Next week is a whirlwind.

I head to California Monday morning with Blaine for some Doba meetings Monday and Tuesday. I get back to SLC at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday night and drive directly to Logan. Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. I’m presenting on Adventures in Entrepreneurship for Partners in Business as part of the business school there. It’s the 24th Annual Information Technology Seminar part of the Partners in Business series. (BTW, since I converted to an Apple Fan Boy a little over 3 years ago, I’ve never been more proud of my accomplishments. My time slot at the seminar is officially the “Apple Computer Company Distinguished Lecture.” Whoo-hoo!! )

I get done at 9:30 a.m. and jump in the Mini to try to get back to Orem as soon as possible without receiving any moving violations–I’m assuming my Valentine 1 will help in that regards. I’ll stop by the house, change my clothes and load up my gear, kiss Amy and the kids, and head out at noon with a group of 7 other guys for my 6th JerCore trip to the Grand Canyon. We’re doing the Royal Arch loop off the South Rim, a roughly 40 mile loop that gets us to Elves Chasm, the highlight of the trip.

I get back Monday night March 3rd, and then attempt to dig out from what is the inevitable result of any whirlwind: a mess.

Don’t worry about me finding a Dark Spot on the Map to clear my head. And IMHO, the mess when you get back is always worth it.

I’m a HUGE fan of Mike Rowe and his show on the Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs. For those of you not familiar with this show, Mike starts each show with this narrative: “My name is Mike Rowe, and this is my job: I explore the country looking for people who aren’t afraid to get dirty—hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now… get ready, to get dirty.” Pretty much sums it up. (Dirty Jobs on Wikipedia gives you some more background.)

Fast Company featured Mike on their cover last month, and had a great article about his life’s journey to hist current position as the host and creator of Dirty Jobs called The Dirtiest Mind in Business.

As a sidebar to that article, Mike wrote the Seven Dirty Habits of Highly Effluent People. (And in case you missed it, Effluent is not the same as Affluent. Affluent = Rich. Effluent = Dirty)

So here are Mike’s 7 habits, and my commentary on each one and how my experiences have shown them to apply to entrepreneurship:

“Obviously, I’m ripping off Stephen Covey, whose seven better-known habits got my attention not so much for their content, which I find suspicious, but for their surprisingly modest number, which I find manageable. Here then, are my “Seven Dirty Habits,” each from a worker I met on the show, and bolstered by true stories of personal enlightenment and lingering humiliation.

• Never follow your passion, but by all means bring it with you.

Love this one. Passion drives you. But passion is close to emotion. And following your passions and emotions can lead you the wrong way. Let your passion influence and support you, but don’t follow it blindly. Great advice.

• Beware of teamwork.

Another kick butt one. Teams are a problem with entrepreneurship. A team’s role is to edit, not create. Individuals create so much better than teams. Someone needs to take the lead on the creation, the innovation. Then the team comes in later to do that last 25%. But individuals do the first 75%.

• Vomit proudly and whenever necessary.

In the context of Dirty Jobs, I think what Mike means by this is that sometimes, you see something that makes you want to vomit. And his advice is to just do it. As often as necessary. It’s part of the job. I apply this to entrepreneurship by thinking, why wouldn’t you vomit on a dirty job? It’s because of the other people around. You’re embarrassed. If you were alone, you’d hurl away. As an entrepreneur, you can’t worry about what other people think of you. If you do that, that’s about all you’ll get done. And you have to tell people what you think, whether you work for them or they work for you. So vomit away entrepreneurs. Do it proudly and you’ll be a better leader.

• Be careful, but don’t be fooled–safety is never first.

I think what Mike is saying here is that ’safety first’ is just a cliche. Just a buzzword. And that in reality, if safety were truly first, very few dirty jobs would ever get done. So keep your wits about you and use caution, but avoid cliches and hot topic ideas that really just fool you and distract you from getting jobs done.

• Think about what you are doing–never how.

If you start worrying about how you are doing, you loose focus. Sometimes I think entrepreneurship is like beating your head on a wall. Eventually, the wall will break down. But it will take a very long time. And if you worry about how your head is feeling along the way, you’ll never knock down the wall. Just focus on beating your head on the wall, that’s what you’re doing.

• Ignore advice such as “Work smart, not hard.” It’s dangerous–and moronic.

I have said this very thing so many times. It’s related to the safety-first one. Cliches and ideas that really just distract you from getting things done. In the end, you better just work hard. Give me some hard workers and I’ll beat smart workers every time.

• Consider quitting.”

If you’re an entrepreneur and have never considered quitting, you’re not attempting something that’s hard enough. Entrepreneurs are out to change the world. And beating you head against a world-changing wall will make you want to quit sometime. Consider it. Then get back to work.

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I hope these ideas help you out. They’ve helped me realize that although I’ve seen Mike on some very DIRTY (in the sense of dirt, muck, grime, dust, excrement, etc.) situations on Dirty Jobs, being an entrepreneur is dirty in its own right, and these 7 habits can be applied pretty nicely.

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Am I the only one that is sitting here wondering if our elected officials don’t have larger problems to worry about?

Clemens, McNamee get grilled by Congress

Sen. Specter to expand ‘Spygate’ investigation

You’ve got to be kidding me. Steroids in baseball and spying on plays called in the NFL need politicians to worry about? More important than wars and possible bankruptcy of the country and immigration and about 10,000 other issues?

Sorry for the crassness , but good holy flying f***, you have got to be kidding me.

I’m at a complete loss. I literally cannot comprehend this. I’m one of the smartest guys I know, and I’m sitting here at the end of this week looking at my monitor typing this post, and I cannot comprehend this. It is incomprehensible. It’s asdiculous (asinine and ridiculous all in one). It’s ludicrous. It makes no sense. Really. No sense at all. No way I can think it through to find out why this is an issue worth spending government time on.

Let the organizations it affects fix it. What a giant crock. Absolute and utter waste of time. Hell, have congress go watch the grass grow. Maybe even watch the paint dry just for kicks and giggles. Those 2 things are a better use of their time if this is the kind of crap they’re going to waste time on.

I honestly wonder if any of these guys have any brain cells. Wait, they do. Their brain is hard wired to say: What can I do today so that I get some publicity and have to make no hard decisions or accomplish really any problem solving and promise the world to every single man, woman, child, and animal so that I can get reelected and continue wasting the oxygen I breathe. I guess this week that spending time on sports scandals was the answer.

You know, on a daily basis I receive affirmation that the sooner I find a way to get out of this country, the better. Anyone want to move to the Bahamas with me?

And on that lovely note, have a great weekend!

I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks. Had some travel and lots to do.

One of my flights was on SouthWest, and in their Spirit Magazine they had an article about Randy Pausch. Randy, 47, is a Carnegie Mellon professor that was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer last fall. He responded to this diagnosis with an inspirational “last lecture” to students and faculty. The video has become one of YouTube’s most viewed clips. It’s just over an hour long. Watch it. Even as busy as I have been, it was well worth my time. Let’s all use Randy as inspiration and find ways to achieve our childhood dreams and enable those of others.

PS - When you’re done with the video, read the Wikipedia article on Randy. He got to do one of his unachieved childhood dreams he talks about late last year, which I thought was pretty cool. You can see more about his lecture by visiting the Randy Pausch page at the Carnegie Mellon site. And you can preorder a book that talks about Randy’s ideas called The Last Lecture.

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