We saw a great post on BNET a while back. It was by Margaret Heffernan, author of a great book Women on Top. She talked about entrepreneurs and risk.

When writing her book, she conducted a study and found:

• women generally start their businesses with less money
  
• they have a higher success rate
  
• their firms are more profitable
  
• they create more jobs
  

What is their secret?

She notes that “the most successful had taken huge risks.”

What did they have on the line?
Savings? Check.
Houses? Check.
Retirement accounts? Check.

Did they have a product? No.
Customers? No.

Most importantly, she points out that they had no safety net.

This reminds us of something one of our friends once told us.

He started out in the corporate world. He was receiving promotions and pay increases.

So his employer was disappointed when he told them he was going to leave to start his own business. They told him he could come back at any time.

That’s where the story gets interesting. He told us that whenever things got tough, he always remembered what they said.

And it almost kept him from succeeding!

So he mentally threw their offer away. He told himself he had no other options. He had to make it. He had to win. He had to be a BIGG success.

Now he’s a millionaire many times over, in part, because he wouldn’t turn back. He wouldn’t lose. Because he couldn’t afford to.

A safety net can keep you from reaching BIGG success. Do you have a safety net?

Image in this post from Flickr

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Christine, you’ve identified three types of vision boards. The first one is the “I Know Exactly What I Want” Vision Board. Who should create that one?

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Left-brained people who get wigged out a little bit by the whole idea of creativity. When they’re at my retreats, they’re the ones shouting, “Who has a picture of an Audi A3?” They’ll put a black dog on there. When you’re in this place – you want a new house or a new job, you want to eat healthy food – you go into the magazines and look for those images. It’s a great way to do it. Some people just throw it up there and that board is done in an hour-and-a-half.

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The second one you’ve identified is the “Opening and Allowing” Vision Board.

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This is my favorite. As I said before, at my retreats, the whole first day is about intention. So women are getting clear on what they want more of. The second day we’re doing all those obstacles. By the time they sit down to do their vision board, they are just ready to speak to their soul – their deeper and wiser self. We know that still part of us. So you go through the magazines really slowly. You find yourself getting surprised at this image or that image. Even when I picked out that image of Celine Dion’s stage, I didn’t sort through magazines trying to find the perfect stage. I looked at it and thought, “Oh, that’s totally the feeling I want.” Some people will go, “Oh I love that car. Wow, I never realized I wanted a Prius but I just realized this speaks to me.” This puts you in touch with a deeper part of yourself. A lot of times our mental imaginings and our egos can run the show and think they know exactly what they want. A lot of times they lead us down paths that aren’t in alignment with who we really are. So the Opening and Allowing board is where you sit down and let the pictures come to you. Then you arrange them. It’s a softer process. Not everyone wants to do it this way. It’s great at my retreats because they’ve really had the time to get clear before we go for that.

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I want to do that board. I’m ready!

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I love this board. It’s how I live my life!

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Let’s talk about the third type. Christine, you call it the “Theme” Vision Board.

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Yeah, like I’ve said, I do this on New Year’s Day. “Here’s my year, my 2009.” Birthdays are a good time to do that. What is the year ahead? The other thing would be if you want a different job or a new place to live or whatever. You make the entire board about that thing. Your marriage. Your family. It’s a great thing to do with anything in your life. You can apply both of the mindsets for the two other boards to this board.

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We highly recommend that you get Christine’s Get Inspired, Live Creative Triple Pack, that includes her e-book (The Complete Guide to Vision Boards), her most requested song (Right Outta Nowhere), and a subscription to her e-zine (Live Creative: Make Your Life a Masterpiece) for more success and creativity tips. It’s all FREE!

Thanks so much, Christine, for sharing your time and wisdom with all of us! And we thank you for reading our post today!

Please join us next time when we share a note from Hank Williams, Jr. We’ll discuss family traditions! 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/00404-052909.mp3

Related posts

Believing is Seeing – Part 1

Make the Grass Greener on Your Side of the Fence

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Treating If-Only Syndrome

(Image in today's post from Christine Kane)

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It’s no wonder that so many people are jumping on this bandwagon. We’ve seen increases in our health insurance, our property taxes, and more. It sounds like there’s more to come.

The three-income family

Isn’t it interesting, though, that just a few generations ago, most families got by on one income? Then we added a second one in the household with more and more women joining the workforce.

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I don’t think it was purely a financial decision. It was also about fulfillment for many women, but it certainly helped the family’s income.

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Now a number of people can’t get by on two incomes. They need three or maybe more. If you find yourself in this position, it may be good to ask if all the obligations are really worth it.

Is that life on your own terms – being weighted down by the cost of things you thought you wanted? With careful analysis, you may realize they’re not so important – especially if you find you can’t enjoy life because you’re working so much.

So if you feeling that you need a third income, it might pay to look at your obligations to see if there are areas where you can cut. Spending time finding ways to reduce your obligations might get you further faster than spending that same time trying to make some extra money.

This new trend is about something more important than income.

Many of us now realize more than ever how much we want to be in charge of our own lives. The TrendWatching report mentions that people fantasize about being their own boss, even if it’s just for a few hours a week.

Bigg success is life on your own terms. You’re the entrepreneur of your life whether or not you’re an entrepreneur in the traditional sense.

Some people want to be the boss all the time. According to this new report, that trend is still alive and well. But more and more people are finding ways to be the boss at least part of the time.

They have the security of a full-time job along with the freedom that being in charge gives you part of the time. Freedom with security … what a great combination!

When you find fulfilling ways to make extra money in your spare time, you’re getting synergy working in the five elements of bigg success. If you make the right moves with that extra money, you can accelerate your journey to bigg success, to life on your own terms.

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Turning $3 into a multi-billion dollar business

One way that people are making extra money is by selling their expertise. Another way is by selling, or renting, assets. One clever example of this is ParkingSpots.com, which helps people rent their extra off-street parking spaces.

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I heard Michael Krasny tell his story of the founding of what became CDW. Most of us have probably done business with them. They do a great job. Back in 1982, Michael had a used computer he wanted to sell. The Chicago Sun Times was running a special on classified ads – 3 lines for 3 days for $3. He ran an ad and his phone started ringing off the hook. He realized he had a business here. He was right – within about ten years, the business he started from that classified ad became a Fortune 500 company. Michael Krasny became a multi-billionaire, recognized on the Forbes 400 as one of the richest people in the world! Now that’s bigg success!

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You never know … your idea for making a little extra money may turn into the next Fortune 500 company!

What do you do for extra money?

Share that with all of us by leaving a comment below. You never know … you might earn a little spare cash!

Thank you so much for reading our post today.

Do you think you don’t have enough spare time to make any spare cash? Please join us next time to see how one group people found the time.

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/00366-040609.mp3

Related posts

Creating Wealth in the Next Generation Economy

What’s Hot in 2009: Businesses

The Dirty Truth About Being an Entrepreneur

(Image in today's post by penywise)

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When it comes to money, the author says that a gentleman would never:

• Borrow from a lady

• Borrow from a man without collateral and a plan to pay it back quickly

• Discuss money

• Discuss his possessions or their cost

• Name drop about his rich friends

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I think the idea that a gentleman never borrowed money from a lady shows that we are living in different times. Many women are financially independent today and willing to be angel investors. It’s when you don’t pay someone back, male or female, that it becomes rude.

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Money talks. Should you listen?

Why do we feel the need to talk about, or show off, what we have? We all know people – be it co-workers, family members or friends – who like to talk about how much they make or how much something cost. We really liked the author’s final quote: “There was once a day that we did not try to keep up with the Joneses – because we didn’t know what the Joneses had and no one knew what we had.”

Materially possessed

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I recently saw a picture of people standing line. It made me think of the pictures we saw from the Great Depression. Back then, people stood in line to get a little soup or bread. The picture I saw recently showed people waiting in line to buy a Blackberry Storm!

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Why is it so important to have the newest phone? Because we get our identity from our possessions.

We’re not saying that it’s bad to be an early adopter; we need them. The question is, and only you can answer it, “Is it best for you to be an early adopter?”

It may be. Your career may require you to have the newest phone. That’s a good reason. However, buying one just to be able to show it off to our friends … not such a good reason.

Just say “No”

It’s not a good reason because it leads to an ongoing problem. If that’s really the reason we’re doing it, we’re going to have to keep buying over and over again.

It becomes like a drug and we need our fix.

“I want it. I want it now. I want people to know I have it.”

A void check

After we admit that we’re doing this, we have to ask ourselves why – what’s the underlying reason? You see, we buy because of how we feel about ourselves.

We’re spending money to fill an emotional void.

We’re showing off our latest acquisition to cover up our real feelings. When we do this, we just create a bigger problem.

Getting it in balance

That problem is – we end up with a weak balance sheet. We want a lot of assets and few liabilities. The result of our spending is few real assets and a lot of liabilities.

Millionaires do the opposite. They focus on building up their balance sheets by buying assets with real value and keeping their debt relatively low. That’s not determined by how much we make or what we buy. It’s based on how much we save and invest intentionally.

Shhh … be very, very quiet!

We do that quietly. Perhaps nobody knows but us! But that’s the beautiful thing about it – we know!

In the last few months, we’ve relearned how incredibly important it is to have a financial safety net. We have to build up an emergency reserve. It’s not a sexy thing like a Blackberry Storm or a new car. It won’t get your friends excited. In fact, you probably won’t even talk about it because it’s so boring. But it sure will come in handy in the future.

You can also quietly get out of debt. We like to show off what we just bought, but we don’t talk about how we maxed out our credit card to buy it. So we put out a false identity, which doesn’t help us feel better about ourselves, because down deep we know the truth. And that truth does not set us free!

Don’t worry about what your friends and neighbors think you have. Take solace by knowing what you’re doing to have all you need and then some!

___

___

We’re grateful that you read our post today. Please check in tomorrow when we’ll talk about night moves. 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/00281-120808.mp3

Related posts

Your Emotions and Your Money

Squirrels, Nuts and Business Cycles

6 Easy Steps To Financial Freedom

Getting Aggressively Passive: Creating A Passive Income That Sets You Free

(Image by isouthpawi)

___

___

When it comes to money, the author says that a gentleman would never:

• Borrow from a lady

• Borrow from a man without collateral and a plan to pay it back quickly

• Discuss money

• Discuss his possessions or their cost

• Name drop about his rich friends

___

I think the idea that a gentleman never borrowed money from a lady shows that we are living in different times. Many women are financially independent today and willing to be angel investors. It’s when you don’t pay someone back, male or female, that it becomes rude.

___

Money talks. Should you listen?

Why do we feel the need to talk about, or show off, what we have? We all know people – be it co-workers, family members or friends – who like to talk about how much they make or how much something cost. We really liked the author’s final quote: “There was once a day that we did not try to keep up with the Joneses – because we didn’t know what the Joneses had and no one knew what we had.”

Materially possessed

___

I recently saw a picture of people standing line. It made me think of the pictures we saw from the Great Depression. Back then, people stood in line to get a little soup or bread. The picture I saw recently showed people waiting in line to buy a Blackberry Storm!

___

Why is it so important to have the newest phone? Because we get our identity from our possessions.

We’re not saying that it’s bad to be an early adopter; we need them. The question is, and only you can answer it, “Is it best for you to be an early adopter?”

It may be. Your career may require you to have the newest phone. That’s a good reason. However, buying one just to be able to show it off to our friends … not such a good reason.

Just say “No”

It’s not a good reason because it leads to an ongoing problem. If that’s really the reason we’re doing it, we’re going to have to keep buying over and over again.

It becomes like a drug and we need our fix.

“I want it. I want it now. I want people to know I have it.”

A void check

After we admit that we’re doing this, we have to ask ourselves why – what’s the underlying reason? You see, we buy because of how we feel about ourselves.

We’re spending money to fill an emotional void.

We’re showing off our latest acquisition to cover up our real feelings. When we do this, we just create a bigger problem.

Getting it in balance

That problem is – we end up with a weak balance sheet. We want a lot of assets and few liabilities. The result of our spending is few real assets and a lot of liabilities.

Millionaires do the opposite. They focus on building up their balance sheets by buying assets with real value and keeping their debt relatively low. That’s not determined by how much we make or what we buy. It’s based on how much we save and invest intentionally.

Shhh … be very, very quiet!

We do that quietly. Perhaps nobody knows but us! But that’s the beautiful thing about it – we know!

In the last few months, we’ve relearned how incredibly important it is to have a financial safety net. We have to build up an emergency reserve. It’s not a sexy thing like a Blackberry Storm or a new car. It won’t get your friends excited. In fact, you probably won’t even talk about it because it’s so boring. But it sure will come in handy in the future.

You can also quietly get out of debt. We like to show off what we just bought, but we don’t talk about how we maxed out our credit card to buy it. So we put out a false identity, which doesn’t help us feel better about ourselves, because down deep we know the truth. And that truth does not set us free!

Don’t worry about what your friends and neighbors think you have. Take solace by knowing what you’re doing to have all you need and then some!

___

___

We’re grateful that you read our post today. Please check in tomorrow when we’ll talk about night moves. 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/00281-120808.mp3

Related posts

Your Emotions and Your Money

Squirrels, Nuts and Business Cycles

6 Easy Steps To Financial Freedom

Getting Aggressively Passive: Creating A Passive Income That Sets You Free

(Image by isouthpawi)