Choosing a Powerful Name for Your Company

It has been said that one of the most agonizing decisions for many entrepreneurs is coming up with a name for their new business. Often, those drawn to the business world are not as strong minded when it comes to such seemingly creative tasks as giving a catchy name to their company. You might be interested to learn, however, that the best names have very little to do with creativity and imagination, and everything to do with business acumen and a thorough research of the marketplace. This should put some of you at ease, who feel as though they missed out by skipping that creative writing course in college and are now at the mercy of choosing a boring, unmemorable name you will hate before the paint is dry on your sign. Here are some things you can do to choose a powerful name for your company.

First of all, you’ll need to think about what you want to get across to people. What types of words or phrases could you associate with your business? You’re at the molecular level at this point, so just remember to take it one step at a time. Think about your business and the functions, products, and services it will provide. Think about your target audience and a few of the things they are likely to enjoy, other than your products. Think about some of your favorite business names and see if you can find a through-line that connects any or many of those names. Do they have a common theme? Think about not only your favorite names, but the names of those companies that are most successful. Consider Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald’s, for instance. Do you notice anything similar about these names?

Once you’ve thought about these things, take a while to simply brainstorm some name possibilities. Think of at least ten, and try to make them all fit in with the considerations above. If you’ve found a common element to those names you came up with, see if you can’t follow in kind with some of your own names. Don’t try to sit down and do this all at one time. Keep a notepad by your bed or on your desk and return to it anytime you happen to think of a good name to add to the list. Don’t stretch the task over the next year by any means, but it will be good to let your mind free to think about names and associate your task with different things.

After you’ve completed your list, it’s time to start crossing off the ones that won’t work and coming up with a final list of two or three from which to choose. One criterion for keeping or discarding is whether or not the name is too specific. For instance, if your business will be selling printer ink, you may not want to name your company Ink, inc., even though it is creative and catchy (and incorporates the hard K sound found in those businesses we brought up before). If a few years, you want to start selling a hundred other office products the name could be a limiter, don’t let it.

After you’ve narrowed the list, go with your gut. Choose the name you personally like the best and go with it, no matter what anyone else says. After all, in the end it’s your business, not your friends or family’s. If you like it, live with it. It’s your new business name.

Dare to Believe!

First of three articles by Patricia Thibodeau.

Fort Delaware; 3 December, 1864
Andrew was almost asleep when he heard a voice from the next bunk say "Jackson, what you aiming to do when you get paroled?" Andy raised his head and looked into the gloom. The boy who spoke was tall, and no doubt hearts broke quite regular over him at home, but the months in prison had made him gaunt, gray face bones sticking out in a permanently grim grin that did not extend to his eyes. Andrew shook his head, mentally correcting himself. No, not a boy. He was seventeen and had fought like a man. But at almost twenty-six, Andy felt a hundred years older than the youngster.
"Now, Jim, I told you over and over what I will do!" Andy wasn’t put out, just wanted to tease him a mite. God knew they had little enough to laugh about in that place, and took humor wherever they could find it.
Jim pulled himself up on his elbows a little, looked the other man up one side and down the other, and said, “Not like you had some place to go real quick, now is it? Talk to me, Jackson. It makes me forget where we are when you talk. Tell me again. Please."
Andy smiled at the boy. "Well, you know those mountains way over there, west of here?" Jim nodded his head a little, and now his eyes did smile. "Well, when I get out of here I will walk south 'til those mountains end. When I see Pulpit Rock, I will know I am home."
Jim sighed a little, lay down, and was quiet. Andy lay back on his own bunk, then, hoping to soon be lost in his own dreams. But he didn’t forget the conversation. Next day, when he had time, he took his pencil and added to the steadily growing stack of paper that contained his thoughts.
‘That is all we have to do in this place, remember and forget and dream. We do more dreaming than either of the other two. Our daytime dreams are, I suppose, a little easier to handle because of the daylight.
But when the dreams come at night, screams rip through the darkness, repeated a few minutes later from another raw throat, remembered hell using up the energy of men who can ill afford the loss.
We are, most of us, in bad physical condition. We need more than one good meal to put us back in order, but we survive on what we have each day.
That is the word. Survive. Most of us were hardy stock to begin with. We came from the mountains of Tennessee, the foothills of Alabama, the backwoods of Arkansas, and occasionally the muddy streets of cities. Most of us had worked hard all our lives.
Deprivation was nothing new to us, for none of us were wealthy. If we had been wealthy we would not have been here - we would either be at home with a substitute in our place or dead because we would have been well off enough to be an officer.
All us boys knew how to forage during the winter, and plant during the spring, and harvest the fruits of our labors. We could build houses and shoot squirrels and ride horses and love our families and pray to our God, but we cannot leave the hell we wake to each day.
Now our only harvest is when we collect the dead each morning and take them outside. They say the officer’s prison is even worse than ours. How that could be is hard to imagine. Best not to try.”

And so it was with great granddaddy. Even with the horrors of being a prisoner of war, he had a dream for a future; one that did not include death. A year after that conversation, when they turned him loose at the end of the war, he went out the gate with a glad heart and turned south. It was not an easy journey home, as you can imagine. Afraid to travel at night, because of unseen dangers on the road, and afraid to travel in the daylight, because all he had to wear was his uniform and some folks in the north were still smarting over the war, he walked early morning and late evening. What would take us, today, about 14 hours by car, took him three months by foot.

But the point is, he took that first step. He could have stood there at the gate, doubting his ability to walk; he could have sat down just over the hill, not believing that anyone wanted him to come home; he could have gone to the nearest town and become a stolen whiskey drunk. But he did none of those. He had made it through four years of war, two stays in prison (eight days shy of ten months the second time), and was determined to see the fields of home before he died. Eight hundred miles later, he arrived, unheralded. There were no marching bands, no crowds of people waving flags, only one old cow grazing in the meadow to greet him. But to him, that didn’t matter. His dream of seeing Pulpit Rock was realized. He married, fathered eleven children that lived, ran a successful business, taught school, wrote letters to the editor and was published several times in The Daily Hot Blast (forerunner to The Anniston Star), was a respected member of the community, and at 63, from his own bed and surrounded by the people he loved, said, “I just wanted you all to see how a man of God goes, and is not afraid, to meet his maker.” With his last breath, he tried to voice his favorite hymn. "Oh, sing to me of Heaven. When I am called to die, sing songs of Holy Ecstasy to waft my soul on high. When cold and sluggish drops roll off my marble brow, burst forth in strains of joyfulness, let Heaven begin below." And then he squeezed Merilza’s hand, smiled at his children, and left this world.

We can be like Andy. Despite trials and tribulations, despite prison walls either real or imagined, despite the lemons, we can live life to its fullest. But first we have to have a dream. Immediately after a layoff, or a divorce, or a death, going forward is the last thing we want to think about. Getting through one day at a time, five minutes at a time, is paramount. And the longer it takes, the worse it gets. Doubt and unbelief stand between us and total victory. But what God challenges us to do, we can do. If we want to. If we believe we can. If we will just take that first step.

You see, we have a promise, that we are armed with “incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ep 1:19) I challenge you today to shake off the double conditions of life. Forget the if onlys. Take the word “fail” out of your vocabulary. We are the children of a great and awesome Father, who wants only the best in life for us. Do not forget the sorrows of the past, but learn from them, have hope for tomorrow, and resolve that the future will be better, brighter, more wonderful than even your wildest dreams. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 15:13)

Blessings and hugs,
Patricia Thibodeau

Has Personal Responsibility Disappeared?

Where has responsibility disappeared to in your life and those around you? Do not cop out and say it is the societal norm … please. It is time for you to stand up and take responsibility back in your life and mentor those around you! You hear about responsibility every day, or better yet, lack there of. All we hear about is how no body takes responsibility for their actions … or their children have no responsibility or the parents take no responsibility and on and on.

I have not heard anyone to date offer up techniques to teach and mentor responsibility, so here here we are. Because I feel so strongly abut this, I offer to you my five simple techniques to re-train your self and teach those around you to be more responsible. These proven techniques cross all gender lines and age groups. Integrating these five proven techniques will foster discussion, action and ultimately greater responsibility for everyone involved.

Let’s start by grounding ourselves in what responsibility truly is. Responsibility is defined as; 1: answerable for acts or decisions 2: able to fulfill obligations. Wow, how much more simple can it get? Are you with me on this!!

Five Techniques to get responsibility back:
1. Start with yourself, baseline you daily tasks and conversations as well as commitments you engage in. Do you meet definition 1 criteria? Are you truly answerable for everything or do, or did you make up reasons why something did not get taken care of. Maybe you have too much on your plate and you over commit without realizing it; this is not an excuse but often a reality for people …simplify.
2. Simplify your commitments and responsibilities as much as possible. Start slow, take the time to recognize the signs that you are slipping out of the responsibility mode. This technique may require a little time, and only you can evaluate and eliminate the non value added portions of your day that my hinder your progression towards complete fulfilling the goal of *Taking Responsibility Back*.
3. Recognize the negative leading indicators in conversations or actions that drive you towards the *I’m not responsible for that…* plateau. These indicators are any action or decision you do not stand behind, go back to definition number 1. Remember how simple the definition is; guess what it still…is just practice it.
4. Lead by example, words are cheap. Live up to your commitment and commit to yourself to meet all the expectations. Act accordingly and you will soon realize people around you will follow your example. If they do not, don’t hesitate to call them out in a professional and non derogatory way. Simply reminded them of their decisions or commitments and if circumstance have changed fine, just communicate.
5. Mentor those around you who do not take responsibility as so defined in the dictionary. Professionally and non-derogatorily point out the facts (not your opinion) on a given decision or commitment. The person may deny your statement and become controversial, just state the facts and carry on. You can not make a person more responsible than they want to be.

Maybe the response to those without responsibility could be to send them a coy of this article. Best of luck and much success!

Never Settle for Ordinary

I have discovered a common attribute among successful people no matter the age, profession or location in the world … they never settle for ordinary.

Successful people in all walks of life at various ages discovered ordinary is not going to get them very far in life. Sure, being ordinary provides stability and the ability to fit in or adapt, but not get them ahead. If getting to the front is what you strive for, then stand out and never settle for being ordinary. Of course you are not going be the front runner in every venture you try, but the important aspect of your life is having the drive to not be ordinary.

Easier said then done? Sure it is, it is true that everything comes at a price, wow how many cliché’s can I get into one article, you get the point. Ok, here are my 6 how not to settle for being ordinary self checks for you.

Self Checks that will not allow you to settle for ordinary:

1. Take on a Leadership role at any age, task or activity. Step-up and start learning about your leadership skills. You probably already have a pretty good idea at this point what type of improvements are needed, this major step that takes experience and time.

2. Learn from your mistakes; do not make the same mistake over again.

3. Continuously Improve yourself mentally and physically. Find new and interesting subjects to learn about, searching out information online or better yet, reading a book provides a foothold into a wonderful habit.

4. Mentor those around you by exhibiting positive behaviors and habits. By teaching those around you about subjects within your span of knowledge you gain even more subject comprehension.

5. Set goals for yourself. Short and long term goals, easy goals or stretch goals … just set them and post them somewhere in writing on your computer, on the fridge in your office or car. Check yourself periodically on progress or lack there of.

6. Be Driven; do not let yourself become complacent or satisfied with where you are at or what you have achieved. When you reach some of your goals set new ones, tougher goals or some people refer to them as stretch goals.

If you do not know where you are going, how will you ever know when you get there?

Let me remind you what E.M. Cioran wrote – We are all geniuses when we dream!

Choosing a Powerful Name for Your Company

It has been said that one of the most agonizing decisions for many entrepreneurs is coming up with a name for their new business. Often, those drawn to the business world are not as strong minded when it comes to such seemingly creative tasks as giving a catchy name to their company. You might be interested to learn, however, that the best names have very little to do with creativity and imagination, and everything to do with business acumen and a thorough research of the marketplace. This should put some of you at ease, who feel as though they missed out by skipping that creative writing course in college and are now at the mercy of choosing a boring, unmemorable name you will hate before the paint is dry on your sign. Here are some things you can do to choose a powerful name for your company.

First of all, you’ll need to think about what you want to get across to people. What types of words or phrases could you associate with your business? You’re at the molecular level at this point, so just remember to take it one step at a time. Think about your business and the functions, products, and services it will provide. Think about your target audience and a few of the things they are likely to enjoy, other than your products. Think about some of your favorite business names and see if you can find a through-line that connects any or many of those names. Do they have a common theme? Think about not only your favorite names, but the names of those companies that are most successful. Consider Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald’s, for instance. Do you notice anything similar about these names?

Once you’ve thought about these things, take a while to simply brainstorm some name possibilities. Think of at least ten, and try to make them all fit in with the considerations above. If you’ve found a common element to those names you came up with, see if you can’t follow in kind with some of your own names. Don’t try to sit down and do this all at one time. Keep a notepad by your bed or on your desk and return to it anytime you happen to think of a good name to add to the list. Don’t stretch the task over the next year by any means, but it will be good to let your mind free to think about names and associate your task with different things.

After you’ve completed your list, it’s time to start crossing off the ones that won’t work and coming up with a final list of two or three from which to choose. One criterion for keeping or discarding is whether or not the name is too specific. For instance, if your business will be selling printer ink, you may not want to name your company Ink, inc., even though it is creative and catchy (and incorporates the hard K sound found in those businesses we brought up before). If a few years, you want to start selling a hundred other office products the name could be a limiter, don’t let it.

After you’ve narrowed the list, go with your gut. Choose the name you personally like the best and go with it, no matter what anyone else says. After all, in the end it’s your business, not your friends or family’s. If you like it, live with it. It’s your new business name.

Is Quality Really Free?

We have all heard the phrase; *Quality Is Free*, but is that statement really true? I think it is true from the perspective when you personalize *quality* to an individual, not a product or consumable item.

Webster’s definition of quality is simply, 1: peculiar and essential character, or feature 2: excellence or distinction.

Perform a little introspection and ask yourself, *Do I perform all of my tasks at home and work in such a manner for them to be identified with the term excellence?*. If you can good for you, it is very difficult for me to say I perform everything at that high of level, but I do try and complete every task to the best of my abilities.

We have a tendency to over use some words when describing products, Quality is one of them. What I do not see is the term overused when describing people, either their character or work habits as an individual. I believe this is true because, when *quality* is used in describing a person, the word carries a mark of high distinction and excellence.

If you find yourself using the term *quality* to describe anything short of excellence, stop and realign yourself. Why, because if you don’t there might be a tendency for you in your life to fall short in some tasks, work performance or even relationships. Do not shortchange yourself, do everything within your power to perform even the simple tasks to the best of your ability. Lead by example and soon positive changes will materialize around you and success will follow.

I do caution you to be wary of products on the market that over hype quality. For example if the advertising is something like; *Quality is Job One*, as Ford Motor Company used to, then there should be some quantifiable facts to substantiate the claim. Do your research; check out all possible sources of information when making your selection.

In the world of consumer products, Quality is Free … Assurance is the expensive part. Only you can change yourself and the perception about what your character is, make it positive, froth with excellence and distinction.

One quality Self Improvement site I have enjoyed is Success University. What a great support team of people they have, check it our today through this link.
http://start.successuniversity.com/specialoffer.aspx

What Do You Think?

"We have to become more conscious of our feeling-world. By learning to identify the 'emotional baggage' and manage our feeling-world reactions, we can view life based on current information instead of being held captive by our past."
-- Doc Childre

"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge."
-- Audre Lorde

Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance."

-- Deepak Chopra

"Every human action, whether it has become positive or negative, must depend on motivation."
-- Dalai Lama

"There are three kinds of people and three kinds of richness:
- people who want to have, to collect
- people who want action, work and labor
- people who want to be
The real richness is in be-ness. People can take all that you have, all that you collected. People can stop your labor, or an accident can stop you. When you are, you never lose what you are."
-- Torkom Saraydarian

Favorite Leadership Statements and Quotes

The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass his/her in knowledge and ability.
- Anonymous

Good leaders make people feel that they are at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he/she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens, people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.
- Anonymous


“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say “Thank you”. In between the leader is the servant.”
- Max De Pree


“Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without strategy.”

- Gen. Norman Schartzkopf