I have noticed something very common among my entrepreneur friends: we often feel like the odd man out (Or odd women out, for my lady readers).
I have found that entrepreneurs often have a hard time hanging with their old friends and they feel like they are out of place. We are different. We see the world through a completely different set of lenses than most people. We have different experiences, problems and struggles. We are constantly thinking about different things on top of what others think about. We don’t get to leave it behind or come back next Monday like most people. The books we read and television we watch, to the daily activities we partake in and our lifestyles have all completely changed so dramatically that common ground has been lost. You can’t talk about the things that are the most important to you such as your daily struggles with customers, your victories and experiences. It’s not that you feel superior to your old friends or anything, or that what your friends have to say isn’t valid, it’s just that you have become this new person inside. It’s hard to connect with them in this huge aspect of your life. Your lives are completely different now. This often leads to feelings of becoming the odd man out in your old circles. You have this massive side of you that you feel you can’t share with anyone you care about because they don’t understand or can’t relate to you.
I remember trying to talk about business life with my friends and family. They would just blank stare at me like I was from another planet. They were very important to me, but I felt this huge sense of isolation among them. Their lives were so completely different from my own, it was like being in a crowded room and still feeling lonely.
We entrepreneurs are the odd men out. We are different and are no longer normal to our old friends. It’s like we are from a new world. The problem there is that we have lost our common ground. Our connection has changed because of this new side of us. I have found the secret that will help us manage this: Surround yourself with like minded business owners and professionals that want you to succeed and encourage them to do so as well. Meet with them frequently. If you do this you will gain a new network of individuals that you can celebrate success with and face similar challenges together. You will also gain a vault of experienced information that you can build and profit from. You will be amazed at the differences in your conversations and how fulfilling it can be to talk with someone who is in the same boat as you are. You need that time to share your victories, experiences, trials. Please do not get me wrong here, I’m not saying that you should abandon your family or your friends at all. They are still your family and friends, only you have changed. You need this new network of like minded people to connect with your business side of life that your friends and family cannot fill.
Build a network of folks who are just like you. This way you can bridge this inner gap inside yourself and share your business side with people of like mind. You will be amazed at how refreshing it is.
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This past Sunday I was volunteering at my church. I noticed something interesting with two different mothers that I talked to. The first mother showed up with a huge scowl on her face hauling two kids behind her. She looked frustrated as could be, like she had been fighting with them all morning. I said, “good morning” and attempted to strike up a conversation with her asking her how her day was going. She told me how her two kids were being a pain and had not been cooperating with her all morning. They made her late to church and so on and so on. One kid wouldn’t get ready and the other spilt her milk all over the brand new rug. She was having one of those days that everything just flat out went wrong and got worse and worse. She went on her way with that same scowl. You could tell this lady’s mood wasn’t going to change anytime soon. She was just flat out going to have a bad day. So I smiled at her as she went on her way. 
Not too long ago I was on vacation in Atlanta where we stopped at the Coke museum. Coke had created a museum of nothing but old coke memorabilia, history, taste testing and the process to create Coke. It was really interesting stuff. I mean wow, what a great way to build its brand recognition also! Hundreds and hundreds of people were standing in line to go inside to learn about and see all things Coke. 
A lot of people are pretty big fans of this new show FlashForward. 
Are you playing Russian roulette with your business? Well, you could be if you aren’t marketing to women. Not too long ago a study found that women control 83% of purchase decisions and are the chief purchasing officer in most households. This mammoth-sized market has become a 4.7 trillion dollar machine (and that does not account for teen spending). Women are a majority, not a niche market. Another study found that women are responsible for more than 89% of bank accounts, 80% of healthcare, and 51% of all electronic purchases. 
Denial of yourself is one of the saddest tragedies of our world today. We have millions of people out there that are holding themselves back by denying their extraordinary ability to accomplish something.
There are two lessons that I have learned that has influenced me more than anything else. I learned them from two great speakers,
