The other day I was reading through the Art of Non-Conformity’s archives and I found a post that Chris wrote in the very beginning. I found myself nodding my head quite a bit as I read it. My favorite part is:

True entrepreneurship involves the creation of processes, not just the creation of work. If you’ve created a project that requires continual inputs from you and relies on your own work to keep all the plates in the air, congratulations! You have just built a job for yourself. Yes, you have built a job, and maybe even a better job than most people have—but it’s a job, not a business.

A business earns money while you sleep and while you are on vacation. A business is an asset that can be bought and sold. A true business is largely independent of its owner, although of course this is a matter of degree and only rarely is 100% independent. Therefore, entrepreneurs pay close attention to the creation of processes that will eventually allow themselves to focus on what they’re best at, or perhaps even leave the operation entirely.

via The Art of Non-Conformity » What Entrepreneurship Is and Isn’t.

This is a small, but oh-so-important important point about entrepreneurs. Many quit their jobs to do some form of work as a one-man consulting company. In reality all they’ve done is swap one job for another with better hours and less security.

There seems to be a new push for “solopreneurship” but I just can’t get behind it for the reason’s quoted above. This is one of many facets of building businesses that I plan on exploring later on.

Jonathan Fields, Career Renegade Extraordinaire, posted a little gem the other day. He literally saves you from reading thousands of books. I probably haven’t read quite as much as he has, but I can vouch for these none-the-less… Over the last dozen years, I’ve devoured thousands of books on business, leadership, success and lifestyles and [...]

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich launched his automate your finances boot camp today. The curriculum is pretty solid. I believe having your personal finances in good shape is the hull of your Entrepreneurship (see what I did there?) If you are stressing a lot about finances or spending too much [...]

My last post was about doing the easy stuff that you’ve been putting off just because you don’t have all the answers or a grand plan. I decided it was time to eat some more of my own dog food and take a look at my incomplete projects. The shot above is from my active [...]

I was at a dinner party the other day and observed the following fascinating exchange (names have been changed to protect the innocent ): Cheryl is enjoying her wine and poking away at her Blackberry when she notices her acquantance Jude had just arrived. Cheryl gets up and walks over to Jude. They greet eachother with a hug’s and hello’s. Jude asks, “Hey! How [...]

Now that Brett has officialy retired from productivity blogging, I’m sure long-time readers are wondering what will come of The Cranking Widgets Blog. The short answer is easy: CW is, and will continue to be, mainly about productivity. There is, however, a long answer. What a blogger blogs about and the spin they put on topics will always be driven by their [...]

With all of this talk of accomplishing tasks, people like you and me can easily lose sight of one of the great pleasures of life. Freaking relaxing.I can tell you that I am usually finding myself consulting lists and checking inboxes when I should be enjoying the movie I’m watching or the book I’m reading. [...]

Few would argue that Merlin Mann is the Godfather of GTD/productivity blogging. About a month ago he posted Four Years and followed it up with Time, Attention, and Creative Work. If you haven’t read these, please do so now… It’s good stuff. What do you think? I look at both of these posts in a [...]

The recent financial turmoil has created a situation where unemployment could be a problem for quite some time. The good news for the unemployed is that there are tangible things that you can do to increase your chances of getting noticed for the jobs that are available. Sure, jobs are going away, but jobs are [...]

Hello, My name is Andy and I’m the new guy here at The Cranking Widgets Blog. While I hope to share far more valuable information in the months and years to come, I’d like to kick things off by getting some answers to the obligatory “who the heck is this guy?” out of the way. [...]