In his wonderful book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the 10,000 Hour Rule. World-class performers invest 10,000 hours or approximately 10 years honing their craft.

Now a lot of people tout the 10,000 hour rule. But there’s a problem: they don’t understand what it means.

People heard 10,000 hours and think it’s just about doing the time. You won’t go far if that’s your attitude.

Psychology Professor K. Anders Ericsson is part of the duo that brought us the 10,000 hour rule. He notes that it takes deliberate practice.
Growth

Deliberate practice involves activities specifically designed to improve specific aspects of your performance.

In other words, don’t work on those things you’ve already mastered. Focus on things you don’t know or can’t do.

Growth occurs where you push past what you know into the unknown. As humans, we tend to fall back to what we’re already good at.

If you want to be world-class, you have to push yourself to go to places you’ve never gone before. You have to get out of your comfort zone.

You have to reach the point of frustration if you want the thrill of realizing your full potential. You have to master all aspects of your craft, not just one.

The price of BIGG success

BIGG success is life on your own terms. A basic principle of negotiation goes like this: “You get to set the price or the terms, but not both.”

If you want to set the terms, you must be willing to pay the price. Ericsson’s studies show that the masters practice consistently and deliberately.

The best invest twice the effort as the also-rans. And they devote five times as much as the most serious amateurs.

But it leads to BIGG success!

Image in this post from stock.xchng

They decided they didn’t want to play the game at all. They said it was just a fad. It didn’t have legs for the long term. No serious person would ever get involved in this silly stuff. It was child’s play.

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But the young man didn’t listen. He saw his bigg opportunity. So he jumped in with both feet.

Something interesting happened. This new media had more impact than the old pros would have ever dreamed. By the time they realized it, the young man was established. The old pros never caught up.

The new media we’re talking about here is television. The young man was Walter Cronkite. He said he didn’t become who he was because he was better. He became the most trusted person in the United States because he was there early.

History repeats itself

You may have thought we were talking about social media. And you would be right to think so. We hear a lot of the same kind of things said about it. A lot of people think it is just a passing fancy.

Because they don’t get it. They don’t understand that the genie is out of the bottle. That business communications have changed forever again.

Social media’s impact on sales

There was a study released a while back that looked at large company performance. More specifically, it looked at social media activity and sales growth.

It was conducted by Wetpaint, a social media platform, and Altimeter Group, a digital consulting firm. They looked at the top brands in the world and rated their social media activities. Then they compared the level of activity to the change in sales over the last year.

On average, they found that the more active a company was in social media, the more likely they were to see an increase in sales. The most active companies increased sales by 18% while the least active saw sales decline by 6%.

Companies with dedicated teams performed the best. However, these teams take social media to the whole organization. They view social media as a tool they can’t live without. They are conversational, not promotional.

How does this apply to small businesses? We think the opportunity is even greater. But you, the owner, have to get it. You have to learn how to use these new tools to increase your sales.

Walter Cronkite found his bigg opportunity by jumping on the train early. You’ll find bigg success by integrating social media into your business communication strategies.

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Thank you so much for reading our post today.

Next time, we’ll talk about thinking entrepreneurially with your personal finances.

Please join us. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
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Take some time for yourself

As we said last time, you will most likely go through a grieving process. Accept it. It’s okay to be a little selfish for a couple of days. Get outside if the weather will permit. Enjoy nature. Go for some walks. Take a drive. Read that book you never had time for. Workout.

Reconnect with yourself. There is really important right now.

Reach out to the right people

Some people have a tendency to broadcast their woes. They think it makes people sympathetic. Unfortunately, it often creates a bad image in the minds of the people who are reading it or hearing it.

But it’s important not to bottle up your feelings. So reach out to a family member, a close friend, or a trusted advisor. Talk with them about your feelings. Go ahead, get it out – vent!

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Sign up for unemployment insurance

This is the one thing to put on your to-do list as soon as possible. It usually takes a couple of weeks for benefits to kick in so the sooner you do this, the better.

You may want to have federal taxes withheld so you don’t get bit at tax time. However, if you know you have the discipline to set the money aside yourself, then you might as well earn a little interest on that money. But if you aren’t absolutely certain, it’s better to just have the money withheld.

The Department of Labor is a great place to get information on unemployment insurance. If you don’t know where your state office is, you can find it there as well.

The right frame of mind

The bottom line is to give yourself a little time to unwind. If your financial situation isn’t dire, you don’t have to begin your search for a new job just yet. It’s more important to get yourself in the right frame of mind.

Next in this series, we’ll discuss getting to work on getting back to work. Thanks so much for reading our post today. Until next time, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00329-021209.mp3

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(Image in today's post by Hisks)

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Getting laid off is one of the most stressful events anyone goes through. So before we get into details, take a deep breath. You can expect to feel a whole range of emotions, even if you weren’t completely surprised. It’s a grieving process. Psychologists have identified five stages that we go through when we lose something or someone:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

These stages don’t necessarily happen in sequence. You may feel more than one at the same time. You may jump around. You will feel it how you feel it. What’s important is to understand what’s going on within you. It’s only natural.

Your job may have been taken from you, but your talents haven’t been

Your unique skills are still yours. You still have that great personality. You’re still an incredible person. And you know it!

With that mindset, and knowing that you will bounce back, here are some things to do, and things not to do, before you leave the building today.

Don’t burn bridges

Life is funny. Things change quickly. If you show class, it will be remembered. So filter what you say.

There may be a temptation to lash out. Resist that urge, because nothing good can come from it. Sure, you may feel better at the moment, but that feeling will quickly fade into regret. It’s much better to conduct yourself very professionally.

COBRA

You will have to decide whether or not to extend your health insurance with the company. But you have 60 days to make this decision so don’t make it today. Talk to two or three insurance brokers who sell individual insurance. In almost all cases, you will find that you can get similar coverage for less money.

If you have one or more pre-existing conditions, it might make sense to sign up through COBRA. But first, check out comparable policies with several insurance brokers and get their advice.

Your 401(k)

Here’s another decision you don’t have to make today. In fact, there really isn’t much of a time limit on making this decision. A lot of people still have money in an account through an employer they haven’t worked for in seven years!

Resist the urge to cash out. You may feel stressed about money. We’ll talk about that more in an upcoming show. The Wall Street Journal reported that 40% of workers in their 20s and 30s cashed out their 401(k) when they changed jobs. As we discussed this on a previous Bigg Success Show, this may be a costly decision.

Before you decide what to do with your 401(k), you’ll want to investigate your options. Find a plan that offers the right combination of options and low fees. One thing you should find out, when the subject of your 401(k) comes up, is if there are any exit fees. This will be useful in your decision making process.

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Your final paycheck

If you get your final check today, be sure to verify everything. For example:

• Were you paid the correct amount for the time you’ve worked since your last check?

• Did you get the severance pay that you should have?
• Were you paid for the vacation days you haven’t used?
• Is everything in accordance with your agreement with your employer?

Other issues

You may be asked to sign releases and other documents. You don’t have to sign anything right away. Read the documents carefully. If you don’t understand something, ask. If you’re not satisfied with the answer, seek professional guidance from an attorney if need be.

Reach out

Finally, if you can muster the emotional strength, reach out to the people you worked with. Make sure you have their contact information. You never know when it might come in handy.

Thanks for reading our post today. We hope you’ll check in again tomorrow. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00324-020509.mp3

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He’s received accolades from across the country, including Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York and two Presidents – President Bush who was the President at the time this happened and now President Obama who invited Sully, as his friends call him, to the Inaugural Ceremony.

The story is fascinating. We heard over and over again how calm and collected he was. His coolness kept the passengers calm and collected too.

What makes someone a hero?

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission defines a hero as “a civilian who voluntarily risks his or her own life to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person.”

That definition fits the mission of their organization, but is it expansive enough?

We turned to Merriam Webster. Two of their definitions of a hero stand out:

• a person admired for his or her noble achievements

• someone who shows great courage

We crafted our own definition:

It is a gift, not a sacrifice (although it may involve sacrifice) in the mind of the hero. It is the opposite of narcissism, but it is definitely not martyrdom.

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3 steps to heroism

Do you want to be a hero? We thought about this and it seems to us that becoming a hero is a three-step process:

Heroism starts with an attitude
Almost all of us think we have a duty to prevent harm to others as long as it doesn’t cost us too much. A hero expands upon that attitude. They feel a duty to serve others – to do good – whether or not it costs them something. 

It continues with preparation
This sense of a bigger duty drives them to preparation. They have a drive to be ready when the time comes.

Going back to Sully … as the pilot of a plane, he knew at some point there might be a crisis. So he gave a great deal of his free time studying everything situation he might encounter. It was his duty to be as fully prepared as possible should a crisis arise.

It completes itself with an action
The act of a hero is the manifestation of an underlying attitude. The success of that act depends on the preparation for it.

Sully had to respond because it was his duty. But his response didn’t start when the birds knocked both engines out of his plane. It began years earlier when he began studying flying.

So when the situation arose, he was ready because he felt a sense of duty and he had prepared.

Heroes, heroes everywhere
Heroism doesn’t always show itself in actions that make the news. There are heroes all around us. That’s what we’re going to talk about in our next two posts. Next time, we’ll discuss the hero behind the hero.

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
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