Lately, I’ve been hit by a wave of ‘busy-ness’ around me!
My daughter can’t join me on an evening walk – since she’s too busy, with class tests to study for and homework to finish.
My cousin can’t attend our niece’s wedding – because he’s too busy, has project deadlines to meet, work backlogs to wade through.
My nephew can’t come to our family dinner – as he’s too busy, has assignments to get done, an after-hours training program to attend.
It’s crazy!
Yes, I understand being busy. It’s my default setting! But I don’t understand letting busy-ness interfere with other important things in life.
I feel like screaming at them: Get Over Yourself!
We all like to feel important.
And yes, you really are important. There’s only one of YOU – and you are special. What you do matters, in a deep, significant, unique way.
But spin it as much as you like, you aren’t quite indispensable… no matter who you are, no matter what you do.
And the best way to realize that is to imagine a world where you no longer exist.
Will your company or factory or hospital really grind to a halt because you no longer work there?
Will your friends give up all else they are doing and mourn your absense for the rest of their lives?
Will your family starve and suffer and waste away hopelessly without you around to take care of them?
Obviously not.
If you stop going to work tomorrow, your boss will either have you replaced, or set up processes to work around you… or maybe even abandon your project. True, it will hurt in the short run – but adaptation is key to survival, and we are hard-wired to adapt, evolve and survive.
Life rolls on – with you, without you, in spite of you.
The day you start realizing that, accepting it, and integrating that reality into your belief systems is when you really start enjoying the unique preciousness that’s YOU.
It was 3 a.m. I lay wide awake in bed. It was pitch dark. The dead silence was broken only by a buzz of hungry mosquitoes.
It was matched by my buzzing brain.
I had an idea. No, scratch that. I had a HUMDINGER of an idea. A fabulous, fantastic, brilliant idea. One that might conceivably raise enough money to fund 50, or even 100 heart operations for kids.
Afraid I’d forget it by morning, I hopped out of bed. Sat at the dining table with a sheet of paper. For thirty minutes, I scribbled furiously, outlining the idea in bullet-points.
Then, I dropped off to sleep.
= = =
Many “sensational” ideas look stupid in the light of day.
This one didn’t. In fact, it looked even better in the morning than it had at night.
And so, I set out right away to put it into action, little knowing that by taking that small step, I was setting off tremors that would gather force and become an earthquake.
A near-disaster that would shake the very foundation of everything I had worked for online since 1996.
But I’m getting ahead of my tale!
Let me tell this step by step…
= = =
My idea needed a way to process payments. P*yP*l came to mind as the obvious choice. Recently, they had started operations in India. I believed that would streamline the process of getting a non-profit account approved easily.
How wrong I was!
After submitting a ton of paperwork and documentation, their review team turned down the application, stating unique legal regulations as their reason.
Fine. I would have to live with that. I began looking for alternatives.
That’s when the first shock-wave hit.
= = =
By a weird coincidence, or a convoluted connection, I got email notification that my primary BUSINESS account with P*yP*l had been locked.
I could no longer receive business payments unless some information was provided, and my case reviewed by their compliance team.
To cut a long story short (and because that case is still pending resolution), I can’t use this account any more. For nearly ten years, it was my primary solution, deeply woven into multiple elements of my online business.
Literally overnight, it stopped working!
After an hour of stunned acceptance, furious ranting, and expressing my opinions about the situation in choice phrases learned while treating drunks and junkies, I calmed down enough to list out a set of priority actions to salvage my business operations.
Notice that the key words I emphasized above were “primary solution”.
No one serious about their business can afford to let everything hinge on one (or even two) critical points. I have multiple payment processing options set up and waiting – including a back-up P*yP*l, 2CheckOut, Clickbank, eJunkie and others. (Soon, I will have many more, as I’ve learned from this experience that you can never have enough ‘insurance’.)
Anyway, a couple of hours later, I had flipped the switch – and things were limping back to normal.
I dropped off into an uneasy sleep… but had I known what was to follow, I may never have closed my eyes that night!
= = =
Next morning, I sat at my desk. Fired up my computer. Opened my Eudora inbox to check email.
And my jaw dropped!
Right at the top of the queue was an email from my web hosting company of six years – stating (with no reason given) that they were closing down their service in a month, and asking clients to transfer all their sites to another host.
Normally, this wouldn’t matter. Web hosts go out of business all the time. It would be a mere job of moving files from one server to another.
But the reason I chose this host – and paid a much higher price for it than comparable services charged – is because of one feature unmatched by anyone else.
An AUTOMATED shopping cart / auto-responder / affiliate control panel.
They integrated and coordinated multiple scripts into a cohesive system that even a non-techie could plug into and get working instantly.
It made setting up sales processes ‘point and click’ easy. And I had over 150 products listed on it. Now, all of them would have to be moved!
Worse, at that point I had no idea if my P*yP*l account would be re-activated quickly, or if it would take longer.
Where to move my hosting?
What payment process to set up?
How permanent was this move?
All I had at this time were questions.
I need to find the answers.
Quickly.
But that’s when the phone rang. And I got some information that drove these problems clear out of my mind!
= = =
It’s often true in life that when you think you’ve hit rock-bottom, things slide so far lower that you wish that all you had to deal with was that earlier condition!
My non-profit work (funding life-saving heart surgery for under-privileged children with congenital heart defects) is supported by a State Government subsidy which covers almost 50% of our expenses.
For a while now, payments had been delayed. Our perfusionist, who had been following up on this, was the person calling.
He had good news. And bad news.
The payments were approved. We’d soon get the money for operations performed since November 2009.
But… and here’s the bad news… that would be the FINAL payment!
“What?” I gasped. “Why is this the final payment?”
The program had changed. It was being merged with another Government program, one for which our Foundation’s project had not been approved.
We were just about to lose 50% of our funding!
= = =
Ask any Type-A personality, and they’ll tell you this.
The times which bring out our toughest determination to overcome the odds is when they are stacked hopelessly against us!
Looking back, I’m proud to say that not for a moment did I see this as a crushing defeat.
No, it was like waving a red flag to a bull. I was ready to CHARGE!
Way back in the 1970s, tennis matches at Wimbledon were made entertaining by the antics of the brilliant star, Jimmy Connors. At critical points in a crucial game, Jimbo would stand at the baseline, and pump his fists, with a hoarse cry that charged up himself – and his horde of vocal supporters.
Not surprisingly, he often went on to win the match!
I’ve followed the “Jimbo system” for years. And I did it again – pumped my fists, and roared! It charged me up – as it always did.
And then, I went into overdrive!
= = =
The days that followed are a whirl of activity. I don’t quite remember clearly the sequence of events.
First priority was the Government program subsidy. I talked endlessly with my team. Brainstormed various ideas. Contacted several friends, many with influence and connections.
All the networking, negotiating and focused activity paid off – fast.
Within a week, we had signed a new memorandum – approving our program for the new subsidy… which, incidentally, is 25% HIGHER than the earlier scheme!
We were not just back – we were back with a BANG!
For the same amount raised in donations, we will now be able to perform 25% more surgeries, help 25% more children!
For that, I will forever be grateful to the caring people who helped make it happen. This is team work at its brilliant best – and without these special people in my corner, nothing like this might have happened.
But there wasn’t much time to relax and celebrate.
While this was happening, storm clouds were still gathering on the business front – with another hurdle looming through the murky gloom!
= = =
David Perdew is a genius at business and networking. His NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing System) workshop always has attendees raving over the quality of his coaching team.
He’s also a caring, generous man.
Many weeks back, David had contacted me about a plan to raise $10,000 for the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation at his NAMS-4 workshop. Earlier this year, NAMS-3 had raised money to sponsor one child’s surgery.
David wanted to make this event’s fundraiser better – and bigger!
Amid all the scrambling I had to do with re-structuring my online business and getting our CHD program approved for funding, I also had to honor my commitment to help David get his fund-raiser set up.
I drafted several email promotions sharing stories of the little kids we had helped. I blogged about the event and its impact. I contacted other supporters for help in spreading the word.
And I even managed to squeeze in an audio interview with the incomparable Roger Carr for the event.
Pre-launch was underway. Over 300 JV partners were aboard, eager and ready to promote the fund raiser, when… guess what happened?
Yep. David got a note from the same payment processor, saying NAMS were not permitted to raise funds!
By then, nearly $2,500 had been collected – which would fund at least 2 operations.
Now, they wouldn’t.
That is, if we sat back and did nothing!
= = =
It never is fun to re-work a website. Even more boring is to merely edit code that shifts payment processing from one service to another, and sets up order links for the new system.
But successful people do the things the less (or not yet) successful people don’t want to do.
It took nearly two full days – but finally, most of my profitable products were set up on alternative platforms… and sales were trickling in again.
The good news is that, while shifting over 600 MB in files over to a new host, I was able to plan and organize my sites in a more logical way. It had grown unwieldy over the years, and this was a ‘forced’ chance to do some much needed housekeeping.
At the end, I’m happy to say everything now has a more clean, streamlined feel – with less flab and bloat. The affiliate program too got revamped, and there’s a fantastic affiliate toolkit to go with it that should make many more people a lot more money than before.
Want to take a look at some parts of the new process?
The digital dust is settling from all the moving and re-decoration of my online store.
And our surgical team is gearing up for a renewed burst of operating activity which will touch the lives of many more little children.
The NAMS4Kids fundraiser is also exploring alternatives that will help get the funds into use at the earliest opportunity. They are nearly at their ambitious target of $10,000 – and intend to go higher!
With so many determined minds working hard on finding solutions, there’s no question we’ll find one – or even many – that will help kids with CHD live.
In the end, the biggest lesson of all is this…
Failure Is NOT An Option!
That’s at the root of a ’success mindset’. Anything worth achieving or attaining WILL present obstacles and challenges along the path.
One movie clip that I kept watching over and over during the dark days of this past month was this from ‘Rocky Balboa’, where Sylvester Stallone offers some of the best worldly advice I’ve had from a motion picture…
“It ain’t about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can GET HIT and keep moving forward. How much you can TAKE and keep moving forward. That’s what winning’s about!”
And an unbelievable sense of relief has permeated my mind. It’s as if a heavy burden has been lifted off my shoulders at the thought that everything built up over a decade and a half hasn’t (yet!) come crashing down around me.
But this doesn’t mean everything will be sunshine and roses all the way!
Paul Farmer’s brilliant and inspirational biography taught me a precious lesson. There are “Mountains Beyond Mountains“. And you just keep climbing every one of them, as and when you arrive at them.
Hugh ‘Gaping Void’ Mac Leod has a business card cartoon which I keep pinned to my calendar. It reads:
“Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.”
He goes on to say,
“You may never reach the summit; for that you will be forgiven. But if you don’t make at least one serious attempt to get above the snow-line, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness.”
Scary words! Coz they are eerily true.
Are YOU ready to scale your private Mount Everest?
Then read what I’ve got to share with you about my private personal mentoring program… and see if it’s right for you.
= = =
“Your SUCCESS MINDSET…”
That’s the title of my private personal mentoring program. It has been in the planning phase for over THREE YEARS. And finally, earlier this year, I launched it as a pilot trial for only 48 members.
Around 75% of them went through the entire program. And they all said it was well worth studying my process, that it gave them powerful insights and perspectives into how to improve their business and boost their success level to a new, higher plane.
Now, with the recent events under my belt, I’m even more eager to share my SUCCESS MINDSET coaching with you.
I applied these principles to stay focused amidst the biggest challenges to my business and non-profit work – and came through it, battered and bruised perhaps, but still alive and kicking.
That’s the big thing. When you survive the punches, you have a shot at winning!
Only if it’s right for you at this time, consider joining.
You’re only signing up for a trial. For one month.
At the end of that time, I will evaluate your performance and participation. ONLY IF you are engaged and involved, and ONLY IF I assess this coaching is of value to you on a continuing basis, will I send you the link to continue with the rest.
You will anyway receive a multiple in value for what you pay for the trial month, so there isn’t any chance that you’ll feel let down or ripped off. Just in case you do, I will cheerfully return even your initial payment – but then, you cannot join this program ever, later on.
So think carefully about your decision.
Is it right for you?
Do you have time to commit?
Are you ready for a trial?
If you said ‘Yes’, learn more here – and then join.
“If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings”
- Rudyard Kipling, ‘IF…‘
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