Enough celebrating Thanksgiving, now let's get back to work for at least a few days until the Christmas celebration picks up steam. :)
My efforts are more and more focused on developing your new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce. I've gotten lots of encouragement. Just got this email today:
"I support what you are doing. The chamber of commerce has not, for many years, offered much support for small businesses, and your organization is a much needed asset. The national chamber has focused on medium and large businesses for years, and only used the truly small local businesses as a revenue base to support the local offices while they became a lobbying arm immersed in crony capitalism at the higher government levels."
The new Denver Facebook Small Business Chamber Group is now nearly 700 members, when it hits 1000 we'll schedule our first Second Saturday "Big Event," probably in January. You can get to it via our Facebook Page at http://Facebook.com/Small.Business.Chamber, and please invite your Facebook friends to join us, too.
Not using Facebook yet. You will at some point. :) In the mean time you can follow what we are doing on our blog http://www.sbccblog.com/. Or just give me a call, it would be good to talk with you. :)
I'm forming the Franklin Circle Alpha Group, the last Franklin Circle I'll ever personally organize and facilitate. It's open to entrepreneurs, business owners and creative managers who are serious about their success and want to be part of a group of similar people in a well organized peer advisory or mastermind group. Let me know if you want more information about it. As always, contact me at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Thanks to the Colorado Statesman Newspaper published my essay on "Real Recovery" that I posted below as a guest column, you can see their edited version at http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/992289-real-recovery-after-year%3Fs-election-begins-with-these-five-basic-steps
Our new Small Business Chamber of Commerce Facebook Page is showing some growth, but not as much as I expected. You can see it, and I hope "Like" it, at http://Facebook.com/Small.Business.Chamber.
If you can see anything I'm doing wrong that might be keeping people from "Like"ing the page, please let me know.
Ken Wyble from the South Metro Chamber of Commerce will be our guest chair at the Denver IDEA Cafe on December 3 and 10. If all goes well, he'll help us start a 2nd session of the Denver IDEA Cafe in the South Metro Chamber Offices starting in late December or early January.
I'm still looking for a couple of more business owners, entrepreneurs, and creative managers for the new Franklin Circle Alpha Group, this will be the last peer advisory group that I will personally organize and facilitate. If you'd like more information about it, please let me know. Contact me at (303)861-1447 Monday or Tuesday morning, or email me at John@JohnWren.com.
Life's short, let's get started!
Our new Small Business Chamber of Commerce Facebook Page is showing some growth, but not as much as I expected. You can see it, and I hope "Like" it, at http://Facebook.com/Small.Business.Chamber.
If you can see anything I'm doing wrong that might be keeping people from "Like"ing the page, please let me know.
Ken Wyble from the South Metro Chamber of Commerce will be our guest chair at the Denver IDEA Cafe on December 3 and 10. If all goes well, he'll help us start a 2nd session of the Denver IDEA Cafe in the South Metro Chamber Offices starting in late December or early January.
I'm still looking for a couple of more business owners, entrepreneurs, and creative managers for the new Franklin Circle Alpha Group, this will be the last peer advisory group that I will personally organize and facilitate. If you'd like more information about it, please let me know. Contact me at (303)861-1447 Monday or Tuesday morning, or email me at John@JohnWren.com.
Life's short, let's get started!
Monday, November 08, 2010
"In a weak moment, I have written a novel." Margaret Mitchell, born this date (Nov 8), 1900, author of Gone with the Wind, her only book. The manuscript submitted to the publisher was 5 feet high.
Friday, November 05, 2010
What are you going to do next?
Real Recovery—5 things concerned citizens can do now to help restore the true American Dream.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” President Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910
The spirit of the true American Dream has been stirred again. New representatives have been elected, new solutions are being discussed, new legislative sessions are on the horizon, and each of us who has been active in politics, some for the first time, are left with the question: what’s next?
Let me suggest a few things that we citizens, from new tea-party members to veteran activists, might consider as we decide what contribution we can make between now and the next election to be more than just a critic:
1. Take stock of yourself. Real recovery starts with personal recovery. In football this is called getting back up into a good hitting position. If there is a mental, physical, or spiritual problem, now is the time to address it. If you don’t know where to go for help, call 211, help is just a phone call away if you really want to change. If you do nothing else, get more rest and exercise, eat better, and use recreation to recharge.
2. Connect and reconnect. None of us can do much in isolation. If you don’t already, subscribe to your local newspaper, become a more active reader, post online comments and send letters to the editor. Completely commit yourself to your church, temple, or synagogue and/or your 12-step recovery program. Join or become a more active in your service club, chamber of commerce, trade association, neighborhood, or other group that is important to you. Go back to school or become more active in your alumni group. Join or start a peer advisory group or book discussion group.
3. Do good work that allows you to be an active citizen. If you are a business owner or manager, create a new job and hire an assistant who will allow you the free time to participate. If you are unemployed or underemployed in a job that makes your life all business look for an opportunity to become that assistant or another job that allows community participation and insist part of your compensation be time to be a good citizen. Or start your own business.
4. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Run for elected public office, party leadership, or just help other good people get elected. Google Republican or Democrat and your ZIP code, make a phone call, and volunteer to help in your neighborhood. In 2012 you’ll be in position to make a real difference.
5. Finally, become more computer literate. If you don’t know how, ask your local librarian.
In the spring of 2012, across the state in over 3,000 neighborhoods we’ll once again have the opportunity to gather again for our potentially wonderful Colorado Caucuses. If colleges, high schools, libraries, service clubs, church, neighborhood, and other groups and clubs across Colorado would make active citizenship a major focus between now and then, we can convert the enthusiasm of the moment to bring about a major advance towards the recovery of our American Dream. For more information about it see http://www.cocaucus.org/
"The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." The first usage of the term “The American Dream,” James Truslow Adams , The Epic of America, 1931
John Wren is a Denver resident and long-time community activist, business consultant, and adult educator. He is the founder of the new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce which is now the sponsor of Wren’s Denver IDEA Café startup workshop for people starting a new career, new project or campaign, or new business which he has been facilitating for over 10 years. For more contact him at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447
Real Recovery—5 things concerned citizens can do now to help restore the true American Dream.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” President Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910
The spirit of the true American Dream has been stirred again. New representatives have been elected, new solutions are being discussed, new legislative sessions are on the horizon, and each of us who has been active in politics, some for the first time, are left with the question: what’s next?
Let me suggest a few things that we citizens, from new tea-party members to veteran activists, might consider as we decide what contribution we can make between now and the next election to be more than just a critic:
1. Take stock of yourself. Real recovery starts with personal recovery. In football this is called getting back up into a good hitting position. If there is a mental, physical, or spiritual problem, now is the time to address it. If you don’t know where to go for help, call 211, help is just a phone call away if you really want to change. If you do nothing else, get more rest and exercise, eat better, and use recreation to recharge.
2. Connect and reconnect. None of us can do much in isolation. If you don’t already, subscribe to your local newspaper, become a more active reader, post online comments and send letters to the editor. Completely commit yourself to your church, temple, or synagogue and/or your 12-step recovery program. Join or become a more active in your service club, chamber of commerce, trade association, neighborhood, or other group that is important to you. Go back to school or become more active in your alumni group. Join or start a peer advisory group or book discussion group.
3. Do good work that allows you to be an active citizen. If you are a business owner or manager, create a new job and hire an assistant who will allow you the free time to participate. If you are unemployed or underemployed in a job that makes your life all business look for an opportunity to become that assistant or another job that allows community participation and insist part of your compensation be time to be a good citizen. Or start your own business.
4. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Run for elected public office, party leadership, or just help other good people get elected. Google Republican or Democrat and your ZIP code, make a phone call, and volunteer to help in your neighborhood. In 2012 you’ll be in position to make a real difference.
5. Finally, become more computer literate. If you don’t know how, ask your local librarian.
In the spring of 2012, across the state in over 3,000 neighborhoods we’ll once again have the opportunity to gather again for our potentially wonderful Colorado Caucuses. If colleges, high schools, libraries, service clubs, church, neighborhood, and other groups and clubs across Colorado would make active citizenship a major focus between now and then, we can convert the enthusiasm of the moment to bring about a major advance towards the recovery of our American Dream. For more information about it see http://www.cocaucus.org/
"The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." The first usage of the term “The American Dream,” James Truslow Adams , The Epic of America, 1931
John Wren is a Denver resident and long-time community activist, business consultant, and adult educator. He is the founder of the new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce which is now the sponsor of Wren’s Denver IDEA Café startup workshop for people starting a new career, new project or campaign, or new business which he has been facilitating for over 10 years. For more contact him at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447
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