Personal success is linked to your choices

To be human is to have freewill!
Or at least that is how I see it.

To have freewill means that we have choices. The problem with choices is that we have to make them. We have to take responsibility for them.

Many people would prefer not to take responsibility for their choices, rather they will let others make their choices for them. Then they can blame the other for making a "bad" choice. Maybe the problem is that they are unwilling, or unable, to share responsibility or to understand what their responsibility is. But then whose responsibility is it?

As a sole/soul proprietor you are responsible. If you want to own your business, if you want to own your life, you have to take responsibility for the choices you make in your business and in your life. There is no insurance policy that you can buy to protect you if your decisions is not the right one.

There is no guarantee that the choices you have to make are going to be the best choices. The choices we have, are the options, alternatives, that life offers us at this moment in time and in this place. However, there is one choice that we always have, regardless of the time or place. That is the choice of not choosing.

But then, if we avoid the Choices we have, who do we blame? Who do I blame for not buying Google when it went public? There is really no answer to this question except "I take responsibility for my actions -- even if it means taking a lose".

To place blame is to surrender your freedom to others. And that is a choice, a bad choice.

Only when you take responsibility can you move forward. Only by taking responsibility for your choice, do you open up the opportunity to make a new choice.

And by learning from the past failure can you move on to success.

WHAT IS YOUR CHOICE?

Where the jobs are

There are many different reasons to set up a business or a career where one does. To be close to suppliers, raw materials, customers, transportation, etc. are some of the most common reasons. In the complex world of international commerce, these choices are even more critical. The commitment to locate is not a short term decision, despite the internet. Cost advantages in one sphere may be suddenly over turned by an environmental, technological, economic, social or political change in another.

Careers are the same way. Different skill sets are need for different industries as we all know. Steel workers concentrated around the big steel plants in the Mid-west and Great Lakes, oil workers around Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, actors in California and New York. Part of any sole/soul proprietor's business and/or career planning should include a realistic appraisal of the occupational distribution the area where you plan to settle. One place to turn for useful information is the U S Department of Labor's Mapping out a career: An analysis of geographic concentration of occupations

In a nutshell:

What you do for a living and where you live have a lot to do with each other. Explore the connection between occupation and location

Are You a Social Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is not just a "capitalist" idea for making money. It is the dream of creating value where an opportunity is perceived. Social entrepreneurs see opportunities in the problems our society faces. They see the challenge and are willing to assume the risks of finding solutions to these problems. What are the Key Traits that go into making a successful social Entrepreneur?

This Harvard Business Review 2009 interview with John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur, SustainAbility presents some ideas about what makes a good social entrepreneur.