Southwest Veterans' Business Resource Center Harrington's Blog

Fostering collaboration with technology

Eric Harrington — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:05:29 GMT

Here is a recent article written about me and our company teamsupport.com in the university of phoenix focus magazine.

http://www.phxfocus.com/2010-08/alumni-ericharrington.html

Win in 2010

Eric Harrington — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:10:06 GMT

With 2009 behind us, it is time for a new mindset in 2010. No longer can we set our focus based on the 5 senses we are limited to. We have dreams and visions of great things - regardless of what our eyes tell us. If you want to Win in 2010, here is a good place to start: 1. Paint the mental picture of what you want to achieve, see it complete and feel how it would be when you do achieve your dreams and goals. See it and feel it as it is already done. 2. Be careful what you think. Your thoughts and feelings will manifest in your hand. The law of attraction is ALWAYS at work. If you are thinking and feeling negative thoughts, guess what will happen? 3. Show gratitude for your accomplishments and everything else you have before you go to sleep each night. Start each day with positive intent. Before your feet touch the ground in the morning, focus on the things you intend to accomplish that day - then get up and go do it. 4. Spend at least 15 minutes in the morning and at night being still and quiet. 30 minutes is best but if you are not used to doing this, start with 15 and go from there. Close your eyes, turn off the world, be still and think on positive things. All the best, Eric

Share one SWOT example with the group

Eric Harrington — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:40:00 GMT

Reading some of your comments gave me an interesting idea.

Pick one of the SWOT catagories and share how it relates to your job.

Ill go first. ;-)

Weakness - Rejection. As some of you know, myself and two other guys quit our jobs and started a couple of new companies mid last year. TeamSupport.com and ApprovalTrack.com. The coding is done and we went live in Jan 2009. As a startup (or any small business), you wear a lot of hats. A few of my hats are sales and marketing - although that it not my background.

I am not used to talking to someone, explaing what great solutions I have to offer and then being told "no thanks" - or even worse, no reply at all! I deal with rejection much better now but a few months ago, someone telling me no or ignoring me when I am trying my hardest to generate interest and revenue would almost ruin my entire day.

I realized by being honest with myself and performing a SWOT analysis on myself, I had to get over this weakness quick - because as we all know, they wont all say "yes".

How about the rest of you learners?

And away we go...

Eric Harrington — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:10:26 GMT

I had the pleasure of working with Albert Renteria while stationed at 3/1 in Pendleton in the early 90's. Like many of us, we lost contact over the years. I have been off of active duty since 1997 and he is retired. Those were some of the best days of my life.

I am probably one of a few that can say I have been though "orientation" twice by Albert and each time I learn something new. <grin>

The initial orientation at 3/1 was more like a parent installing values and giving specific direction on how to be a man, how to do a good job and how to be a forward & positive thinker. Little did I know at the time that these values would help shape and mold my professional life as well as make me a better husband and dad.

With such a positive result from orientation #1, I could not help but be excited to experience a second session over 15 years later!

What sparked my interest in this program? A couple of things actually. First of all, I have worked with Albert so I know what he stands for and what he can do - even when the perception is full of odds. Secondly - the vision of his new organization.

"Our Vision Be the nations’ premier Veterans’ Business Resource Center, providing world-class services; anytime, anywhere"

This is the same approach we took when our team worked at 3/1 years ago and with this vision, we accomplished things that no other unit had done - ever! We also changed the way technology is used USMC wide. Don't take my word for it, give Albert a call and he will tell you all about it.

Where I am going with this you ask? Well, I know firsthand what can be accomplished with such a vision and if this is the vision for this new venture, I have no doubt SWVBRC will have a massive positive impact on our country - specifically our service men and women.

Admittedly, I am late posting my first blog. I hate excuses so I am not going to post any on here but I wanted to briefly talk about my "second" orientation with Albert, even though it was my "first" with regards to SWVBRC.

True to form, Albert and I were breaking new ground again together and I was the first remote orientation trial case which I have to say went very well. Albert was concerned with the lack of face to face time and I was concerned the message may be scattered a bit. As opposed to the face to face formats which preceded mine, we decided to get rolling on this sooner rather than later and conducted everything online.

Albert and I went though each step and openly discussed our thoughts and feelings at each phase. The content was very well organized and we were done in about 90 minutes.

Oddly enough, I had forgotten about "SWOT". I have used this approach in business but referred to it as something else and had some different twists in it. A big part of the orientation is to have an open discussion where we talk about SWOT and how it applies to you the person. Very important stuff to master if you are going to be successful at anything.

The #1 rule I keep is - be honest with yourself. There are many ways to approach this but SWOT gives you a nice format to help you.

Imagine how we could change the landscape if we could conduct even a simple orientation with every homeless vet by helping them take control over their lives by identifying their strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats?

I am a betting man - and I would be willing to bet one by one, we will!

Stay focused, and speak/think positive thoughts.

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." - Proverbs 23:7