I put together a lens on Squidoothe other day titled The Art of Living Dangerously. Now, I built this lens for a couple of reasons. First of all I have a slight fascination with the idea of Dangerous Living, Second, it embodies an idea which I have been striving to live by for quite some time, and finally, it’s a way of living which I think is necesarry for entrepreneurs to have…. especially if they are to achieve any kind of extraordinary success. So, for all of my already adventurous and enterprising readers I hope you enjoy the happy reminder of what you are, and for all my readers who are on the fence awaiting “that moment” to which you are to start making some big things happen in your own life, I wish it to be a catalystic experience for you.
Now if you decide to leave this page before reading it…remember….that our biggest failures in life will be our failure to try, and our biggest risks in life will found in riskless living. Take a risk today and go and enjoy The Art of Living Dangerously and please don’t hesitate to comment back.
Your Life…Your Design (Image courtesy of dryicons.com)
It’s Friday, yahoo!!, the weekend is just around the corner and I am tempted to turn off the laptop, take a nap, go to the pool, and then maybe even prep for a nice night out on the town. It’s exciting! So much “FUN” waiting to be had, but, then I realize I have some things that I really want to accomplish. Activities that I really would like to begin…things I wrote down yesterday and promised myself I would do today.. creations and dreams that are dying to be manifested. So…what should one do?
I understand the choice will be different for everyone. Many will choose to “go have fun”…”live it up”….”let their hair down” ….release their Dionysian spirit so to speak. And this is all good,very tempting, and even healthy(when done in moderation of course…else you end up like Jim Morrison). And some…more than likely a very select few, will choose to channel that energy into something else. They will use it to create their dreams, do their “perpetually procrastinated pet project”, write a book, work on themselves, give back to the world, or become something more than they were yesterday .
What will you do? Are you going to do the usual, give in to your habits, do what’s easy and more enjoyable, and what everyone else is doing? Or are you going to put off a little bit of that excess fun to do a little bit more of those activities which you are always complaining about not having enough time for? And hey, if you choose to go out and play… awesome TGIF!!… please have a brewski for me, but remember this, if you don’t make time for your biggest plans now, then when will you?
Before you decide, process this quote that John C. Maxwell said so well… “Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.”
Pretty neat stuff… I just received a nice little article from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that essentially says how now is the time to be considering your own start up BECAUSE WE ARE IN A RECESSION.(Now that sounds a little crazy…. I know) But seriously though..It also gives us some researched insight on how most companies that have done so in a recession or bear market were actually more likely to survive long term than those companies which started when the times were good. Heck!… why am I rephrasing this…just read below if you are interested and follow their link to get the complete article and then when you are done…Go get started on your business for Pete’s Sake!! We want you to make more money, increase your assetts, grow your cashflow, define your own life, and all that other good stuff that comes with calling the shots. Go Get Started!
More than Half of Fortune 500 Companies Were Founded in
Recession or Bear Market, Kauffman Foundation Study Finds
“A new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation finds a silver lining in today’s challenging economic times: Recessions can spur entrepreneurship, which leads to the creation of much-needed new jobs.
The study The Economic Future Just Happened found that more than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during a recession or bear market, along with nearly half of the firms on the 2008 Inc. list of America’s fastest-growing companies.
The report also suggests a broader economic trend, with job creation from startup companies proving to be less volatile and sensitive to downturns when compared to the overall economy.
The complete study is posted on www.kauffman.org.”
SQUIDOO IS PRETTY COO!!! Well, I have finally started my lens building on squidoo.com(Yippeeee) and thought I would share it here with all of my entrepreneur friends as it is a phenomenal tool for teaching business minded individuals a new way of marketing. Essentially squidoo is a GPT website created by the ultimate entrepreneur Seth Godin. What is GPT? GPT means Get Paid To…with squidoo.com, you will be getting paid to create lens (websites) on subjects and topics of your interest, of course you will only get paid if your lens can attract enough individuals to it, whereby individuals will be diverted to affiliate marketing or built in advertising and eventually purchase something.
It’s pretty cool because you won’t have to create all of the affiliate memberships nor will you have to do all of the manual linking that one must do if they are striving to do this type of marketing on their personal blogs or websites on their own. It’s all built in and free. (FREE IS FOR ME) It’s especiallygreat for newbies because it gives them insight as to what works and doesn’t work in building followers or interested readers, plus it allows them to only focus on the material they are producing instead of all of the technical stuff. Check it out
Also, if you are interested in my top ten list of life changing and inspiring books you can take a look at my newest lens at GreatnessGuides, and if you would like to stay connected with up-to-date ideas and stories regarding entrepreneurship sign up for our E mailing list.
Recently I came across a fantastic website which I believe has some amazing potential for enterprising individuals and even closet entrepreneurs. This website is called UNLEASHINGIDEAS.ORG and it appears to be somewhat of a creativity haven and so of course an ideal place for budding entrepreneurs who can come together to learn,grow, network, and gain support from each other for their ideas. I highly, highly recommend it: http://unleashingideas.org/
Here’s their Vision
“For one week, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Dozens of countries are coming together for the first time to host Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.
Today, entrepreneurial individuals appear from all walks of life to exploit business opportunities for both economic and social gains. From November 16 – 22, 2009, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities – online and face-to-face – to harness the energy of social networking, to connect people taking action in their local and global communities and to celebrate entrepreneurship across the globe.
Overall, the Week will tap into a culture with a passion for networking. It will blend into the fabric of everyday life, engaging young people in school, at home, on the web and at work. Through this initiative, the next generation of entrepreneurs will be inspired and emerge. In doing so, they will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills, networks and values needed to grow innovative, sustainable enterprises that have a positive impact on their lives and the lives of those around them.”
In Robin Sharma’s marvelous book, The Greatness Guide, he states to his reader’s surprise “Show me someone who is satisfied, and I’ll show you a failure”. It’s a tough quote, yet I think is packed with much wisdom and insight, and if it were up to me it probably would have been stressed a bit more frequently throughout the book. Here’s why. We NEED this type of tough love as a society! A large portion of the general public is complacent, comfortable, safe, and satisfied in their day to day activities and in their general awareness of life. How do I know?….. Nations, Countries , and Governments are Satisfied with the status quo…which = Poverty. Many people are Satisfied in always carrying with them a somber and agitated mood or attitude and expressing a state of unhappiness or bitterness towards others and the world in general…which = Grumpy/Negative People. A great majority of people are Satisfied in their choices on how to react to confrontations and thus do so in hurtful and unconscious ways…which = Anger, Hate, & Violence. Many people are Satisfiedgoing from job to job slaving for this company or that company and never taking any time to plan their best lives out, or never taking any initiative to make the best of their employment situation, or worse….deciding to never take any risks…which = Lives Lived in a Quiet Desperation & Lives Half Lived.
Many of us live day by day without taking any risks, without looking for better circumstances, or without thinkingfor more than a few seconds on how we can find solutions for bettering our lives. Once our thinking get’s to the seemingly uncomfortable zone of choice, we experience our own loud inner voice saying “Wait it might be hard!” or “It’s going to be difficult”, or “What will others think?” or “Will I be laughed at?”, or “Will I fail” or even worse “That’s not my job”, and consequently we decide to remain in our safe harbor of comfort, safety, complacency, and satisfaction. How many of us are guilty of this?
How many of us have decided to work for a big company, intentionally functioning as an anonymous drone, staying way back to avoid risk and criticism? How many of us have decided to not apologize and take responsibility for our actions because of our EGO?
I don’t wish you to be a failure as a person or a failure in life. There is so much potential in all of us. Remember this….the people who would avoid a riskless career or a riskless life, are those that never get on in the world…..they are those that never end up as leaders, never end up fulfilling their true potential, never getting out of their parent’s house, never getting to travel the world, never being able to help change a person’s life, never being able to make an impact, never getting to meet their soul mate, and never having the chance to experience deeply and truly all the beauties inherent in this world and in this life.
So…get unsatisfied! Get unsafe. GO TAKE SOME RISKS ….Going it safe is one of the most riskiest things you can do. Safe is risky, being Satisfied…….even more so.
On the last post I spoke of the 5th element of achieving success, which was of course, doing what you love, or having a passion about what you are doing to make your living. The reason why this element is so important is because it adds velocity to your momentum of success. Here’s what I mean; when you love what you do, usually, you are always thinking about that passion or interest anyway…it comes natural to you..Your mind doesn’t want to think about anything else….so the “You become what you think about” way to success, mentioned in my last post, is mostly handled. Now, obviously, the other 3 ways are up to acquiring a good financial sense.
The crucial point here is; one of the most important hindrances of success is diluted when one loves what they do….. What is this hindrance?..
The hindrance of fear. When you truly believe in something, the fear you would normally have in performing the acts needed to successfully execute, are made more tolerable, thus increasing the chances of you actually doing them.
This is so important because, fear, can pretty much be seen as the biggest obstacle to most people’s dreams. Once we as individuals or business leaders decide to take on our fears, to step into them, and challenge them, we ultimately take a step into the light of our success.
A good way to look at Fear is as a portal to your success. It is in essence, my 6th element of success.
Through most of my research over the past couple of years, I have come across multiple ideas on how to become wealthy.I have actually come across four very similar answers time and time again, as to how one becomes wealthy,and recently I have come across a fifth way.So here is my list of the four most popular approaches most understood on how one can become wealthy, then I’ll give you the fifth.
1.WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT ALL DAY LONG.
2.MAKING SURE TO INVEST 10% OF YOUR EARNINGS EVERY YEAR
3.DIV ERSIFY YOUR INVESTMENTS
4.MAKE SURE TO GET YOUR TAXES DOWN TO THE LEGAL MINIMUM
Now the fifth way,which is a way that is very rarely followed or known, is by far the most important in easily attaining wealth. Brace yourself…………drum roll……The fifth way is….“Do what you love”. The fifth answer on how to become wealthy through my research has been, “ be sure to be passionate about what you are doing”The key point of this thought is, that when we are doing what we love, we are naturally using our most developed skills and strengths.In using our strengths and doing what we love doing, work naturally becomes play, and of course, when you are playing and having fun you never want to stop.This sincere passion for doing what you love, ultimately leads to your becoming extraordinary and remarkable at what you do.And according to Seth Godin, those who make all the money and lead their industries are those who are extraordinary and remarkable.We all know what we love, but the hard part is effectively using our strengths.Since finding your strengths may be a challenge I recommend taking a look at this serendipitous resource I came across recently. It’s called Now, Discover Your Strengths.Hopefully it will help you to become wealthy the easy way.
Also, if you liked this blog, you’ll love this excellent resource on wealth because it is all about the essence of attaining wealth…. It’s called Best Books on Wealth.
All right… So today was a pretty interesting day. It definitely was a day which many people might need to have. Why? Well, because it’s about becoming the best in the world…that’s why.
So, to begin, the day started with a download from Seth Godin’s blog, a very good and highly recommended download at that. The download was primarily about marketing, business, and the usual great ideas that come from Seth Godin. However, what really caught my attention on this download was Seth’s enthusiastic approval and suggestion of becoming the best in the world. (Or according to Seth, to not be so boring)
Now, I don’t know if it was serendipity or not, but shortly after listening to this great download about becoming the best in the world(which according to Seth is done by harnessing your strengths or playing to your strengths and being GREAT at what we do..not just good), I stumbled upon a book at my girlfriend’s office about finding and utilizing your own strength’s. It was called Now, Discover Your Strengths, and the really cool part about this book is that it had an online strengths analyzer, which appeared to be pretty well put together. Given the rollout of events I became excited because I just listened to Seth talk about this, and now I had a clear reason and way to find out what mine were. Now, before you begin wondering why I became so excited to have this” strengths finder”, listen to this…I’ve only determined my strengths from the usual online personality tests or from my own personal analysis, but this book was about really zeroing in on them. COOOOOOOL HUH?!! I am all about sharpening the saw.
Now another serendipitous occurrence that manifested itself, was my coming across a webpage that seemed to really be advocating what the Educated Entrepreneur is all about, moreover, this webpage also had a great blog about how to become your most successful self. And wouldn’t you know it…the page is almost entirely about getting out and doing your own thing but of course… doing it easily and successfully, which certainly epitomizes doing what you are exceptionally great at and not trying to fixate or overly focus on what you aren’t so good at. His webpage is called The Lazy Way to Successand it is great…please be sure to come back to mine though J.
Alright…now you have some inspiration, a guide, and the tools to become the BEST IN THE WORLD.
“”Living your best life is to find out what your calling is. Your real job on Earth is to find out what you were meant to be doing and to find a way to do that thing.” —Oprah Winfrey
For years, I’d wondered what my life purpose was, what my calling was, especially in business. I’ve always known that I was good at marketing, but I also knew I was here for something bigger than I could dream, yet I couldn’t figure out what that was. I’ll admit I had a sometimes painful upbringing and early adulthood, and I always wondered WHY this was all happening to me. If there’s supposed to be a reason for everything, then what was the reason I experienced so many deeply trying times? What was I supposed to do with all of it? I just couldn’t figure it out.
In the last few years, I’ve made it a habit to record Oprah on a daily basis and am familiar with her saying, “Use your life.” Countless times, I’ve heard her inspire her viewers to look for the meaning in something that’s happened to them, and then ask them to turn around and do something useful with it. The concept seems to be: Don’t necessarily wallow in what’s happened to you.
Instead, use the experience and the learning to help others, to make a difference, to create change. THAT is your life purpose. THAT is your calling, and it’s super important for businesses like ours because we can affect people and businesses so directly.
Since then, I’ve realized why all that happened to me and why I’m here. From my experiences, I learned to overcome my once very low self-esteem, as well as the negative beliefs and playing small, to have more confidence and to really go for what I want in life. I also learned about having compassion for others (including my clients), to know that we all have painful experiences that shape who we are today; we all have fears and things holding us back, but these don’t need to continue to hold us back.
At the same time, we all have massive potential for success, and to make a difference, especially being self-employed. It’s just a question of getting out of our own way and then getting out there in a BIG way.
Using Client Attraction, I use my ‘calling’ on a daily basis with my clients. Yes, early on and for the majority of the time, we focus heavily on the marketing. (Listen, if you’re sitting on the sofa WAITING for clients day after day, you’re not going to make a big difference in this world.) You were given a gift, so you need to get out there to tell people about it and start helping people get results. Therefore, the marketing is absolutely crucial.
But once the marketing systems are in place, the ‘calling’ piece of it extends also to the other stuff that most entrepreneurs never put their attention to: increasing their confidence, getting out of their own way and into their true potential success (it’s already IN them, they just haven’t accessed it fully up to now). Especially women.
That might mean noticing how they get stopped by a chronic conditioning of playing too small, limiting thoughts, not deserving, subtle self-sabotaging behaviors, and fears that may or may not really exist, but are DEFINITELY getting in the way. In addition to the marketing, that’s where I can make a massive difference in someone’s business success and in his or her life. I’m a marketing junkie, but that’s the juicy stuff for me. Best of all, it works and clients love the outcome.
When you’re coming from your ‘calling,’ clients get better results, give you amazing testimonials, and more referrals. You begin to make a more substantial difference and that automatically translates to more success, more income, and all that stuff.
Wondering how to tap into your own calling? Here’s what I learned about finding mine:
When you’re NOT aligned with your life purpose, life is more of a struggle.
Hardship is actually good. It’s a sign from the Universe that you’re not necessarily on the right track. See hardship as a blessing and a clue.
It’s not about necessarily CHANGING your business (I’m still doing Client Attraction and marketing); it’s a clue that you may need to change your direction a tiny bit or tweak it just slightly.
Your Assignment:
Find a way to weave your ‘calling’ into your work. Ask yourself these questions for clues on finding yours:
What section of the bookstore do you hang around in the most?
Look around you for signs about your purpose. They’re everywhere if you look for them. Little happy coincidences aren’t coincidences at all. They’re ALL signs.
If you act upon the signs and take inspired action, you’ll expedite your journey to living your purpose.
Find what comes easily to you, what helps others AND makes you feel good at the same time. If something brings you joy (like, for me, teaching and inspiring entrepreneurs to truly succeed on all levels) then it’s something to pursue.
Once you’ve found it, start weaving it little by little into your every day work with clients, or start doing it a little at a time. Instead of doing a complete 180, test out the waters. Look for how you FEEL. Look for the subtle feedback. Then add a little more, so that it feels authentic to you. As you keep going, add even a little more of it until it feels really good and you notice a difference in your clients’ results and how they relate to you. Start weaving it in your talks, your teleclasses, your networking, and your articles. Over time, when it feels right, you can start adding it permanently to your marketing materials.
Your calling is to help others AND to feel good doing it. Once you find it, throw yourself into it. Success, clients, and increased revenues will naturally come to you when you do. You won’t believe you get paid to live it.
All that said, I urge you NOT to forget the marketing. When you market authentically, Client Attraction becomes big-time easy. Not sure where to start? Try the step-by-step system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all the extraneous stuff that could distract your growth and instead gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com. ”
�
I hope you enjoyed this great article I pulled from http://www.zeromillion.com. It was actually procduced by Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Expert, is founder of the Client Attraction System™, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, in record time&ldots;guaranteed. To receive your freebie audio CD by mail and sign up for her weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.
I this article because it was well written and pretty much sums up alot about my experience…so I hope you enjoyed it.
P.S It is a must for you to take a look at this video. A MUST I Tell YOU. It’s from Robin Sharma of Sharma Leadership International…and it is a terrific proclamation of Pursuing Your Dreams…
ENJOY
said so well… “Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.”
Pretty neat stuff… I just received a nice little article from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that essentially says how now is the time to be considering your own start up BECAUSE WE ARE IN A RECESSION.(Now that sounds a little crazy…. I know) But seriously though..It also gives us some researched insight on how most companies that have done so in a recession or bear market were actually more likely to survive long term than those companies which started when the times were good. Heck!… why am I rephrasing this…just read below if you are interested and follow their link to get the complete article and then when you are done…
, he states to his reader’s surprise “Show me someone who is satisfied, and I’ll show you a failure”. It’s a tough quote, yet I think is packed with much wisdom and insight, and if it were up to me it probably would have been stressed a bit more frequently throughout the book. Here’s why. We NEED this type of tough love as a society! A large portion of the general public is complacent, comfortable, safe, and satisfied in their day to day activities and in their general awareness of life. How do I know?….. Nations, Countries , and Governments are Satisfied with the status quo…which = Poverty. Many people are Satisfied in always carrying with them a somber and agitated mood or attitude and expressing a state of unhappiness or bitterness towards others and the world in general…which = Grumpy/Negative People. A great majority of people are Satisfied in their choices on how to react to confrontations and thus do so in hurtful and unconscious ways…which = Anger, Hate, & Violence. 
Check it out.
, and the really cool part about this book is that it had an online strengths analyzer, which appeared to be pretty well put together. Given the rollout of events I became excited because I just listened to Seth talk about this, and now I had a clear reason and way to find out what mine were. Now, before you begin wondering why I became so excited to have this” strengths finder”, listen to this…I’ve only determined my strengths from the usual online personality tests or from my own personal analysis, but this book was about really zeroing in on them. COOOOOOOL HUH?!! I am all about sharpening the saw.
The Educated Entrepreneur 