I have also had the opportunity to serve on the board of a non-profit here in Denver. As a result of my exposure, I have come to the conclusion that leaders of non-profit start ups who adopt the methods and tools of for-profit businesses give their organizations the best chance of success.

While many non-profit founders are visionaries (almost by definition), they all too often are not strategists. While visionaries and strategists deal with managing the big picture, a strategist has the added competency of being able to translate a desired big picture outcome into strategic planning and tactical execution.

One trait that marks the strategists is their ability to recognize the core challenges they face, and to quickly identify resources to overcome those challenges. The most successful nonprofit founders turn out to be big picture dreamers, masters at every day bootstrapping and problem solving.

Social media represents one of the highest leverage tools for bootstrapping funds, followers and fame (publicity). Non-profits using tools like Ning Websites, Facebook fan pages, and other such platforms are able to meet their milestones while stretching very limited budgets.

It is partly an act of faith, sometimes an act of sorrow (see the biblical story of Benjamin’s name) but most often an act of stubborn insistence that we will have a hand in shaping the future.

My last name for instance “Erekosima” ironically translates into “Don’t give him a name” – and tells the story of the first Erekosima about 6 generations before my time, who was such a feared, powerful and temperamental warlord that other members of the community declined to attach a nickname to him as was customary for other chieftains and kingmakers of his stature. As such things often go, it became his default nickname, and one of 3 surnames borne by his descendants.

Thinking about this whole issue of our traditional African names reminds me of a talk I delivered at a Men’s event in Colorado Springs a few months ago, entitled, “The Epic-Driven Life”.

In my conception, the epic-driven life is a complete philosophy of self-management through which you can ignite your noblest ambitions, douse your fears, and generally hold yourself accountable to live a more passionate life.

The word, “Epic” (ep.ic) is defined as

“…pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero in which a series of achievements or events is narrated in elevated style”

(See Dictionary for this and other related definitions).

The epic-driven life is a life lived intentionally. A life in which you intentionally choose the epics that excite you, write those epics down to the best detail that you can, and then proceed with purpose to “act out” the epics of your dreams.

Millions of people read the Purpose-Driven life and while I have never gotten around to reading beyond the first page of that book, I presume there may be parallels between the lessons in that book and those I’m sharing here.

However, “Purpose” is much bigger (and for some people, more elusive) than an “epic”. An epic starts as simply as sitting down and writing down an achievement that would tickle you to death if you went out and accomplished it just as you saw it while you were daydreaming.

About 10 years ago, I purposed in my mind that I would be time-flexible when my children came. I was neither a parent, nor married at the time. It would be another 8 years before marriage, and 10 years before this first child.

However, the epic I wrote in my head has directly or indirectly informed my decisions such that I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 9 years and self-employed for the last 5. While the journey itself had twists and turns that I couldn’t have anticipated, I find myself HERE…at home on a weekday…where I thought I would be.

In a previous post on “How To Prosper in 2010” I communicated another epic upon which I’m actively working as I speak: To go from a one-man consultancy to a Business consulting firm that grosses 7 figures in record time, while generating record growth and profits for my clients.

The beauty of the epic-driven mindset is that an epic is a valuable asset all by itself. My coaching clients at MarriageInspiration.com took their tears and turned them into gold.

I have seen people completely change how they handle setbacks when they realized that “it all works together for their good” by contributing to their epic. Any story that can be told can be sold if it’s dramatic, audacious, or otherwise interesting enough.

I’ve seen the epic-driven mindset cause formerly timid sales professionals to happily glide their way to the proverbial batter’s box, because they have connected the seemingly mundane events of their lives to something far more exciting…an epic with a living, breathing, hero smack in the middle of it.

If you’re reading this post, I choose to believe that it’s because the seeds of a great epic lie within you. Release yourself to the epic of your dreams, record your achievements, your setbacks, and your insights. And then please share them.

The world awaits…

with bated breath.

The idea age label borrows from the practice of naming periods according to the dominant technology used – so we have the “stone age”, the “bronze age”, the “iron age”, the “digital age”, and now…

The Idea age.

Mere access to information is no longer a big deal. Information is overwhelming today. Today people are running for refuge from the information avalanche. They are looking for ideas.

Ideas organize information into a value set. Ideas are the expression of information made useful. Ideas are what information looks like when it is packaged based on a preference and connected to a benefit or useful framework.

The idea is the dominant technology of our time. Software is composed merely of ideas. And that’s why I call our current era the idea age.

Here are some idea age trends that could seriously impact your business over the next few years.

1. Change is happening at the speed of thought – FAST!
2. The rate of change across the board is increasing!
3. The Idea Is The Primary Currency Of Today’s Marketplace!!
4. The Marketplace is innundated with Ideas!
5. People are increasingly stressed by the avalanche of ideas!
6. People are responding by either making very fast or very slow decisions!

Looking for Personal assistant…

Must live in SE (South east) Denver in the area about near the University of Denver.
Must be proficient with using Apple mac computers/applications
Must be proficient with FileMakerPro.
Must be available Tuesday – Friday 10am to 2pm
Must have good phone skills
Able to do some light cooking when necessary (breakfast and lunch)

Simply devoting 2-3 hours each month to asking a few questions can help you substantially increase your revenues and profits.

One of the simplest but most paradigm shifting questions you can ask yourself is,

“What is my business”?

My answer to this question is:

“A business is a moving matrix of relationships and abilities leveraging other portfolios of relationships and abilities.”

This definition is a variant of a definition given by Dr. Venkat Venkatraman, a leading business thinker, who instructs business leaders to…

“…look at a corporation as a portfolio of abilities leveraging a portfolio of relationships.”

In consulting with prospective clients, I’ve found that when I share this definition with them, it allows them to see all kinds of new profit centers and new permutations of their business that lead to “soft innovation” and increased profits.

As often as possible, you should ask yourself some of the following questions.

What business am I in?
The truth is that no matter what business or industry you’re in, you are first and foremost in the marketing business. Any business owner who doesn’t understand this, or doesn’t apply the lessons of this conclusion will fall victim to a market twist and turn (or an economic downturn) sooner or later.

Could I create a new category by adding or subtracting something?
The excellent book “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, takes a look at how some companies have managed to create businesses completely outside the “red ocean” (heavily competitive categories), by essentially creating their own category.

Cirque du soleil is a particularly memorable example of a business that has created a “competition-free” zone for itself for decades now by creating a category that is neither completely high performance art, or circus, but a hybrid of both. And so when businesses within both categories were competing each other to death, Cirque du Soleil just kept expanding to greater and greater heights.

In the Internet business systems niche, SiteSell is another such “Blue Ocean” company (in my opinion). Neither simply a web host, nor a website software provider, nor a membership-based internet education platform, but all those things and more at a very affordable price. (Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Sitesell, a company whose products I absolutely believe in).

Could I create new uniqueness or advantage by stripping something out?
There’s also the possibility of creating a unique company by stripping out most of what other competitors typically include so that you end up faster, leaner, more efficient and more affordable by giving the marketplace only what it wants and leaving the rest out.

To a certain extent, this is how Southwest rose to prominence during a time when airlines where offering full service and other amenities, Southwest came through with stripping out the decorations (i.e. meals on short flights) and amped up the customer service combined with more affordable flying.

Could I re-arrange my whole service delivery (operations) and communications (marketing) around what is currently only a small component or profit center in my business?
This is what I call the “Tail That Wags The Dog” Strategy.
In Seth Godin’s book “The Free Prize Inside”, he discusses the curious phenomenon of buyers often making their purchasing decision based on some seemingly tangential attribute of the product/service they eventually chose. The “soft innovations” (according to Seth), that constitute “the second reason to buy the thing”.

I can’t help but think about a spa within 10 minutes from my house. I first noticed it when a hot pink limousine full of screaming teenage girls (or what I presume to be screaming teenage girls…it could have been aliens), rolled past me… I later discovered they were coming from a sort of Spa where girls could really get their birthday treatment with all their closest friends.

As you might suspect, the limo ride has become the highlight of the day!!