The Max Strategy

So the past two weeks, as far as business building goes, I can't say I've accomplished much. As far as organization goes, I've gotten things done. I have to say I much like working on creating advertisement of the products than actually getting to talk to people. Partly because I'm terrified of their rejection. Something as a business person I should just get over it. I'm still looking for full-time work while running this business since I've started to desperately run out of funds.

A part of me is so confused, scared really, of the possibilities of rejection. I think it's the fear that has held me back and so fear is causing me to fail. However when I think about it, why do I fear failure so much? Life is not a series of failures but a series of adventures.

My greatest fear is not being able to do this. I think I'm sabotaging myself. I know if I get over my fear I can achieve success. The part of jumping out of a flying plane is the jumping off the plane.

I read an interesting book about business and career. Actually it was by chance that I came across this book. I was having a conversation with my younger sister who is now temporary residing in Quebec about career and life choices. Sometime in our conversation I was talking about maybe going back to school to do something else, her reply was...umm you can't be a bum forever. You have to pay off your debts sometime. Excuse me, when did education become attributed to being homeless...

Though I understand what she meant. I can't be drifting off when I should be focusing on one thing. The problem is, I don't really know what that one thing is. What if I'm meant to discover a whole bunch of things. I don't think I fit well in a box.

Anyway this time that I have has given me the opportunity to look and read up on things that I wouldn't have normally read. One article on careers lead me to this book called The Max Strategy: How A Businessman Got Stuck At An Airport And Learned To Make His Career Take Off by Dale Dauten.

I wrote down some quotes that I found valuable to me. I don't know if you'll find it valuable as well but it's worth a thought.

True achievement is something better than it has to be. It's not just good, it's amazing. It's magic.

We are so afraid of making mistakes that we don't bother to see that they are gifts of the universe.

Do everything because you never know where the great idea will come from.

A problem is an opportunity. Every problem is an opportunity to demonstrate how ell you handle problems.

If you don't want to wait around for your problems, you can always ask yourself "What could go wrong?" and then, "What could we do if those things did go wrong?"

Remember: It's easy to experiment, but hard to change. None of those people started with a grand vision and then worked toward it. These people were not goal setters or planners; they were adventurers.

Each quandary is a call for experimentation. Each experiment, a question put to the world. Each answer a journey. Let life plan the itinerary. Your job is to pack light and bring a camera.

Remember POST-ITS!

I wish for you that you find joy in your experiments. Be wealthy in ideas. Try everything. Be different tomorrow from the man you are today. Be one of the happy warriors, egar for morning.

Change is hard, experimentation is easy.

These things got me excited the other day. I was going to tackle my resume in a new light and my business. Some how I woke up today with less joy than the night before. I don't know if it was the sleep I got but something just didn't jump out as when I was reading the book.

Anyway that's my thoughts from today.

Mae

First wave of rejections

So today I got my first rejections toward my new business. Well it's not bad. I mean at first I was like wow, I'm going to fail at this. Then I thought, well if it's not meant to be, I'm not going to push it.

There are other people who will come. I just got to believe right? Anyway I've been to a couple of meetings and it's been encouraging to be there. Part of me knows that there is a 50% chance that I might end up losing money over this, but I know that I got to be the little engine that could right?

So I ordered some more samples and I will be shipping them off to see how my friends respond. I have to keep trying. Not a lot of people are gun hoe about my parties either. I got to keep trying. While working today, I thought of a childhood story that brought me comfort growing up. Especially because I suffered from a mild learning disability and never really discovered it into my adult hood. The story that encouraged me to think positive about my business was the Little Engine That Could. I think I can, I think I can, I can, I can.

Business is not easy. It's hard but I can't give up. I have to try until I've learnt what I need to know and I'll know when God tells me that it is done. I'm hoping it will teach me a lot about rejection. So far I've spent around $300 on business supplies and the membership fee. But what I've started to develop was a bit of my self-confidence back. Not that being rejected has helped this, but daring to do what is challenging and knowing that failure could be around the corner, still trying to succeed. I'll throw in the towel when there is nothing left to learn but for now, I think I can, I think I can....

Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.

What I learned is that there is a lot of work so far to do in a business. Even one that is basically set up for you.

This week I went to two meetings at Arbonne. It was pretty good because not so much of what they taught, but definitely in what others had to say. It made me realize to not take things personally when no one shows up at your party but instead persevere. There is a saying out there, "when the going get's tough, the tough get going." I don't know who's it by but the point is that you must learn to build a back bone. You need to humble yourself and ask for help when you need it. You need to be prepared for rejection. Rejection will come. It will come in droves. But the people who make it on top, continue to persevere regardless of how many No's one gets. You must always be learning from what does and does not work. This is the way of the business man.

So today that is exactly what I'm going to do. My first party is next week. I have maybe 2 people coming, none of whom will probably buy what I'm selling. They are just there for moral support, but you can't give up. You can't.

I almost made the mistake of buying everything at once when I know I don't have the loan or the funds, but I'm not going to give up on it. My dad spoke to me the other night and it made a lot of sense on to how to approach this business.

Let me tell you something. Network marketing is hard, but it's worth it. I was talking to my sister the other day about major retail corporations. It's really disgusting when you have to work for a company that does some pretty bad things to the environment. There is usually only one owner who makes a living off the people below. In network marketing, you actually get what you put in. I see so many of my friends complaining about how they hate their boss, how they hate their hours and work for a company that hurts the environment. When I look at the two systems, I see that there is a positive side to network marketing. Yes there are the risks, and the person who runs the business takes the risk, but there is a lot more opportunity. The bigger the risks the greater the opportunity.

The reason why network marketing gets such a bad rep is because of the scammers out there who really are taking advantage of the system and are selling ideas. Ideas don't work. Products do. Business do. I mean if you could get away with having a company that sells ideas in the capitalist economy then people would lose faith in that system, but you can't.

Anyway talking to my dad, and thinking about it, things make a lot more sense now. The work is hard, but I'm up for the challenge and if I fail, at least I know that I tried and I learned many things on the way.

In order to lead...one must learn to follow.

This weekend I met up with my consultant. She's been very encouraging at the fact that she sees me in this to win. My fear however doubts every part of what I can do. I realize that's just negative thinking because I fear failure more than I fear success. Which is usually the heart fearing suffering than actually suffering.

And the verdict is that everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. Although this means to win the game, one must be an active player of the game. You can not win by sitting on the sidelines because you're afraid to lose. So I must get back into the game.

Today I put together my binders for organizational material. I know that it will take time before things grow, and ironically that is what I'm most impatient about. Waiting. I am trying my best to focus on the process, but it's difficult when all you want to see is the results.

But if one wants to become a leader in anything in life, one must learn to follow. Following means to humble one self, learn the ropes of the ones before you and grow in wisdom. Only then will others want to follow you.

Fear of suffering is worst than suffering it's self

Last night I couldn't sleep. I had such a heavy heart and I was kept up with my thoughts about how the future would play out. I looked at my RSVP list and saw that no one had responded except one person to say no and another to say maybe. I was worried that I would have too many people that would show up, but now I fear that I won't have any one at my pre-launch party. And that is what I'm scared about. It's the rejection and as much as I try not to take it personally I do.

I sometimes think that it is fear that holds you hostage and prevents you from jumping fully after what you want in life. I hear the doubts and thoughts of the skeptics on running a business like direct sales, and their views on the subject is that it can only lead to failure. Yet a part of me continues to ask, but what if it doesn't. What if I look back 3 years from now, smiling because I had made this work. I guess you can say that's what part of me wants to believe. Like that there is a powerful, confident sales woman who can and will change the world, if only I just give her the chance to prove herself.

But sometimes crossing that bridge toward your dreams is a scary one. What if you fall off? Although failure is not a bad thing, it's definitely a scary thing. Failure teaches you more lessons about life than any success could. So without failure you might be missing the part of adversity which leads to growth, which leads to a stronger you. At the same time fear of failure before you begin your journey can be daunting. Any business person and young entrepreneur starts to realize that a business can not be run like a lemon aid stand. People are not going to buy your products just because you're there and it's a hot day and you've worked really hard working those lemons and making the finest lemon aid there is. No, when you're an adult, people want to buy what they want to buy because the product is something they want and many people don't like quality pricey lemon aid, even if it's the best in the neighborhood. The way someone advertises it can do only so much.

To fear or not to fear. Whether it's nobler to suffer from failure or to not have tried is the question. To me though, what if I fail. What am I going to lose? What am I going to gain? Well so far, I've put into this $130 to sign myself up as a consultant. I haven't put anything really into my photography since the equipment I have has been what I've accumulated over the past 10 years of professional photography and high end photo equipment. Not all photographers who take photography as a hobby/career choice can say they own their own mid-range lighting equipment but that's besides the point.

How do I conquer fear that is greater than me? When I really look at the situation, it boils down to can I build a tough enough skin. Business requires a remarkable amount of courage, patience, and of course camel back skin. You need to be tough to have a 1000 doors slamming into your face. You need to have strong ears that can block out the ones closest to you, who are telling you that this is not going to work. To have to learn how to fight those inner demons.

While browsing msn today, I read an article about career advice. They mentioned this book "The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die" by John Izzo. So I picked it up at the library. I decided to go with the book on tape because I already have a ton of other books from the library that I need to address to. Although the "secrets" were written out in the article, I decided to investigate the knowledge for myself. The book has a lot of useful information.

The other book I picked up was Wisdom for a Young CEO. I was recommended the book and it's supposedly letters from successful CEO's about advice to young entrepreneurs. I'll tell you more once I start reading it.

Well I'm beat. I'm going to get more stuff done for Arbonne tonight since I have to meet up with my Arbonne upline tomorrow morning.

Talk to you soon,

Rich Dad Poor Dad and starting your dreams

Hi friends,

Well I decided to keep my business blog separate from my personal blog. It's best to keep business and personal lives well, some what separate. My goal is to share the process of starting two businesses as well as keep a journal of both my success and failure throughout the course of starting and running my business. That includes what resources I use to help me achieve financial and personal success.

As of Tuesday January 19th 2010, I signed up to be the boss of my own business with Arbonne. While some might say well now, your business is not a REAL business because you are only a consultant, I beg to differ. Yes some people think that oh no those Direct Marketing business' never really work, or you put way to much and get way to little out of it. Well I'm not in it to become a millionaire.

I'm in it because 1. I really do enjoy the products and I want to share them with other people because I believe if you really found a good product, why don't you share it with others. Any person who has worked in sales knows that the key to selling is having a product worth selling in addition to the fact that people will only buy what they want to buy. You can't make people buy anything. I did that with other products, movies, places I really enjoyed and "sold" them to others because I wanted to share what I enjoyed and the companies didn't even pay me to advertise for them.

2. I want to learn more about business. I have to admit, I've always fought against learning business because I didn't want to end up a business man/woman. My father is a business man, my grandfather was a business man, his father was a businessman etc. And same goes with my mother's side. I did not want to be a business man because I saw how my dad was not around growing up and he spent his time building the business, I was and still am a artist. I don't do business that is until I realized that everything is a business.

After graduating in the worst economy since the 1980's a few months ago, I've struggled to find work. I've been looking for work and even when I do seem to get the interviews and the few offers, I question is this really what I want to do with my life. Get a job in something that I don't really like but do it because I need the money to pay off my debt and only work on my artistic passions on the side and then die with nothing to show except for the fact that I was a good citizen and paid taxes?

I've talked to several of my friends who are on that route. Several of my family members are going that route. They are told that education is the key to success. While I don't doubt that a good education is something that shouldn't be looked down upon, I also recognize that while I was earning my undergraduate degree I wonder why I was really in it. What was my outcome? It made me realize that maybe what I was doing was not something I really wanted to be doing. Not that I don't value my education but it made me think.

I have friends who are computer scientist majors. They graduated a few years ago while I was busy on tour exploring Canada and the USA. They have jobs with a good income, but somehow they aren't happy with how they are living their lives. Which makes me even more determined to find a better solution. I don't want a job that I have to wake up and go to because I have to work because I need the money to feed and clothe myself. I want a job to go to because I love it. Simply because it adds to my life and my purpose. After listening to Rich Dad Poor Dad (the books were all out at the library so I had to get the CD, which is not too bad since it takes me longer to read than to listen because I have a bit of dyslexia) I'm beginning to see that I don't want to work for money, I want money to work for me.

While I was saving up for school between tour and actually going to school, I knew very little about investing, but I read a book that said you should have a 401K plan. That advice was the only little advice I knew about when it came to dealing with a financial portfolio. I knew my uncle was an investor with Edward Jones, and so I put a few hundred away for a mutual fund which I'm not going to touch until I get really really old.

Anyway upon my graduation from the Faculty of Fine Arts, I was really listening to the speeches. Now usually people tune out because really how much can people really gain from that? But I tell you, that was the starting point of getting my real education in life. School can teach you a lot of things from books, life though is a far harder teacher that can not be fooled. You either listen and learn from the lessons presented or you'll end up repeating the lesson until you learn it. The first lesson I took in was to listen to the possibilities.

Yes, I'm an artist. I graduated as an artists, but what do you do if there are no opportunities in the arts? You still need to survive so you need to find ways that you can give yourself the opportunity. I am starting to believe that's when you have to make your own luck. When opportunity knocks, answer the door, but if opportunity is not knocking than you might as well go out there and start knocking on opportunities door.

So when I, a unemployed undergraduate degree holding person was turned down for the Theatre Internship in Toronto, I had the chance to go to my sister's Arbonne party. I didn't even know what it was about. All I know is that my sister asked me to come, I had nothing better to do and I would be doing nothing better with my time. When the consultant did the presentation, what struck me was the product itself. I really support and like the idea of using herbs and natural ingredients since at lot of the natural stuff is really good for the skin. Not only that is that the company supports causes like the Red Cross and other noble organizations. I've done some research on health and frankly, I am tired of using so much chemicals. I love using products but I'm tired of putting chemicals in my body especially after being diagnosed with a medical condition that requires me to be and live healthier.

I'm also with a wonderful man who wants to focus on living a healthier lifestyle. He's a label checker and he's made me start wanting that in my life too.

Anyway when I looked at the possibility I talked to the consultant for more information. I did my research on the pros and cons and knowing that most people are turning toward healthier living this is an opportunity I'm willing to pursue. In addition it gives me the opportunity not only to pursue this business venture but to start up my photography business as well. What I learn from one business will give me the skills to grow the other. Even Rich Dad says that to build skills find work where it can teach you. He recommends working for a MLM company because it will force you out of your shell where you will learn about rejection, advertisement, public relations, and sales. I thought about going back to school for some business classes but maybe life is the best school.

So here I am taking out business tapes on home-based business at the library and requesting an education from my grandfather on accounting and well the rest of the story goes that regardless of how successful I get or in the other case "failure" that proceeds this, I will know that my life experience will teach me more in the coming months than I would at a business school. I guess you can say I'm enrolling in the REAL LIFE BUSINESS COURSE 101.

To be continued...