Tag Archives: Entrepreneur

Friday Kin – 2009-03-20

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Here’s number 4 in the “Friday Kin” series of blog posts (the last one was back in October.)

Today’s theme is “Rebirth” – very appropriate for the Vernal Equinox that signifies Spring’s arrival in the N.Hemisphere (and the Tokyo cherry blossoms that are now blooming.)

GOLD: Deconstructing Personal Development
Duff McDuffee is a Modern Magician – that’s indeed how his bio goes. I discovered his work last year and am now going back for a second look. This is part 2 of his thought-provoking series on deconstructing personal development.

SILVER: $30K Month: Success
Robert Plank is, er, not your average IT guy. I just love his monthly income breakdown for March: Income 30K; Day Job 2.5K :-)

BRONZE: Jim Horan: The Accidental Entrepreneur
Jim’s the author of the highly recommended ‘One Page Business Plan’ and this post, all about “Finding your right work”, is published on the excellent “Future of Work” blog.

- Mark McClure

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Do Things Which Make Money

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MEMO TO MYSELF: “Are you doing things which make money?”

By definition, successful business owners get this. (I’m defining ‘successful’ to mean those who have a business from which they make an honest living.)

Anything less is ‘failure’.

Don’t take this personally – you can be ‘failing forward’ in the sense of taking action on your goals and figuring things out from experience.

I like to call this course-corrective feedback. (And yes, the truth can hurt, sometimes.)

After reading Tim’s article I was struck by how brainwashed I was when in the ‘employee mindset’. (As a teacher, I could write a book on this… haha!)

Rarely did I question whether my daily activities were “making money.” – that was something for my managers and the front office sales folks and rainmakers to figure out.

Silly me – now I’m all of those people in one.

So, I’ll ask the question again:

Are you doing things which make money?

END OF MEMO.

- Mark McClure

PS – If you’re not in business to make money, ignore this post.

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Mid-Career Change I Can Believe In

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With Christmas now receding into the distance, the rush is on in Japan to (literally) clean things up before 2008 ends and 2009 (the year of the Ox) begins.

I too have been busy – starting with a review of my own vision-roles-goals and then drilling down into what worked and what didn’t in 2008.

From that I created an outline of my career path for 2009 and beyond – along with some specific S.M.A.R.T. goals and plans – as well as a few D.U.M.B. ones.

Here’s a high level view of what I’ve come up with:

career-change-i-can-believe-in

1- Mid-Career Coaching:
If you’re a mid-career IT Professional (as I was) and ready to change (or being forced to), then techcareerzigzag.com is open for business.
(Oct 2011 Update: I no longer offer private coaching.)

2- Personal Growth:
I’ve wrestled with how to position this blog for a while now. What I’ve decided to do is let it be a living document for my own mid-career change journey, the rough and the smooth.

I hope others will gain strength and support from what’s written here. (And I read other blogs for similar reasons!)

(BTW – Did you notice my blog sub-title’s changed?)

3- Freelance Writing:
Well, I’ve always liked writing even when I was press ganged into it at school haha! And a good part of my careers as a teacher and as an internetworking instructor have required it.

However, the most exciting aspect of writing since taking a career break from the corporate world in 2007, has been the personal thrill of wordsmithing materials which both educate and earn.

Yes, I’m talking freelance copywriting – for others, as well as myself. I’ve found a good writing coach down under, Angela Booth, who really fuses a love of writing with a strong and time-tested way to make money from it (for herself and her writing clients).

Anyway, I’m going full-steam ahead on this project and SamuraiWriter.com will be with you real soon. I’ll most likely start off specializing in online writing services for Technology, Personal Growth, Careers/Jobs and Spiritual markets. At least those are what I’m interested in. Let’s see what the coach says ;-)

4- Social Networks:
Bah! Humbug! That was probably my somewhat naive reaction to these a few years back – especially as the Tokyo foreign company IT job market was a well-remunerated cocoon all to itself. Things have changed, including my response to these networks now that I’m charting my own career course.

LinkedIn.com/http://jp.linkedin.com/in/markmccluretoday remains my ‘professional’ port of call for career coaching and IT consultancy. I may occasionally dip my new freelance writing pen in there from a marketing perspective too. (Yes, I did blog earlier about updating my LinkedIn ‘virtual real estate’ – aka my profile – and this is on my ‘Do-To’ project list.)

Twitter.com/justfiverules is the microblogging mindset I’m a-struggling to get my noggin’ around lol! It clearly has enormous potential for those who get the connected nature of web communities – be they friends, buyers, saints or sinners!

One thing I’m stuck with for now is my nickname, justfiverules, Not sure if I should junk it and create ‘samuraiwriter’ or ‘markmccluretoday’. Personal branding was an afterthought when I created my tweeting identity.

(2012-03 update: I am on twitter, with ‘samuraiwriter99‘ being my ‘b2b freelance writer’ persona. ‘JustFiveRules‘ has returned as a place where I tweet about ‘self-publishing’ (I also have a blog of the same name). I tweet infrequently as ‘markmcclure2day‘ but that may change if this site gets a refresh and relaunch.)

5- IT Consulting:
This has been my professional bread and butter for many years and, if I’m honest, my ticket to whatever limited prosperity I’ve encountered.

In this tough 2009 to come, there are clearly very limited foreign IT opportunities in Tokyo – even with a CCIE cert. (I know because I have been interviewing.) There are some freelance Cisco jobs in the UK which I can clearly go hunting for as I’ve a UK passport, but the tax and personal ramifications of being away from my family are not immediately attractive. And I doubt I could stick the cold, wet weather for long – too long in Tokyo climate has made a big softie lol.

6- Teaching:
Interestingly, after nearly 20 years away from school teaching, I had some opportunities to (substitute) teach middle school science and maths this year. I enjoyed it too and many memories came flooding back of my early 20s as a new teacher.

Next Steps:
Well, ‘Mid-Career Change I Can Believe In’ may be borrowed from the new President’s copywriters (thanks guys, I’m available for proofreading that inauguration address!) but it’s surely very prescient in my case.

The cool thing about these choices / opportunities is that I can turn most of them up/down to an intensity I’m comfortable with e.g. limit the number of coaching or writing clients and perform most services from anywhere with nothing more than a Net-connected laptop and phone.

Also, some projects also include “information products” which are written once and sold multiple times. Passive income it is not (yet), as marketing work is required on an ongoing basis; but with proper systems there is enormous potential here.

Right, that’s enough about me. Hopefully, you’ve a better idea of where this blog’s going and how it fits into the mid-career path(s) I’m now walking.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

- Mark McClure

PS – I highly recommend a great book for mid-life career changers (especially if you’re still just thinking about it) called “Do What You Want For The Rest Of Your Life – A Practical Guide To Career Change And Personal Renewal” by Bob Griffiths.

I was impressed by his struggles with personal demons and a final decision to leave a high paying but demoralizing Wall Street job in 1988 for what we’d today call a ‘slash career’ as a Playwright, Author, Speaker and Hospice Volunteer.

In particular he speaks very clearly about the necessity to extricate yourself from “the consumption trap.” A very timely message in today’s economic clean-up operation now underway aka deleveraging.

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I Forbid You To Read This Post

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But you’re reading it anyway, aren’t you?!

Now what if word came down on high from layer 8 land (“the senior management”) that you were to stop reading this post immediately and get on with your allocated work.

Ah Ha! Now there’s a risk – reward decision to make and most likely your choice will depend on how you measure that risk and its pros and cons.

Well, with that in mind, consider what arose from the innovative thinking of computer science “research geek”, Greg Linden, who from 1997 to 2002, was at Amazon.com where he wrote the recommendation engine used by Amazon.com and later led the software team that developed Amazon’s personalization systems.

You’ll need to have read Greg’s post before continuing with the rest of mine.
And that’s a career limiting order, dammit! ;-)

So, if you were in Greg’s shoes, would you have done the same thing?

Many SVPs would probably be “pulling rank” in their haste to assert marketing turf responsibilities, assimiliate an idea for themselves or look after what they see as the best interests of the business and its customers.

(Usually it’s a fluid combination of all three with doses of personality and randomness added for good measure!)

OK, let’s look at your options from the perspective of a well-worn senior IT management mantra that goes something like this:

“Run the business. Change the business. Grow the business.”

OK, so far? Those are lofty and inspiring goals – just don’t get me started on how all three occur at the same time with declining headcount and slashed budgets lol. Being but a mere digital peon in the grand scheme of things, I would say that ‘grow’ may not be the optimal word for all parts of the business cycle, especially the dumpster phase we are diving into now…

Anyway, from the perspective of “run the business” it’s clear to see that keeping the lights on is one of IT’s core functions – and anything that potentially jeopardizes that needs to be assessed and measured.

Perhaps that’s what the SVP was all hot under the collar about although Greg’s assessment of worst case risk and the limited nature of the test seems to counter any production risk.

What is most encouraging about Greg’s approach is that he took all 3 elements of the mantra into account and it paid off in spades.
Not every idea will hit a home run like that but my point is that if senior IT management are serious about “innovation and empowering their staff la-di-da-di-da” then the appropriate rewards and control systems must be in place to encourage and guide this behavior.

Otherwise what tends to happen is that innovation withers because too many people are playing the blame game. And the business folks, removed from the internal IT political culture, see only stagnation, costs (always costs!) and excuses.

I’d like to finish with 2 highlights lifted from Greg Linden’s post:

“In my experience, innovation can only come from the bottom. Those closest to the problem are in the best position to solve it. I believe any organization that depends on innovation must embrace chaos. Loyalty and obedience are not your tools; you must use measurement and objective debate to separate the good from the bad.”

And this on creativity:

“Creativity must flow from everywhere. Whether you are a summer intern or the CTO, any good idea must be able to seek an objective test, preferably a test that exposes the idea to real customers.”

Is your company (or even department) like that?

And most importantly, are you like that?

- Mark McClure
PS- I’d like to acknowledge Jon for bringing Greg’s article to my attention via Tweeter. Check out Jon’s Ninja Blog setup service – how you can get a professional blog installed for free. (Really! He has a neat twist to a business idea used by Internet Hosting companies looking for business whereby you, he and the hosting company all gain. Very innovative, Jon!)

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Go It Alone!

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I found Bruce Judson’s book, “Go It Alone!” very useful when planning my own career change.

The entire book is online for ‘free‘ at Bruce’s site and worth spending the time to go through relevant chapters and take a few notes.

Two chapters stick out in my mind:

Chp. 8 – Managing Extreme Outsourcing.

Chp. 11- When To Quit Your Day Job.

Effective outsourcing is even more attractive to me now that I am contracting for the next 6 months.

What did you get out of this book?

- Mark McClure

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