To be an effectively present force in my children’s lives.
To live freely, provide financially, and empower others to do the same.
Accept responsibility for the power within me to help other people.
Focus on creating value and generating income. Sales before investment. Always be marketing.
These were written on index cards and taped to Anita’s bathroom mirror circa 2007. They were principles that she endeavoured to follow as a way to intertwine her personal and professional life.
This was part of her personal development where she was defining exactly what she wanted, and posting it in a place where she was reminded often what those things were. “Ready – Fire – Aim” is an approach of just doing something then adjusting your aim instead of getting overwhelmed by planning and never firing.
Anita read a lot of Steve Pavlina and this article called “Do It Now” was one of his best ones. Here is one small quote explaining “Ready – Fire – Aim”.
Most people seem to have an innate fear of failure, but failure is really your best friend. People who succeed also fail a great deal because they make a lot of attempts. The great baseball player Babe Ruth held the homerun record and the strikeout record at the same time. Those who have the most successes also have the most failures. There is nothing wrong or shameful in failing. The only regret lies in never making the attempt. So don’t be afraid to experiment in your attempts to increase productivity. Sometimes the quickest way to find out if something will work is to jump right in and do it. You can always make adjustments along the way. It’s the ready-fire-aim approach, and surprisingly, it works a lot better than the more common ready-aim-fire approach. The reason is that after you’ve “fired” once, you have some actual data with which to adjust your aim. Too many people get bogged down in planning and thinking and never get to the point of action. How many potentially great ideas have you passed up because you got stuck in the state of analysis paralysis (i.e. ready-aim-aim-aim-aim-aim…)?
I was so proud of her for starting her own business because Anita was the quintessential risk averse, over-thinking decision maker. She had been dreaming of her own business for years, and researching, learning, studying everything associated with them. Fear was a huge obstacle that she thought she could overcome with more research. She was a frequent victim of paralysis by over-analysis.
As for Anita’s goals:
When Ben and Julia were first born, Anita’s work schedule did not leave her much time to spend with them, or help shape the people they would become. I remember reading and singing to them at bedtime or walking by Lake Michigan and playing int he grass on warm weekends – but the daily learning and character building was all left on my shoulders.
Fast forward several years: one of the biggest things Anita wanted to do while working from home was be present in her children’s lives in ways that really made a difference to their character development. While I often got bogged down in the details and tasks, she would take breaks from work to help the kids with their paino and guitar practice. She found extra worksheets and games for them to help learn math in the areas they were deficient (counting money, for example, or multiplication tables). She created charts for their daily tasks for them to learn responsibility of cleaning (and she actually enforced it 
.
Anita’s idea of living freely was being her own boss. It was flexibility of time that she treasured, and the ability to intertwine work and home life. She eventually gave up on the idea of work-life balance. It was all just life and she had to find a way to make it all coexist.
She always, always provided finanacially (with God’s blessings, of course) - even though she often felt she was not successful at it. And I believe that she was on the track to help even more people live freely and financially secure. Even if she could not hire people and influence them directly, she was always encouraging about small businesses and people following their dreams.
It is kind of weird to think that Anita, someone who helped and touched so many people over the course of her life, would have to remind herself of her God given gift. But that is precisely what we have to do. When we recognize the talents and gifts God blessed us with, it is our obligation to use them and not get distracted by so many worldly things.
The last principle was for her business. She was intensely focused on providing value for her clients. She often tried to figure out what the specific project would be worth to them, and then charge them that amount. Marketing was always her favorite part of business because it was creative and people-centered.
I am sure Anita would remind me to say that these items were not things she achived, but things that guided her actions and decisions. So they were reminders of what to do in the process, not an end unto themselves.
