Most of us have failed at something. Actually, most of us have probably failed at many things. From a young age, we’re taught to try as hard as we can to obtain our goals. We grow up playing sports, competing in science fairs, and learning things like how to ride a bike. Failing at those things was, generally, inconsequential. 

As adults, we set out to accomplish goals like graduating from college, starting a business, or raising a family. Failing at achieving these goals could prove to be much more consequential. As a result, failing can be a devastating experience that causes us to develop all types of negative emotions, leading to fear and anxiety of ever experiencing that devastation again.

But we have the wrong idea about failure. We should look at it in a much more positive light, and we should be proud of each time we’ve tried and failed because the alternative is not trying at all.

To help you restructure the way you think of failure, let’s...

Have you ever had a broken toilet that only worked if you jiggled the handle the right way? You start out telling yourself that you’ll get around to getting it fixed, but you only remember that it needs to be fixed at the worst possible times. Then before long, you don’t even notice that it’s broken any more. Every time you use it, you automatically jiggle the handle to make it work the right way, because now, that’s what you’re conditioned to do and have grown accustomed to accepting.

You get so used to the toilet being broken that you forget it’s not normal for the toilet to be broken. You forget how abnormal it is to have to take the extra steps that it requires to operate the toilet when you could very easily just flush it, were it fixed. 

Sometimes in life, we get so used to things being broken that we forget what it’s like for things to be normal. We allow ourselves to get conditioned to dysfunctional relationships,...

In my last podcast episode, How Feedback Can Help You Grow in Life & Entrepreneurship, I made the point that feedback and advice from the people we trust in our personal lives can be as valuable as reviews can be in business. That advice can help us find opportunities to make improvements in life that we need to make in order to grow—just like in business.

It takes a very open minded person with a strong desire to grow to accept criticism and advice gracefully, but I don’t think that it is a good idea to just blindly accept all advice and feedback that comes your way. Not all advice is good advice and not all advisers have your best interests in mind. Knowing when to accept advice and when to reject it is just as important as being open to it in the first place.

There are times when you must determine whether or not you should take someone’s advice or incorporate their feedback into your life. Here are some questions you can consider as you make your...

Every now and then, I have to be introspective and check myself when I know I’m being closed minded and stubborn. I had one of those moments last week after I got two pretty solid pieces of advice from two different friends, at separate times, on the same day.

You may remember my story of The Brutal Advice That Changed My Life, and how much I attribute a single piece of harsh advice with helping me make changes for the better in my life. In short, twenty years ago, a friend of mine told me that I was the type of person who allowed things to happen to them instead of making things happen for them. Sometimes I wonder if I would have made the same life choices if that friend hadn’t essentially bitch slapped some sense into me with that brutal comment.

Back to last week though. One friend gave me career advice, and the other friend gave me love advice. Both unsolicited. These friends are trustworthy people whom I admire and value, and neither of them would have any...

When you have a great idea for a business, you usually feel an undeniable sense of urgency to get started right away. You feel like you need to hurry up and make your idea a reality before someone beats you to it. 

But somewhere deep down among the layers of emotion that you have once you start planning your business, is this ugly creature called Doubt. Doubt can rear its ugly head at the most inopportune times and completely kill all the momentum that your sense of urgency gave you. 

That doubt leads to fear and that fear causes you to procrastinate. You put off going balls to the wall with your idea because you don’t have the right laptop, or you need a new camera, or your ink pens don’t write right, or any other silly excuse you can make. 

Why does it feel like I’m talking directly to you? Because I am!

I’ve been there. I’ve made up all sorts of excuses for why I wasn’t ready to...

When you’re trying to think of the perfect business idea, it can be hard to tell whether an idea you have is a good one or a bad one.

Before you start spending large amounts of time and money on starting your business, you should validate your idea to verify that it is viable. Here are some practical questions you can ask yourself to verify whether your business idea is treasure or trash.

Has it ever been done before?

Innovation is great, and if you’re an inventor, creating something that doesn’t exist might be right up your ally. For the most part though, if your business idea is for something that doesn’t currently...

Chuck and I talked through the idea for his book, and sensing that Chuck wasn’t very confident in his talent and ability to write the book, I suggested that Chuck start writing a blog. I explained how writing the blog would capitalize on his sense of urgency, help him build his confidence, and that he’d get better at writing and expressing his point of view with each blog article he published.

Reluctantly, Chuck agreed to start that...

To help you come up with ideas for your business, I created this list of ten online businesses you can start today:

Freelance 

Start an online freelance business. You can freelance doing just about anything. Freelancing just means that you sell your talents in the form of services. Your customers could be other businesses or private individuals. Some examples of businesses you can start as a freelancer are writing, editing, graphic design, logo design, and anything else you can think of. Great sites to use to list your services are Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.

Web Developer

Learn how to code. There are a ton of free resources that teach...

About a year ago, I had a short stretch of time where I was super irritable in the afternoons and I couldn’t figure out why. Every day, as I drove to the gym, I’d experience a real sense of frustration and I couldn’t quite figure out where it was coming from. 

Yes, driving in Houston can be horribly frustrating, but this was different. My frustration every afternoon had become something that I had never experienced before. 

On top of that, I was feeling sluggish all day and I was horribly unproductive. No matter what time I went to bed at night—even if I took a nap, I’d still be tired. Because of this, I couldn’t focus and I wasn’t getting very much done most days.

I started to think through different possibilities of what could be causing me to feel this way and began to eliminate the things I thought it could be. I tried changing my diet, going the bed earlier, and a few other things, but none of that worked. 

I...