Saturday, April 09, 2005
Just when you think you have it all figured out...
Bizarre day! I got MasterVisions' dropship customer update out today, along with an invitation to make use of the resources at One Stop Web Support. It's funny. I've procrastinated some at getting that invitation out.
Why, I don't know. It's not like I don't know what I'm talking about when I share my experience in articles and reviews. I have a solid track record of success on the Web. But there's that slight hesitancy to step out.
You know, when you're just in the planning stage of taking a big step, there's a certain comfort to it. When that step hasn't yet been taken, you can live in the dreams of what a big success it will be.
When you actually take that step, you open yourself up to the possibility that it might not turn out the way you plan it. That's why so many people only plan to start their business—they study, gather information, do piddly little things that accomplish nothing but take up time and then wait until everything is absolutely perfect before they make their move.
But you know what? Things never reach that point where everything is "perfect" enough to make that move—so they never make it. They just stay in that safe little cocoon of dreaming of future success instead of making it actually happen.
If you're in that safe mode, it's time to make your move, take a risk, be alive! Dreaming isn't enough. You're made to take chances, to give it your best effort and let the results stand on their own. Nothing you do will guarantee the final results. But even if your results aren't what you dream they'll be, you will succeed.
You will succeed because, through the very act of trying, you will grow—even if your results don't match your dreams. And growing into something more than you started out as is the greatest success you can have because it's something that nobody can take away from you—ever.
But what was strangest in the day was that—out of the blue—I got a call from a resume I had submitted three years ago. A temporary consulting gig as a technical writer, which I used to do looong ago. I'm keeping my options open. It would be a short enough gig not to derail my business plans but would provide a monetary cushion that would certainly come in handy during this startup time.
I can't seriously believe that I'll get the gig after being out of tech writing so long—unless it turns out to be my old boss hiring, which from the sounds of it might just be the case. But it was funny.
Three years ago, when I submitted the resume, if I had gotten the call I got today, I would have been falling all over myself, desperate to say all the right things and probably would have come across as desperate. Today, I found myself verging on cocky about my ability to fit back in even after three years away from the field.
That, I think, fits in with what I was saying about growth. There's been a lot that has stretched me in the past three years. And I never would have been able to take the steps then that I am taking now. So whether my new business matches my dreams or not, it will be a success in some form.
And I hope that—if you're in the same holding pattern I was in for so many years—you can take the steps you need to move outside of the safety of your dreams and find your success, too.
Jeff
Bizarre day! I got MasterVisions' dropship customer update out today, along with an invitation to make use of the resources at One Stop Web Support. It's funny. I've procrastinated some at getting that invitation out.
Why, I don't know. It's not like I don't know what I'm talking about when I share my experience in articles and reviews. I have a solid track record of success on the Web. But there's that slight hesitancy to step out.
You know, when you're just in the planning stage of taking a big step, there's a certain comfort to it. When that step hasn't yet been taken, you can live in the dreams of what a big success it will be.
When you actually take that step, you open yourself up to the possibility that it might not turn out the way you plan it. That's why so many people only plan to start their business—they study, gather information, do piddly little things that accomplish nothing but take up time and then wait until everything is absolutely perfect before they make their move.
But you know what? Things never reach that point where everything is "perfect" enough to make that move—so they never make it. They just stay in that safe little cocoon of dreaming of future success instead of making it actually happen.
If you're in that safe mode, it's time to make your move, take a risk, be alive! Dreaming isn't enough. You're made to take chances, to give it your best effort and let the results stand on their own. Nothing you do will guarantee the final results. But even if your results aren't what you dream they'll be, you will succeed.
You will succeed because, through the very act of trying, you will grow—even if your results don't match your dreams. And growing into something more than you started out as is the greatest success you can have because it's something that nobody can take away from you—ever.
But what was strangest in the day was that—out of the blue—I got a call from a resume I had submitted three years ago. A temporary consulting gig as a technical writer, which I used to do looong ago. I'm keeping my options open. It would be a short enough gig not to derail my business plans but would provide a monetary cushion that would certainly come in handy during this startup time.
I can't seriously believe that I'll get the gig after being out of tech writing so long—unless it turns out to be my old boss hiring, which from the sounds of it might just be the case. But it was funny.
Three years ago, when I submitted the resume, if I had gotten the call I got today, I would have been falling all over myself, desperate to say all the right things and probably would have come across as desperate. Today, I found myself verging on cocky about my ability to fit back in even after three years away from the field.
That, I think, fits in with what I was saying about growth. There's been a lot that has stretched me in the past three years. And I never would have been able to take the steps then that I am taking now. So whether my new business matches my dreams or not, it will be a success in some form.
And I hope that—if you're in the same holding pattern I was in for so many years—you can take the steps you need to move outside of the safety of your dreams and find your success, too.
Jeff
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