SHOW NOTES:
Times are tough right now with issues of colorism, chaos, and COVID. Now is the time, then, to collaborate and get creative. Embracing an innovative approach in finding solutions as well as pivots for yourself and your business is key.
Taking action and contributing to solutions are the only ways to keep moving forward in both life and business. Out of chaos comes creativity and that’s the path I’d rather follow!
Critic and Creator?
To start, I give some examples where history has looked on critics and cynics as deconstructive. If you’re simply a naysayer and not contributing to the solution, are you, at that point, part of the problem?
If you’re anything like me, you know, as a small business owner, no one is there to help you figure out how to make your business work. No one leads you to find new opportunities or to adjust on the fly as needed. You have absolutely no choice but to be ready to do whatever it takes to withstand the external (and other forces) that prey on you. YOU have to be willing to collaborate and create.
This is my first solo LIVE and there’s a lot of room for improvements—some already adopted! But the questions I pose will hopefully give you pause to consider your personal mindset.
Allowing yourself to step out of your comfort zone allows you to learn and grow. And in the case of using LIVE Streaming videos for business, the chance to connect and engage with people, far outweighs any discomfort.
Additionally, think of LIVE Streaming as an opportunity to work on your presentation and speaking skills along with achieving business development goals.
To Contribute Well
It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
~Mark Twain
Working to improve, if only slightly, with each action you take in business helps you maintain your creative energy. It’s important to:
- keep your ego in check
- think from a design perspective when presenting
- continue to practice presentation skills and processes
Keeping yourself from taking a critical or naysayer attitude allows you to keep taking actions to move forward and grow. Finding your inner happiness is obtainable if you realize it comes from within yourself. I mention this research and happiness guide in collaboration with Amanda Ricks for you to check out!
Exploration and experimentation are a way to chase and embrace change and are things strong leaders aren’t afraid to take on in business. Acceptance to hear and try different things leads to innovation, insights, and new ideas worth pursuing to adapt and move forward. Inertia gets you nowhere!
Critic or Creator…Your Choice!
As Chris Penn from Trust Insights says, “You always have the option to improve yourself, even if everything around you is on fire.” So take that option and keep moving forward, keep working, and keep improving so you’re ready for anything that comes along.
Where do you stand…critic or creator?
Transcript {tentative} Copy:
Are you a critic and a cynic
Or a contributor and creator?
That’s the question I have for you on today’s MSsYBiz podcast.
I’m Sue-Ann with WMB and I’m so pleased to have you here to check out today’s show!
Eminem has lyrics in his song, “On 🔥 Fire”…
“Critics… never got nothin nice to say, man”
“Critics…never ask me how my day went”…
Don’t be that guy… not in business or in life!
Further, my friend Larry Elkin shared an article recently quoting Theodore Roosevelt …
…from a famous speech he gave clear back in the early 1900s…expressing that cynicism is for the weak and not for those who DO great things, who move things ahead.
In the post, it warns that we must not mistake cynicism for critical thinking… and instead realize that it is a destructive attitude and not constructive thinking.
It’s easier to be a cynic or critic than it is to take action or plot to make things better. But some people simply wallow in negativity and critique the day away, getting nowhere.
I’ve said it before and feel it’s so true—particularly from my decades of business experience—I know it to be true, so I’ll say it again…out of constraints comes creativity.
Embracing creativity and contributing to the good allows for positive momentum and hope and plants the seeds for adaptability. Taking action and moving forward are always better than staying stopped in a critical cynical mass.
Resilience and Happiness
I recently completed some research on happiness and learned that studies back what I’ve always felt to be true…happiness comes from the inside out. External factors, even money, isn’t what makes a person happy, or happier. But, action does extend to happy people and resilience is a characteristic as well.
What makes some people resilient and others unable to bounce back?
In the research, resilience was tied to happiness in people, suggesting mindset and action are attributes of both.
Moving operations, taking action, and making things happen are essential business attributes for successful companies and require creativity and adaptability. Embracing adaptability in your business means accepting the (now inevitable) circumstances and evolving to meet new challenges.
Leading through change means adopting an attitude open to ideas, embracing UNlearning in your organization, an exploratory mindset, and experimentation at every turn.
Mark Twain once wrote: “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
“Resilience is not how firmly you can stand, but how fluidly you can bend.”
(HatTip… Linda Lopeke)
Christopher Penn in his recent “Almost Timely” Newsletter talks about how growth is the only anecdote for decay. Adding new energy and new blood to whatever you do keeps things fresh and forward-moving…
I love when he reminds us this, “You always have the option to improve yourself, even if everything else around you is on fire.”
- About the Author
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Sue-Ann Bubacz is a digital content strategist and writer/editor who works with best-selling authors, media personalities, and prominent artists to enhance their communication, elevate their influence, and transform their creative vision into tangible business results.