The Blog of Lisa Morosky

This past Tuesday my husband and I had a little bit of a household mishap.

My husband woke up early to get ready to go to classes. He did his normal stick-something-in-the-toaster-oven-while-he-gets-ready-thing. The next thing I know I woke up to the fire alarm going off and my husband making a lot of noise in the kitchen.

Turns out, he left whatever item it was in the toaster oven for way too long and the toaster oven caught fire. My husband used his fireman skills and extinguished it, leaving the place smelling like smoke (still does, not as bad, but definitely still does).

But I was thinking about it today, and I saw an incredible metaphor here…for all entrepreneurs.

We’re so busy focusing on the day-to-day and the getting by and the right now and “putting out fires”, that we’re neglecting the important things we need to keep our eye on in our businesses (like long-term goals, and what the next move is).

Are the small tasks taking your focus away from the big things that need your attention? Are you allowing yourself to be easily side-tracked?

Take some time today to get focused and back in line with your goals. What are you currently neglecting that could blog up in your face later?

[For you fans of "The Office", here's a little clip that my husband and I are now singing in regards to his little toaster oven/kitchen on fire situation.]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmODioqnKbE[/youtube]

It’s no real secret that I’m a huge fan of reality TV. One of the shows I’ve become addicted to recently is “Flipping Out” on Bravo. If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s essentially about Jeff Lewis, a totally outrageous house-flipper living in Los Angeles, and his equally as eccentric “posse”. It’s an entertaining show, mainly because Jeff is so obsessive compulsive and out-there.

But aside from being a rather peculiar guy, Jeff and I actually share a lot of the same qualities when it comes to looking at our lives as entrepreneurs. Here are just a few:

Our passion and motivation comes from a deep sense of dissatisfaction with our current situation.
Currently, Jeff is back in the business of working with clients because the house-flipping market is crap. There was a recent episode where Jeff was annoyed with some clients he’s working with. The anger and frustration he felt fueled him to call up his real estate agent and work on getting back into the game of house-flipping. He hated his situation so much and he let those feelings fuel big change.

Hello. This is me exactly. I’m doing what I do now because I hated my last job with a burning passion. I turned that frustration into hard work in order to improve my life.

No one can tell us no. We need to figure it out ourselves.
We share a ridiculously stubborn attitude when it comes to business.

I could have a thousand people telling me that something will never work, but I’m just going to have to try and either succeed or fail on my own.

We hate wasting time.
Jeff literally “flips out” when people waste time.

I turn into that person too. Every minute is a minute that can be spent on a task, whether that’s writing, emailing, or making dinner. Time isn’t given to us to be wasted. But I’ll admit, this attitude is definitely detrimental at times.

Jeff also won’t waste his time on clients or opportunities which aren’t worth his while. This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve had to learn as a new entrepreneur – saying no.

We let others share in our success.
When you’re successful, it’s really important to take others up with you and share your success with those that helped to get you where you are.

Honestly, I think Jeff Lewis is a good businessman (most of the time). I think he’s an aggressive and smart entrepreneur, with a human quality to him that others can relate to.

I see a lot of my business philosophy in him, but I see about zero of my life philosophy in him. I think that’s important to mention.

Image Credit: http://maps-dota.blogspot.com