What’s Important for an Entrepreneur NOT to do.

Often, entrepreneurs are so over-functioning that they feel the need to stick their nose in everything. It makes them feel good but is not necessarily what’s best for the company or its employees. They think that if their fingerprint is not on every little thing that comes out of the company, they are not being a good business owner.

The result is usually that the entrepreneur loses focus, becomes very fragmented and moves away from using his/her core strengths.

What’s worse is that he stands like a big tree over his employees and creates a shadow over them. And nothing grows well in a shadow. So, he stunts the growth of his biggest assets and therefore the company’s potential is never realized.

My dad’s cousin used to own a hair salon. He would spend about 10 minutes on my dad’s hair and charge him $20. This was with the “cousin discount.” This price used to bother my dad and one day he got the nerve to complain about it.

My dad said, “Fred, for $20 bucks you spend 10 minutes and barely cut anything off!”

Fred’s answer was classic. He said, “Sam, it’s not what I take off, it’s what I leave on.”

Nice answer I thought. And he was right. Fred could have cut my dad’s hair entirely off for the $20 but he would have looked terrible. Instead, he shaped it nicely and my dad had a handsome look!

I have learned to work this lesson in to my own business. I try to not “cut” too much into the responsibilities that belong to the talented people I have hired and work so hard to keep at my company.

It’s not about what I do all the time, it's about what I DON’T do.

It’s important to simply let my employees do their jobs. And they do them well! Especially when I give them the breathing room to do so…

My job is two-fold: To hire people much smarter than me in their respective fields and then get the hell out of their way so they can reach their potential.

It’s a win-win-win. The employee wins, I win and the company wins! Who can argue with that?

So, here’s a message to all those over-functioning entrepreneurs who think they have God standing on their shoulder guiding every move: Get the hell out of the way of your employees’ and company’s potential!

Remember, it’s not always what you do that counts; it’s often what you do NOT do that counts even more.

Facebook. A Roledex on Steriods?

Are you on Facebook yet? If not, think again. It's not just for college students anymore.

I currently have 321 “really close” Facebook friends. And most of them are above 30 years of age! I have reconnected with a ton of friends from high school, college, post college, plus current friends and business associates. I have even met new friends on Facebook!

A lot of it is just fun stuff; reconnecting through photos, posts and writing on each other’s “walls.”

But there is some real value too. I now have a fair amount of my contacts all in one place and can reach them anytime and anywhere. I don’t even have to remember their email addresses!

It literally is a modern day rolodex. For all of you Gen Y’ers, people born before 1980 used to have this thing called a rolodex. It was a funny card catalogue type of contraption where you handwrote and stored your contact’s name, address and phone number. We would actually put it in alphabetical order and flip instantly in seconds to the person we needed to call! It was a modern marvel in its day…

Facebook is a modern day rolodex; on steroids.

This modern day rolodex actually has more than just names, addresses and phone numbers. It has the person’s profile, religious views, political stance, marital status, favorite music, photos, updates and much more!

I bet that if you were stranded in a city due to a cancelled flight, you could update you Facebook status to let people know and an old friend on Facebook from that city would see your update and let you sleep over. Who knows?

I have to admit it; Facebook is fun and useful. I love connecting with old and new friends on it. Not to taint it, but I have even done business on it. I couldn’t connect with a business contact through phone or email, so I “Facebooked” him.

You know what? He responded. Maybe there is such a thing as Facebook guilt?