Is Fear Stunting Your Growth?
March 31, 2008
When we avoid trying different things, or accepting new challenges, in life or business, it is often due to fear of the unknown. But, if we don’t try new things, we don’t push beyond our comfort zone and we get stuck in a rut. It might be a comfortable rut, but it’s still a rut.
I’ll be the first to admit that the fear of trying something new bounces back at me time after time. For example, two of my favourite bloggers have asked me to guest post for them - Albert of Urban Monk and Kelly of She-Power. I was ecstatic that they asked me, as they both have brilliant blogs and I have a great deal of interest in the topics they cover.
But after the initial excitement, the doubts began to infest my mind. What if I make a hash of this? What if I write an awful guest post and readers fall out of love with these wonderful blogs because of me?
Then my imagination began to run away with me and I started seeing the negative comments and awful hate emails coming my way after writing the said terrible posts.
Almost as soon as the doubts began to creep in, I was able to stop myself. I knew that I’d been at this particular crossroads many times and I’d never been flattened by a truck. So why am I having such negative thoughts to begin with? Am I not learning from past experience?
The simple truth is - I don’t challenge myself regularly enough. According to Brian Tracey, in his book - Million Dollar Habits, we should try to do one new thing which makes us feel slightly uncomfortable everyday. This helps us grow as a person and gives us more confidence as we try new things.
Small things that make us “feel slightly uncomfortable” on a daily basis sounds a whole lot better than doing something death defying that scares us half to death each month doesn’t it? But - how on earth are you supposed to come up with a new challenge for every day of the year?
I think the answer is to make a list of all the things you’d like to do - things that would be beneficial to you, if you didn’t procrastinate on them.
And I’m guessing it would be best to prepare these lists a week in advance. Planning a whole year in advance would be fruitless. As you push yourself beyond your comfort zone, the things you avoid doing now may be no trouble to you at all in six months time. In fact, if you stick to your daily challenges, your goals will probably be a whole lot bolder by this time next year.
I’m going to begin the challenge this week - I’ll add something that makes me feel slightly uncomfortable to my to do list on a daily basis and measure my progress over a year. Are you willing to stretch yourself? Are you going to try this too? Or do you have other methods for reaching beyond your comfort zone that you would like to share?
In the near future, I’ll be writing more on overcoming fear and helping you achieve your goals. If you enjoyed this post, click here to subscribe in a reader and make sure you don’t miss it.
Can You Write a $500 Prize Winning Quote?
March 30, 2008
Do you write quotes on your blog that are worthy of an Oscar? Would you like to win a $500 prize? I love quotes - they can inspire, motivate and some can even make you laugh.
So, beginning this week, I’m featuring a fab quotes of the week spot. Each weekend, my favourite quotes found on the Internet will be featured in a fab quotes post. And my favourite will stay on the main page of this blog for a whole week.
All quotes that I feature in the weekly post will also be added permanently to a special fab quotes section of this site.
Although I will be browsing the Internet and picking great quotes at random, you can increase your chances of having your favourite quote on your own site or blog picked by linking from it to this post. I’ll feature my favourite quotes in a post each weekend and my favourite out of those will win quote of the week.
Plus, my favourite quote of the year, out of each week’s posts will win a prize to the value of $500 (details to be given later), with additional prizes for runners up. So, your chances of winning are excellent - as there will be only 52 entries for the whole year.
The Rules
You can enter as many times as you want (with different quotes).
Each entry needs to link to this post, or one of the Quotes of the Week posts.
You will need to include a do follow tag so I can see your inbound link. If you’re not sure whether you have “do follow” installed on your blog, you can download a do follow plugin here: Do Follow
Good luck. I’m looking forward to reading some great quotes.
This week’s winning quote is by Akemi Gaines of Yes To Me
“When you know your purpose of your life, you see money as a means to an end, not the purpose by itself.”
More quotes I loved this week:
“The truth I want to tell. The connection I want to establish. The difference I want to make.”
Joanna Young of Confident Writing.
“In reality, you don’t have to go the extra mile to stand out. Just going the first mile is unusual. Actually, just leaving the starting gate is above average.”
Hunter Nuttall.
“Some businesses don’t have blogs and shouldn’t have blogs: oil companies, Blackwater, KBR, Halliburton, whatever. Evil = no blog for you, unless you just like putting a hate magnet on the interwebs.”
Michael Martine of Remarkablogger.
“I think branding flows, naturally, from vision and voice. My vision is to help other Internet writers get where they want to be. My voice works to accomplish my vision by sharing my own experiences with you, and interacting with you. The natural outcome of this is my brand.”
Bob Younce of Writing Journey.
10 Weird Or Annoying Types Of Customer
March 28, 2008
I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with all sorts of weird and annoying customers over the years. Here’s ten that made me wish it was perfectly legal to shoot annoying people:
The Landlord From Hell: I’ve worked on a few jobs where the customers needed work done because their property was vandalised by tenants. And I have to say that every single one of them probably deserved it.
The Persistent Caller: Some customers will call you persistently on a Sunday, at 5am, or late in the evening with non-urgent queries. I don’t know if they’re just lonely, awkward, or they really like speaking to me. But some people just don’t seem to grasp the concept of 24 hour EMERGENCY service.
The Sexual Predator: These folk range from sad to scary. They’ll answer their door half naked, ask you to stay for dinner, put false tan on their legs while they’re speaking to you and try to insist that they won’t have anyone but you for follow up appointments. Do yourself a favour, if this happens to you and send someone else next time - preferably someone you don’t like.
The Mean B..tards: Some customers complain because they’re stressed and they’re having a bad day. But the ones who whinge and moan during every single phone call and visit usually do it because they’re mean b..tards. If you can’t sack them just grit your teeth. And pray for that shooting law to come into effect.
The Optimists: It’s sometimes difficult to gage the extent of a customer’s problem over the phone. Some of them will say there’s no rush, and there’s little damage to their property. So you leave it a couple of days, at their request and arrive to find that their house is practically falling down.
The Drunk Callers: Customers will sometimes call when they’ve been drinking. I had one guy who called at about 8 in the evening for several days in a row. He always sounded absolutely hammered and each time he was calling to moan about a small problem that had already been rectified a week ago. The trouble was he was so plastered, he appeared to forget that he’d already called the night before - and the night before that.
The Idiots: Customers who set their homes on fire, or cause other types of havoc, through some stupid act of their own will often treat you as though you personally torched their home. Just ignore them - they obviously can’t help being stupid.
The Rip Off Merchants: If you go out of your way to give extra help to customers and do additional work for them for free, they’ll often see you as a soft touch and try to rip you off - even little old ladies. Here’s a story about a little old lady who tried to rip me off: How To Shoot Your Customers Part 3 - The Scammer.
The Compensation Fruitcakes: I had a customer complain that one of my machines had eaten not only her nightdress, but her hair too. She was deeply disappointed when I pointed out that the machine only blew out air, it didn’t actually suck anything up. And if she had managed to somehow stick her head in it - it would have scalped her.
And I had another job where the house had suffered such extensive fire damage that half of the roof and upstairs walls were missing. The fire brigade then soaked the property and the loss adjuster in charge of the job claimed that it was somehow our fault that some of the plaster was coming off the walls.
Folks Who Don’t Remove Personal Stuff From Drawers: If your belongings need to be put into storage, you’d normal pack any really personal, or hugely embarrassing items yourself wouldn’t you? Some people don’t and it’s difficult to look them in the eye when you know exactly what they get up to when they go to bed at night.
* Special Mention: I couldn’t publish this post without personally naming the worst customers I’ve ever had - Steve Dolman of Adjusting Associates in Caerphilly and Arab German Insurance. They owe me over £30,000 ($60,000) for work we began in 2004. Arab German Insurance are thieves, who hit the headlines when they tried to avoid paying many people and Steve Dolman is a gobshite who changes his story every time he opens his mouth.
If you ever get a customer like this do what I’m in the process of doing - take them to the cleaners and make sure nobody else gets stung by them.
Have you met any weird or annoying customers? Do you think their should be an annoying customer blacklist? And how do you think we should punish persistent offenders?
Is The Information Business Worthless?
March 27, 2008
Image by Sarah Harris
Recently, I’ve heard some people say that they see no value in much of the Internet - particularly in blogs. Some people have even gone so far as to say that you can’t build a real business on information alone.
I’ve pondered these ideas a great deal. Can there really no value in information? Is a business built on information alone truly worthless? After all, the sharing of information and knowledge has been pretty popular since the Phoenicians first developed an alphabet in 3500 BC.
What would the world be like if we couldn’t communicate or share information?
So, language hasn’t been invented - you get up in the morning, then what?
Breakfast with your family: That would be a pretty strange affair. How would you communicate with them if language hadn’t been invented? And what would you be eating?
So you go to work: Or do you? Would there be any jobs available if nobody could communicate?
Maybe you could just watch TV: So who invented the TV? And how did they tell other folks about it if there was no means to communicate? And would there be anything exciting to watch if nobody spoke the same language?
So How Valuable Is Communication and The Sharing Of Information?
It sounds as though we’d be in the shit without it right? There probably wouldn’t be a lot going on in the world. In fact, I’m guessing we’d still be living like cavemen without communication. What do you think?
But Do People Still Value The Sharing Of Information?
Obviously, different people value different things. But how important is acquiring knowledge and sharing information in the whole scheme of things? And can businesses really profit from information alone?
In 2007 Amazon did $9 billion in media sales alone: I doubt whether all those book buyers order from Amazon, just to look at the pictures, or admire the beautiful book covers.
By the end of 2007, 1,319,872,109 of the World’s population were using the Internet - that’s a lot of people looking for information.
Popular blogger Perez Hilton gets millions of viewers a day and is rumoured to earn around $2 million a year from his blog - so there’s a lot of people looking for information on celebrities.
Ask The Builder provides information and advice on DIY. Site owner Tim Carter makes over $30,000 a month in Google Adsense revenue alone - there must be lots of people looking for DIY information on the Internet.
Of course, there’s many more popular sites that provide information. Do you use the Internet to find information? What sort of information?
Are you Skeptical?
Do you still believe a business selling products or services is more important than one which provides information?
What do you do when you want to make a reasonably large online purchase? As soon as you log on, do you go looking for someone who can sell you the product? How do you go about choosing which one is best for you? Do you take the word of the seller?
And how do you go about choosing the seller? Do you just pick the website that looks the most interesting and cross your fingers that they’ll be ok?
Or do you look for information first? Do you look for the reviews and opinions of real people - people who have already purchased that product?
Do you sell products or services online or offline? How do you think potential customers will go about finding you in the future?
