If you’re a long-time reader, you know that we’re partners in life and in business. And we still love each other!

This arrangement doesn’t work for everyone, but it does work for us. And that’s what matters!

One of our weaknesses is that, because we are so passionate about what we do, we often put the business first.

You may not relate to that. But how about this one: Some couples struggle for “together time” because they put their kids first.

If we don’t take time to nurture our relationships, the strong foundation will crack and everything will crumble.

Listen to this post, click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show! (Runtime 6:35)

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The book is all about giving you the mindset, philosophy and techniques you need to cultivate a healthy and happy relationship. We were given the opportunity to read a review copy of the book, and visit with Jim & Jackie to offer up some advice just in time for Valentines Day.

Listen to the show to discover:

• the difference between needs & neediness
  
• where intimacy resides
  
• what needs are appropriate to ask your partner to meet
  
• why the line between needs and wants in not a fine one
  
• a Valentine’s Day example of the difference between needs and wants
  
• the least self thing you can do in your relationship
  
• how knowing your needs and wants is an important component to this unselfish act
  
• how this allows you to be more open in your relationship
  
• why this makes you a better resource for those around you
  

We highly recommend this book. Keep an eye out for its release and get more great advice at Love Like A Black Belt.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00781-021412.mp3

Here’s a question to ask yourself: If you absolutely, positively knew you would not fail, what would you do?

Would you do what you’re doing now? If so, you can quit reading. But check in next time – we’ll have something just for you, assuming you want to take it to the next level.

Now back to those of you who would do something different. What’s holding you back?

In most cases, it’s fear. Pure and simple. And rightly so. As our friend Jim Bouchard says, “The absence of fear is stupidity!”

How do you overcome it? Here are two suggestions:

Do your due diligence

Passion is great. However, if it’s not combined with evidence, you may find yourself passionately unhappy. Prove out your idea. Remember, where there’s growth, there’s opportunity. Whether you’re thinking of starting a business or changing careers, is the industry growing?

A great resource for this is the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Services. It’s available online and it’s free.

Mitigate the risk

BIGG success is about entrepreneuring your life. Contrary to popular lore, entrepreneurs are NOT risk lovers. However, successful entrepreneurs are excellent risk managers.

They mitigate risk by managing it, sharing it and by seeing it differently.

• Risk management
  

Can you manage the risk by saving extra now and storing it away?

• Risk sharing
  

  If you’re thinking of launching a business, could you share the risk with a partner?
  

• Risk perception
  

  Is there something you know that most people don’t? Because of your unique knowledge and experiences, you may be able to look at a situation differently than most people.
  

As you keep finding ways to mitigate the risk, you’ll reach a point where what you’re contemplating doesn’t seem so risky. You realize you can’t fail. You’re ready for BIGG success!

If you’re contemplating a career change and still have questions, maybe we can help. Check out our coaching programs.

Image in this post from cobrasoft

In his fantastic book Think Like a Black Belt, Jim Bouchard says: “The absence of fear is stupidity.”

Entrepreneurs must be stupid. They forge ahead boldly while smart people cringe with fear.

Risk? Ha!

Entrepreneurs laugh at it. They love it. No amount of risk will stop them.

That’s the story if you believe popular lore.

Jim says that Black Belts exhibit courage in the face of fear. Entrepreneurs gain courage by minimizing the risk.

They shift it away. They share it with others. They manage it. They act once the risk is brought down to an acceptable level.

It’s calculated fearlessness, not an absence of fear. After all, entrepreneurs aren’t stupid.

Some people would just like to think they are. They’re the people sitting on the sidelines wasting their lives away.

If you’re ready for life on your own terms, maybe we can help minimize the risks. E-mail us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or leave a voice message at 888.455.2444.

Image in this post from Troy2007

The dining room had closed, but the drive-thru was still open. She noticed a man standing at the drive-thru window. He asked to use the bathroom.

She paused for a second, because company policy states that no customers are allowed in after closing. Then she recognized the man – it was Adrian Peterson, star running back of the Minnesota Vikings.

She let him in. When her boss found out about the incident, she was fired.

She said, “I never thought in a million years that that decision was going to cost me my career.” The good news is that, after a public outcry, she was rehired.  Source of this story: The Consumerist

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Who are they to say?
The reason we’re talking about this today is because of some of the comments people made about her quote.

The general theme goes like this:
Career?
What career?
Working at McDonald’s (or any other restaurant … or in retail … or any number of other occupations) isn’t a career.

And here’s our response:
Says who?
Who determines which careers are honorable and which aren’t?
What criteria are used to make these judgments?

This woman had worked for the same company for seven years. We don’t know this, but this may have been her first job. She may have performed well and got promoted to management.

As we said, we don’t know … but neither do the people who have made comments denigrating her career.

If it makes her happy, if she feels fulfilled by the work, who are “they” to say it’s not honorable?

BIGG success is life on your own terms. One of the five elements of BIGG success is work.

What makes the work you do honorable?
YOU!

If you love what you do, give it your all. Even if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing right now, even if your current job is a stepping stone, enjoy it and put everything you have into it while you’re at work.

We’ll close with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King. A BIGG thanks to our friend, Jim Bouchard, who shared this quote on a recent post on his blog:

“No work is insignificant. If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast: http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00663-012011.mp3

(Image in today’s post by srbichara)

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Let’s talk about social media strategy. Say you’re a small business owner. You don’t necessarily want to get on Facebook and have a Fan Page with only ten people. Would it be better to just be yourself on Facebook and tell people about your day, rather than setting up a Fan Page for your business?

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Yeah. I would say to first get accustomed to it. As a matter of fact, my Facebook Fan Page for the Marketing Doctor just started last week and I’ve been on Facebook for a year or two. I preferred my personal page where I described what I liked and disliked, linked to my blogs and things like that. You just have to take the first steps. Like anything else in life, once you overcome the inertia, magical things happen.

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We met you online, John. We met you through another good friend, Jim Bouchard, who we also met online. It’s amazing how powerful these tools are in placing every individual, every small business, close to par with large businesses.

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You could say that again! A small business is much more nimble to change. It’s the difference between a forty-foot sailboat and a multi-ton carrier trying to change course. If I could talk a little bit to the contact with Jim Bouchard, it was very serendipitous. I met his wife Alex on Facebook. She asked me to look at her husband’s web site and critique it. So I did, which was unique according to Alex. From that, Jim wrote back and thanked me. The point is that I didn’t think I was going to meet Jim through Alex. It was nothing like that. I was trying to assist. Through that assist, we’re here today. We never would have met if it weren’t for social media. It’s like going to a cocktail party but not leaving the house!

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Thanks John so much for sharing your wisdom with us.

We recommend that you get to know John better by checking out his site. He blogs, consults, speaks and offers great marketing tips for free in his online classroom.

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Thank you for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll discuss making money multiply magically. 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/00475-090409.mp3

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