Last week a lazy morning turned into a trip to the Statue of Liberty and a stop at Ellis Island. Thinking that the children would enjoy the boat ride and get to see the statue up close, we packed a lunch and headed out.
I did not think that walking up the stairs into the main building on Ellis Island was going to have such an impression on me. There are pictures explaining the history there and although I knew immigrants pasted though there before being allowed into the America, seeing photos of children alone from the 1800′s stunned me. Imagine valuing freedom and opportunity so much you would send your child, alone to America, never to see them again, so that they could live a life in freedom and have the chance to succeed. The luggage of some of the travelers are still in the building, lost, forgotten or just left, the stories why, we will never know. It was all they came here with. They started with a few dollars and the dream of what lay ahead.
With no distractions and laser focus these young people started the businesses and companies that built the United States into the super power that it is. How is it that a 14 your old boy with nothing can build an empire and I have trouble telling someone about my network marketing opportunity? The answer is hunger. I am too soft, too comfortable and have way too many choices. I get distracted with TV and comforts. Now I am not saying that I want to live on the streets in NYC with nothing until I get my act together, but you see and feel what I am saying. Seems like all these posts boil down to the same thing, more focused action towards the goal and dreams.
Show a picture of the Statue of Liberty to anyone in the world and they will tell you “New York City America”. It means freedom and a better life. A large portion of the worlds population will never have the chance to succeed. Two- thirds of the world lives on less than three dollars a day and they swim, smuggle, trade and sell themselves to get to America. We have it so good here and at times I forget that. We are blessed beyond measure. I feel it is our responsibility to do something great with our lives.
Longfellow wrote,” life is like two ships passing in the night, you hear some sounds, you raise a lantern, see some faces and then we are plunged into darkness.” Do something with the life that God has given you. Do something with this opportunity that we have. Be great! Leave a legacy!
Want to be the next network marketing pro out there? Maybe you just want to be a betternetworker. The secret is to keep moving towards success. On a recent trip to a mountain top cave, I learned another great lesson about building my home business. There are a lot of similarities between crawling through a deep dark cave and networking. In the beginning every thing is bright and sunny. I was very excited to start my spelunking, just as I was excited to start my career in network marketing. You have seen it before, and maybe it is you. The first few weeks of a networkers business is full of hope and expectation. I remember thinking, How hard can it be? That is why the best time to get a new person started is in those first few weeks. If you can get them a check early on they are much more likely to stick around.
As I started my drop down into the cave, right away things changed. It felt strange to be out of my comfort zone. Although I hike and climb a lot, being underground gives me an uneasy feeling. It got dark for a few feet then I saw a light coming from a hole way up high. The light and the hole were out of reach and to get where I wanted to go I had to choose to keep moving forward. Then a bit further is I bumped my head, flinched and got some scrapes on my arm. The similarities to my network business were apparent and it made me laugh out loud in the dark cave. That was the inspiration for the video that can be seen at TheNetworkBuilders com and for this article.
You probably can figure out the rest of this story. It is like many other success stories, a great start, some trials, a period were you can quit or move on and in the end massive success. In this case the choice to press on took me to an exit to the caves on the other side of the mountain. The view was spectacular and something that few others have seen. I would have missed it all had my choices been less than I made.
What choices are in your life right now that you can use to move forward with your business? What are you afraid of that has kept you where you are? Make that call, say hello to that owner and do what you know it will take to reach the other side of where you are now. The view on the other side will be incredible. You can do it!
A walk across the Mid Hudson River Bridge cured my fear of the phone. My chicken list seemed very scary on the ride there but after crossing 200 feet up and a mile wide the list was easier to handle.
I went to the Mid Hudson River Bridge today. The Grand opening is this week and it was a good excuse to overcome my fear of the phone. The bridge was from an old rail line. In 1974 a fire destroyed it and it has stood 200 feet above the Hudson River, closed and unsafe. A few years a go it was refurbished and is now open to the public as a walkway to Poughkeepsie New York.
What does this have to do with Network Marketing you ask? If you are afraid of heights, the bridge is a scary place. Standing on a 20 foot wide path that rises a dizzying 200 feet over a mile wide river can be paralyzing. There is even an emergency phone at the halfway point for “mental emergency help”. The fear is very real and can stop a person in mid tracks, unable to move.
Sometimes picking up the phone to make a call to that one person on your list can produce the same reactions. Sweat, fear, the inability to think clear, run away thoughts of impending doom are all the bodies’ reaction to fear. You can challenge that fear and use it to become stronger.
The way to overcome fear is action. Do something else you are afraid to do and you will emerge from the fire bulletproof. Anthony Robbins refers to it as changing your state. You know the feeling, that high from doing what you thought you never would be able to do. It feels great!
So today I walked the edge of the path, 200 feet above the Hudson River, looking down and over the edge. My heart raced but at the end of the day, at the other side, I knew the ride home would be productive. The chicken list that was sitting on the seat of my car, the list that stared at me on the way to the bridge, the list that mocked me on the ride from home, was already beaten in my mind.
After challenging my fear of heights today, the phone calls did not seem as scary any more. Armed with the power of my inner self, the self that took on the bridge and won, was ready for the ride home and the chicken list. The answer the callers gave did not matter. The outcome of the calls did not matter, all that mattered was picking up the phone, dialing those numbers and getting a yes or a no. I was empowered.
So if you are afraid of the phone, take on a bigger fear, the smaller ones seem easy after that.
What do you fear more than making a phone call? Leave a comment at TheNetworkBuilders com. Then let us know how you did.
Last week a lazy morning turned into a trip to the Statue of Liberty and a stop at Ellis Island. Thinking that the children would enjoy the boat ride and get to see the statue up close, we packed a lunch and headed out.
With no distractions and laser focus these young people started the businesses and companies that built the United States into the super power that it is. How is it that a 14 your old boy with nothing can build an empire and I have trouble telling someone about my network marketing opportunity? The answer is hunger. I am too soft, too comfortable and have way too many choices. I get distracted with TV and comforts. Now I am not saying that I want to live on the streets in NYC with nothing until I get my act together, but you see and feel what I am saying. Seems like all these posts boil down to the same thing, more focused action towards the goal and dreams.
