The Biggest Impact on My Business Raising the Barr Weekly Memo: Issue 529

One of the questions I am often asked is what have been the biggest impact and influences on my business? Here are the top 9 sources of such impact:

1. Curiosity: I was a music major thinking of becoming a professional musician and a recording studio engineer. I stumbled upon a computer programming course to learn the coding language of Cobol. I fell in love with it, which completely changed my direction by creating my software company and my internet development company.
2. Team: Over the years, I surrounded myself with a great team that kept on challenging my thinking and helping us innovate in directions I never thought possible.
3. Clients: They have become a great source of influence while pushing us to innovate and do all we can to help them overcome their challenges and increase their success.
4. Publications: Content such as books, podcasts, videos and courses, they are a profound source of influence on me.
5. Thought leaders: There as so many remarkable thinkers that have helped shape my knowledge, thoughts and increase my wisdom.
6. Learning: I’ve learned a lot from our failures but have learned so much more from our successes.
7. Serendipity: I ran a successful software development company for over 20 years. The sudden and exponential growth of the web and its associated technologies presented my company with tremendous new exciting opportunities that have completely pivoted our focus and our future.
8. Spouse: As the saying goes: “behind every successful man is a strong woman.” I admit that I would not have achieved the success I have without the help and support of my wife, Laurel. Today is the International Women’s Day as I would like to honor her and the other special women in my life.
9. Impact: I’ve come to realize that we would probably still be living in the dark ages if the greatest thinkers and innovators of history did not share their knowledge with the world. I, therefore, decided that my mission, service of others and impact is to help my clients share their knowledge and wisdom by leveraging the web and innovative technologies.

How have you been influenced and what impacts your business?