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<tip>
  <body>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scenario:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; "Dude, we have to be serious all-the-freakin'-time! If you're having fun, you're not trying hard enough! Yay!"&lt;/em&gt; Ask yourself: What emotion makes people most productive to rock the world?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;a) "Oh-my-mutha-!@#$%^-FUN!"&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;b) "So-so."&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;c) "Blah."&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Most businesses operate using the last two emotions.  But, if you answered (a) -- and your business breeds that emotion all-day-every-day -- yay for your badass! Woohoo!  Congratulate yo-self.  &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When you're having fun, you're producing viciously-productively-ass-kicking work that the world passionately loves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;How The World Feels About Your Business&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To understand how customers/prospects perceive you, simply answer:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;"How much fun am I having with my business, right now?"&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If you're feeling blah, customers find your offerings = &lt;strong&gt;"Boring!"&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If your product's destroying your morale, customers find your shizzle = &lt;strong&gt;"Depressing!"&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;span class="highlight"&gt;If you lack passion for your products, your clients find them = &lt;strong&gt;"Dull!"&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But...but...but....  &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you're having the time of your life, you're loving your work, and your people can't wait for Mondays, then you're attracting the souls of your customers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;How Fun Affects Your Performance&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Think of something that you didn't like -- at all.&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What happened? You felt:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt; demotivated.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; groggy.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; you wanted to shoot yourself.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="highlight"&gt;In turn, your performance/productivity/creativity sucked -- bad.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;In the time it took super-gung-ho Jimmy 5 seconds to complete some associated task, it took you an hour.&lt;/span&gt; "Another minute of this thing? Ahh!" you told yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Compare that feeling with something you loved doing.&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What happened?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt; &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;Your performance rocked.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; You loved every second of it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; You felt nobody could hold a candle to you.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;You stuck with it when you hit bumps, persevering through it like a mofo.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; You had much longer stamina.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="highlight"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having fun with something psychologically pulls you into a zone, driving you to rock like nobody's watching.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;Your high-energy booty starts to knock in runs like it ain't nobody's business.&lt;/span&gt; How does that affect your customers? Oh, we'll tell ya.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;How Fun Attracts Your Customers&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For a second, think:  What do your top three companies -- that you absolutely love -- have in common?  Probably, comprising people who:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Love their work.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Love their people.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Love their customers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Love life.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="highlight"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fun has that sexy infectious, electrostatic effect to it -- and it sharply pulls in customers to your business.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt; You start generating:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Super loyal customers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Awesome referrals.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; And, the nice side effect: Ka-ching!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;"So, what can I do if I'm not having fun?"&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you're not having fun with your business, use that as a sign:  &lt;strong&gt;"Something's wrong."&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;You know you'll need to fix it if you want to rock the world with your business.&lt;/span&gt; So what do you do? Start asking yourself questions on why you're not having fun.  For instance:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"What's destroying my soul?" &lt;/strong&gt;Delegate/trash it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"What makes me tick?" &lt;/strong&gt;Incorporate it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"What do I put off?" &lt;/strong&gt;Delegate/trash it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"What makes me love life?"&lt;/strong&gt; Incorporate it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yup, all that lovey-dovey stuff will make you shine higher than a juiced-up eagle running from the PoPo.  &lt;span class="highlight"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once you can transform the "Blah!" feeling to the "Frickin'-good!" feeling, you're prepping your business to rock the world like it ain't no thang but a chicken wing on a string.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Fun = Sexy sauce to rock the world.&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</body>
  <created-at type="datetime">2007-03-04T20:30:40-08:00</created-at>
  <favorite type="boolean">true</favorite>
  <id type="integer">493</id>
  <permalink>why-fun-matters</permalink>
  <points-required type="integer">0</points-required>
  <title>Why Fun Matters</title>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-11-06T21:45:45-08:00</updated-at>
</tip>
