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oyot The voice of Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ and the oyot network
Inaugural ISSUE: November 2018
Enjoy Life. Make Money. Do Good. ™ What Is Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ and How Can You Get It?
I want you to imagine for a second that you are a frustrated entrepreneur — you aren’t struggling, per se, but you are definitely frustrated. Several years ago, you quit punching that 9-to-5 clock and decided to go into business for yourself. During the first couple of years, your stress level was high. But then again, so was your motivation. Even though you were working 80 or even 90 hours a week, you knew that when it came to creating and operating your own company, chaos was an expected byproduct of success. Now, several years later, your stress level is still high, but your motivation is faltering. All of a sudden, all the reasons that initially drove you to run your own business have been replaced with a list of all the experiences you are missing out on. Now you feel frustrated. You feel stuck. For many entrepreneurs around the world, these feelings are all too familiar. You started a company because you wanted to be able to spend more time with people you cared about, you wanted to make a great living, and you wanted to have a comfortable lifestyle. You embraced this famous quote: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so that you can spend the rest of your life living like most people can’t.” But in your quest to make this quote and your dreams a reality, your business started running you rather than you running it. This phenomenon happens all too often, even to the most hardworking of entrepreneurs, and it stems from not clearly defining exactly what your personal version of success is supposed to look like. What if I told you that no matter how frustrated you are, you can still claim your Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ and be able to Do Business On Your Own Terms ® ? Every new entrepreneur has to work those 90-hour weeks when they first get started — that just comes with the territory — but you have to structure your business in a way so that at some point down the road, you can get back to having a life. When you have true Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ , you will have crafted your business to work for you, supporting your definition of success. But in order to achieve it, you have to ask yourself some difficult questions: 1. What does “success” mean to you? (If you don’t know what success looks like, then you won’t recognize it when it comes along.) 2. How much money do you want to make?
3. How much are you willing to work? How many weeks? Days a week? Hours a day? 4. What do you want to sell? 5. Are you selling the right products or services to the right people? 6. What are you NOT willing to do any longer? No matter how long you’ve been an entrepreneur, you have to step back and answer these questions in all their specificity — after all, a goal without specifics is just a wish. You have to figure out a way to be ethically selfish — to be present enough to take care of your employees and your clients but still selfish enough to have your own freedom. Like everything else in life, this idea sounds easier than it is. But it can be done, and I know this because I’ve done the legwork. When my wife, Jen, and I had our twin boys 16 years ago, we knew we had to make some big decisions about restructuring our company. We knew we needed to make changes to ensure that we weren’t chained to our business and that we could be there for our kids. We had to step back and ask ourselves those same hard questions. Because we took the time to do that so long ago, we now have the freedom to spend both our time and our money doing the things we actually want to do rather than the things we feel obligated to do. We no longer feel chained to our business. I assure you that you can do the same as we did; you can get your life back. You can make the decision to Do Business On Your Own Terms ® and achieve Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ .
Take the first step by joining our podcast family at oyot.com/podcasts .
It’s never too late to reset your life or your business and enjoy the success you deserve on your own terms. Let’s get to work!
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Sarah Hale Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays celebrated throughout the United States. One of the first documented Thanksgiving celebrations took place in 1621, when Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared a feast together. But the banquet, which celebrated the colonists’ first successful harvest, wasn’t just one large meal, nor did it last for only one day; in fact, the feast lasted for three days. In later years, Thanksgiving also lasted for longer than a single meal. During the time of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress chose several days throughout the year to celebrate giving thanks. Then, in 1789, George Washington made the U.S. national government’s first Thanksgiving proclamation. He used this to speak to his fellow American citizens about the Revolution’s satisfactory conclusion and encouraged them to show their thanks for the freedoms they gained. Thanksgiving became a national holiday more than 200 years after its first celebration. It gained this status largely due to the persistence of a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale. Hale was a successful magazine editor, prolific writer of novels and poems, and author of the famous nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which was first published in her 1830 collection entitled “Poems for Our Children.” A lot of entrepreneurs who have been in business for a year or more find themselves putting out so many fires at work that they may as well call themselves firefighters! Dealing with work challenges is normal — especially in the early years — but at some point, the stress level needs to plateau. Most entrepreneurs decided to build their company with the dream of more family time, personal freedom, and money, but at some point, they realize that the dream is turning into a nightmare filled with missed family time and workaholism. After months or even years of putting the needs of their businesses first, they find themselves saying, “This sucks! I want my life back!” I see it all too often — business owners missing out on their anniversary dinner, their kids’ soccer games, or a neighborhood barbecue because they feel like they can’t put the needs of their company on the back burner even for a second. It’s not that they don’t feel guilty for missing out on these times with family and friends; it’s just that they feel like they can’t step back and slow down. But in their “need” to stay on top of their business, they are being driven further away from the original goal of Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ and a great lifestyle. ‘This Sucks! I Want My Life Back!’ Take Your Life Back With a Personal Planning Workshop How Thanksgiving Became a National Holiday
In 1827, Hale began a campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. For the next 36 years, she wrote numerous editorials and countless letters to state and federal
officials expressing her desire that it gain official status. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln finally declared it a national holiday, hoping that it would help heal the wounds of the country.
Lincoln decided that the holiday would take place on the last Thursday of November. It was celebrated on that day until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in the hopes of increasing retail sales during the Great Depression. However, this plan was very unpopular, and in 1941, the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November. Without the efforts of Sarah Hale, we might not have the pleasure of the Thanksgiving feast we know and love to this day. This year, give thanks for family, good food, and the resolve of one woman who recognized the importance of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
I can help you get your life back. I will help you strategically reset your business so you can incorporate the needs of your company, employees, and clients alongside your own personal needs. Most entrepreneurs try to achieve that so-called “work-life balance” by compartmentalizing their professional and personal lives. We will work together to find a way for you to incorporate both so you can finally Do Business On Your Own Terms ® . My “I Want My Life Back!” Personal Planning Workshop is an intensive day-and-a-half session where you and I will dig deep into your business and come up with specific business and personal goals. We will come up with a long-term plan with several benchmarks along the way, and we’ll also schedule six “Momentum Calls,” where I’ll call to check in on your progress and make sure you are staying on track. One description of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result. If you’re feeling trapped in your business, don’t waste another minute. Take back your life! Go to oyot.com and click on Ways to Work With Us today.
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‘Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win’ How the Laws of Combat Will Make You a Better Leader
Combat Strategies What are the laws of combat? Simplify, prioritize, execute, and decentralize command. Applied to an office setting, these combat strategies show you how simplifying plans and organizing priorities will improve your operational efficiency. The authors also explain that while there is a need for clearly designated leaders, junior leaders must be empowered to make their own decisions. Sustaining Victory To drive their point home, Willink
Any entrepreneur worth his salt knows that effective leadership is necessary for a business to achieve any kind of long-term success. But knowing that you need to be an effective leader and actually being one are two very separate things. No matter how long you’ve been in business, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s book, “Extreme Ownership,” will inspire and empower you to be a better leader. Willink and Babin use their experiences as former U.S. Navy SEALs to provide a backdrop for their approach. Their stories drop you right in the middle of the action, both on the battlefield and within the confines of corporate America, in order to teach you invaluable management lessons. The book is organized into three overarching ideas and designed to make it as easy as possible for you to apply extreme ownership in your own life. Winning the War Within Leaders are responsible for everything and everyone within their purview. Willink and Babin make the bold assertion that there are no bad teams, just bad leaders. They use examples from the battlefield and the boardroom to show that all failures can be traced back to poor leadership.
and Babin provide a plan for how to implement and sustain their concepts of extreme ownership. They highlight the importance of decisiveness and show you how to create planning checklists that enable your team to operate like one fluid unit. Their emphasis on forethought and organization ties in quite closely with my mission of being able to Do Business On Your Own Terms ® .
CHIPOTLE-ROASTED CARROT SALAD
Inspired by Food & Wine magazine
INGREDIENTS
Where’s the Fun?
• 30 small carrots (2–3
• 2 tablespoons extra- virgin olive oil • 4 ounces watercress, stems trimmed • Plain Greek yogurt, for serving • Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
bunches), tops removed and carrots scrubbed
Black Friday Colonies Feast Football Gobble Grateful Gravy Potatoes Thankful Thanksgiving Tradition Turkey
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced • 1 teaspoon adobo sauce from the chipotle can • 1 tablespoon molasses
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350 F. In a rimmed baking sheet, toss carrots with chipotle peppers, molasses, and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and roast for 30–35 minutes. 2. Transfer carrots to a plate and let them cool completely. 3. Once cooled, toss carrots with adobo sauce. Lay across a platter, and top with watercress. 4. Serve alongside yogurt.
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INSIDE What Is Entrepreneurial Freedom ™ and How Can You Get It? How Thanksgiving Became an Official Holiday! ‘I Want My Life Back!’ Personal Planning Workshop ‘Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win’ Chipotle-Roasted Carrot Salad 3 Movie Locations to Captivate Your Eyes
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3 Famous Movie Locations You Need to Visit
Christ Church Cathedral Harry Potter captured the imagination of the world. There are multiple sites across the United Kingdom where you can get lost in the adventure that shaped a generation, but there is one spot at the top of almost every fan’s list. Hogwarts is a magic castle in J.K. Rowling’s books, but in real life, its film location is a functioning cathedral in Oxford. Take one step onto the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral, and you might begin to wonder when the next Quidditch match will begin. Tikal National Park When George Lucas witnessed a poster of this famous archeological site, he didn’t see an ancient culture — he saw Yavin IV, the perfect location for the Massassi Outpost, a rebel haven found in the first film of Star Wars. Though the movie paints a futuristic look at the region, walk through Tikal National Park, and you’ll experience it as a trip through history.
Movies captivate audiences partially
because of their ability to transport you to a different place. The heart yearns to be taken places, and cinema facilitates
that journey. But what if you could immerse yourself in those fantastical worlds by visiting the destinations that you’ve seen on the big screen? Here are three places that are worth the trip. Hobbiton The only aspect of “The Lord of the Rings” that is more compelling than the fantastical journey of Frodo is the alluring, untamed countryside and quaint towns that make up Middle Earth. The Green Dragon Inn, Bilbo’s house, and the rolling hills of New Zealand make for a backdrop that will transport you straight into the life of Middle Earth’s smallest people — only these houses aren’t small at all. And you don’t need large, hairy feet to enjoy them.
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