Appreciate Failure: It Can Be Your Salvation

I’m taking a break from the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series for today to post something that I wrote for myself in November 2009 about a devastating failure I had experienced.  It’s a summary really of the lessons I learned from that experience.  Since I wrote this I gained clarity on my mission and what I really want to do to make a change in the world,  so necessarily the focus of my business changed from what is written here. 

As you know by now, I help teenagers and young adults to identify their passions and dreams and learn to build a business based on those passions and dreams.  When my new logo is ready and I get new business cards, I’m going to list my title as Change Agent.  The change I want to see in the world is a major reduction in teen/young adult unemployment and homelessness.

I hope my story speaks to you in some way.  Posting it here is the final closure in that chapter of my life.

In December of 2007 I experienced the death of a project I had worked long and hard on for the previous four years.  The realization of this dream came so close that I could feel it in my hands.  At the very last minute the main funder backed out as a result of damage they sustained due to the downturn in the economy and the project was dead.  Needless to say, it hit me really hard and a deep depression set in.  I remained in that depression and mourned that project for almost a year.  There were some attempts to recover, to pick up the pieces and move forward, but I could not make that happen.  We’re talking about fourteen million dollars lost from one source.

I have always believed that things happen for a reason, even if we don’t see what that reason is.  What I’ve come to understand about the failure of this project is that it was the Universe’s way of showing me that things could always be worse and that I had to find a way to be grateful for everything, good or bad that came my way.  When I came to this realization, I also realized that the failure of the project saved me and my very small nonprofit from what could have been an even more devastating loss in the future.  The economic downturn has caused so many changes in the funding of social service programs, that it is likely that I would have eventually lost the funding anyway and would have been left with an enormous debt and no way to continue funding the project.  I would not have been able to recover from that kind of financial loss in this lifetime.

In February of 2009, the agency I worked for filed for bankruptcy and went out of business after twenty-five years of service to foster youth.  I found myself unemployed for the first time in many years.  Not only unemployed, but they didn’t pay us for our last pay period, nor did they reimburse for mileage, phone and other expenses since September of 2008.  The job ended with them owing me more than eight thousand dollars.  I have joked all this time that I am happily unemployed as I am now relieved of the overwhelming stress from a difficult job with an agency that was not able to meet its commitment to the clients or to the employees.  It’s been almost six months and I’ve been able to accomplish a lot.  I have decided to diversify by having multiple streams of income in order to protect against this kind of loss of income in the future.  I am establishing a private practice as a therapeutic behavioral coach, working with families and caregivers to develop effective, stress free discipline strategies to help children manage irritating and out of control behaviors.  I set up an inexpensive website at http://www.julianeiman.com, started writing ezine articles which I submit to EzineArticles.com and soon to add to Suite1101.com.  EzineArticles.com is strictly for marketing purposes and Suite101 is to earn some extra money.  They have Google Ads on the same page with your articles and you get paid each time someone who is drawn to your article clicks on the ad.  I’ve also taken on other small writing jobs.  There isn’t a lot of money coming in right now, but it’s a start.

If the agency had not gone into bankruptcy, I would still be in that very stressful job.

Additionally, I have taken up organic gardening after connecting on Craig’s List with an expert in the field.  He helped me build an organic garden in my backyard and we have gardening classes here once a month.  I have a very magical garden.  With only two months in the ground, some of the plants tower over six feet tall.  It’s easy to see where the Jack in the Beanstalk story came from.  I’m learning biodynamic gardening and am having the time of my life.

My nonprofit is partnering with the garden expert to develop various projects.  We have a proposal ready to go the Probation Department to bring a garden project into the youth camps to teach them not only gardening skills and how to make money from their garden, but to create a sustainable food source for the camps thereby saving the county some money on their food bill, but also to teach social skills such as leadership development, team building, community service and to raise their awareness of environmental issues, teach nutrition and the plant to food on the table connection.

I think I found my silver lining to that dark cloud that parked itself over my head that dreadful day the funder announced they had been hit hard by the drop in the economy and could no longer consider funding our project.  That devastating failure may have led me to a brand new future, free from that overwhelming stress that I felt on my previous job, one that will lead to a happy, productive retirement in the next ten years or sooner.  I am happier than I ever imagined I would be at this time.  I encourage everyone to consider that failure may actually be in your best interest and present other opportunities that you may not have thought about.  Failure is a great teacher and mentor and I will never again be devastated by it, but will look for the opportunity that is coming next.

If you’d like to see some of the gardening project I’ve posted photos on the Nonprofit page.  Scroll to the middle of the page.

 

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

Thank you to Jan Kearney of My Local Business Online for Nominating me for this fabulous award.  I’m honored to be part of the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers.  It was quite a surprise as there are so many wonderful sister written blogs in this community.  I love the logo of the award and will display it proudly!  I plan to make it a permanent fixture on the site as soon as I figure out how.

There are a few rules that come with the award and one of those rules is to post the rules, so here they are:

 

 

Rules of the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

1.       All recipients need to thank the giver

2.       Post 7 things about yourself

3.       Pass the award on to 7 other bloggers of their choice and let them know that they have been nominated

4.       Include the logo of the award in a post or on your blog.

 

7 Thinks About Myself

1.       In early 1980 through the mid 1990’s I was part of a wolf pack (we bred wolf-hybrids and dogs at a breeding kennel).

2.       I raised a mountain lion.

3.       I love dramatic acts of nature like big storms and earthquakes.

4.       I’m a certified Community Emergency Response Team Member.

5.       Organic gardening is a favorite hobby I’m still learning how to do.

6.       When I was 20-30 something I backpacked and climbed mountains.

7.       And last but not least, a future project I have is to write a book about some of the amazing experiences I’ve had in my life.

 

And now, I Pass This Award on To:

Sara Duggan – http://crochetbusinessblog.blogspot.com/

Michelle Amethyst Mahoney – http://kickassbusinessnews.com/#

Peggy Lee Hanson – http://networkedblogs.com/zQc0i

Holly Fulford-Jeffrey – http://hollyfulfordjef.com/

Michelle Shaeffer – http://www.michelleshaeffer.com

Melissa Barham – http://barhamvirtualassistance.com/blogging/

Lynn Baillie – http://lynnbaillie.com/

These photos are of Baboo, the mountain lion I raised.  Don’t ask how many small rugs we went through.  No matter how many toys he had to chew on, he liked those rugs.  The adult photo shows him in the courtyard of our house just waiting for a new play toy to walk in the gate.  He was a great crime deterrent.

Action: The Key To Success

The word action has come up a lot in the past few days so I thought it would be a good idea to look at why action is the key to success.

Adam Urbanski said, “The difference between successful people and the wannabes is simple: successful people do what needs to be done when it needs to be done – regardless of how they feel about it at the moment. The wannabes just complain and come up with all kinds of BS how life should be easy and everything we want should just effortlessly appear for us! Sorry, that’s not the way it works! If you want something – go get it!”

Nothing in business or life gets done unless you take some action.

Most of us know or have at least heard of the law of attraction.  Some people imagine you can just think positively and things will come to you.  This isn’t true.   It’s fantasy.  The law of attraction is not wishful thinking, nor is it just positive thinking.  Making your dreams come true and attracting what you want requires you to put energy into making it happen – taking action.  This is called determination.  Determination is the combination of time, energy and actions.  Without determination nothing happens.

The universe will not give you what you want without you taking some action.  When your action is inspired by your desires and dreams, you are demonstrating that you really want what you say you desire.  This puts you in alignment with the law of attraction and you will begin to see what you want start to come to you.  Action is like searching for buried treasure; you know it is there to find and you are digging with determination to find it.

Actions that are uninspired are time wasters.  Time wasters don’t create an alignment with our dreams and desires which means we aren’t going to get what we say we want.  This form of action leaves you with the wannabes that Adam mentioned.

My spiritual teacher once said that waiting doesn’t mean sitting around waiting for something to happen, it means doing something toward making it happen until it does happen.  So what are you “waiting” for?

“You are never given a dream without the ability to make it come true.  That ability includes your willingness to do what it takes. Marcia Wieder

 

8 Patterns of Self-Sabotage

This post is inspired by the writings of Marcia Wieder of Dream University in her book Overcoming Failure in the Dream Movement Series.  She talks about these 8 patterns of sabotage:

Sabotage #1:  Negative self-talk and self-doubt are useless.

If you recall the three hurdles we talked about earlier in this series, lack of belief was number one, “I don’t believe I can do it.”   We identified three was to jump this hurdle: focus on your desires, focus on who you are being and take action.  If you are in action toward making your dream come true, there is little room left for self-doubt.

It is important to remember that our thoughts create our reality, so be aware of your thoughts, change them and you will change your reality.

Sabotage #2:  Putting your fears into your dream will kill the dream.

This is what Marcia recommends to transform this sabotage pattern:  “Any fears we have about our dreams are just part of the present reality.  Divide a piece of paper in half.  Label the top “My Dream” and the bottom “My Reality”. Honestly describe the dream and assess your reality about the dream. Include in the reality section, all of your fears about the dream. Now you can clearly see where you stand.  You can also decide (on a daily basis) if you are more committed to your dream or to your reality, which includes your fears.  Zig Ziglar, one of the world’s foremost motivational speakers, uses a wonderful acronym for the word FEAR: ‘False Evidence Appearing Real.’  Take a close look at how you are using your fear and at what’s real and what’s not.”

 

Sabotage #3:  Being vague about the dream will keep you confused.

We’ve talked about this in a previous post as well.  It is essential to have clarity about your dream.  Write it down, create a vision board, start telling people what your dream is and use their questions and comments as feedback to gain clarity.  Communicate it often.  Eliminate the qualifiers when you share your dream.  For example, don’t say “some day I’m going to be a successful business person.”  Do say, “I’m going to be a success business person.”  Do you see the difference?  One is more self-assured, the other leaves room for doubt.

Sabotage #4:  If the dream stays a dream, it will never become a reality.

You must be in action on making your dreams a reality because nothing happens without action.  If you have a really big dream, the first step is to ask yourself “how can I make this happen?”  Then break that down into projects or goals.  Set a date or time limit and start moving one step at a time toward completing that goal.

Sabotage #5:  Scheduling unrealistic deadlines will lead to disappointment.

Don’t schedule yourself into overwhelm.  I’ve been there and done that.  When I feel overwhelmed I usually want to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head; nothing gets done that way.  This is what the Get Stuff Done Tool was created for.  If don’t already have this tool, sign up in the box with the red arrows on the right hand side of this page and it will be sent to you.  We also discussed this in a previous post so you can review it there.

Sabotage #6:  Loss of perspective can send you into a tail spin.

Telling yourself that you will never make it, or how bad things are is a sure way to sabotage the dream.  This can even make the situation worse than it really is.  Or just as bad, we pump ourselves up pretending things are much better than they are.  Denial is a waste of your time.  Make a visual – create a chart or graph and show how much you’ve already accomplished, then look at how much there is left to do and break that down into smaller projects.  Remember, one step at a time leads to success.

 

Sabotage #7:  It’s so much easier to do it myself.

This usually comes either from ego or you are a control freak.  We’ve talked about having your dream team, or a success team.  They are on your team to help you when you need.  You just need to ask them.  Also, google whatever information you need and search for free training.  I learned so much of what I know and put into practice by watching free video trainings and attending free webinars and teleseminars.  If I had trouble putting into practice what I learned, I asked for help.

Sabotage #8:  If you kill yourself in the process, you won’t get to enjoy the dream.

Take care of yourself.  If make yourself crazy and overwhelmed, if you are stressed, you are wasting energy and putting yourself and your dream at risk.  Slow down, see what you need and provide that for yourself.  It’s okay to take a break or work less hours and take a bit longer to get things done.  After all, you want to be happy and healthy enough to enjoy your dream becoming a reality.

Which one or more of these patterns have you fallen into?

 

Laying The Foundation For Success

Building a business is like building a house or other structure.  You start with the foundation and build up.  You have to even out the ground, lay out the outline of the bottom floor and pour the cement.  When you are done, you have the foundation.  Then you build the frame of the structure, put the roof on, install the plumbing and wiring, finish the walls then get to the smaller details until your house is complete.

The next step is to turn that house into a home.  You need to decide on paint color, furniture and the like.  Once everything is in place, you have successfully built a new home.

In business, evening out the ground is equivalent to deciding what business you will have and doing the research necessary to make informed decision.  Laying out the outline of your business consists of making decisions on the name, what your URL will be, or whether or not to have a website or other tools.

Next, setting up the systems for your business, the website, an autoresponder and other systems is pouring the cement for the foundation.

To frame your business requires determining your sales funnel; what will your products be?  What will you give away to attract people to your business?

Creating your products and having them ready to sell is putting the roof over your head and finishing the walls.

Now to turn your venture into a real business, you need to find customers/clients; you must build your list and create and work a marketing plan.

Finally, to make your business a home, you need to invite people over.  Once your customers/clients start visiting, you can call your business your home and it is time to have a housewarming party.

Welcome home.

The Top 7 Keys for Winning in Life and Business

The topic for today’s lesson in the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs series comes to us from Adam Urbanski of Millionaire Marketing Mentors and The Overnight Authority.  Adam has coached over 50,000 entrepreneurs, many of whom have reached the millionaire milestone.

 

Most of these keys may seem familiar to you as we have discussed them in one post or another over the past 24 days.  I thought it important to reinforce these keys to success as both a reminder and a summary of some of the things we’ve discussed so far.  These keys are as effective when applied to the way you live your life as their are to your business.

1.        Focus on your dream.

Always keep your dream in mind when building your business.  Make It as real as possible by visualizing, create a vision board or just post photos of your dream as reminders.  Move toward those images every single day.

2.        Take action fast.

Once you have your business idea, do not wait to take action.  Brainstorm ideas, use the Get Stuff Done Tool to organize your To Do List and get to work creating your business right away.

3.        Put yourself in a place where you are most likely to succeed.

Figure out what you do in your life that wastes time and cut it out right now.  Find a place where you can focus and concentrate on what you have to do, a place with few distractions.  Then get to work.

4.        Keep it Simple Silly (KISS).

Don’t make the actions you take difficult or confusing.  Simple steps with simple systems will get you there faster and more efficiently.

5.        Passionately share your convictions.

Do you know the difference between an expert and an authority?  An expert shares their findings, authorities share they opinions.  Which will you be, the expert or an authority?  Talk from your knowledge and your heart; know your stuff and people will listen to you.

6.        Failure is not an option.

As Thomas Edison said, he didn’t fail 700 times, he found 700 ways his idea wouldn’t work before he found the one way that would work.  Don’t allow your mistakes to set you back or worse yet to give up.  Never quit, ever.

7.        Believe in your own message.

If you don’t believe in your own message, no one else will buy into it either.

I hope this review is of value to you and reminds you of what is important when building your business.

 

3 Common Pitfalls In Building Your Business

Recently we talked about the most common pitfall in building a business which is thinking that your great idea, your aha moment, or your product is all you need to be successful.  There are other pitfalls to be aware and beware of.

1.  Not expecting obstacles

A common mistake made by failing entrepreneurs is believing that the process of building a successful business is an easy one.  It is foolish to think that you will not encounter mistakes and setbacks along the way.

Part of being a successful entrepreneur is learning how to overcome obstacles.   We talked about three hurdles that many people have to jump over when just considering starting a business:  I don’t believe I can, I don’t have enough time and/or money and the third, I don’t know how.

Once you decide to start a business, there are other hurdles such as not knowing who to trust to help you or not knowing the financial systems you need to have in place.  These and so many other small things can overwhelm you if you aren’t careful.

If you are not prepared to make mistakes and experience failure it is advisable that you do not become an entrepreneur because it is guaranteed that you will have hurdles, challenges, mistakes and failures along the way.

2.  Failing to work from your strengths

Every human being has their strengths and their weaknesses.  It is important that you are honest with yourself and with others, about what you are good at and what you are not.

In business it is important to play to your strengths.   Your strengths are your business tools that you should take full advantage of.

If your business requires a particular set of skills that you don’t possess, find someone that can fill this gap, or reconsider if the business is the right one for you.

Many failing entrepreneurs make the mistake of wasting countless hours improving their limitations instead of working from their strengths.   If you don’t know what your strengths are, ask the people who are closest to you or ask a teacher or find a mentor who can help you figure out what your strengths are.

3.  Not picking your niche based on your passions

It is just as important to pick a business that is not only potentially lucrative, but one that you are passionate about.

If your chosen niche does not excite you in any way, your ability to build the business will suffer.  Most of your behavior is a function of how you feel, and if you do not enjoy working on your business, you will soon be unmotivated and lose interest.

Albert Schweitzer, humanitarian, theologian and doctor, born 1875 said, “Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success!  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

Finally if you choose or have chosen the path of an entrepreneur, make sure you enjoy challenges because there are certainly going to be many of them as you begin to build your business.  The quote below sums up the importance of enjoying the journey, more than the outcome of your efforts:

“We don’t sing to get to the end of the song.  If that were so, the fastest singers would be the best and composers would only write finales.  We don’t dance to get from one place on the floor to another.” Alan Watts, philosopher, 1915-1973.

Conclusion

The journey of the entrepreneur can be a highly rewarding one.  Entrepreneurs have the potential to create a business that allows them to live the lifestyle of their dreams.  However like any worthwhile pursuit, there will always be obstacles and set-backs to overcome.

 

Storytelling and the Art of Selling: Lesson 22 in the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series

Today I participated in a joint yard sale with friends who were fundraising for their nonprofit and I learned something valuable about selling, and that is that stories sell.

I had to sell some things that are my father’s that I have absolutely no interest in, things like smoking pipes, collector’s knives and fishing gear.  I spent 12 hours researching these things to determine a good and fair price.

The smoking pipes were the biggest surprise to me.  Some of them were expensive, costing over $400 new.  My dad’s collection had more than 60 pipes.

While doing this research I learned a lot about the artisans that made these pipes and the companies that employed them.  I learned the history of the shapes and the chain of ownership of the companies and what significant markings to look for to authenticate the pipe and so much more.  I printed photos from the internet of some of the pipes that I had to sell with their prices.  When all was said and done I had a lot of information about pipes.

As people made their way to my area they were immediately drawn to the pipes.  I can’t tell you how many times today I heard “wow, someone likes pipes.”   Well, duh!  However, rather than say “duh” I immediately launched into telling some of the stories I had learned about the pipes.  I was animated in the telling and felt I was able to convey my amazement at having learned such interesting stories.  At the end of the day, I sold most of the pipes, including some of the expensive ones.

It was clear to me that people were enthralled with the stories I told them and they responded positively.  One man, after buying a particular pipe I said I liked a lot from a local artist (one of the few not imported) turned to someone else and shared the story I just told him.

This must be similar in nature to telling our compelling stories about ourselves in order to attract customers.  At the end of the day, I sold almost everything I had to sell and made quite a bit of money.

So, the lesson to be learned is that it helps if you have a good story tell about whatever you are trying to sell.

 

The Number One Pitfall in Building a Successful Business; Lesson 21 in the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series

Many young entrepreneurs (and older ones) are under the impression that generating a good idea is the most important part of building a successful business.   However, a great number of businesses fall flat on their face because of an inability to recognize the amount of work that is required to make them successful.

In the grand scheme of business building, very little of the hard work involves coming up with the idea.  Most of the effort comes from working on all of the key processes that go into making a business successful.  Project management, marketing, product development, and customer relations, the ability to replicate your business, are just some of the areas that are essential to the functioning of a profitable business.

Obviously ideas are the initial seed that all successful businesses grow from, but they are not the only important ingredient involved in the business building process.

In the world famous book “E-myth revisited,” Geber draws on the important distinction between creativity and innovation with the following quote,

“Creativity thinks up new things.  Innovation does new things.”  Professor Levitt

Coming up with ideas is important, but you can start a business using someone else’s ideas or products.  Ideas aren’t going to take you very far without the knowledge and the expertise of how to implement them.  Innovating is where most of the hard work begins.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a good idea naturally equates to the foundations of a sound business or you’ll find that you’ve fallen into that first pit.

 

My Interview on the Empowering Youth For Success Blog Radio Show.

Today I thought I’d try something entirely new for me. Rather than write an article, I’m posting the interview I did this morning on the blog talk radio show with Sarah Newton from The Youth Success Show and Linette Daniels of Empowering Youth For Success.

I enjoyed the interview very much. There was no rehearsal, no agreement of what questions to, and no discussion of any kind prior to the interview. It was totally off the cuff and I think it turned out fairly well.

So, today, in my own voice, you can hear me talking about Empowering Youth Entrepreneurs. I hope you listen. It’s approximately 36 minutes – I come in at about 5 minutes into the show.

Thank you in advance for having a listen.  I’d appreciate any feedback or comments you have to offer.

Listen to internet radio with Sarah Newton on Blog Talk Radio