Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

That Lie We Tell

by Walt | Jun 16, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

I’ve had the great privilege of spending time with graduating high school and college seniors in anticipation of their commencements.

One of the things I tell them is: Don’t believe “the lie.”

This is the lie we tell; the lie that was told to me; the lie teachers and parents and well-meaning adults tell; the lie I myself have told my own children; the lie we tell ourselves; the lie that each of us must battle every day:

IF you work hard, take all the AP courses get good grades, join lots of clubs, get involved in student government, do lots of extracurricular activities, do community service, take an SAT preparation course, write a great essay, graduate at the top of your class, get into a great college, one with a great name, an expensive college, work hard, get good grades, get involved in student government, volunteer, get an internship, get two internships, graduate at the top of your class, get into graduate school or a professional program, work hard, write for a journal, publish, present, graduate with honors, get a good job (you know, one with benefits), work hard, settle down, find a partner, get married, buy a house in a nice neighborhood with a big mortgage, get a nice safe car like a Volvo or a mini-van, in fact, get two nice cars, have 2.2 children, get a place at the shore, work a lot of hours, stay really busy and productive, see a lot of clients, sell a lot of product, network a lot, volunteer, sit on a lot of boards, belong to lots of civic organizations, become the boss, the manager, the partner, the senior partner, get the corner office… then… then… finally… you will be successful… and then…then… finally… you will be happy.

It’s an empty, hollow promise.

In groundbreaking research at Harvard, Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, has demonstrated convincingly that it is happiness that fuels success, not the other way around. Happiness comes first.

Many folks who have lived that lie for decades find their way to my doorstep for coaching feeling discouraged, depleted and demoralized. They have all the toys, all of the indicia of “success;” and yet, inside, they are empty and miserable. They can’t figure out why.

Because, happiness is not “out there” just beyond some “cognitive horizon” (as Achor says).

Happiness is here; it is now; it is in this moment.

May we claim it for ourselves.

May we have the courage not to perpetuate the lie.

Get Out Now

by Walt | Jun 9, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

So many really talented entrepreneurs and business professionals toil in their businesses without ever experiencing the prosperity and success that they deserve.

Because they are toiling in their businesses, and never really working on their businesses.

Michael Gerber describes the typical set-up for this brilliantly in his book, The E-Myth Re-Visited.

A future entrepreneur (perhaps an accountant, physician, attorney, coach or consultant) comes out of school with a wealth of knowledge and information, goes to work for an organization…and excels. The organization derives extraordinary benefit from the effort… and the would-be entrepreneur wakes up one day and says: “Why am I doing this for someone else, when I could be doing it for myself?”

The now excited entrepreneur goes out, hangs up a shingle, and starts to toil…only to discover a roller coaster ride of feast and famine, insecurity, inconsistency, uncertainty, and lackluster returns on the monumental investment of time and resources.

The now demoralized entrepreneur can’t figure it out. “I’m so good at what I do; I can’t understand why I’m not making the money I deserve.”

Here’s the rub: Just because you’re a good x (x = doctor, lawyer, accountant, coach, consultant…); or just because you’re a good technician; or just because you’re an expert at the top of your game, doesn’t mean that you’re going to be a good business person. They are two distinctly different skill sets; two different jobs. And you actually need to work them as if they are, in fact, different jobs.

Think about it this way: Imagine you’re a young professional just out of school. You get an internship at a firm that you hope to be employed at someday. And to make ends meet, you work at Starbucks on the weekends. During the week, you’re at the firm; on the weekends, you’re at Starbucks pouring coffee. Two different places; two different jobs.

In the same way, in your entrepreneurial life, you actually have to do two different jobs; jobs that are that separate and distinct: One job being the professional, doing the technical work. The other the CEO/CFO/COO of your business, working on the foundation, the systems and the marketing of your business.

Working on the business v. working in the business.

Many entrepreneurs, if they’re aware of this distinction at all, make the error of moving in and out of these functions all day long, never really devoting the time and attention to the management of the business that is required (assuming, I guess, that the entrepreneurial myth doesn’t apply to them). They end up overwhelmed, scattered, stressed, exhausted, and poor.

What changes the game is when the entrepreneur learns to take off the professional’s hat, and put on the hat of the business manager on a regular, systematic basis. (As in punching out of the internship clock, and onto the clock as the barista.)

In its most powerful expression, the entrepreneur is blocking off days of the week, or parts of days during a week, to concentrate solely on the business of the business. And then, at least every 90 days, stepping out of the business completely for a day or two to ascertain exactly what’s working and what needs tweaking; then formulating a focused 90 day plan to guide the business through the next quarter.

Those entrepreneurs and business professionals who enjoy extraordinary success and prosperity know that the work on their businesses is every bit as important as working in their businesses.

So… if you really want that success, get out now!

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Walt Hampton, J.D. is President and Chief Operating Officer of Book Yourself Solid® Worldwide. Book Yourself Solid® is the fastest, easiest and most reliable system for getting more clients and customers than you can handle, even if you hate marketing and selling. If you’d like to get booked solid® worldwide, email: [email protected]

Why You Want To Use The F Word

by Walt | Jun 2, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

Growing up, we never talked about the F word. It was never, ever tolerated. My mother was an especially difficult taskmaster. The mere possibility of the F word would incite her fury; and her condemnation.

The F word: Failure. Bad.

If I brought home a paper or a quiz with a B+, my mother would say, “That’s nice, dear. But it’s not as good as an A.” If I came home with an A, she’d smile and observe, “That’s wonderful dear. But it’s not as good as an A+.” A shadow would hang over a 99; after all it wasn’t a 100. (Not good enough, the story.)

While this spurred in me a drive toward perfection and excellence (and no doubt neurosis), it also deprived me of opportunities. I eschewed risk because risk could lead to failure.

I have come to discover – and appreciate – that there are no failures. Only lessons.

In his fascinating book, Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed contrasts how failure is understood in the fields of aviation and health care. In aviation, pilots and teams are encouraged, without penalty, to disclose and report errors. Failures (accidents) are relentlessly scrutinized (often by analyzing black box data). The information gathered is meticulously analyzed, clearly assimilated and rapidly disseminated so that ever more reliable systems and processes can be implemented. The culture surrounding the aviation industry expects and demands this; and the result has been that the fatality rate in aviation has plummeted.

Aviation accidents now are rare.

Health care, on the other hand, has a culture of obfuscation when it comes to failure. It tends to deny and cover up its errors. Physicians have a aura of infallibility. The hierarchical structure discourages the questioning of a physician’s decisions. Bad outcomes are clothed in euphemisms. Incident reporting is often frowned upon, and sometimes punished. There is no industry-wide error reporting system.

Preventable medical accidents are now rampant… and increasing. (By one estimate equal to a jumbo jet falling from the sky every single day!)

In aviation, failure is the opportunity to learn. In health care, it is a call to circle the wagons… and hide.

What will it be for you?

Too often, fear of failure has caused me to keep my head down, to play it safe. Too often I haven’t pushed the edges: Those edges where we grow. (And beyond those edges – oh my, that’s where the magic dwells.)

Too often, I have made failure personal, a sad story all about me. Rather than saying “It didn’t work,” I would think, “I didn’t work. Poor me”

But what’s true is this: Great minds, great creators, great artists, great athletes, great innovators… they embrace failure. They seek it out. They see it as part of a magnificently generative process. They see it… as opportunity.

They know that the faster you iterate, the faster you fail, the faster you learn what doesn’t work, the faster your journey to success.

I have made a gentle peace with failure. I’m not yet courageous enough to seek it out. But when it shows up – as it often does – I sit it down and listen to it. I study it; and learn from it as best I can. And quietly remind myself that “it” didn’t work; that I’m ok.

Because I have come to know this: When we study failure -and learn from it objectively – we grow, our businesses flourish, and our lives become richer. When we fear and eschew failure, we deny our humanity, we narrow our potentiality, and we disserve our destiny.

There is a weary world that needs us, that desperately needs us to show up now, with those gifts and talents that only we can share, unburdened by any of our sad stories of inadequacy.

Fail forward fast.

And fear not the F word, he says.

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Ready for your next step? Your next chapter? Is it time to take your business and your life to a whole new level? Let’s talk. Email me: [email protected]

I Spy

by Walt | May 26, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

Have you ever shopped for a car? Perhaps it’s a black Volvo wagon; or maybe it’s a red Ford Focus. You get the brochure; you walk around it in the showroom; you take it for a test drive. Maybe you even put down a deposit and have a signed purchase agreement.

Then you go about your business, going to the store, stopping at the mall, driving around town. And you see that car you’re looking at everywhere. It’s as if everyone on the planet owns that car.

That’s because what you focus on you see.

There’s a video used to illustrate this principle. The video appears to be a group of people who are passing a basket ball. The instruction before looking at the video is to watch and count the number of times the ball is passed.

You can watch the video here.

How’d you do?

What we focus on we see. And this pertains to every area of our businesses and our lives.

When we focus on what’s a problem, we see more problems. When we focus on what’s not working, we see more of what’s not working.

It works the other way too. When we focus on what’s going well, we see more of what’s going well. When we focus on what’s working, more of what’s working shows up. When we focus on what’s possible, we see infinite possibilities.

I’ve trained myself to ask this question as soon as my eyes snap open in the morning: What amazing opportunities will I see today?

And the opportunities that I have seen have been nothing short of amazing.

Here’s a simple practice: Every day, before your day begins, write down three things that went well the day before; or, if you prefer, three things that you’re grateful for.

You’ll train yourself to see differently. Your world will expand in wondrous ways that you never imagined could be possible.

And you’ll never miss the gorilla.

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When you’re ready to see new possibilities, let’s talk. Email me at: [email protected]

Why I Can’t Talk With You

by Walt | May 19, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

It seemed funny at the time: My seventeen year old son and his girlfriend, sitting in the back seat, side by side, texting each other, rather than talking.

It doesn’t seem as funny now.

The technology that is meant to connect us often doesn’t. Instead, we have become increasingly scattered and distracted, dwelling in a state of continuous partial attention. We tweet in 144 characters. We text in abbreviated words. We take in information in bullet points and sound bites.

We are expected to be always on, always accessible. We stand like players on a digital tennis court, waiting for a ball to be served over the net, not wanting to miss a play, and always wanting to be seen as available to volley back.

We have lost the capacity to sit still, to be still, and to know the beauty and the grandeur of quiet and solitude. We have lost the capacity to create space for creativity; and we have lost touch with the power of reflection.

At risk is our capacity to relate, really relate; to communicate deeply… to look each other in the eye and talk… really talk.

I participated recently in a mock networking event for graduating business students. Bright and driven; at the top of their class. And not a one could hold my gaze in conversation.

Traveling through the Newark airport recently, we stopped for dinner. On each table – firmly mounted between the place settings – an iPad – to order our food and drinks and surf the net and update our statuses and… everything except a (real) connection with the person across the table… because that would require looking over or around that now sacred tablet.

Some studies have shown that stepping away from our smartphones and tablets can have the same physical and mental impact as going cold turkey from smoking or drugs. But what might it be like to put our tech aside for just an evening… or a day… or a week? What might it be like to reconnect with ourselves… and with those we love?

Disconnect to connect. Will you give it a try?