Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

2009-07-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

The Key to Navigating to Your Goals
Here's a favorite quote from Leonardo Da Vinci:

"Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind"

No one would ever accuse Leonardo Da Vinci of waffling. He produced a tremendous body of work in a wide variety of disciplines across seemingly contradictory areas of science and art.

How did he do it? He tells us here.

Just as ancient mariners would navigate by setting their eye on the North Star and using that unchanging landmark in the sky to guide them to their goal, he would fix his gaze unflinchingly on a steady, unwavering point and not let anything move him from that course.

We could all learn a lesson from that about setting an unshakable vision of the destination we want to attain.

Too often, we content ourselves with traveling wherever the waves take us instead of setting and following a course to the destination of our choosing. Rather than choosing the destination where we want to land, we set out figuring, "Well, wherever I end up is likely to be better than where I am right now."

We're capable, though, of more than that. We're capable of setting a destination that fits who we are better than any random movement of the waves ever could.

It takes determination and it takes perseverance. But it's possible.

That's why Da Vinci could say what he said. That's why Da Vinci was able to accomplish all he accomplished.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-07-14T10:56:00.001-05:00

Does This Mean I've Crossed Over to the Dark Side?
I get a lot of biz op junk mail. I don't know whether me being involved with Internet marketing gets me more than most people or not.

I know, though, that I get a lot of invitations to "free" seminars that are merely veiled pitches for $2,500 business-in-a-box programs that sell people a site-building tool that they'll never use because it's too complicated for anyone but the developer to understand.

The other biz-op scam I receive a lot sent me another (very elegant looking) pitch today. It's the old "have a business of your own by servicing vending machines!" scam. There must be a lot of money in getting people to sign up to service vending machines, because the mail I get for this biz-op is staggering.

It ticks me off every time I get one of these biz-op mailings because I know that people, who desperately would like to experience the freedom of making a living off of their own business, will take the scammers up on these "opportunities" and get burned.

I didn't throw that piece of mail out today like I usually do, though. A delicious idea crossed my mind.

I thought, why not save up all this deceitful biz-op junk mail for a month or so and then do a short video showing the accumulated pile. I could then decry the predatory biz-op schemes out there and contrast them to the low-cost legitimate business training that I provide on Employee-to-Entrepreneur Blueprint?

The idea of using a pile of scam mail to show the worthless scams that prospective business owners fall victim to seemed too delicious to pass up. "Let 'em send me junk mail," I thought. "I'll just use it to make my point about how much worthless junk is out there."

You know what this means, though, don't you? I am now officially SAVING junk mail. I've already saved a few sales letters that were exceptionally well written so I could get ideas from them when I write sales letters. But now I'm even saving junk mail scams!

My mentors always told me that the day would come when I would stop looking at ads as an irritation and start seeing them as opportunities to learn lessons -- good or bad -- from other marketers. I guess that day has now officially come.

I don't know if that means I've crossed over to the dark side, though. That would be if I started scamming, or at least focused on methods that others would find intrusive.

I look at it as becoming a better marketer: seeing opportunities where others see trash, learning to avoid intrusive techniques and make my messages more focused on customer needs.

I don't think I've crossed over to the dark side. I'm just seeing a bigger picture in my chosen field.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-07-09T07:37:00.002-05:00

Shooting for the Moon
Here's a favorite quote from Les Brown:

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars"

How many of us truly shoot for the moon? Oh, we like to think of ourselves as doing so.

We daydream big.

We harbor big daydreams of riches and ability to choose our own way through life. But then when we sit down to put those daydreams into reality, what do we do?

We plug away at some little piece of minutiae that we call a business. We play copycat, trying to duplicate on a small scale what someone else did on a much larger one.

We limit ourselves to trying to create a pale reflection of our actual daydream instead of following our passion in life to cast our lot at creating something uniquely our own.

I'll have to admit that I've done that for years. Opportunities to play copycat of some other marketer's system presented themselves and I've jumped all over them -- multiple times.

I'm happy to say that right now I'm following my own dreams. Sure, I'm taking what I've learned throughout those copycat projects and infusing all that into my current projects. But what I seek to accomplish is something that I haven't seen anybody else do. I'm shooting for the moon instead of contenting myself with following someone else.

Want to join me in shooting for your own, personal moon?

Follow your heart. If you could take the knowledge you had and use it to create a business that helped people with the problems that burn on your heart, would you do it? Would you go after it if no one else had ever blazed that trail for you before?

Don't be afraid to be a trailblazer. Don't be afraid to shoot for the moon. Even if you don't quite make it to your exact destination, you'll have a journey you'll never forget.

That's what shooting for the moon is all about.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-07-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

Do You Know Where You're Going?
Here's a favorite quote from Yogi Berra:

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there"

You've gotta love Yogi Berra. His ability to mangle the English language created some fun quotes. Whether he said them unintentionally or tongue-in-cheek, he provided some truly memorable malapropisms.

This one has particular relevance to new business owners because almost all of us start out not knowing where we're going.

Sure, we have some general idea in mind. We want a more comfortable lifestyle, more money, freedom from the constraints of a 9-to-5 job.

Most of us, though, when we first get started, don't have a clue about what it will take to get us where we want to go. It's like going to the airport, standing in the middle of the of the ticketing area and yelling, "Please take me somewhere better than here!" and counting on someone to put you on a plane to a dream destination that you yourself don't even know.

If you don't know where you're going, you aren't going to get there.

How do you figure out an actual destination (other than that vague dream of "someplace better than where you are")? Best is to start with getting to the root of your core emotions.

Most of the time, the dreams we have -- the things we THINK we want out of life -- are nothing more than the dreams we adopt merely because society tells us that those are the things we're supposed to want. What we really want, deep down, we usually keep locked so deep inside us that we usually can't articulate them ourselves.

Digging down to our core emotions is not all that hard. It takes a little distraction-free time and a willingness to delve into that shadowy part of us that we often try to avoid: our emotions.

It's essential, though, to finding the destination we truly want to reach.
Jeff

P.S. There isn't space for me to lay out the whole process here for digging down to your core emotions. I do cover it in my Employee-to-Entrepreneur Blueprint business training program, where I give detailed guidance on making the essential transition from employee-thinking to entrepreneurial-thinking and building a successful business. I encourage you to check E2E Blueprint out.

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-06-25T08:28:00.001-05:00

Are You Looking Up?
Here's a favorite quote from Oscar Wilde:

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

I have to admit, I've never been much of a fan of Oscar Wilde. You might say I'm not wild about Wilde (sorry about that!).

And I've got to say that something in this quote doesn't sit well with me. I don't like Wilde's cynicism, and I have to believe that he said this particular quote with a great deal of disdain for anyone who didn't share his disdain for everyone who wasn't just as cynical as he was.

Once I get past my feelings about Wilde, though, I like what it says about the potential we have for getting out of our own, personal "gutters."

That's the way that most people see themselves, after all, even if they don't come right out and say it. We might not articulate that we live in a gutter, but we sure tend to talk like it a lot.

We focus our eyes on the things that keep us down. "If only I wasn't hampered by this disadvantage or that disadvantage, I could make my life better."

All that is, though, is keeping our eyes firmly focused in the gutter instead of looking up and seeing what more is out there.

There's a saying that we move in the direction where we're looking. If we keep looking toward the things that hold us back, we'll continually be held back. If we look up... well, the sky's the limit!
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-06-18T09:15:00.001-05:00

Are You Expecting Enough of Yourself?
Here's a favorite quote from Sam Walton:

"High expectations are the key to everything"

I like this saying, but I DON'T like the way that some people would take it. A lot of people look at this saying and read it as that by expecting a lot of the trappings of success the universe will reward us with them because... because... I guess because we EXPECT it of THE UNIVERSE.

I don't think that expecting the universe to change to fit his expectations, though (ala "The Secret"), is what old Sam was talking about. Sam Walton wasn't a man who sat around and waited for the universe to change to fit his desires.

Sam was a doer -- in a big way. Sam Walton took action to change his world. If you had told him that all you needed to do was to hold high expectations and then wait for them to happen, I think he would have laughed in your face.

I think Sam Walton's philosophy was more along these lines: "High expectations OF YOURSELF is the key to everything."

What really stops is isn't that we don't have big enough dreams of what we'd like the world to give us. It's that we don't trust enough that we are capable of taking action that can bring us closer to those dreams becoming reality.

We look for the magic wand that will bring us untold wealth without any effort on our part. I don't think we do that because we're lazy. I think we do that because, deep down, we feel that if we have to play any role in making our dreams come true, we'll mess it up. So we look for something that doesn't require any involvement on our part.

That wasn't Sam's philosophy, though. He expected that he could make a difference in what he saw around him. Did he have some magic wand that made everything happen for him without any effort on his part? No, he worked hard to build his WalMart empire.

Did he make the right choice in every decision he made? No, I'm sure he made plenty of blunders. But he learned from them and kept going. He took further actions to negate the blunders and keep his business on an upward trajectory.

He grew up in poverty during the Great Depression. But he took continued action in the firm belief that he could change his situation. And he did -- big time!

Don't wait for some magic wand to appear in your life. Take action. Believe that you can make a difference. You might be surprised to find out that you can.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-06-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

What Are You Looking for in Life?
Here's a favorite quote from Robert Lewis Stevenson:

"An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding."

How many of us live our journey through life looking for things? It's a common approach. Surround ourselves with enough things and everything will be all right.

It's not a be-all and end-all to life, though. I know a woman whose husband was an extremely wealthy man. They lived in a beautiful home in a ritzy lakefront setting. They had all the trappings of wealth.

Then one night as she lay in bed reading, he walked into the bedroom, casually sat down, pulled a pistol out of the nightstand and, without a word, blew his brains out.

He had more money than he knew what to do with, but his life had become purposeless. There's more to life, and more to business, than just accumulating money.

Find a purpose in life through what you do. Find a way to make the world a little better place. Focus on solving people's problems through your business or through whatever else you do. Only then will you find a life worth living.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-05-28T07:08:00.000-05:00

The Importance of Promotion
Here's a favorite quote from PT Barnum:

"Without promotion, something terrible happens -- NOTHING!"

Many of us tend to avoid promoting our businesses (or ourselves, in those situations where self-promotion is called for). We feel that promotion is somehow dirty, and makes us look dirty by association with it.

In reality, though, promotion is simply a means to let others know that we have something that they will find to be of value.

It may be a business owner promoting a product that solves potential customers' problems. It may be a job-seeker affirming that they have skills that will help a potential employer. Or it may be someone simply stepping forward to assert that they have something worthwhile to offer others.

In all of these cases, there's nothing "dirty" about stepping forward with something of value for others. And if you don't do it, nothing good happens for you -- and nothing good happens for those we are in a position to help.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-05-21T17:15:00.002-05:00

Conquering Ourselves
Here's a favorite quote from Sir Edmund Hillary:

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

We keep looking for our life to get better by things around us changing. Nothing around us changes around us, though, unless we first conquer a bigger obstacle: ourselves.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-05-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

Getting More
Here's a favorite quote from Oprah Winfrey:

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."

I've experienced this a lot in my own life. You don't get anywhere worthwhile by bemoaning the fact that you aren't where you want to be. You only get there by picking yourself up and heading in that direction. It's along the way that good things start to happen.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-05-01T20:15:00.004-05:00

Opportunity Hopping? Or Abundance?
When you get caught up in opportunity hopping you jump at whatever opportunities present themselves. You hear about a money-making opportunity and you jump at it. When it doesn't pan out, you hear of another one and you jump at that one, too. You keep jumping at one after another, hoping for instant and dramatic success that never comes.

This opportunity hopping, though, is scarcity thinking. It is rooted in fear of loss. It acts on the thought that, "If I don't grab this opportunity, I'll lose out on something good."

In reality, though, we live in a world abundant with opportunities. Passing on one doesn't mean we won't ever have another one ever again. Other opportunities will come along. In fact, more will come along if we work from a mindset of abundance.

Working from a mindset of abundance involves recognizing what we have to offer and offering it freely to others. I'm not talking about sacrificing here. Working from an abundance mindset involves seeing that our unique talents and experiences are able to generate things that never existed before.

And as we do that, an amazing thing happens. We find more opportunities being drawn to us.

Have you ever seen wind blowing outside an open window? That wind pulls the curtains inside that window outwards, toward the screen.

That's the way that working out of a sense abundance instead of scarcity works. As good things flow out of us, they naturally draw more good things toward us.

If, on the other hand, we are desperately trying to pull things into ourselves because of our own feeling of scarcity, our flailing elbows will knock opportunities that pass by away.

Take a good look at what you have to offer. You'll find more there than you ever gave yourself credit for. And as you offer them, you'll find more good things coming your way.

That's just the way things work.
Jeff

P.S. I'll be dealing with the idea of abundance and scarcity more in this Sunday's free newsletter. I'll also be continuing my series on how to find a profitable niche market. If you're not already a subscriber, I urge you to sign up now to receive this and future newsletters to help you build your business.

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-04-16T11:56:00.001-05:00

Looks Like Work
Here's a favorite quote from Thomas Edison:

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

We all look for the easy way out. Unfortunately, the easy way out doesn't lead anywhere worthwhile. The only way we get there is by rolling up our sleeves and committing ourselves to excellence.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-04-09T08:50:00.001-05:00

Taking Leaps
Here's a favorite quote from David Lloyd George:

"Anything can be achieved in small, deliberate steps. But there are times you need the courage to take a great leap; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."

One of the big myths is the myth of the overnight success. Anything worth succeeding in doesn't happen overnight.

It takes lots of little, piddly steps to get you in the position to succeed. It takes more, though, than just those piddly little steps.

Points will come in what you're doing when you need to take some risks -- sometimes big risks. And when they come, you have to be ready to make those leaps.

Success depends on both.

Are you ready to face the tedium of those piddly little steps? Are you ready to take those big leaps when they present themselves?
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-04-07T08:58:00.000-05:00

The Biggest Anniversary of All
Over the last couple of months, I've mentioned a couple of business anniversaries I've celebrated. February 23 marked the fifth anniversary of this blog. April 1 marked the seventh anniversary of my full-time start in web marketing.

I'd be remiss, though, if I let today pass without mentioning the most significant anniversary of all of them. Today is the 30th anniversary of our wedding for my wife, Joanne, and me.

It's been a wonderful 30 years, filled with raising six great children. We've shared plenty of joys and plenty of uncertainties. And I feel blessed that I have been able to share all those years with my wonderful wife!
Jeff

2009-04-06T14:54:00.004-05:00

On Twitter Now
I've been experimenting with Twitter for the last week or so. I have to admit I still don't find it the essential that most people do. I'll get the hang of it, though.

I did manage to get rid of the spammers who were tweeting every two minutes with demands to buy something from them. LOL!

If you're on Twitter, drop by and say, "Hi." I'd love to get to know some of my readers better.

I'm at http://twitter.com/JeffBaas

Jeff

2009-04-04T20:03:00.003-05:00

Opportunities are All Around
This week was especially hectic for me. Last weekend, one of the local TV stations ran a series of reports about what local people were doing to fight back against the recession.

Aside from it being a nice break from the depressing economic news that the media has generally run of late, something else in it caught my eye.

They invited other people who were doing interesting things along those lines to email them with their stories. It seemed like a priceless opportunity.

Last fall, when the economy first got shaky, I wrote a report that I distributed to all the local business owners I know. It's titled "How to Increase Sales in Challenging Economic Times."

I got a lot of positive feedback on it. Some of them used it as a starting point for brainstorming new strategies for their businesses. Some asked for additional copies so they could give them to other business owners they knew.

(If you're interested in a copy, look for the Free Featured Report on the main page of my consulting site.)

So I wrote the TV station about that report. And I wrote them about my more recent project.

For the past two months, I've been building a private training site that focuses on helping people build their first business online. It's called Employee-to-Entrepreneur Blueprint.

The site is functional, but I haven't done too much to promote it yet. I couldn't let this potential opportunity slip away, though. I wrote a free report that would give people a brief taste of some of the obstacles I help people through at my training site.

Doing that took me well beyond the three hours I had scheduled for it. It took me three days instead!

But the resulting ebook, "Going from Employee to Entrepreneur -- The Crucial Step Most Business Owners Miss," was worth it. You can download it for free here.

I wish I could say that the TV station immediately called me back and set up an interview. They didn't.

Maybe they still will. But I'm not worried about that. As with all things in business, you take whatever action you can, learn from whatever results you get, and don't get hung up on what you can't control.

I'm thankful I received this opportunity. I'm thankful also that this opportunity pushed me into doing the report that would not otherwise now be done if the opportunity hadn't surfaced. The report moves me that much further along toward the promotion.

I'll use the report to promote my new training site. And I'll look at how I might effectively follow up with the TV station -- and with other news outlets in the area.

With business, you don't put everything on hold while you wait for a single response. You move forward and try to stimulate more responses, more effectively.

It's been a great experience and a foundation for future efforts.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-04-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

Something to Be Enthusiastic About
Here's a favorite quote from Albert Einstein:

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."

So often, when someone decides to start their own business, they choose one based on what someone else succeeded at instead of what they have a passion for.

What a waste! You have a chance to do something you really enjoy. Why settle for something that you don't?
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-04-01T21:18:00.003-05:00

An Anniversary
The day almost got away before I realized that on this day, April 1, in 2002, my life forever changed.

On April 1, 2002, I became a full-time Internet marketer. It was my first day building my first website professionally.

I had just been hired on a two-month assignment to create a website for a new employer. I had dabbled previously on the Internet with volunteer website work and had done a little webpage building for my previous employer, but April 1, 2002, I started doing web work full-time.

I've since gone out on my own, moving from full-time employee to full-time consultant and marketer. But I've worked full time on the web ever since.

Seven years. Who would have known back then what a change that day would make.
Jeff

2009-03-26T08:56:00.000-05:00

The Biggest Mistake
Here's a favorite quote from Malcolm Forbes:

"The biggest mistake people make in life is not making a living at doing what they most enjoy."

Hopefully, that's where we're all at right now. Don't make the mistake of giving yourself just another job. Create a living doing what you love.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-03-25T22:02:00.003-05:00

Just What the Twit Is Going On Here?
I signed up for Twitter a couple of days ago. I'm at www.Twitter.com/JeffBaas.

I figured I ought to find out what it's all about. I signed up to follow a couple of mentors of mine.

What has surprised me since then is how many followers I've picked up. I mean, it's not like a lot of people are actively looking for me online. But I've had nine followers sign up for me in two days.

And I haven't even posted much on there!

Chances are, most of them are other marketers looking for people to broadcast self-promotional announcements to. Two of my new followers seem to broadcast a lot of messages encouraging people to come to their site and buy some tool that "guarantees you a cascade of followers on Twitter." Hmmm...

I think I'll follow these new followers for a while, though, to get a feel for Twitter. Chances are I'll get to see some things NOT to do on Twitter. And, just maybe, I'll find some fellow marketers that I'll enjoy following.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-03-22T16:02:00.003-05:00

Customer Service - Not Sacrifice
I've talked a lot about getting inside the head of your customers as a starting point for selling to them. I've talked about the need to go to the extra mile to serve your customers. Many marketers refer to this as moving the "free line."

Moving the free line means that you give away items or information of such high perceived value that customers come to trust you as someone who is looking out for their welfare. There's a pitfall to that, though, that I want to make clear I'm not talking about.

Serving your customers should never go to the extreme of giving to the point where you can't continue your business. I've seen business owners who couldn't pay themselves a livable wage agonizing over whether to hire an out-of-work friend in order to help them through their rough times. I've seen business owners who gave away so much for free that they were going bankrupt.

I've straddled that line myself a lot. I grew up with it drilled into me that being a "good person" involved sacrificing what you wanted to give others what they want. A lot of other business owners have that same self-sacrificial mindset.

Just as running a business is no excuse to exploit customers for your own selfish ends, running a business is no excuse to self-destruct out of a feeling of obligation to give others value at your own expense.

A self-sacrificial approach to giving value to customers is destructive not only to you, but also to current and potential future customers. Business is not merely about getting. Neither is it about giving things up.

Business is rooted in sharing. Business is rooted in abundance. Business is rooted in one person sharing of their abundance in some solution in return for another person sharing of their abundance in money.

That means that rather than looking at what you can get out of your business or what you feel obligated to give, look at giving out of the abundance that you have. Grow the wealth you have in what you plan to offer. Build a sense of abundance in what you're giving.

No, it's not wealth or abundance as we normally think of it. It's not wealth or abundance in money. It is discovering what of value you have to offer and growing ever richer in that so that you have an abundance of that to offer -- in return for the money they offer you.

Then you'll feel neither a neediness that leads you to grasp for what others can give you, nor a poverty that leads you to sacrifice whatever you have for the sake of "serving your customers."
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-03-19T08:51:00.000-05:00

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
Here's a favorite quote from Paul Hogan:

"The secret to my success is that I bit off more than I could chew and chewed as fast as I could."

I really love this one, especially right now. It's not enough to dream big. You then have to work to your fullest to make those dreams come true.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-03-17T07:56:00.000-05:00

The Blessing of Not Having Enough Money
I came across a quote the other day from Danna Fenn, a contributing editor for "Inc." magazine. It doesn't fit into my Thursday inspirational quotes, but I thought was worth passing on anyway.

"Not having a lot of money at first can actually be good, as it forces you to be frugal."

I've found that to be true. There's a temptation when you have extra cash to simply throw money at problems and hope that that the problem will go away. When you don't have the money to throw at problems, two things happen:

You don't waste a lot of time deciding which premade solution to buy
You have to actually confront the problem and figure out a solution

And when that happens, you learn. Yes, there's something to be said for being short on cash (at least while you're learning the ropes!).
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-03-15T17:37:00.002-05:00

When You WANT Your Business to Succeed
It's one thing to want your business to succeed. It's another thing entirely to WANT your business to succeed.

It gives you an extra boost. It gets you away from feeling put upon or bored to do the little things that need to be done in your business.

The only way I can describe it is that it becomes personal.

It's no longer something you do because it seems like a fairly good idea to get a little extra income flowing in. It's something you do because you have a goal that resonates deep inside of you that can only be reached by making that business succeed.

I've been experiencing that lately as I've been working a big project that I'll fill you in on a little more once it's closer to completion. But after years of doing things that seemed like workable ideas for making money, I've finally turned off the intellect and engaged the heart.

I'm working harder than I've ever worked sitting down. Maybe even harder than the physical exertion of landscaping or house painting or heavy-lifting factory work I've done. Yet I'm loving it, because it's letting me reach for a goal I've never fully let myself believe I could attain.

And when you're working toward something that means something more to you than just a paycheck, it makes all the difference in the world.
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb

2009-03-12T09:25:00.001-05:00

The Downside of Trying to Be Perfect
Here's a favorite quote from Elbert Hubbard:

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."

Don't be afraid of making mistakes, as long as you can learn from them!
Jeff

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
BlinkDel.icio.usDigg

FurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWeb