Culture: Party of One

Culture: Party of One.

Listening to the EntreLeadership Podcast, you can't go too long with out the word "culture" being mentioned.  I'm pretty sure Chris LoCurto has the word "culture" tattooed on his bicep!

You hear how you're creating culture no matter what. Culture affects productivity. It's up to leaders to set the culture. It takes a lot of work to create and maintain a culture. And so forth.

So I started trying to decide what I want the culture to be like in the business I'm starting.

Hmmm...

 

• a love of soccer

• fun atmosphere

• desire to teach and encourage

• determination to be the best

And then I made a goal to implement it as soon as I had 5 team members!

But then I started thinking that if I didn't try to implement a culture until there were 5 team members, that means there would be 4 team members that would slip into a culture that was created inadvertently by my lack of proactively setting one.

 

How??

But how could I set culture when I'm the owner, CEO, COO, CFO, and every other C-O a business may have???

I didn't know exactly what I could do all my my lonesome. But last Friday night I set my alarm for 6am Saturday morning. I decided I'd take my soccer ball and head over to the park a couple blocks from my house. And I'd just listen to my iPod, kick around the ball, chase it, dribble, enjoy the early morning and "kick around" some business ideas.

So that's what I did (and if you don't believe me, ask Lily Kreitinger... She sent out a tweet at 6:05 am and I responded, so there's proof!!!)

I had a great time.

 

I'd forgotten how fun it was to just kick around a soccer ball all by yourself!  When you're all alone and no one's watching, you can pretend your Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, or Christiano Ronaldo!

I headed back to my house, hopped in the shower and grabbed some cereal for breakfast.

 

And that's when it dawned on me.

I was creating the culture of my business! What I'd just done was exactly how I envision brainstorming sessions with my team, and many of the meetings we'll have as a company.

 

Standing in the grass kicking around ideas, challenges, solutions and a ball!

On Saturday, June 9, 2012 the CEO, COO, CFO and every other C-O a company needs of my business called the first brainstorming session of the company to order.  Every team member was present and as we kicked around a soccer ball we kicked around ideas. We got some good ones too! 

I was beginning to create a culture that will grow and strengthen as time goes on and business expands. But on that Saturday morning it was Culture: Party of One. And it was great!

 

 

Question: what do you do to set the culture you want in your business, group, or family?

 

 

 

 

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Twitter: Skropp2

 

I See Success...

"Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile idea."

That is a quote by Earl Nightingale.  And by that definition, Today, I am successful.

It may seem like a small thing to many of you, but today I took the first actual steps towards the "...realization of a worthwhile idea" that I have had in my mind for probably almost a decade.

Soccer Camps

For nearly 10 years I have had the dream of starting a soccer camp.  A business that was mine, a business that combined several of my passions--soccer, coaching, business ownership, and financial success--into one place. 

Today I took the first real steps in making that dream a reality.  This morning my sister went with me to our local soccer complex.  There she took pictures for me to put on the new blog I just started.  I got some great ones, and I started my blog this afternoon.  You can check it out at www.afterpracticesoccer.blogspot.com. If you have any interest in soccer, haha. 





Dissatisfaction and Discouragement

"Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision."  ~Anonymous

More than once in the past I have found myself dissatisfied with my life and discouraged with where I seemed to be going (or not going, as was more often the case...).  This has rarely had anything to do with where I was, I've had great jobs, with great pay and management.  It just was not my vision.  Like it says in Proverbs 29, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (vs. 18).  I dont think it means that you just disappear, I think its like when fruit perishes, it just gets old, brown and dead looking.  Likewise, when we don't have vision, our lives get old, boring, stale and frustrating. 

When I have lost my vision, I get very discouraged and depressed with where I am in my life.  When I think of what I want to accomplish, who I want to be, and begin to make plans to that end, I find joy, excitement, and energy.  It has been amazing the excitement I've felt in these past couple weeks as I've been working on how to get closer to my goal of owning my own company focused on coaching soccer. 

When you have vision

"When you have vision it affects your attitude.  Your attitude is optimistic rather than pessimistic." ~Charles R. Swindoll

I don't expect you to understand.  I really don't.  How such a seemingly simple thing--a few digital photos and a stupid little blog with only one post could affect my attitude so profoundly.  I'm pretty sure most of my family and friends don't understand it--and thats ok.  It isn't their dream, it's mine.  I'm emotionally attached to it, its been nagging at me for years now!  While you see a little blog, I see a blog with thousands of visitors, I see an ebook that is downloaded hundreds or thousands of times, I see a summer soccer camp that people travel hundreds of miles to attend with world class training and elite coaches.  I see seminars and day camps dedicated to helping youth and adult, player and coach, to achieve whatever it is they want to accomplish--whether that's a professional soccer career or simply to coach their 10 year old daughter's rec team better. 

I See Success

I see success.  I see lives changed.  I see a life filled with joy and peace because I am still in the process of progressively realizing my worthwhile idea...that is even bigger and greater than today.  I see a man that my wife and my children can be proud of because I reached for my goal, I overcame my obstacles, I endured the hardships. 

I don't expect you to see that.  But I do.  And you know what, I may fail.  I may never reach what I hope to achieve.  But I will never give up reaching for it. 

"I'm going to be a great leader of this generation.  The stars in the space up there are my witnesses." ~Toba Beta

 That is why I am so excited for this stupid little blog.  So laugh if you want when, and if, you look at it.  But someday, somehow it will be something.  It will mean something.  It will achieve something.  Or I will go out with a blaze of glory and a content heart, knowing I did all that I could do.

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice.  Not something to wish for, but to obtain." ~William Jennings Bryan

Question: What are you doing to achieve your vision?





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Twitter: @Skropp2



Photo copyright: Linda Sieverkropp, All Rights Reserved.