Friday, September 14, 2012

What Is Your Story The 1 Idea That Can Change Your Online Business ( And Bank Account ) Forever

What does your life look like in 2 or 3 years, when your " online " goals become a materiality? What does your business look like? What do you do every day that makes you caress like you are making progress, vitality, growing and flowing into the tenacious person you are coming up to become?

I want to share with you a little secret. It ' s not altogether considering much of a secret... because it is the ONE core, consistent idea that EVERY dominant success story shares. Subject you other you read about is faux pas... but THIS one concern is partly universally true.

You need a compelling story that makes your work meaningful, and matter to YOU. It doesn ' t have to be the same driver, or the same idea, or the same inspiration that moves and motivates other people... it only needs to work for you.

When I see people who are jumping from thing to thing, trying one bright and shiny idea after the next and never really sticking with any one path for long... it ' s ALWAYS because they don ' t have a compelling, personal passion for living a life they really love.

Instead, the focus is on techniques to make easy money, or tactics that may drive traffic to their websites, or shortcuts, software or sneaky strategies that may help them expedite the process of getting ahead.

That rarely works in the short term. And NEVER works long term. Because it gets old, and boring and grows tired, very quickly... EVEN if it works. ( which those techniques, as most of us already know, rarely do )

One of the amazing insights I took away from reading the Steve Jobs biography, was he seemed to make everything harder than it needed to be to build Apple from the ground up. Every accountant, money manager and bean counter thought his obsession with design, and form as well as function would kill the company and bleed them dry.

But Jobs was less interested in money... as he was in satisfying his own story. What he saw as his own mission, purpose and passion. To create beautiful things that married technology and art. And to live in a society where his contributions to the world were celebrated as innovative inventions that literally changed the world.

Whether you like him or not, his passion, and sense of purpose about his work... certainly did exactly that.

In a smaller way, by making a MANIFESTO, and creating a compelling vision about what your life looks like, when you are truly living a life that honors, values and celebrates your gifts is the only true path to progress... and profit that will make any of us happy.

I remember the first successful " review site " I created many years ago. The first few sales were exhilarating. The first $1000 in commissions made me feel like I was walking on clouds. By the time I got to 10K in commissions... it felt boring, bland and sort of dishonest work as well. ( as I was recommending products for commissions... not because they were all that great )

By the time I hit 50K in commissions, I decided I hated it and pretty much quit altogether.

For me... there was nothing exciting, compelling or creative about writing reviews all day... no matter how successful it could become.

Pretty much everyone I meet, online or off, prosperous or not, agrees.

Do what you love. Love what you do. The money will follow. ( but first... you have to KNOW what it is that makes you come alive... imagine it, see it, live it... and loving it is sure to follow! )