My grandson JR is an active Cub Scout. Each year his pack sells popcorn to raise funds for all of their scouting activities. 70% of popcorn sales goes to support local scouting, with 40% of that going directly to J.R.’s unit.

This money pays for the family campout, the pinewood derby, the blue and gold banquet honoring those cub scouts moving to boy scouts, and many more activities for his pack.  Cub scouts has helped J.R. understand the meaning of being a productive part of a unit – be it family, den, pack, or community.

He values his time in the pack and has enjoyed participating in the ropes course, learning to camp, earning badges, and winning a prize in last year’s pinewood derby. It has taught his the value of giving back and honoring our heroes, as they did  on Memorial Day, when they placed flags on every grave at the Ft Sam Houston National Cemetery. I believe in the values scouting teaches to young men like my grandson as well as other boys nationwide.

Popcorn sales from the cub scouts offers a special advantage. Not only can you enjoy the popcorn for you and your family (we do every year). But you can also order popcorn as a gift for a member of our military. It’s another way that the Scouts are serving.

If you would like to help support J.R. and his pack – or gift a military person – by buying some popcorn or making a donation to support the scouts and our military, please click on this link to begin shopping: Popcorn Sales

If someone asked you how hard you work when you’re working for an employer, what would you say?

If a large company hired you to work on a week-long consulting project and paid you a hefty fee when it was finished – how many hours per day would you work to finish the project?

When I was an elearning consultant I was often hired by large companies to come to their location and work for a week to establish their elearning portal and training program. During the time I was onsite, I was working 10,12, sometimes 16 hours a day. I was totally focused on the task. Because we knew we had a week to get it done.

Those were the client’s expectations. And I knew there was a great reward at the end.

I turned off my cell phone. I would have turned off text messages if they had invented them at that time! I only checked my messages and email in the evenings.

I took care of myself physically, taking planned breaks, walking around to freshen my mind, and eating at regular intervals. And I drank a lot of caffeine. (Okay, you knew there had to be a vice in there!)

The point is I was 100% focused on the outcome. And I was willing to work very hard for a short time because I knew the rewards would be there.

This was all brought back to me recently as I spent a week onsite for a client – just like the old days. But in this case it was an internet marketing client. I spent 8-10 hours a day looking at sales materials, writing autoresponders, and generally fixing up their sales and support process.

And that’s when it occurred to me – I haven’t been working for ME as hard as I worked for THEM!

Sometimes I don’t “get around” to writing a full autoresponder sequence. Sometimes I don’t revisit older products that can be updated and repurposed. Sometimes I don’t streamline and document all of my processes. And many times I don’t focus 100% on a single task until it’s finished. In short, sometimes I get lazy with my own business.

So now it’s your turn. Are you working on your own business – as if you were a paid consultant? Would you pay YOU big bucks to do the work you’re doing?

We’ll talk about WHY you aren’t working as hard for you in an upcoming post. For now, share – are you working as hard for yourself as you would if someone else were paying you?