~

In sports, the only thing a player can truly control is effort. The same applies
to business. The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any
position can control is their effort.

I had to kick myself in the ass and recommit to getting up early, staying up late and
consuming everything I possibly could to get an edge. I had to commit to making
the effort to be as productive as I possibly could. It meant making sure that
every hour of the day that I could contact a customer was selling time, and
when customers were sleeping, I was doing things that prepared me to make
more sales and to make my company better.

And finally, I had to make sure I wasn’t lying to myself about how hard I was
working. It would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours a day passed
while I was at work. That’s the worst way to measure effort. Effort is measured by
setting goals and getting results. What did I need to do to close this account? What
did I need to do to win this segment of business? What did I need to do to
understand this technology or that business better than anyone? What did I need to
do to find an edge? Where does that edge come from, and how was I going to get
there?

The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the
commitment to get results or you don’t.

Allow your idea to die and be reborn repeatedly; it will get better each time. ~ Dave Ramsey, p 92 of EntreLeadership

One of the things I love about smartphone technology is apps that make life better.  Yep, apps that make life better.  Recently I rode the Megabus overnight from Knoxville, TN to Washington, DC, and I woke up a few minutes from the end of the trip.  I had some vague instructions from a friend to metro to his apartment, but I quickly realized I had no idea on the metro schedule, the lines or even where the closest station was to the bus stop.

A quick search in the Android app market yielded -  DC Metro Transit Free, an AMAZING travel app that quickly told me the closest station was a few blocks away and I had 23 minutes until my train left.  Additionally it also had a trip planner to help me figure out the best route to get from station A to station B.  Other features included real time updates, and it estimated fares which helped me figure out to put on my metro card. 

It was the perfect app to help me navigate DC for a few days.  Without it, I’m sure my trip would have been far more frustrating and certainly ill timed. It allowed me to enjoy the Cherry Blossom festival, Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse and many great museums. If you are headed that way, I’d highly recommend this app, it will make you feel at home.

Last week, I wrote a post on the New Streak (where I blog for work), on my participation on a panel at the Entrepreneurial Imperative 2010, a conference focused on entrepreneurship and hosted here in Knoxville, TN.  I’d highly recommend this conference as it’s one of the biggest groupings of entrepreneurial minded folks I’ve seen in Knoxville.

My session was wittily titled “Social Networking – Untangling the Web of Cutting Edge Technology.”  I talked about marketing for startups and particularly on if Facebook or Twitter was a better place to start your marketing efforts. Wondering where I suggested?  Check out the post for the full answer.

Related articles

• UT connects executives, students in new venture (knoxnews.com)

Over the weekend I had pleasure of speaking at the East Tennessee Preservation conference in historic Rugby, TN.  I’ve posted a recap of panel on using social media for historic and preservation tourism with slides and video over on the New Streak, where I blog for Moxley Carmichael.  Check it out.

Related articles

• Social media training specific to the tourism industry (drewsmarketingminute.com)
• Tourism meets social media at BlogWorld Expo (smallbizsurvival.com)
• Social media’s impact on tourism (news.bbc.co.uk)