Stan Hustad

The wise and what they do are in God’s hands… Seek wisdom.  

Years ago when I was young and just starting to listen to pop music there was a great crooning pop group called The Platters who had a big hit entitled, Only You!   You will have to do some “Only You” work.

I asked you to be a 3% person, and to write down 20 things you want to have, to do,and become.  I also asked you to list 20 ways that you can be useful, (I love that word) and of service to others.  How did you do with that exercise?  What is clearer to you now?

Now, after some thought, please describe the things you can do for others that, indeed, only you can provide.  Only you!  What can you bring to the marketplace of talent, ideas, and experience that only you provide?  Write and tell me what it is and I will give you some free marketing counsel on promoting the “Only You.”

And to inspire you and maybe make you smile here is that Only You song.

THE PLATTERS – ONLY YOU

Blessings on your startover.

One of my mentors at-a-distance is the late W. Clement Stone who rose from rags to riches and lived to be over 100 years of age.  He was well-known for developing the idea of PMA = Positive Mental Attitude, as one of the keys to his success.  Obviously there is great truth there, but he was often derided as being a bit of a “Pollyanna” with his PMA stuff.

But the truth is deeper.  In more substantive conversations about success, Stone confided that in the midst of his high-energy optimism that he also sought to

“Have the courage to always face the truth.”

Some truths that I see:

The “jobs” as we know them are not coming back.

The end of the year will bring a national, perhaps international tax, debt, and spending challenge that if not addressed could cause another economic tailspin.

Self-employed Entrepreneurialism is the only path to any kind of financial and career security.

“Retirement” as we knew it may be gone, and indeed it will be different for most.

You must become a master communicator to have any chance of successful sales and marketing efforts in the new digital economy.

You must  learn how to deal with your fears .

God is in control of the universe, and His will be done!

So I remain a hard working, ever creating, risk-taking optimist, but I don’t want to fool myself.  And that brings me to this.  A few years ago my daughter who is a top NYC author and editor helped to create a wonderful book of letters by the late and great Nobel physicist, Richard Feynman entitled, Perfectly Reasonable Deviations.

And last week the so-called “smartest folks in the Wall Street world” just lost two billion bucks.  The leader of the deal of Chase Corp, James Dimon should be fired. All involved should be.  In a great Wall Street Journal article Dimon is compared to Feynman who claimed that the person you often fool the most, is you.  The article is a walk with wisdom.   Read it!

Click on  WSJ Feynman , read it and study it, share it with your colleagues, talk about it, and then give me a call and I will seek to help you take the right risks to deal with the new deals coming down the road.

Seek the truth, press on, bless others, and may you be blessed too!

They got it right.  Whatever your thoughts about the Roman Catholic tradition may I assure you that they got this right.

We all need to avail ourselves of the power of confession! … “Forgive me for I have sinned”  One of the definitions of sin is “to miss the mark.”  God’s spirit calls us to just not be bad, but indeed to live up to our high calling, high standards, and graced aspirations.  We are called to make the mark!

And boy have I missed the marks on many occasions and in many ways; indeed“Forgive me for I have missed the mark.”

And now I have to confess the ways and perhaps the whys for missing the mark on many projects and in many situations and relationships.  In my business Startover on three platforms I have, and continue to take time to do the work of confessing false hopes, bad assumptions, poor choices, being irresponsible, and not being courageous and moving fast enough.

But this confession has great power.  I am forgiven, and now it is very clear how I will do many things differently in these very difficult times, and therefore I have a better chance to prosper in them.

Please believe me my friends.  I have mentors who who have helped me see reality about what is coming on debt, taxes, money, and the economy.  We are probably in for some very deep difficulties and continuing challenging times.  We all need to get ready for Startover.  Start by doing an honest performance review on yourself.

Enter the booth of of business and life reflection and announce, “Forgive me …”

May you be blessed in your confession!

I am doing a series of posts about The Startover for all of us, and your letters and responses have convinced me that this is right on, and I must get the audio and show ready on how to do your Startover.  

To start over it will be important to start writing because as one of my mentors said,“Talkers are hawkers and writers are experts.”  So get started, and to encourage you may I quote, indeed lift, a meditation by one of my dear mentors-at-a distance, the late, and indeed great in God’s ways, thinker and writer, Henri Nouwen.  Please read out loud what he says here and let it sink to you heart, and then ask me how to help you tell and write your story.

“One of the arguments we often use for not writing is this:   “I have nothing original to say.  Whatever I might say, someone else has already said it, and better than I will ever be able to.”  This, however, is not a good argument for not writing.  Each human person is unique and original, and nobody has lived what we have lived.  Furthermore, what we have lived, we have lived not just for ourselves but for others as well.  Writing can be a very creative and invigorating way to make our lives available to ourselves and to others.

We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told.  We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.”  

Blessings!

There is too much pop and slop already out there about Steve Jobs and I hope to not add to that but I have taken some time to read the best-selling biography by Walter Isaacson and his follow-up article in the Harvard Business Review.

Here are some one-liners that I like from Jobs;

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.

Real artists sign their work.

And I wonder if Jobs read my book … Don’t be afraid!

…and one of my real favorites  - People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint!

But here is the key lesson and I want to let it sit on your head.  Isaacson claims that the essence of Jobs’ success was his extreme emotionalism.  As I said last week, that brought into focus a lot of things for me that I have been writing and coaching about lately.

We all must be in a startover mode today, and the first step to doing that is to seek a way to bring extreme emotionalism into our life and work.  That is lesson one in our coming series on, Sorry, but you have to startover!

Just let this sit on your head, fall to your heart, and then wonder, even pray, about what you need to do next and now.

Blessings on your startover.

I have made it a new word, a combination word. You have heard of Startups, and now we need to think of Startovers. As I told you in my last post on One-Of-A-Kind, I am in a significant Startover mode in many of my entrepreneurial platforms, and you will soon have to join me.

Here are some things that may happen soon:

- Sears may be sold for the Brand names only such as Craftsman and Kenmore, and reduced or assets sold or merged.

- Blackberry by RIM may be gone within the year. The Iphone will probably wipe them out.

- Best Buy may not be able to make it as the big box and blue shirt business model may not survive the Internet best way to buy.

- I work a lot in the financial services and the trust and credibility has been so battered, and the distribution system so shattered, that the business models will have to be redone and go into Startover.

Here is my prediction, your business or career as you know it will probably not be viable in 3 – 5 years..

Further; the economy will not recover to bring us back to what we used to call Normal. Your “retirement” may not go as you hoped or planned.

Yes, friends we all better be ready to start over! Now tell me what you think; and in the weeks to come we will be sharing with you some possible Startover Stories and Strategies that might be useful to you.

Friends we need the Wisdom of the Ages and The Spirit going forward; indeed as we press on, best and blessings to you because we all need them.

One of the reasons I am enjoying making the custom pens that I talked about last week is that I can say, with a smile when I give them to others, “This pen is one of a kind and I made it just for you!!”

The other day I did my routine check-up and “googled” myself to see what would come up. Today if you are in business you have to do that regularly to see if there is anything online that could ruin your reputation or damage your business. It seems hard to believe but there are thousands of reported matches to Stan Hustad.

Now here is an unusual thing about me. It seems that I am the only “Stan or Stanley Hustad” on record anywhere in the world. So in a weird sort of way, but only by my name, I am one of a kind. But here is the great truth, in the eyes of God, we all are indeed, one of a kind. Now let’s take this into our life and business as we think of ways to be in a Startover Mode.

I have been thinking about my life and business startover a lot these days. I have asked myself, “Is there anything about what I offer to the good folks in the marketplace that is so unique and special that if for some reason I was gone, some good product or service would also be gone.”

Think about that. What could you offer that is so special, based on your God-given uniqueness and talent, that makes you truly, one of a kind? In my startover I am hoping to bring some one-of-a-kind good thing to men and women who are seeking to do good things; to be true changemakers.

What one-of-a-kind service and experience are you seeking to bring to others?