Many of us have no problem dreaming big, but when it comes time to take a swing at our big dreams, we do so with reservation and doubt.

Both are great business models, but they are virtual opposites in their approaches. One sinks in, while the other flies above.

Be wary of low-paying clients who tell about their “big plans” for the future, or who ask you to “grow with them.”

As a younger person, I loved compromises. What’s not to love about people agreeing on a plan they can both accept? Why does one person always need to win? 

Are you really on the wrong path? Or have you just not been on the path long enough?

This is a lesson I’ve been learning at the poker table recently.

While I don’t believe all business is a zero-sum game, there is credence to the idea that a sale someone else makes is a sale you don’t make, at least in that moment.

I bought a book about the publishing industry. One line, about 90 pages in, might just change everything for the next phase of my career. 

“What’s your budget?”

“What’s your rate?” 

You have to be aware of this. You have a different goal than the agency, and they have a different goal than the brand. The trickle-down of these goals can taint your workflow. 

Cheap doesn’t usually deliver on time, respond quickly, or have great ideas. Expensive does those things. 

If a client doesn’t know who you are, you have to do a lot of selling to win their business. There’s a better way.

Behind every “how do I” question is a deeper question. Anytime someone asks “how do I…” and then follows it with something practical, like “find more clients?” or “grow my audience?” or “generate more profit?” there is one deeper question behind all of that. 

It takes a lot of confidence to forge into unknown creative territory, telling yourself you’ll figure it out along the way. But there’s another kind of confidence.

Public speaking is like driving a car full of people. For the next few minutes, you’re going to take them somewhere. How you do it matters. 

When I was 21 years old, I found myself in Washington D.C. for a day alone. I wandered around, looked at some stuff, met a friend for lunch, and scalped a ticket to a baseball game. In the middle of it all, my father told me to meet a colleague of his who ran a recruiting firm. 

Can you call a business a success if it closes its doors? Can you say you are successful if your small business isn’t growing? If you have to shut down or sell or leave a business, can you really call that successful? 

I think you can. 

The things I’ve failed at in the past are better indicators of a future path than new things. If I’ve failed at them before, that means I’ve already gotten far enough to fail. 

Building a business takes time. Not because it takes a lot of time to create all the things that a business needs to run, (like a product or a service or a website or a marketing campaign) but because every business is built on trust, and you can’t rush trust. 

This self-focused view made my upcoming talk nerve-racking. As I prepared for the talk, I had a third-person imagination of myself, thinking about how people would view me, how I would sound, and if I would come across as cool and smart.