As you read this issue, think about these insightful words from Mildred Newman:

Do not mistake activity for achievement.

Christina Bartolomeo's Cupid & Diana is a charming story set in Washington DC. While it's largely a predictable love story, I was more fascinated by the heroine's entrepreneurial journey. When the story opens, Diana is the new owner of an established consignment store in Dupont Circle. Since the previous owner had treated it as a hobby, Diana didn't step into a thriving operation. Our heroine was in trouble and facing shop closure-abandoning her dream.

Prior to buying the store, Diana--like many of her fellow citizens--had been a bureaucrat. "I worked there four years," she reports, "and when I left people thought of me as having been a short-timer. Only four years, when most of them left by retiring or through intervention by the Grim Reaper. People at the Division were like lifers at a minimum security prison. The glorious, highly colored world beckoned outside, but day by day they believed in it less and less."

To make matters worse, her fiance, his family and Diana's family are hostile and indifferent to her enterprise. (This all sounded sadly familiar.) Diana does her best to ignore their scorn, but has no idea how to turn things around. Like most of us, she'd never had a class in Nurturing an Idea and is clueless. Fortunately, Diana's enterprising younger sister (an old pro at ignoring naysayers) arrives in town and convinces the shaky entrepreneur to make some changes. Imagination and plenty of sweat equity launch the transformation.

While Cupid & Diana isn't great literature it's a wonderful reminder of the synergy that can happen when creative thinkers join together to solve a problem.That's been on my mind more than usual lately as I gear up for Follow Through Camp. Like Diana, many people arrive at the entrepreneur's journey without much support or encouragement from family and friends. However, put them in a room with like-minded people and synergy erupts.

Last week, I came across an article by Mike Myatt who writes about leadership. He got my attention with this teaser: "The one thing that sets great leaders apart. It's not what you think." Of course, I was curious and when I checked out the article I was startled to see this:

"Follow through--it seems like a pretty basic concept doesn't it? When I was just starting out in business one of my original mentors told me to 'just do what you say you're going to do, and that, in and of itself, will place you in a very select group within the business world.' Being young and naive at the time, it seemed impossible to me that doing something so basic could lead to great success. Well, now that I'm older and more experienced, all I can say is 'how right he was!' It never ceases to amaze me at the number of people that fail to deliver on their commitments. Is it really that hard to fulfill on promises made? So my question to you is this. Can you, and do you, walk the talk?"

Myatt is talking about a diffferent aspect of Follow Through then we'll be focusing on in Camp. However, after reading his article I realized that if we don't follow through on our own dreams, if we don't do what we know in our hearts we want to do, if we never find the way, we're failing ourselves. Being a person who follows through begins with bringing our own ideas to life.

Diana's dream just needed a more seasoned entrepreneur's ideas to get it on the right track. Maybe yours does, too. If, like Diana, you haven't had the Nurturing an Idea class, you'll find it here. Best of all you can use it over and over with every new idea you want to bring to life. While the upcoming Follow Through Camp on November 6 & 7 is almost full, we still have a couple of spots open. Early Bird pricing ends on October 20th. That's tomorrow, by the way.

Follow Through Camp/Early Bird Ending

While I've really missed doing Making a Living Without a Job and my other short programs, I'm looking forward to three more seminar Saturdays before the end of the year. I'll be adding I Hate Marketing to the mix this time around. If you live in any of these places, check them out.

Las Vegas, NV, UNLV, Saturday, October 24, 702/895-3395

San Antonio, TX, Saturday, October 31 (costumes optional), 210/397-8100

Portland, OR, Portland Community College Saturday, November 14, 503/977-8888

Buon Viaggio Blog

Barbara