A while back and I won't say when for fear of embarrassment, my CPA handed me the "jump drive".   I sadly took the damn thing with a lot of trepidation. 

See, I'm a product of the '80's and am a complete nut-bag psycho about computers.  What's that mean? 

I'm in that age bracket that was going to school when things, like overnight, went from using a typewriter to using a computer.  Anyone guess what's coming?  See.  These were the old days when Microsoft or whoever didn't automatically have a default setting for saving your work.  So I can admit that more than once I may have been hours into a project or paper when ... OOOOOPS! ... hit the wrong button.  All the work now GONE.  GONE.  Even the story and thought of it turbos me back to those days when your response was to request God for instant death, throw or possibly destroy something, or simply think about throwing up.  If you weren't around during those days, consider yourself lucky.

Well apparently my CPA was a little miffed at our amateurish attempt year after year to put all of our office transactions in the right spot.  We get right to the point where our books can be easily followed by the trained eye but there's those little things that make our CPA guy have little twitches.  So he fixed them for us.  Thank you very much.  I didn't ask him to but he does it.  Then, he hands the file to me on a jump drive and explains that I need to override our data, which by the way is backed up on the (proprietary) software's cloud.

So I've basically been alive to witness the birth and evolution of the modern day computer filing system.  We all know how it's structured.  I think they taught my kid this stuff around 4th grade.

Then why does the (proprietary) accounting software have to do things differently and their way.  Who is the jerk that came up with the command "RESTORE A COPY", for example?  I HATE this software.  HATE IT.

Because of this I have been literally stepping around the jump drive that has been sitting on one of the office tables for some time now.  I walk around it.  I don't look at it.  And yet it calls me.  We cannot continue with creating our 2013 bookkeeping until I do what I'm supposed to do with it.  Today I attempted.  Today I failed.  Now it's time for Plan B. 

I've had two other people that I interviewed and exhaustively talked to them about recruiting and using the phone.  They wanted to work here.  The prospect of making 'good money' was enough to keep them nodding "yes".  "Yes.  Steve.  I can do that," they would say.  And as you can probably predict, by day two of their new career launch they had become insanely frightened of the telephone.  I would sadly watch as the first call would be made.  Then maybe a second.  Soon enough, my new rain-maker was reading resumes all day long.  And a couple weeks later, sometime with me staring at some real tears (which kind of baffled me), I would have to sit there and explain that this is just not for them.

I also have fear when I reach about the fourth or fifth rung of a ladder.  So sometimes my house gutter look kind of like a mini version of the Niagara Falls when it's pouring rain.

What is your fear?  Can you name it?  Do you ignore or avoid it?

Ever seen those guys that jump off the mountains with the flying squirrel outfits.  How do they do that?

I was a little irritated yesterday at a client on life support and I picked up the phone yesterday and called the President of the $3 Billion company.  After a six or seven minute very RESPECTFUL call with his executive admin, I thanked her and within five minutes got a call from HR to straighten things out.  

I easily and always face THIS KIND of fear without hesitation.  This is how I prep for my retirement and send my kid to the university and put food on the table.  When it comes to recruiting and keeping the business machine running, I don't care what it takes.  I don't care.  I do it.

"Golly, I wonder what Bob's thinking.  He's had the offer for two days.  Should I e-mail him.  Text him maybe.  Maybe I can call HR and ask them some silly question and then slip a quickie in to see if they've heard from Bob.  Does Bob hate me?  Maybe I should caller ID block my number and call Bob's cell to see if he answers.  I can't believe Bob isn't COMMUNICATING!  Argh."

Screw that!  Pick up the phone and call him and ask him if he's taking the job.  If you get Bob's voicemail, tell him you are calling to find out if he's taking the job and what he would like you to tell HR.  Believe me folks, most of the time, once the candidate sees the offer, their minds are pretty much made up.  You can't get through this business doing deal after deal of maybe and big drama.  At least not in my industry.

I am trying to work through my remaining fears of the various aspects of this business and the list has gotten pretty tiny.  Except admittedly when it comes to file managing that stupid accounting program. 

OK.  Day 10.  I, honestly and blushingly, was given major and very flattering compliments by two of my new clients since Day 1 of this reboot project.  In both cases, the managers championed me through their vendor approval process and I have now got sendouts.  So happy!  I also have started getting sendouts with a third company but they weren't bombarding me with the 'sweet nothings'. 

I'm excited.  I'm looking at probably about a half dozen to a dozen interviews next week if I can connect all the dots. 

I did not get a chance to market today which I'm bummed about.  I've set aside two absolutely unreal MPC's and once I get marketing, it'll be a breeze.

Gotta run!  Think about your fears.  Try to face one down tomorrow.  After all, you've got the weekend to recover.  :)

- Steve