraging other people.

There is something you already do, or something you already know about, that other people are willing to pay for. You simply have to muster the courage to offer it to them.

Each of us must explicitly state to ourselves what we know how to do and do well. That knowledge and the willingness to execute on it are the only things that give us any sort of real security in the workplace.

If you can find someone and offer them something they are willing to pay for, and do that over and over again, you are a freelancer. You have no boss, no one telling you what to do next, but also no one telling you, “I’m sorry but we have to let you go.”

You have no guarantee of income – in either direction! You can make as little or as much as you want, as long as people are willing to pay for it. But I’ll bet you got stopped on the phrase “no guarantee” or “as little…as you want” while glossing over the rest of it.

As a freelancer, you determine your job, the work you do, your hours, the people you serve. Perhaps it’s not the loss of security you fear: it’s the fear of complete and total responsibility for your success or failure.

We aren’t used to that, but it’s the only way we’ll survive.

Secure your own future today. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

Leap of faith

Let’s be honest: leaping out into the unknown is terrifying. It is the unknown, after all.

But sometimes, to break the cycle, you just have to jump.

It always helps to have a solid foundation from which to start. Family, friends, finances, hope – they give you that foundation.

Build your relationships. Trust other people. Develop a healthy self-image.

Then jump.

by Nathan Coumbe

You are a salesperson…don’t screw it up!

“But Nathan! I’m not in sales!” I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.

What’s your role at work? Office manager? Administrative assistant? Florist? Customer service rep? Your title doesn’t matter–you’re in sales.

We all work on commission. Perhaps that commission is a “guaranteed” bi-weekly paycheck for a certain amount each time, or maybe you are paid on the number of hours you work each week. It doesn’t matter–you work on commission.

How is that possible? If you don’t show up to work, you don’t get paid. If you screw something up badly enough, you get fired. Your income is only guaranteed if you work, just like a salesperson’s income is only guaranteed if she sells.

Even if you physically don’t work in a role where you are allowed to sell a product or service to a customer, you are still involved the sales process, because you represent your company.

If you offend a customer or badly represent your brand in some way, it’s quite possible you will lose a sale for the person who actually works in sales.

Since sales is the only part of a company that actually produces revenue, any lost sale results in lost income for your employer which might mean you don’t get that raise you were hoping for next year. Or worse yet, you might get fired.

“Not everyone can make a sale, but ANYONE can lose a sale.”

–Zig Ziglar

We all get paid for results, regardless of how well it’s hidden in hourly wages or a regular salary.

Think like a salesperson.

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

You are self-employed

All of us, if we do work that causes us to get paid, are self-employed. It doesn’t matter who signs our paychecks–we work for ourselves.

What does it mean to be self-employed? It means you are your own boss. It means your income is based on your work.

If a freelancer or entrepreneur doesn’t show up for work–if they don’t create enough value for another person–they don’t get paid. This is obvious when you don’t work for a big company with payroll every two weeks.

What about the salesperson working on commission who does have someone who signs her paycheck? If she doesn’t contact the customer, provide value to that customer, and make a sale, she doesn’t get paid.

What about you? The hourly worker or the salaried cubicle-dweller (perhaps virtual cubicle-dweller is more accurate right now)? What happens if you don’t show up for work?

You don’t get paid.

What happens if you fail to create value for the company that employs you?

You get fired.

As soon as you realize you are self-employed–as soon as you realize that you are responsible for the value you create and the income you generate, regardless of how you get paid–you will secure your future.

Even if you are laid off, the attitude of self-employment will cause you to stand out from droves of people who want to know what a company can do for them rather than what they can do for their potential employer.

Adopt the self-employed mindset and you’ll rarely have to worry where your next paycheck comes from.

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

If you build it, they (probably) won’t come.

The key in any endeavor from which you hope to profit, whether it’s creating a new product, learning a new skill, or starting a new service, is to first identify whether other people want what you are selling.

Contrary to the message in “Field of Dreams” (sorry, Kevin Costner), if you build or create something without first determining whether or not people want it, you probably won’t have anyone knocking down your door to get it.

Learning to be the best Fortran coding expert in the world is useless in today’s workplace because no one uses that coding language anymore. And don’t get upset if you spend 4 years learning puppetry only to find no one wants to pay you for it.

To make a living, you must serve other people. To serve other other people, you must find what people need.

You must determine what problems other people have and how you can solve them. Perhaps the need is to be entertained (in which case learning puppetry might actually be profitable for you, if you can find a way to market it). Perhaps the problem is a lack of clean water to drink.

Regardless of what you do, the key is to first identify what others want, then create something that serves that purpose. The customer must come first if you desire to profit.

Join 845 other subscribers
by Nathan Coumbe

Grow dandelions or develop software?

My mentor Dan Miller said something profound which I would like to share today:

(I’m paraphrasing) It is better to grow dandelions if that is what you are truly passionate about than it is to learn software development.

What does he mean? Instead of looking out there–into the world and the job market to see what jobs are there–look inward and find what you are both truly passionate about and skilled at doing. Then find a way to generate income with that passion and talent.

If you hate working with computers or can’t stand plugging in thousands of lines of code everyday, why would you spend time and money learning those skills? Simply to make a lot of money?

If you spend 1/3 of your day (and remember you also sleep 1/3) doing something you hate, will money really compensate you for your misery?

It is better to do something simple or common at an uncommonly high level of excellence, and find a way to generate income doing it, than it is to try to fit yourself into something you hate simply for money.

Join 845 other subscribers