Monthly Archives: February 2010

When Your Career Breaks Your Heart

broken_heartToday on the show, we acted out a love story between a woman and her career. It’s translated in text here but you may want to listen if you want the full effect.

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icon for podpress  Hear George & Mary-Lynn tell a love story on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen while you read: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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georgeOur customers couldn’t get enough of us. We were hot – as hot as the tropical sun beating down on us while we walked on the beach.

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marylynnOh Career. MY Career … what a love we had. My Career made me who I am.

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georgeThe hot air turned into a hurricane. The winds of change were in the air. I could feel it breathing down my neck.

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marylynnOh Career … MY Career … must we part? I love you. I’ve always loved you.

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georgeAt first, I thought we might make it through the storm. The tides didn’t seem that large. But they just kept coming. I had to respond. I had to …

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marylynnWhat if I had … No, that wouldn’t have mattered. So many memories. So many good times. I need to fight. I need to keep pushing. Maybe if I just work a little harder, I can still be with My Career.

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georgeI don’t like being the bad guy. I know it hurt. But it just wasn’t going to work long-term. It was going to happen no matter what. It wasn’t her … it was this crazy business we’re in.

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marylynnIt didn’t seem to bother him at all. I nodded when he explained why they were letting me go. I held back the tears and tried my best to not let my face show what I was feeling inside. I just sat there … with my heart in my feet. The relationship with My Career was over.

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georgeSometimes your career breaks up with you as in the case here.

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marylynnSometimes you break up with your career. That’s what I did. I think it breaks your heart either way.

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You go through emotions when your career ends that are very similar to ending a relationship. Denial. Sadness. Anger. Broken dreams of how things would turn out. Just like anything, the pain wears off over time. You make yourself anew.

If you don’t take anything else away from this post, take this away:

You’re suffering a loss but you’re not a loser.

That’s an incredibly important distinction to keep in mind as you strive to move forward and get on with your life.

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Here are five ways to get over the heartbreak of a career change:

Time heals all wounds
It really hurts right now. Give yourself some time to grieve. Don’t rush too fast in the beginning. The worst thing you can do is jump into another career that turns out to be just a rebound career.

Don’t romanticize your lost career
When we miss something, we have a tendency to only remember the good things. Well, guess what … no career is perfect. There are downsides to everything.

Think about the things that drove you crazy. Not only will this help you get past your last career, it will help you understand what you want in your next one.

Friends are forever
You thought it was diamonds, didn’t you? Loves may come and go, but your true friends are always there for you. This is the time to reach out to them.

Don’t let your career define you. Define your career. 

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marylynnI struggled with this because I was closely tied to my career as a radio DJ. It’s what I thought made me special – not only to myself but to everyone who knew me. When I didn’t have that title anymore, I felt lost for a little while.

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georgeHow did you get past that, Mary-Lynn?

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marylynnBy starting Bigg Success, learning new things and growing, I now see that I defined myself too narrowly. I projected things on myself that other people didn’t

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georgeAnd I hope you’ve come to see how special you are, irrespective of your title.

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marylynnYeah … that’s part of the growth I’ve experienced. Sometimes a bad thing is a good thing turned upside down.

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Move on
You have to. You want to. So just do it. Force yourself to get out there and compete.

Before you know it, you may look across the room and see your next career subtly smiling at you. 

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00552-021010.mp3

Related posts

Becoming An Entrepreneurial Employee

How Do I Find My Passion?

(Image in today's post by ba1969)

Do What You Love But Choose How to Compete

loveWe like Domino’s – from the story of its beginnings to the brand itself. We’re sure you’ve heard about their new pizza. Or at least, you’ve heard about the interesting campaign they’re running to market it.

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icon for podpress  Hear George & Mary-Lynn talk pizza on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen while you read [7:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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They’re basically saying that their old pizza sucked, but this new one is good. The problem is that they’ve run ads in recent years talking about how good their pizza was. So what are we supposed to believe?

Domino’s built their business on fast delivery. They delivered, literally, an affordable product more quickly than any of their competitors.

It was a simple promise – you get your pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free.

Their business grew as fast as the pizzas were delivered. At one time, they were the fastest growing franchise chain – in number of units added – in the U.S.

But Domino’s had safety issues with drivers trying to beat the guarantee. So they backed off on fast. They had to find a new groove.

The competition
Papa John’s came along. They didn’t talk about fast. They built their business on good pizza that was still affordable.

In the meantime, Little Caesar’s came out with Hot-n-Ready pizzas. You stop in (they don’t deliver), pay $5 and walk out seconds later with your pizza. It’s about the fastest fast food around!

It’s definitely not the best pizza in the world. They don’t claim to be. They live up to their promise.

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The problem with “good, fast or cheap”
Good, fast or cheap … you only get to pick two. It’s a simplifying statement that we’ve heard over and over again.

In your customer’s mind: Value = (Service x Quality)/ Price

Let’s compare Good, Fast and Cheap to this equation.

Cheap = Price

Cheap, of course, relates to Price in that equation. In general, the cheaper your product or service, the higher the perceived value to customers. (This is not always true but that’s beyond the scope of today’s post.) Small businesses usually do best when they don’t try to compete on price.

Good = Quality
Good is the same as the Quality in this equation. (Good may not be good enough but we won’t go that deep here today.) This is a great way for small businesses to compete.

If we want a high quality pizza in our area, we go to one of two local places – Papa Del’s if we want a deep dish pizza or Monical’s if we want a thin one.

That’s a perfect example of how you can often niche your way around your competitors, even in a crowded market like pizza places and even competing on the same component.

Fast is mislabeled

Fast has been substituted for Service. That’s the problem with thinking good, fast or cheap. Speed is one way to serve your customers better but it certainly isn’t the only one.

It’s obvious that Domino’s wants to move past the fast image upon which they built their business. But they may have found more success sticking to a Service focus instead of jumping to a different component.

And that’s the lesson for us as small business owners:

Do what you love to do, but choose how you’ll compete. Stick with your strength – be it Price, Quality or Service – and you’ll be a bigg success. 

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00551-020810.mp3

Related posts

Are You Good, Fast, or Cheap?

Making More Money Per Hour

(Image in today's post by Egilshay)

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