Author: Mike Balof

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Mike used to lay in bed at night and worry about what would happen if his plant closed or found himself without a job. One day his plant closed. Rather than panic and hysteria (OK, maybe a little) Mike found himself carried away on the adventure of his life. Mike started with the best job he ever had working at Home Depot. He spent 8 years working with job seekers at a local workforce center, helping them to find employment. He then started his own company developing courses, writing books and urging others to follow their own paths into the future. Mike holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training and a Bachelor of Business Management, earned through the University of Phoenix and an AAS degree in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force. Mike is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society.

Be Aware

I am a rational person, and I believe you are one also.  We like to know things.  We enjoy knowledge and always seem to look for ways to use learning and discovery to make our world and our lives a little better. Although we are knowledgeable and rational, as humans, we find ourselves guided and controlled quite often by our emotions. We are also very emotional beings.

Life would be easy without emotion. Unfortunately, it would not mean nearly as much to us. Sometimes it seems as though our feelings are the spice that actually gives our life it’s zest. And we find that zest is often crucial to our happiness, and unfortunately, sometimes our destruction.

There are many fantastic emotions, among them are love, caring, hopefulness, belief in something better, being ecstatic, happiness, and many others. Yet emotions are shiny crystals with two sides. The other side might be hate, anxiety, jealousy, depression, anger, sadness, suspiciousness, and the worst, fear.   Fear, whether real or not, will lead to many of the other negative emotions.

It seems as though we, being people, crave emotion to appoint where if it is not present, we will make it up and believe it. How many young gentlemen or ladies have had an infatuation with someone else? Many have. They pretend that the other person is their boyfriend or girlfriend. They write the other person love notes and design beliefs in their minds that never really were.

How many have had something not quite go right, or the way they expected. This is not a perfect world; it happens every day. Unfortunately, some people will take the most innocent of concerns and blow them out of proportion in their minds. They feel ashamed and fearful about what others may think. What could have happened to them? They are anxious that others may find out or take their actions the wrong way.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand in our own mind if the emotions we feel are correct or not. It is always good to have someone such as a friend, a mentor, or a life coach with which you can talk. Most of the time, just getting the words out allows you to look at them and find things to consider. Having another person to speak with not only gives you a second opinion it also possibly gives you some detached wisdom.

We will talk more about emotions and fear during this week leading towards All Hallows Eve. Until tomorrow, please remember you are a wonderful rational person, and you should not let your emotions push you around. So learn and grow, and find the bright side out there.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Dreams

They say there are a hundred ways to get something done.  Yet, when it comes to getting what you really want to be done correctly, there is only one way to do it.  Your way.  You are the one that must put your ideas together and make them happen.  If, after reading my blogs, you are not sure how, please write to me, and I will see how I can help you make something good happen.

You are the one who has to work for your goals.  Others can help you, although, if I or anyone else does it for you, you will end up with our ideas and not your own.  We are not bad people. It is just one of those laws that require, if your particular desires are to be prominent, you are the one who needs to be in charge and working the project. 

Guard against those who will take what is yours from you. In the current era of electronics, others will give you a false sense of completing great sagas and epic adventures.  They are really stealing your time in exchange for showing you ads and having you purchase upgrades.  They are making a situation where only they win.  Don’t you have better things you could do to better your standing and make your dreams come true?  I, for one, believe that you and I both do.

I think it is time for us to go to work, each making our dreams come true.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again soon.

Renovating on The Road

You do not want to hold on to an idea to the point that it is perfect.  What is ideal for you could easily be seen as problematic to the rest of the world.  Also, if you are holding on to something new, waiting until a perceived perfection is obtained, you run the risk of rot. 

New items have a shelf life.  They can quickly be overtaken by another product being introduced to the market by another company.  It can also happen that the perceived problem the new item was to cure is no longer a concern.  The public can be very picky over a new idea or technology.

You do not want to put a less than acceptable product on the market, so what do you do?  On Broadway, people producing plays and musicals desire not to offer their entertainment until they have a fair amount of certainty that the product is right.  They test their theatrical offerings in smaller markets that will give them an acceptable idea of how it will play in the highest of demands.

By beta testing in small markets or limited offerings, you can receive feedback and make corrections and adjustments before mass marketing your wares. This makes it easier to get data and suggestions on what you have built and make corrections or improvements before mass marketing the product.

The savings you will reap in time and money are a decisive factor in the limited testing.  It is easier to change the product on the fly with limited orders, and the better operations and sustainability given by the beta testing will help the product to sell better.  This is an idea you should absolutely consider.

Like everything else, remember to test and try new things a little at a time.  If it works, you can always do more.  If it falters, you can change the product or do something else.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Offer Your Best

We all would like to see our best foot forward. What that action actually looks like will be different for different people. And, ‘the best’ from each of us will depend on how long we have worked in the field, what situations we have been exposed to in our work, and how much flexibility we have to do our job our way.

Everybody starts somewhere. And none of us were born knowing everything about our professions. Even if we have intuitiveness for the job, which helps us, we have to learn, and that knowledge actually comes from doing. Reading books may help, yet, we only fully understand when we are actually immersed in the subject matter by working in the field.

Wherever you are in pursuing your professional standing right now, You are probably doing better than you did when you started. Also, the more you work in your profession, the more you will want to learn and know. Anything worth doing is worth exploring to make better.

You cannot wait until you are perfect to go out and do your work. Nothing will be absolutely perfect for everyone.  Yet the more we get out and work at our goal, the more we will learn and understand. It is this sweat equity that allows us to grow as professionals. We should never be ashamed because we don’t know everything. And we should always do the best we can, knowing that because of today, tomorrow will be better.

Most of us think we know it all until we really go out and try for ourselves. It is incredible how much we learn and grow when we admit how far we have to go.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again

tomorrow.

Plan for Action

If you really want to do something, it is going to take action on your part. Therefore, the question becomes, “What are you going to do?” If you’re going to go anywhere or accomplish anything you have to start by putting a proverbial step forward.

How are you going to do it?  Your step forward could be writing for an hour a day, researching ideas, or finding others who share your interests and coming up with plans. However, how you start your trek towards your future self is up to you. It should be something that you can do regularly, something that you like to do, and something that could put you closer to where you would like to be going.

One of the crucial questions is, “Who are you working with?” It might be friends in the neighborhood, or it could be some mentors who are professionals in the area you are looking to excel in. Or, it might be other business people who are helping you to find sound business footing and possibly some funding.

One of the biggest questions you’re probably going to ask yourself and consider carefully is, “Why is this going to work?” Considering the number of businesses that never make it out of the starting gate and the number of companies that failed to last 5 years, what is it that you are doing or others need, which will keep your business going for the long run? If you believe that it will work that is a good start. What you want to add is some data to back up your hunches. What are you going to look at?

So that leaves us with one question. Where do you Market? Is this a brick and mortar store item? Something for eBay or Amazon?  Do they buy from your website, and if so then how do you spread the word and advertise?  Who will buy this, and why? And, How do they even know you are out there?

Today, rather than giving you answers, I gave you questions to think about.  I know this looks hard.  The truth is the more you get into it, the more firm your entrepreneurship becomes.  And, if you work for the right answers during this exercise, the work you do can have positive results.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Only When You Do

You can build an one-person entrepreneurship. You can then take that start and make a small company. Working with the company and improving, along with putting perceived earnings back into the company, you can end up with a viable corporation. If you work hard and are lucky you might end up with a business empire. Unfortunately, if all this was done merely in your brain you really don’t have anything, do you?

To make your thoughts reality, to see them grow and bear fruit, you need to move the ideas from your thoughts into action. Making this action vital is essential to begin your forward movement to wherever your ideas are going to take you. We have a saying around the co-working office that says your dreams do not work unless you do. I do not know where this saying came from (it was not an original of mine,) yet I know it to be true.

When you have a dream that you want to see in the marketplace, helping others, and leading everyone, including yourself, to prosper, you will need to put it into action. Until you do, it is only a dream. When you do, the effects can be breathtaking.

You need to include others in your work. They can bring with them great ideas to help with improvements, marketing, investing, and understanding. Everyone needs someone to turn to and gain shared experience.  Mentors and subject matter experts are always willing to talk to someone and give a little advice. Thanking them in writing gives them a little notoriety and helps them in their pursuits.

As the week goes on, we will continue this train of thought in discuss possibilities for your best actions, aiming your ideas towards those who require your products and setting up plans for positive activities and renovation on the road.

Whatever you do we know you always want to offer your best. We will discuss the difference between holding up something forever as you continuously try to improve the offering. We will also talk about putting everything together as best you can and then put it out for testing in the marketplace or with those who it may help the most.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Your Future Your Way, However…

As you plan your path to becoming your future self, you are excited as you plan your most desired profession.  You are working to gain your deepest desires and become that which you want to be, and you are looking to do it your way.  However, there are some rules of the road that you need to know about and follow.

You need to be mindful of others along the way.  Working with them and mutually attaining your goals will make you life long friends, mentors, and partners. Unfortunately, working against them could make you some life long enemies.  There is an old saying about being kind to those you meet on the way up, you might see them again on the way back down. You need to play nice with others.

As we talked about yesterday, you want to take care of those around you. Even if you are not going to the same destination, you are going in the same direction. Quite often when somebody has good things happen, it spills over to those around, and in doing so, positive synergy is found, which helps propel everyone forward. Sometimes when one or two people run into problems those negatives can also permeate the entire workplace and holds everyone back.

Help whenever you are able.  Strive to lift those around you.  Just be sure that you keep your journey as an essential mission and not spend so much time on the worries of others that you forget your own needs.  Sometimes it is easy to lose ourselves in the problems of others or get caught in the whirlpool of never-ending woes that only others can fix for themselves.

As you follow your map into the future, remember your plans. And even though plans can change, the idea is to get where you are going.  The benefit, if you are lucky, is knowing that you left the world a little bit better then you found it.

Thanks for being with me today. I hope to be with you again soon.

A Journey Is Not Just the Destination

While you are on the path to your future goals, you need to take time to appreciate the people and things around you.  You may not all be going towards the same place, yet you are traveling in the same direction. And, a long journey can use a little companionship and help along the way.

You will find things of beauty, both in nature and in the acts of some people you meet. You may also see some sights and people which you pray to never see again. Both positives and negatives are vital for building you into a well-rounded person.

Knowing how to work with a variety of other people, and getting them to work with you towards your goals is imperative. You can read all the books you would like on this subject, however, to actually learn this and know how it works you must get out and do it. No one person ever does it alone. And this is because no one person ever knows everything. Have you ever heard somebody brag that they are a self-made man and nobody ever helped them with anything? I wonder who taught them to say that?

Some people you meet along your journey will be with you for a short time. Others you meet along the way may become lifelong friends, maybe even partners. Each and every one of them, though, is important because each thing that you learn from them will probably help you in the future. It will be a fair trade because they will also learn things from you which will help them in their future.

You, along with those you meet along the way, need to take care of each other and make sure that no one falls victim to the demons along the road. Those who would steal your dreams or convince you that you were not worthy of your planned destinations. It is also good to have a friend to help you out if you fall into the trap of the rut. We have all done this, and a good friend will jump in with because he or she knows the way out. You want to make sure that you would do the same for them.

Think about this, and please let me know if you agree with it or not.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Milestone to Milestone

When we are planning a long trip, we can sometimes get thrown off track by how long it takes to go from the start to actually completing the journey.  The larger the travel or, the less experience you have traveling, the more arduous the trip may seem before you go. This is especially worrisome if you have not taken a trip like this before.

When I was a kid, going on a family vacation for two weeks across five or six states seemed almost impossible. I was never sure we would make it to the end of the day, much less through the entire trip and back home. Yet as we started out, even with all my doubts, I began to understand. We stopped every day for lunch. We stayed at a motel for the night. Ate dinner and saw a local place of interest or swam and watched TV. And we even made it to our destinations and back home in one piece.

When I was much older, I started traveling overseas to perform modifications and repairs on electronic equipment. The first few times were again a little unnerving, yet I soon learned how to journey, and how to get the job done and make all my connections. By the time I was through traveling I had been to five of the seven continents, most of them several times.

It is sometimes difficult and arduous to plan and take a trip somewhere new when everything is firm and in place. Imagine how much harder is to design a trail and find your way to where you want to be in the future. Some may call this impossible, yet, if you research and plan and calculate carefully, you can make it. After all, if you’re looking at a five or 10-year plan, we hope that you are still around in five or ten years to enjoy the outcome of your hard work.

Most young people fresh out of high school or college may have some concerns. However, if you’re willing to add in a little elbow grease and some research, most people can do this.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Two Significant Steps

As we go through our lives, there are many essential steps that we take.  Some take us towards the things we desire, and others do not.  Two steps are most important. The first step is when you’ve decided what you really want to do in life and put your foot on the path to making that goal happen. The second is when you’ve reached your goals and take your first step off the trail you have been following.

There is a lot of wisdom and work that goes into understanding and planning where you want to go in life and what you want to do. If you are planning this, you want to find information on your goals, talk with others, especially mentors and professionals in the fields you are interested in working. You want to think ahead and plan, knowing that the plans will change, and therefore you want to be prepared, so those changes are natural.

As you take this path which you have worked out, there will probably be obstacles that get in your way. You cannot let these obstacles completely derail you if you really want to obtain your goals. If you really want to get to your end goals, you may need to find ways around any roadblocks or washouts that could possibly block you from your desires. For this, you need to stay limber enough to adjust and adapt when those occasions arise.

The second most significant step that you will take is knowing when you have reached your goals, and you step off the path, or at least settle down and make camp. This is tricky. As you work towards those things you desire, other ideas and goals will spring up. You need to figure out which ones enhance and which ones detract from where you want to end up.

As you follow your plan to reach your goal, new goals will crop up. Sometimes these new goals push you further than you originally wanted to go on your outset. And some of these new goals may move you off your planned path altogether and onto new trails. Whichever of these comes up, only one person can make a choice to do one thing or the other. You.

Sometimes you find yourself stuck on the path and reaching for new goals only because you find a void in your life. When you get to that point, you must stop and consider what your original plans entailed and ensure that you are not just doing busywork to fill the emptiness left by the things you used to do.

Whatever you decide your next move should be, make sure it’s right for you and those who have made this journey with you.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.