Archive for success
Why You Resent Successful People
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever thought about what makes you unique? What makes you ‘you’ and not someone else? It is your unique set of experiences over your lifetime and how you interpret and react to them. If you think ‘I am smart, funny, caring’ for example, you have evidence from your past that you’ve done well in school, perhaps read lots of books, had people laugh at your jokes, volunteered for charity and so on. Or ‘I’m an engineer’. You identify part of yourself with your job, your degrees, etc. This creates your sense of self, or ‘who you are’, otherwise known as your ego.
Each day you experience things that either enhance your sense of self or diminish it. If someone tells you that you did a great job your ego expands. If someone cuts you off in traffic your ego is diminished – after all, they didn’t respect ‘you’. Have you ever been slighted in some fashion and never did anything about it? Never vented to someone explaining how you were wronged and how the other person was an idiot? It is near impossible for most of us to leave our ego in a diminished (bruised) state. So this brings us to the topic of successful people.
‘Successful’ people can makes us feel diminished. They have more money, a bigger business, more homes, more cars, more happiness, more attention, more attractiveness. If they have more then we must have less. This creates an imbalance in our minds. Whenever we are diminished we need to get back on top again. The ego does not like feeling diminished. This is done by criticizing and judging those successful people, perhaps by saying ‘They are greedy, they didn’t earn the money, they had it easy, they’re not really happy’. This puts us back in a superior position temporarily, until we meet or hear about the next successful person.
This is a harmful habit because it will affect your ability or interest in being more successful because you are associating negative attributes to success, at least subconsciously. By being happy for people’s success and being grateful for what you already have you will attract more success into your own life.
A Small Success, Some Setbacks
Posted by: | CommentsOkay the self-doubt is kicking in as I see the daily doom and gloom out there. However, one of my ideas has shown a little bit of success. I started posting daily guitar lessons and provide a link to a related Amazon book/DVD. I’ve started to see a bit of success as I got 2 immediate sales of those specific products yesterday. And if I get one more sale, my commission will go from 4% to 6%.
Other things Amazon offers is mp3 sales and putting links in videos. So I’ve added some product links right in my video (that talks about the guitar product) and a few cds/mp3s that are my current favorites. Some of the guitar products are bigger ticket items providing larger commissions. I will have to get a lot more traffic to get the numbers I was hoping for.
No luck on the Overnight Membership site or Continuity Blueprint although I haven’t done much to market it yet. Those bigger ticket items would provide much more revenue than the Amazon sales. But the Amazon sales have actually occurred which is a crucial point to note.
One of my members asked for a refund of his annual membership on my guitar coaching site – ouch that hurt!
I just saw on the news that because of the 2010 Winter Olympics games being held in Vancouver, BC, there are a ton of jobs there in various industries – trades, public relations, etc. So it’s not all bad news! I prefer to think of the positive – will all the layoffs, maybe some of those people will try to get an online business going!
Do All Jobs Suck?
Posted by: | CommentsDumbLittleMan says Recognize that all jobs suck. I totally agree. He’s got lots of great points on transforming your career. But make sure you understand what work is for. It’s not to hang out with buddies after work, have access to free video games and beverages. It’s to make money so that you can have the lifestyle and freedom you desire.
Achieving Wealth in Uncertain Economic Times
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s an interview with me and Stuart Crawford of IT Matters on being a wealthy IT Professional in these uncertain times, and some specific steps you can take to be successful. Notice I don’t say ’surviving in uncertain times’, but being wealthy. It’s all about attitude baby!
Do You Think BIG?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen we were children, most of us dreamed of being a fireman, astronaut, or famous actor when we grew up. Somewhere along the way these dreams were squashed. We became surrounded by negativity at an early age by: our parents who tried to protect us “Don’t do that Johnny, you might get hurt”, society “Look at all the bad things that happen out there”, and by our experiences “I tried that once and I failed”. Is it any wonder we grow up with small dreams? “Don’t dream too big Johnny, you will only be disappointed, so why bother?”
I have found that the biggest obstacle to achieving bigger results is in your mind. I see it every day. It’s the size and type of your thinking. Most people think small and negative and so they achieve small things. Or worse, they don’t think much about their life and careers and just react to whatever happens to them. Thinking precedes action (or inaction). Most likely actions you haven’t taken are because of the way you think about those taking those actions. I’m sure you can think of many reasons why you can’t achieve bigger things. Things that have happened in the past, mental or physical disabilities, or the state of the world today with globalization, outsourcing, economic troubles and terrorism. In every case, there are others who had or have similar experiences and have achieved huge successes in life.
“But Will, if I think big I will have to work a lot harder, and do things that are uncomfortable. Besides I’m pretty comfortable right now and make a pretty decent salary.” While fear often holds us back, at a deeper level it’s the desire to avoid pain. You associate more pain with making changes than by staying where you are. If you think you would experience a lot of pain in IT consulting, let me burst your bubble:
- I rarely work overtime
- I rarely network
- I don’t wear suits or ties
- I make high six figures
In fact I do basically the same thing as most employees (and I sit beside them), except I am a contractor with a corporation and make a lot more money. It’s about working smarter, not harder.
“But Will, why should I think big?” Great question! Any goals you set should have a strong “why” that drives you. As I’ve said before money in and of itself is not the end goal. Here are some reasons you might want to make more money:
- Retire earlier
- Give more money to charity
- Pay off debts
- Buy more toys
- Stop worrying about money
- Help out your family
- Travel more
- Take time off to volunteer
Take a moment and write down some huge dreams. Don’t worry about how to achieve them. That comes later. For now, in all areas of your life think about some things that would really excite you. Do this for the personal, career, adventure, and spiritual areas of your life. Come up with exciting reasons why you want to achieve these dreams. Good luck!
