My office is rather messy right now and badly in need of a “paper tossing party.” While sitting here gazing at too many stacks of paper I can hear our California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as he delivers his “State of the State” address in Sacramento. As I listened to the dimensions of his mess it became apparent that we both have to figure out what is truly important and be resolutely prepared to discard or shred the rest.

Deciding what stays in your enterprise and what is miscellaneous can be a grueling process which brings many business owners into touch with a raft of old files including goals, dreams and plans. I think that everyone in business should hang on to some of these materials because they will certainly help bring perspective to how far you’ve travelled and how you’ve overcome the inevitable bumps. The right course is probably somewhere between being a pack-rat and a compulsive neat freak.

Of course not every important thing you want to hold onto is written on paper or captured in the snapshots that are falling out of your photo box. Knowledge and attitude are at the top of the list. An unscheduled visitor at my office today was Gordon, a successful salesman who has handled radio spots, TV time and is now hawking the benefits of multimedia. He reminded me that the most important thing is to sell something. So often I speak to prospective business owners who are spending gobs of time and money on the office layout, business cards and stationery. Generally I suspect they are trying to avoid the sting of rejection that is a fundamental part of the sales process. According to my visitor “The only thing that matters is to get in front of people who can buy what you are selling.” Another memorable bit of his advice is “the only thing that drives sales is sales.”

Speaking of that box where old photographs go to live, it can now be an asset for the online aspects of your business. The pictures can be used to post a charming history of your business on the web site and having an interesting illustrated history is a good way to begin a customer relationship. Another joy of the photo file came to me recently. I’m very proud of some of my ex-employees from a decade or more ago. Not only do I smile seeing their happy faces and knowing how well they’ve done but a couple of them have connected me to new business opportunities.

Back in 1955 Life Magazine featured pictures of renowned physicist Albert Einstein at his desk. It was messy to the fourth power! Einstein is quoted as saying  “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?” While pecking at my own paper stacks like they were Thanksgiving leftovers, I was reminded that we’ve told the stories of over 1000 entrepreneurs on the weekly “Making It” television show and that experience has given me a graduate course in startups and business building. That is not only very important; it also fills me with gratitude. Looking at where you’ve been can help refresh your resolve to push forward.

Here are a couple of the thoughts gleaned from those hundreds of hours of conversation about the entrepreneurial spirit. Commitment is the key. To make your dream a durable reality and endure the tough times that always show up, you need a high level of commitment that is cast in stone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice but choose wisely. If your uncle Louie hasn’t started a successful business before, then don’t bother asking if he thinks your business idea is a good one. Some of the most able business owners are also among the most generous people with sharing their experience and insights.

While shuffling through my abundant stash of paper, it is fascinating to note how the idea for the “Making It” TV show evolved over the years. When it was still only on a sheet of paper, the name of the program and its format went through several iterations. Once on the air, features were tried and sometimes quickly discarded. But the important idea that its mission was to inform and inspire entrepreneurial thinkers of all types remained as the guiding force. Staying to that course has been the secret of success.

The organizational Guru David Allen (author of Getting Things Done) says GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally and putting them on paper is one of the ways. You see, the file cabinets or overstuffed desk drawers can not only make you scream but they may hold the answers as to how you can survive and maybe even thrive in the tough times. Instead of allowing all the bad news that surrounds us to get inside your mind, it is important and wonderfully nourishing to revisit the history of your dream in words and pictures. While I’m often tempted to handle the abundance of paper in my life with a shredder and a fireplace, I’m glad to have resisted that seductive thought this week. The most important thing is to make sure that you are fine in 2009.