Episode 44: Winning at Business and Life with Paul Powers

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1, in a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

I'm Paul Powers. I'm the CEO and founder of Fizna, Fizna short for physical DNA. And what we do is take data about 3-dimensional models and real life, you know, real things, and we codify them so that computer programs can work with them. So you're able to find similar parts, you're able to write various applications that actually kind of bridge the gap between the digital and the physical worlds.

Paul, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

What I love about our industry, depending on how you view it, because you can put it in a few different ways, but the industry that we're in specifically is pretty new and it's because we're creating an almost new type of coding, a new type of technology. What I like about it is that it was like we're almost giving birth to, I wouldn't say a whole industry, but certainly going to advance coding a lot further along and helping with physical innovation and physical data the way that, you know, people are used to with software and traditional digital data.

Hmm, interesting. Question number 3: I hear from other business leaders that staying in a good work-life balance for them and their team members is a challenge. What are your thoughts?

I don't really like the word balance. I kind of think that you should be obsessive about whatever you do, and if you're balancing work and life and home life, it kind of feels to me like you're making a sacrifice of one for the other. I think that you should be obsessive and fully committed to both, so I think that's the wrong term. A lot of people, when I tell them that, they say, well, I can't be working 24 hours a day or be around my family 24 hours a day. I'm like, yeah, but if you work 24 hours a day, you'd be burnt out, and if you were around your family 24 hours a day, they'd get annoyed side with you. So you can do both and be obsessive about both without having to call it balance.

That's a good point. I like that. Question number 4: What other successful business leaders like yourself should be on my podcast?

I can think of a lot of really great people who would be wonderful guests. I have to give it some thought and see who'd be open and have time.

Great. Thank you for that. Question number 5: What insight or advice would you give to other business leaders?

I would say the most important few things I've noticed over time has been that people should spend more time focusing on their goals than the paths. If you optimize, if you know your goal and it's clear and you optimize for that, the path will be clear to you. And if there's not one, you can just make a path. And the other thing would be the mindset, that the mindset is more important than any given technique. So if you have the right mindset, if you're optimistic, if you're ambitious, if you have a can-do attitude, you'll spend the time and the energy finding techniques and strategies and, and reading the how-to books. But if you have all the how-to knowledge in the world but the wrong mindset, you won't get off the couch and actually start doing something. So the mindset is more important than the strategy. And the last thing I would say is just in general to avoid getting overly obsessed about the past or about the micro. And a lot of people I see who are They have what I would call the millionaire mentality, which means they might be really penny-wise, but the whole expression goes penny-wise and pound-foolish, right? So live by a set of ethics and standards that you hold yourself to and be a good person and keep your mind on the macro picture, and that'll give you much better guidance than getting overly obsessed with the tiny details.

Lots of insight there. Thank you so much. And question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

My first job was actually, I started a company of sorts, I guess you could say. It wasn't, I don't know how you'd call a company. It turned into a company, but I was like 16 or 15, 16. I was pretty young and I was just tutoring people and I made a website for it and people started asking me if I could, if Pete had any tutors who could do other things for them, like teach Spanish. And I thought, well, I don't know how to speak Spanish, so I can't teach you Spanish. And I realized, well, wait a minute, why couldn't I just hire somebody to do that? So very early on, I stopped doing and started making company out of it. It later became like corporate consulting and then went on into more technical areas, but it was, it became a tech startup. But working for myself was the first job that I had. And actually that's been the only job I've had except for I worked at a law firm briefly in Germany, but even while I was working there, I had a startup on the side. So I can definitely say that it's been a calling. Yeah, it's true.

It's great to hear that the entrepreneurial spirit is really alive in you and it was in it at a very early age. So Paul, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

Sure, just find me on LinkedIn or online. Our company's Phyzna, P-H-Y-S-N-A. So if you look that up, you'll find me. My name is Paul Powers, so easy to remember.

Great. Thank you so much. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.