BIGG success is life on your own terms. You’re the entrepreneur of your life.

You may or may not be an entrepreneur in the traditional sense of the word. But you do own your life.

Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today’s post on The BIGG Success Show podast. Click a player below to listen while you read.

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Destination BIGG success

BIGG success is a destination. You create a vision of the life you want. Then you start driving to it.

Hour by hour…

Day by day…

Week by week…

Month by month…

Quarter by quarter…

Year by year…

…you strive for BIGG success. More specifically, you push to get to the next milestone.

The ups and downs of BIGG success

But it can be challenging to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Frustration.

Stress.

Doubt.

Fear.

Joy.

Faith.

Confidence.

Success!

They’re all part of the journey.

The ups are easy. You can do no wrong. You are invincible. The world is your oyster.

The down times? Well, the only easy thing is quitting.

The high cost of quitting

Yet quitting isn’t easy. Because you have to live with it for the rest of your life.

You will always wonder what might have been. You can’t bear the thought.

It’s the reason you are an entrepreneur. Failure was acceptable. Not trying – well, just the thought of not going for it caused that feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Yes, it was scary. Yes, people said you wouldn’t make it.

But you didn’t care. You had to go. You had to try. You could feel in the depths of your soul that you were put on this earth to do something special. And by gosh, you were going to do it.

So you did.

But today sucked. Again.

You feel like you’ve been hit by a truck. You’re exhausted. You’re discouraged.

And it would be so easy to give up.

But you know you won’t. Because you’re a BIGG goal-getter. So you have to see this thing through. Because it’s what you were meant to do.

The victory is in the challlenge

And then you realize something important…you already are a BIGG success.

You can’t control the result. You can only control the activity.

And today – just like yesterday and every day before – you gave it everything you had. So you’re a BIGG success.

Because, as George Moriarty said, “Who can ask more a man than giving all within his span? Giving all, it seems to me, is not so far from victory.”

Then it hits you – the victory is in the challenge!

BIGG success is a journey

Sure, BIGG success is a destination. But it’s also a journey.

And every single day, you’re learning new things and developing new skills. It’s growth – one of the five elements of BIGG success along with money, time, work and play.

Money and time are your two resources; work and play your two opportunities. Growth bridges the chasm.

Growth starts as an opportunity. You’re capitalizing on it. You’re growing.

By growing – by gaining new knowledge and insight, by adding skills and experience – you’re developing the skills to get past ANY problem you face.

Growth is becoming a resource. By discovering how to overcome any problem, you’re also learning how to triumph over EVERY problem you will ever face.

Yes, you WERE a BIGG success today. And Destination BIGG success is just around the corner!

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We had dinner with a friend recently. He’s an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. We talked about what sparked the change. He said, “A bad day”.

We can relate. If it weren’t for a bad day in each of our lives, we would have never started BIGG success. We both reached a point, independently and coincidentally at about the same time, where we decided it was time to move on.

Good days lift our spirits. Bad days sap our strength. Unless they’re really bad.

When we get really beaten up, when we’ve hit our head against the wall one too many times, when we just can’t take it anymore – that’s the spark for innovation in our lives, in our businesses and for our customers.

BIGG success is life on your own terms. It’s about entrepreneuring your life – taking control to build the life that’s custom designed just for you. Persistence pays in pursuing your dream. But when the right bad day comes, you know it’s time to move on.

You’ll see yourself rising from the ashes of frustration. You’ll the warmth from the flames of hope. Soon the fire in your belly will roar hot again. It’s that fire that will help you reach BIGG success.

If you’ve had a bad day, send us a note at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com. Maybe we can help you light the fire.

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We agree. Entrepreneurs are not born. They are created from life experiences.

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Here in the U.S., we’re fortunate that our culture fosters entrepreneurship – probably more today than in generations past. It used to be that entrepreneurs were considered renegades. They were the people nobody would hire so they didn’t have a choice.

Now entrepreneurship is a lifestyle option that even the most qualified people make. So what motivates people to strike out on their own?

Career events

Franchisors often see a spike in demand in an area where layoffs are happening. Sometimes we don’t come to entrepreneurship; it comes to us.

It may be career frustration. Many people start their own business because they’re bored with their current occupation. Perhaps they feel like they’ve topped out. They’ve gone as far as they can in their current career so they decide to start something of their own.

Personal motives

Art Williams, the football coach who became a billionaire by building his own insurance business, said he was just “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

W. Clement Stone, who built an insurance dynasty in the depths of The Great Depression, cites inspirational dissatisfaction as the source for many great achievements.

How do you know you’re ready to start?

Entrepreneuring is a process. Like any process, there has to be a starting point.

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The desire to be my own boss just consumed me. I had this feeling in my gut that I just couldn’t get rid of. I couldn’t stand not owning my own business. This desire just ate me up and spit me out every single day that I wasn’t in business for myself.

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For me, it didn’t seem that the opportunities I needed in my corporate career were there any longer. I just couldn’t get where I wanted to be if I didn’t strike out on my own. It was a very, very difficult decision. It was incredibly emotional. But looking at my industry now, I’m glad I jumped into entrepreneurship when I did. r?

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The battle between two fears

We think it comes down to fear. The general population has an overwhelming fear of failure.

Entrepreneurs have a fear of not trying. They just have to know what would happen if they just tested their bigg idea.

You’re ready to be an entrepreneur when your fear of not trying overcomes your fear of failure.

You reach a point where inaction or delay is just not acceptable any longer. You have to go for it. You have to take your shot at bigg success!

How did you know you were ready to strike out on your own?

Share that with us by leaving a comment below, e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444).

Thank you so much for reading our post today.

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Please join us next time when we’ll discuss the trap that keeps people from striking out on their own. 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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Think Like an Entrepreneur

(Image in today's post by tanyah)

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There’s a lot of advice about how your website should look. It’s important to pause to realize …

It's the experience that counts the most!

Just like in the bricks-and-mortar world, people value the experience.

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I've had two bad user experiences recently. The first one has to do with a local not-for-profit organization for which I volunteer. I produce the audio for the radio and television commercials that promote the event. The commercials mention a web address to get more information. However, that address takes you to the organization's national website. I spent ten minutes trying to find the page with information about our local event.

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If memory serves, Mary-Lynn, you told me that you saw a link, “Find your local event.” But it directed you to sign up or log in to get more information.

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Right! It’s crazy. I shouldn't have to sign up to simply get information. Regardless, I finally recovered my user name and password. Then I logged in, but I still haven't found the local page. I ran out of time and will have to go back.

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People who aren’t as invested as you probably wouldn’t put that much effort into finding the local information. Worse yet, they may never go back to the site.

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Tip #1: Create a landing page specific for what you are promoting.

Make it easy for people to find the information they want. For example, our local branch could have a page that ends with the name of our city. They could set up an address like this: nameoforganization.com/champaign.

That's a landing page. It’s the address you want to promote to people in your area for information about your local organization – especially when you’re using local TV, radio, or the newspaper.

Here's another example for a business: If you are promoting a deal, use a web address like one of these:

yourbusinessname.com/deal

yourbusinessname.com/summersale

Create your landing page in advance. It can reiterate the most important points of your advertisement and provide more information. Also provide links to your home page and any other pages that people interested in this promotion might find useful.

Integrating your offline marketing with online marketing makes all your marketing more productive. It’s a time-tested strategy. If visitors to your site get the information they want quickly, they’ll be more likely to take the time to visit other areas of your site.

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The second bad experience occurred when I read an article online about a local tech series that is free and open to the public. The article was on our local newspaper's website. It gave details on the upcoming session and offered a link to the organization's website to get more information on all of the sessions in the series.

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So you went to the website to find out more information, and I remember hearing a … how should I describe it … a frustrated sigh coming from you.

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That’s a good way to say it. I was frustrated because I couldn't find anything about the series. I clicked on several page links, including their events link. Nothing. I used their search tool to search for the name of the event. Still nothing. Finally I went to their calendar and typed in the exact date. The first session in the series came up. It contained the same information that was in the article. Nothing further about the entire series. I was planning to put all of the dates on my calendar. I guess I’ll have to call them.

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Tip #2: Make it easy to find the information you promote.

If you want people to know about your events, make it easy to get that information. Especially if your event is getting press!

Create a page like we suggested above. If you prefer to link people to your home page, create a link and highlight it so people can find it quickly and easily. For example, in the case we mentioned above, you could highlight it this way:

"Tech series starting in August"

Make it very visible on your site. When people click on that link, it will take them to the page you've created with all the information about that event.

Your site is an excellent tool to compliment your other marketing efforts. But if you don't make it easy for people to find what you’re promoting, they won't participate in your sale or event.

Prepare your web site for visitors before you advertise or send out a press release. That will help make your campaign a bigg success!

Do you have any tips from your bad user experiences? Or maybe a good experience combining your web site with traditional media? Share that with us by leaving a comment below, calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444) or e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll discuss artificial dissemination. Yes, you read that right! Until then, 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/00442-072109.mp3

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She said that life on her own terms meant staying home with her two boys until they were both old enough to be in school all day. They’ve reached that point so she wants to return to the workforce. Besides that, she and her husband are looking forward to having some extra money available.

She says she has been checking classified ads and the job boards just about every day. Unfortunately, she’s not seeing many jobs that she’s both interested in and qualified for.

She’s applied for several jobs and had a couple of interviews which she doesn’t feel went so well. She thinks that the eight years she’s been out of the workforce may be hurting her chances. She asked us for our suggestions.

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It’s who you know

Keep in mind that we’re facing a tough job market right now, so you’re not alone in your frustration. One thing to add to your efforts is reaching out to your network. It’s something that a lot of people overlook or don’t place enough value on.

Start by making a list of everyone you know. Then start contacting them. You may start with an e-mail, but try to meet them in person or at least catch up with a phone call.

Be yourself, but make sure you tell them what you’re up to. Also find out what they’ve been doing. You never know … something they say may spark an opportunity for you.

Ideally, you’ll get a referral as a result of this conversation. However, don’t be disappointed if that doesn’t happen. You got to spend some time with a friend or got to know an acquaintance better. They can keep their eyes and ears open for an opportunity for you.

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up

Be sure to follow up after your meeting or phone call. Let them know how much you enjoyed seeing them. Help with any challenges they may have brought up if you can. If you can help them, they’ll probably go out of their way to help you!

Keep in touch with them. If you see an article they may be interested in, share it with them. If you see a great deal on something you know they like, let them know about it.

The bottom line is: follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.

Interviewing

In her message, Kathryn said she’s had some difficult questions in her interviews. For example, one woman asked her if she thought she’d be able to get to work on time even with her two kids.

Of course, that’s an illegal question, which you have every right to point out, Kathryn. However, you’re probably better off emphasizing that you’ve always been punctual if that’s the case. For instance, we bet you were on time for the interview. Point that out!

The job you’ve been doing

You’ve been a full-time manager for the last eight years. You just haven’t been getting paid directly for it in cash. Don’t underestimate the skills you’ve learned.

Stress what you’ve done and what your strengths are. Bring the skills you’ve learned out in your answers. Have specific examples ready. These will depend on the job you’re seeking. Some examples:

Do you keep your family’s schedule or oversee the finances?

Have you coordinated a remodeling project?

Think about it. You’ll quickly see that you gained a lot of valuable experience.

Preparation

There’s a great way to prepare for interviews: role-playing. Simulate an interview by putting yourself in an environment as close to an actual interview as possible.

Get your husband to ask you questions or find a friend, preferably someone who interviews people as part of his or her job, and practice interviewing until your answers just roll off your tongue.

What suggestions do you have for Kathryn?

Please leave a comment below, call us at 888.455.BIGG or send us an e-mail at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

Thanks Kathryn for sharing your challenge with us. We wish you bigg success in your search efforts!

And we’re sure grateful that you checked in on us today.

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Please join us next time when we talk about why you should play more at work.

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/00369-040909.mp3

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