You gotta have cheerleaders

Ever seen this one in the mirror:

Job description: IT entrepreneur

Required Skills and Experience:

– Strong interpersonal skills with a focus on teamwork and ability to foster / manage relationships across multiple departments.

– Self-motivated professional, self-starter, proactive and able to handle multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.

Allow me to translate that for you:

Today is going to be a bitch and you can’t be an asshole about it. People are going to put unreasonable expectations of you, you will be disrespected, belittled and forced to answer stupid questions asked by stupid people who are seemingly in more successful roles than you are. Through it all you’re expected to act as a professional, work through the day and deal with the stress, plan for the unexpected, respond to the unplanned and explain the situation to people that don’t really care. [to be continued]

Winners tend to motivate themselves. They tend to rise above the rest, meet the challenge and excel where others fail. They don’t need external parties to help them get to where they have already visualized themselves at.

Or at least thats what the bullshit motivational books say. If you’re one of the above, I envy you. Kudos.

I am one of the most driven people I know but even I have down days when things just get to me. Point is, I know my limitations. I also know that when it gets tough there is nobody that will pat me on the back, tell me it’s all going to be OK and that I should just put my panties back on and stop being such a little pussy. Tough chance of that improving now that people get the impression that I like to work naked. (google: humor)

So what to do…

I don’t have the desktop calendar of Tony Robbins and I firmly believe in the demotivator that states: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

I rely on my partners.

My partners know me, I genuinely enjoy talking to them, hanging out with them and working with them. So when I have a rough day, I can always count on a partner to pat me on the back when things are going bad, give me an ovation when things are going good and give me a friggin medal when things are going great.

I (and OWN) have been very fortunate to work with a lot of great partners. The other day I made a very tough final decision, hammer and nail in hand, to change the direction of my involvement when it comes to partners and I felt pretty rotten about what I said.

But today, I got to talk to a partner, and a friend, Tim Barrett, who took nearly an hour during his busy day to just talk to me about it. Few hours before that, Susan chatted with me for about 20 minutes. Right before I finished working for the day I got a call from one of my partners, Garrett Chipman who pretty much made my day. Dana Epp also did a lot of encouraging stuff for me today and…

… and its just nice to know that even on tough days, even in a professional setting and a professional environment you are lucky if you have friends that pick you up, kick you in the ass, and push you along the way. You’re not going to make it as entrepreneur if you can’t constantly motivate and challenge yourself, but having friends that can back you up and inspire you when you need it is more than I could have asked for.

In the end, this is why I write this blog and why we run Own Web Now the way we do. I try to do a lot of good and honest stuff (even if its not pleasant to hear) for my partners and while the AMEX is thanks enough, I am always blown away when they back me up the way they do. People ask me how I manage to do so much in a day – so now you know the secret – I have thousands of cheerleaders.