If you have, then you’ll remember the character of Howard Roark, the promising young architect that, against all odds, fought the world and won.

My friend Rich Lazzara says, we’re all entrepreneurs at heart, and that’s true. But, no matter how smart, talented, or dedicated you are…you’re going to face some of the trials that Roark faced on his road to freedom.

You are going to deal with doubters, critics, and even evil minds that want to bring you down to their level. But…you can’t do it. You cannot quit. If they succeed, no one gets ahead…no one lives a life of their own design.

But, if you win…if you make your own way, then you’ll know only be living your dreams, but you’ll leave a path so that others can do the same. Therefore, as a tribute to Roark and the hero that we can all become, I want to offer to you the Howard Roark Guide to Business.

Idealism

The first step to taking on the world is to have something to believe in, be it a moral code, a code of excellence, or just a vision for the way things should be. If you don’t have this vision firmly implanted in your mind – entrenched in your behavior, then you will not succeed.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you are going. You have to have a set of guideposts to keep you on your path.

Roark had his standards for what an architect should endeavor to and the manner in which it should be achieved. He had a strict code for what made a building worthy of being raise to the sky or razed to the ground. If a project did not meet this criteria, then he wasted neither time nor effort in it’s creation.

No Compromise

What made Roark such a likable character, but what also served as fodder for his many enemies, was that he refused to compromise his ideals…even once. No matter the consequences, no matter the damnation that followed, Roark lived by his standards without compromise. When offered the chance to take an easier road, by simply giving up some of his beliefs, he always took the hard way out…many times to his peril.

As an entrepreneur, you are going to deal with people that want to bring you to their level. They’ll want to call you names, offer you bribes, or find ways to prevent you from achieving your dreams, but you cannot compromise one ounce of what makes you “you.”

There might be a project that offers easy money, or a joint venture that makes your work easier, but you’ve got to go with your gut. If it doesn’t fit, then move on.

Realize that you might never achieve the perfect life and that your business might fail, but at the end of the day, you’ll still be able to look yourself in the mirror and be proud for never taking the easy way out. You can’t put a price on that.

Make Your Own Game

When Roark was ostracized by his peers, he didn’t give up…he simply made his own game. Refusing to play by their rules, he chose to create his own. And even though the pay, respect, and adulation was nonexistent, he still kept playing…waiting for the day when his game would become the more popular. It took years, and at times he might have been the only one playing, but because he made the rules, there was always one more game to play.

In their book, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith talk about hacking the game and changing the rules. That’s what entrepreneurs do best. We can’t compete with the Fortune 500 companies head on, so we change the game on them instead. To take on IBM, Bill Gates created Microsoft in his basement. Rather than compete with Microsoft head on in the software realm, Google flanked them by owning search first. Netflix took on Blockbuster. Vonage took on the phone companies, and Skype took on Vonage.

These were all new technologies or new business models created by guys (or gals) in their basements, in their home office, wherever. These men and women changed the game by changing the rules and leveling the playing field. If you have a business idea, but can’t compete with the big boys, then think of how you can change the model so that you don’t need to compete – so that you, not your competition, own the future. That’s how you make your own way.

Don’t Require Credit

Roark made buildings for other people as a ghost builder. Not because he wanted to help the person involved, but because he wanted to see things done right. It didn’t matter that he didn’t get paid, didn’t get praised, or that he helped the enemy…not when it came in the way of his vision.

Sure, it’s great to be loved. It’s wonderful to be praised and adored, but the only thing it really does it feed your ego. So long as your goals get accomplished, as long as your vision becomes real, why does it matter if you get the credit? Why not let someone else get distracted by conquests and frenzied fans? You can work in the background, without distraction, and get more done now that someone else is taking the credit. You can build others up so that they have the confidence to follow your lead and join your fight.

Yeah, you’ll want the paycheck, but credit and praise do little more than make you feel more important than you already are. I’m not saying you should turn it down, but don’t make it your primary goal. Production and results…the accomplishment of your goals…that’s what should motivate you.

Never, Ever Give Up

Jimmy V said it best in this speech, and there isn’t much more I can add to that, but I’ll try.

Roark dealt with more obstacles than seems humanly possible, but he became victorious by outlasting his enemies. Your enemies might not be physical, but you have them nonetheless…

Fatigue, depression, doubt, cynicism, skepticism, hunger, thrist, lack of patience, you name it, you’ll deal with it. Whenver you feel like you aren’t going to make it, realize that you are in the moment that separates the quitters from the winners. You have to be the person to believe in your vision, even if the rest of the world has given up.

The future is yours to claim, but you are going to have to fight for it. No one ever said it was easy, but that’s what makes the prize so sweet. Even if you fail in every manner, except in these 5 laws of business, then you will be successful at the end of the day. Just remember, the score only matters in the end.

Image Credit

Image Credit

The Howard Roark Guide to Business is a post from: Nathan Hangen

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It is no secret that the economy is struggling, made worse by the pundits on TV telling us how bad things are getting. It seems that for every 1 person talking about the great times in which we live, there are a thousand talking about how the world is on the verge of collapsing into dust and ruin.

I happen to be one of those that doesn’t mind standing alone on an island proclaiming how lucky we are to live at this very moment. Although the economy is in shambles, it is nothing more than a natural cycle of ups and downs. Eventually, things will even out and those of us with the inspiration to capitalize on this downturn will be sitting pretty when it all evens out.

This brings me to the point of my story, which is that in times of crisis when it seems like there aren’t any buyers, why not turn to the one company that you know isn’t going anywhere? Why not turn to the company that seems to single handedly hold the Internet together?

Of course, the company I am talking about is Google, and you can bet that even though the Dr. Evil of the technology world might be sitting in a dark corner plotting their every move behind a veil of secrecy, they aren’t going out of business anytime soon. This means that revenue models, such as AdSense, the Google Affiliate Network, and any other business associate with Google are going to be surefire ways to get paid during these difficult times.

If you are in the consulting business, then take the ever loving giant arms of Google and use them to your advantage. Google always has a new product in the pipeline, and let’s face it…they own the search engines. Master SEO, using Google’s content network (knol for example), or use the iGoogle API to develop applications. There are a million ways that you can make money with Google. Heck, I hear that working for Google isn’t so bad either.

The bottom line is that if you aren’t sure where your next paycheck is coming from, switch to a revenue model that won’t disappear. Google isn’t going anywhere and the more ways you can get your hands in their pockets the better.

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In the battle of branding, more specifically personal branding, I think it is important to pair each of your brands with a Twitter account. At first, I thought this task would be daunting, because the Twitter API doesn’t make it easy to maintain more than one account at a time. However, thanks to @doshdosh of Dosh Dosh, I found two services to try.

The first service I tried was BrightKit, which has been renamed to HootSuite. It won the #shortyawards in 2008 for the “Best Apps” category and seems like a great client. However, although I didn’t find any problems with it, I didn’t think it lived up to the features that Splitweet offered.

Splitweet on the other hand, offers the ability to not only maintain and monitor several accounts at once (Hoot Suite also does this well), but you can also input brands to follow. Since I’ve got several brands and keywords that I like to follow, I simply type them in the API and boom, Splitweet follows them for me. This is a great, great, great feature that I have fallen in love with and really think it can help you grow your personal brand.

If you’d like to learn more about SplitTweet, then click on the logo at the top of the page. Be sure to let me know which client you like better.

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Well, I generally don’t like to be the type of guy that goes around finding things to sell to people, but after some hard thinking I realized that with all the crap being sold on the internet, it might be responsible for me to help weed through it. I’ve tried plenty of ebooks, memberships, and courses and found that while many of them are definitely full of good content, very few are worth the money it costs to purchase them. As a result, I’ve decided to do a bi-weekly installment (if I can find enough good stuff, but I’m always willing to take a look at review copies) of Internet Marketing product reviews.

I don’t plan on badmouthing any products, but I would like to mention the handful of products I find useful for me as a webrepreneur. So, with that being said, I’d like to review our first product:

The Niche Blogger: By Amy Bass

I found this product while reviewing some WSO’s at the Warrior Forum and was intrigued by Amy’s headline, which read something like:

“Discover How A Mother Of 4 and Total Internet “Newbie” Quickly Built Herself A $5000+ Per Month Passive Online Income From Niche Blogging AND Then Taught The SAME System To Dozens Of Others Who Then TOO Quickly Experienced Astounding Success…Including Her 50 Year Old Mother…Who Before Learning Her Amazing ‘System’ Could Barely Use Her Own Computer!”

She sounded down to earth and the reviews were more than supportive of her program, so I thought I would give it a try. She offers a 3 day trial for $1, which is hard to find these days.

I had a slight issue logging in, but she immediately responded to my PM and set me up, turns out I was using the wrong link. Immediately upon logging in I was impressed by the amount of posts she had and each of them was designed systematically walk you through every step of newbie to nich blogger.

Although the early month 1 content was a bit below my experience level, had I seen that information when I first started blogging I would have shaved months off of my learning curve. The information was tremendous and perfectly tuned for someone just starting out.

There were plenty of things that I learned from the first month alone and I had no doubt that months 2 and beyond would be more than beneficial. Amy really has a firm understanding of how to teach people to blog and do it just the right way to get paid. I expected a cheap membership system and I’ve got to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Currently Amy boasts over 700 subscribers, so she must be doing something right. One of the best parts of the system is that she offers a lifetime membership and a coaching package should you need it. Overall, I don’t find much to be lacking from The Niche Blogger and Amy’s support is tremendous.

If you are even somewhat interested in Niche Blogging and don’t want to pay the price for something like the Immediate Edge or 30 Day Challenge Plus, I highly recommend giving the 3 days for a buck trial a shot.

You can try it here:

Try The Niche Blogger for FREE! Click Here for a FREE 3 Day Trial

The Niche Blogger is a post from: Nathan Hangen

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