Welcome to Komo2o! You might be wondering… what exactly is this site and what does Komo2o mean?
To answer the first question—Komo2o is a blog that is going to be a culmination and outpouring of what I have discovered in my career that includes twenty years with the Navy, and sixteen more years as a successful entrepreneur.
My goal in sharing this information is to give back and impart the lessons and best practices I’ve acquired, primarily to assist small business owners and folks currently exploring and/or building their own entrepreneurial ventures.
Certainly, however, any leader or practitioner of business should be able to find nuggets of useful “gold” in the information, stories, strategies, and tips I will be sharing.
Now what’s with the name? Why did I decide to call my blog—Komo2o?
The name Komo2o was something by then-eight-year-old son came up with… I loved Komodo dragons and what they represented—the number ONE predator in its own ecosystem. It paired nicely with the idea or metaphor that every single person has their own tribe—their own ecosystem.
To generate the greatest success, you want to be the best and most effective hunter or predator within that ecosystem. Of course, first, you must determine and define what that ecosystem—that tribe—is for you. Certainly, an idea that was very informed by Seth Godin’s book, “Tribes.”
Seth is both a friend and someone I’ve learned a lot from over the years. His ideas—such as those behind Tribes, his concept of The Purple Cow, and many of his other works have definitely shaded much of my strategic direction in my professional execution and exploration.
In Komo2o, I’m going to often emulate much of that work and if you’re familiar with his blog, mine will likely have a similar style. We’re going to keep the read here light and fast—practical too. The goal is to have some sort of entry once or twice a week. About three times a month, we’ll also share a tool or a template, case study, etc. that can help make your life—professionally and/or personally… easier.
The Komo2o blog—if you decide to embark on this journey with us, will ultimately help you examine where you are now in your entrepreneurial journey and where you want to go, as well as how to best get from “here” to “there.”
Of course, hopefully something that caught your eye in that last statement is that you can’t really get anywhere if you don’t know where you want to go. Yet, it’s also critical to know where you are starting from too.
I learned a lot in my life from my grandfather, JB Williams. He had career success that spanned many decades, but his last successful entrepreneurial exercise was JB Williams Roses, or JB Williams and Associates Roses. It was through watching him birth and grow this venture that I discovered what would come to be one of my most valuable lessons—for the greatest fulfillment and success, your vocation should come from your passion.
In other words, you should uncover that thing you love to do, and find a way to turn that into your job. There’s an old quote that says, “If you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work another day in your life.” That was certainly true for my grandfather. He put on a suit and tie and worked in his rose business almost every day until he passed away in his mid 90’s.
In Komo2o, transferring the core of this sentiment into what works best for entrepreneurs today is paramount. Specifically, I’d love to help entrepreneurs get rid of the idea of—and quest—for “retirement.” So many are consistently focused on this point in their life where “work” ends and they can finally kick back, carefree, and enjoy their life.
Yet, for so many, when that day comes… it’s also often accompanied by a lack of health, a hindered lifestyle, a diminished quality of life, and “lack”—worrying about finances at least a little more (if not a lot more) from that day forward until the end of life.
However, I am not saying that you just need to clock hours at a J-O-B forever and ever either. When you understand why and how removing the idea of “retirement” from your vocabulary and mind transforms your mission and vision, you will be taking the first step to turning your advocation into your vocation.
This begins with redefining what work means in such a way that “what you do” motivates you, excites you, and challenges you on an ongoing basis, while also allowing you to live and enjoy the attractive part of a “retirement lifestyle” NOW.
We can always be productive. We can always provide, do, or build something that contributes positively to others and to society at large. In the Komo2o blog, I’ll spend quite a bit of time on this idea, supporting it with the different career stages I’ve been through in my own life to build, grow, and nurture this type of career foundation and path for myself, myself and my wife, and others as well.
Very often, the best way to command this type of career and life change—where your advocation becomes your vocation—is through execution on an entrepreneurial vision.
Once upon a time, one of my mentors shared a book with me called The EMyth, by Michael E. Gerber. This book is highly regarded by entrepreneurs, commanding seven or eight reprints over the years. The thesis of the work is that most people wear many, many, professional “hats” and almost always, the chief hat worn is that of technician.
In other words, nearly everyone who works is an “execution master” of some kind—such as a writer, baker, welder, computer tech, etc. Then, one day that technician or execution master might realize…
While I am good at what I do—maybe even love what I do—I don’t like doing it for my current boss or my current company. And then… maybe I should do it for myself! “I should start my own business!”
In The EMyth, this is called the “entrepreneurial seizure.” Basically, it’s the realization…
I don’t have to keep doing what I do in a place or for a person where I no longer feel appreciated or fulfilled. I can keep doing what I love but be happier doing it, by doing it for myself—starting my own business.
Yet, there is so much more to starting and running a successful business than just being good at what we do. Running a profitable company that does well requires an owner who can wear many hats efficiently and effectively.
In this blog, I’ll provide information to help you focus on identifying and understanding the answers to some important questions to some core questions about growing your business including:
- What is my personal mission?
- What am I here to do as a person?
- How can my business help me do those things?
- Am I creating a lifestyle business or a scalable enterprise?
For that last question specifically, it’s important to make this determination right up front. However, there is no right or wrong answer. Rather, it’s just that the downstream strategy will be different depending on which of those business types you’re building.
With a lifestyle business—the general focus is around doing something one is passionate about and turning that into a source of income. It’s…
I love doing this thing. I want to make money doing this thing. I want to surround myself—and my life—with work that involves this thing, allowing me to live comfortably and benefitting tax-wise, all while pursing my passion from now until when I’m gone.
Lifestyle business area great! There is nothing wrong with a lifestyle business. Yet, with a lifestyle business, what tends to happen is that as the business grows, you’re giving yourself a bigger and bigger job.
Hopefully, you’ll learn to share that work with others—usually, via hiring and delegation. But here’s the catch—a lifestyle business usually cannot be unconnected from its creator. In other words, if you remove the founder or owner, the business cannot stand and continue.
A scalable enterprise, on the other hand, is different. A scalable enterprise is meant to be built and grown, then sold, by the founder. In other words, if the founder has done their work well, eventually, the business continues to live even after the founder has gone away.
While The EMyth book covers that in a very in-depth manner, in the Komo2o blog I likely won’t speak to that journey. I think for many who focus on the scalable enterprise area—growing, scaling, selling—becomes a habit returned to over and over, usually, in such a way where the idea itself is diminished a bit with each iteration.
What you will find in the Komo2o blog will include my sharing of what I’ve observed and learned in that area specifically, combined with the business strategy and mindset you need to identify and develop to transform from doer to owner—and then to manager and leader—in such a way that your business will survive, thrive, and even grow over time.
I invite you to come on this journey with me. By signing up for my free business blog you’ll get in-the-trenches with me to take you where you want to go, using tools and tactics I’ve learned over the years that I can personally attest will drive huge results for your small business.