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Step 2-Find Abundance in a World of Scarcity

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:00:34 +0000

We’re doing a series on abundance. Last time, we took the first step – create a fortune by feeling fortunate.

No matter what life may throw our way, we are so lucky to live freely. We may not have everything we want, but we’re so fortunate to have so much.

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Now we’re ready for the second step of finding abundance:

Build in Reserve Capacity

Many people today are trying to sprint through the entire marathon. To run that pace for a short time may be fine. But to run the whole course at that speed only leads to wearing out long before the finish line.

In your schedule
Finish strong by building reserve capacity in your schedule. Here are some suggestions:

You start to do this by setting your direction. What does bigg success mean to you? Bigg success is life on your own terms. What does that look like? Get a clear picture of it in your mind.

With that vision, focus every day on the things that are the most important to getting there. If it doesn’t move you toward it, stop doing it!

Then honestly assess how much you, as a human being, can accomplish in a day. Live as a human, not a superman or superwoman. Live like a human, not a machine or a robot. Leave yourself some breathing room when you plan your day.

Also plan for the unplanned. Things will happen that will need your attention. Projects will take longer than expected. Opportunities will present themselves along the way.

If your schedule is jam packed, you won’t be able to take advantage of them. Or your bigg opportunity may pass right before your eyes and you’ll be so busy you won’t even notice it.

In your budget
Once again, it comes back to what life on your own terms means to you. When you look at what you’re spending money on, are all expenditures moving you closer to that dream life?

You know where you want to go. You know how fast you want to get there. Sometimes that means creating abundance for the future by creating a reserve today.

When you have money in the bank or money in your investment account, you feel a sense of abundance, don’t you? It’s only human. So let’s do it:

Eliminate every cost that doesn't move you closer to where you want to be. Take the money you save and stash it away.

Another great financial reserve is reserve borrowing capacity. It’s not an asset in the strictest sense of the word, but it sure is an asset when your bigg opportunity presents itself. So build reserves to live in abundance. That’s bigg success!

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Would you like more tips and tools to live your life on your own terms? Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE!

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Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time as we discuss the third step to living in abundance. 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/00505-101609.mp3

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:00:17 +0000

Oil supplies are running out fast.

Our water supply is going down the drain.

Money is tight. Credit has dried up. Don’t try to get a loan now.

Job losses are permanent. Many of them will never come back.

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These are a sampling of some headlines we found while researching this post. Scarcity is in the news. It smacks us in the face every time we turn around.

Here’s our take on it: opportunity is everywhere. There's never been a better time to find yours.

Do you doubt it?

Then it won't happen for you. When you don't believe you can change your position in the world, you can't.

When you do believe it, you're one step closer to making it happen.

Yes, we're blasted daily with stories about financial trouble. But we have to overcome stinkin' thinkin’ because we're fortunate to live in a time when there is so much opportunity.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Right now, there is so much opportunity!

And here's the best news of all … the opportunities of today and tomorrow don't require a lot of money to create a lot more money.

They do require you to think abundantly. So we thought we’d do our part by doing a series of posts – five in all – on finding abundance. Here’s the first step:

Start creating a fortune by feeling fortunate.

We tend to focus on what we don't have.

We beat ourselves up because we haven't accomplished everything we planned to.

We experience regret, anger and depression because of our lot in life.

We compare ourselves to others and get upset because they seem to be living better than we are. We think they’re the fortunate ones.

We’re wrong.

We are the fortunate ones. So we must be different. We must feel fortunate.

Start every day by focusing on what you do have.

Be thankful for the wonderful people in your life.

Congratulate yourself for how far you've already come.

Feel excited about the opportunities, and yes, even the challenges, that you have before you.

You'll find that after a couple weeks of this daily session you'll feel fortunate – the beginning of living abundantly.

When you feel fortunate, you’ll find your fortune, however you define it. That’s bigg success!

For what do you feel fortunate?
Share that with us by leaving a comment, sending an e-mail to bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or leaving a voice message at 888.455.BIGG (2444).

We’re abundantly thankful that you read our post today!

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Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success. Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE!

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Please join us next time when we’ll take the second step to living abundantly. Until then, here’s to your 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/00504-101509.mp3

3 Reasons Entrepreneurs Fail

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:00:28 +0000

Many people are surprised at how hard it is to get a new idea off the ground. It takes planning, persistence and patience along with constant action.

There are a number of reasons why entrepreneurs miss the mark. We’ll talk about three of them today.

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RAS – Ready Aim Syndrome

A lot of people spend a lot of time looking for that perfect idea. As soon as they find it, fortune will be theirs.

But the perfect idea never comes. So they find themselves aiming and aiming and aiming.

We have an acquaintance who is always telling us about his latest greatest idea. The problem is he never pulls the trigger. He never does anything because no idea will stand the test of time. By the time he is finally ready for his bigg idea, the opportunity has passed.

RFS – Ready Fire Syndrome

These people have an affliction that is opposite our first group. They don’t have the patience to test their idea slowly and inexpensively.

They think that every idea is a bullseye. All they have to do is get started.

Most ideas are garbage. They won’t stand up to the scrutiny that should be done before launching.

Walking the tight rope
So the challenge in launching a new endeavor is walking that tight rope between analysis paralysis and banning planning. You have to find the balance.

Most successful entrepreneurs probably fire quicker than most people would be comfortable doing. However, the ones who reach bigg success understand that there is tremendous value in the planning process as well.

FTS – Fixed Target Syndrome

Once you launch, you have to understand the need to be fluid. The situation on the ground will change. You will learn things you didn’t know before.

Here’s a very important point – the only way you learn these things is by launching. Those who are still on the sidelines will never catch up. You’re trying to hit a moving target, not a fixed one.

Our miss

Unfortunately, this subject is close to us. We launched a new business late last year. We help financial institutions communicate better with small business owners.

Now you know what’s been going on with financial institutions in the last twelve months. We saw the free fall happen right before our eyes.

But we had been working on this thing for a while. We had surveyed a number of potential customers. Our product was a good fit. So we launched.

But when the economy took a tumble, so did our customers’ budgets.

We kept listening. We responded. We tweaked our product offerings. We certainly can’t report that we’re a bigg success yet with this venture, but it seems to be gaining traction.

Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about our customers and about business. We certainly can look back and see things we would do differently. But that will always be the case.

The important thing is to get an idea, test it to see if it’s a good opportunity and then get started and adapt. That leads to bigg success. At least we hope so!

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Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success. Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE!

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Thanks so much for checking in with us today. Please join us next time when we’ll talk about when to shut up. Guess that’s our cue. Until then, here’s to your 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/00487-092309.mp3

Think Like an Entrepreneur

(Image in today's post by jaylopez)

Shape Shifting Leads to Bigg Success

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:00:28 +0000

Last time, we discussed the two ways to create wealth: other people’s money and other people’s labor (i.e. their time and talent). Historically, there’s been more focus on other people’s money as the lever to riches. Now, other people’s labor holds more promise.

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Today’s show extends that concept and is inspired by one of the characters from the HBO hit series, True Blood. Sam Merlotte, who owns the bar, is a shape-shifter. He can change forms – from human to dog and back.

So here’s a little behind the scenes here at Bigg Success: we often get asked how we get ideas for our shows. We’ve been thinking about this shape-shifting thing for some time as a possible fun topic. Then we saw a Harvard article about a new business strategy.

The words “a shape-shifting enterprise” leapt off the page. Voila … a show was born!

Back to the article – it discusses how many large companies are starting to outsource core activities in order to focus resources on solving customer problems.

The author postulates that the future value of companies will be the sum total of all their arrangements. Let’s emphasis that – using words we use more often here at Bigg Success – the future value of businesses, both large and small, will be in the total value of its relationships.

But a key thing to keep in mind is that businesses don’t have relationships; it’s the people in those businesses who have relationships.

You may have a relationship with a customer who has a problem. How many other customers like this customer have the same problem? With how many do you have relationships?

Once you’ve identified that, who in your network can best solve that problem? By becoming the customer’s go-to person (or company) – by delivering the right product or service at the right time for the right price, you’ll create value for your business.

The Harvard article we talked about references a Fortune article about how Chinese and Indian companies are structuring themselves. The answer: they’re positioning themselves to be shape-shifters!

Shape-shifting is a key for us, as entrepreneurs, to survive and thrive in all economic conditions. It extends well beyond outsourcing. It’s an even deeper relationship, which will create more opportunities for small businesses to work with large companies.

To become a shape-shifter:

Watch your operating leverage. The more fixed costs your business has relative to its total costs, the greater your degree of operating leverage. Just like with financial leverage, higher operating leverage can work against us if things take a downturn.

That’s one of the secrets to being able to be a shape-shifter. If you keep your fixed costs low, you can quickly maneuver your organization to take advantage of opportunities that may present themselves.

Seek out strategic alliances. Explore opportunities to collaborate or joint venture with other people and organizations. The do-it-all-yourself mindset is so yesterday. Focus on what you do best and work with people doing what they do best. This is another key to shape-shifting.

Work with anyone and everyone where it’s mutually beneficial, including your competitors. You may find ways to do more together than either of you can do on your own.

Sometimes you may take the lead; sometimes they may take it. You don’t care. You’re shape-shifting yourself to bigg success!

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Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success. Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE!

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We thank you so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’re “getting to know you.” Until then, here’s to your 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/00417-061609.mp3

Related posts

How Opportunity Often Presents Itself

Get in the Loop to Gain a Competitive Advantage

6 Factors to Help You Succeed When Opportunity Knocks

(Image in today's post by wundel)

Mixing Work and Play

George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:00:32 +0000

Fortune does a great job every year of compiling the 100 best places to work. They put out the list for 2009 a little while back. We found their top pick this year interesting.

NetApp, a data storage and management company, knocked Google out of the top spot for the first time in three years.

You can find a great video about NetApp on the Fortune site. NetApp invests time and money to create a culture where people want to work. The video shows people playing volleyball and working out in the company gym. It sure doesn’t look like work!

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They do more than encourage play time at work

NetApp has a program that pays employees to take time off to volunteer for something they’re passionate about. They’ve found that employees sometimes come together to work on a cause. So this program has helped build teamwork among their people.

You may be thinking …

“Well, this is great but it sure wouldn’t work in my business.”

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I understand why someone might think that because it wouldn’t have worked in the businesses I was in before we started Bigg Success. Most of our people were in the field. We didn’t need a gym – the work was very physical so most of our employees got a great workout with their job. We were lucky to see most of our people for fifteen minutes a day. But the details of what NetApp does aren’t really important.

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Yeah, it’s the idea behind what they’re doing at NetApp that we think is most interesting. Bigg success is life on your own terms. The leaders of the company are certainly doing that. They set out to build a great company by creating a great place to work. The founder says that they took a leap of faith and spent time and money to create this incredible environment for their employees.

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That’s three of the five elements of bigg success right there – growth, time and money! But they hit all five because they have found ways to let their employees play at work.

Now isn’t that an interesting idea? Work doesn’t have to be … work.

Something magical happens

In the interview, NetApp’s founder talks about energizing people. They think when people feel good – when they feel motivated – something magical happens.

That’s why we’re talking about them today. They are a great example of something that’s critical to living our lives on our own terms. It’s the bigg idea behind bigg success:

You create synergy between the five elements of bigg success by understanding the relationship between them and discovering ways to get them all working in sync.

Our lives are fuller when we’re able to do that.

We work to make money so we can afford to play. But what if you can work and play all at the same time. Isn’t that so much better?

What if you loved your work so much that it seemed like play? What if that work paid you enough to buy everything you really wanted?

NetApp took a leap of faith that’s paying off for them. Sure, they’re being affected by current economic conditions. But their market share has gone up in spite of it.

It can happen to you too. In your life. In your business.

Look for ways to blend the five elements for your benefit. That leads to bigg success!