Mind your Business? Who names a blog “Mind Your Business?” Ok let’s break this down, “Mind,” yes, one could say it’s your brain, but I’ll always talk in terms of “mind” as a verb: “To heed or obey (a person, advice, instructions, etc.), to pay attention to, or to apply oneself or attend to: to mind one’s own business.”

Next, “Your Business”? When someone “gets all up in yo bidness” that usually means you’ve crossed the line and you’re being challenged in some way. I’ll try to challenge you to take a different approach in the way you look at your personal business, and your professional business. Ok, now the blog name makes a little more sense!

A great philosopher once said, “You don’t have to have all the answers, just know the right questions to ask.” I hope, by asking yourself some tough questions it will lead you to take a look at what you’re doing and either change, or validate that you’re doing it right. You can’t separate a person personally or professionally; you have to challenge and change in both realms. You’ll never improve one or the other, until you improve both.

A little about me …

The summer I turned 13 my parents hired a contractor to add an additional 850 square feet on our home. Being raised in a suburb of Chicago, in a good Italian-Catholic family, I’m one of 9 children so we needed the extra room! After that summer I knew I wanted to build things. I was amazed at the process of building something from nothing. And I’ve been in the building business ever since.

The best big break I ever got was meeting one of many mentors, Tom Hassey. Tom taught me more in four years about business than I could have learned in 20. Tom was a retired professor from the University of Texas business school. He has the rare ability of knowing “the business” and a gift of knowing what makes people tick. You’ll get to know Tom Hassey because he is a major influence in how I run my personal and professional business.

So the first question of many….

What business are you in?

We’ll discuss this next time.