Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Network Marketing - Not Just Sales! Part
If You Want To Become a Top Recruiter in Your MLM, Save Yourself Some Blood, Sweat, and Tears...Stop Selling! How much it is worth to be the Top Recruiter of your company?
Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is not only a sales business. Yes, you must sell product or get people on your service. However, this should not be done with a sales mindset. What do you think about the person that sold you your car, house, or life insurance?
Maybe you had a great experience or an awful one. Either way, if you remember this person’s name, you remember that you didn’t really have interest in what they were doing. And that is not duplicable.
Have you heard this before? Sell, Sell, Sell! Recruit, Recruit, Recruit! That’s where the fast money is. Are you in your business short-term or long term? If you have to sell your family on your product, what happens when they don't see results right away? Will they drop your service because something went wrong, so it must not work?
If you sell your family and friends on getting into the business, what is going to happen next month? Will it then be your job to sell them on working their business?
No. That is not what Network Marketing is about, if you are in it long-term. You have to do more than sell and recruit. This business is set up so that you don't have to do all of the talking. Your tools should do the explaining for you. All you have to do is let your prospects sell themselves. People like to think that buying was their idea, not yours.
So it is definitely not your job to sell. Your job is to point and sponsor. Point to your marketing materials and sponsor and train your people.
Have You Taken The Time To Learn What Network Marketing Is About?
Well, I want to share with you the two major things Network Marketing involves.
1. Network Marketing Is A "Relationship" Business.
You absolutely must build relationships in this kind of business. People don't care about your company or the "best opportunity out there". They simply care about how you can help them solve their problems.
People join people not companies. People simply could care less if your company is debt-free or has the most lucrative compensation plan. They don't even care if you know the company's history. There's a saying that goes: people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
People looking at your business want to know if you can help them and if they can trust you. Will you be able to assist them towards their goal? You must have a servant's heart.
If you have good customer service and a great relationship, they won't cancel because the company took too long to do this or someone didn't call them back right away. They will stay on because they trust that what you promoted to them would overall benefit them like you said it would.
For example, even though McDonalds' doesn't have the best food, they are pretty successful, right? McDonalds' knows that just because a worker messes up an order that they won't lose a customer. Why? Because, that customer has been coming to McDonalds' since they were a kid. Now that customer brings their children there. This type of relationship develops over time and the same goes for your business.
Imagine…you own your own franchise and your people won’t quit because you didn’t have to sell them. They sold themselves and trust in your system. They are in long-term because you took the time to build a relationship and let the system train them.
2. Network Marketing Is NOT Just "A Numbers Game."
People are people and not numbers. It is true that you should not dwell on the people that say no. However, if you burn through your warm market with hard-sell techniques, you are only making things harder on yourself.
Do your prospects have hopes, dreams, and goals? Take the time to get to know what they are. When you want them in your business...listen. When they get in your business...listen.
Find out their why. Don't use their why against them. Use their why to help them get what they came into your business to get. Many sponsors operate in the "Phase 1" mentality constantly.
All they do is get people in. That's it. No training or mentoring involved. Those people quit and they find new people to replace them. It is always important to bring new team members to the table.
However, you must build relationships with everyone in your organization or they will flat out quit on you.
Get to know them and their family. If you communicate with them effectively, you should know the names of their kids or spouse. Everything is not always about business. Now this is important: Businesses come and go, but relationships last. If you had to walk away from your business today, how many friends would you still have? Think about that.
The "sale"(for customers) or "agreement" (for reps) papers are not the end of your relationship; it is just the beginning. If something should go wrong, you should be the first to know. This builds your retention tremendously. But most importantly, will help build stronger relationships.
Your customers and representatives will bring you referrals because they trust you with their people. So if you take the time to build your empire of close-knit business associates, you will surely reap the benefits.
Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is not only a sales business. Yes, you must sell product or get people on your service. However, this should not be done with a sales mindset. What do you think about the person that sold you your car, house, or life insurance?
Maybe you had a great experience or an awful one. Either way, if you remember this person’s name, you remember that you didn’t really have interest in what they were doing. And that is not duplicable.
Have you heard this before? Sell, Sell, Sell! Recruit, Recruit, Recruit! That’s where the fast money is. Are you in your business short-term or long term? If you have to sell your family on your product, what happens when they don't see results right away? Will they drop your service because something went wrong, so it must not work?
If you sell your family and friends on getting into the business, what is going to happen next month? Will it then be your job to sell them on working their business?
No. That is not what Network Marketing is about, if you are in it long-term. You have to do more than sell and recruit. This business is set up so that you don't have to do all of the talking. Your tools should do the explaining for you. All you have to do is let your prospects sell themselves. People like to think that buying was their idea, not yours.
So it is definitely not your job to sell. Your job is to point and sponsor. Point to your marketing materials and sponsor and train your people.
Have You Taken The Time To Learn What Network Marketing Is About?
Well, I want to share with you the two major things Network Marketing involves.
1. Network Marketing Is A "Relationship" Business.
You absolutely must build relationships in this kind of business. People don't care about your company or the "best opportunity out there". They simply care about how you can help them solve their problems.
People join people not companies. People simply could care less if your company is debt-free or has the most lucrative compensation plan. They don't even care if you know the company's history. There's a saying that goes: people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
People looking at your business want to know if you can help them and if they can trust you. Will you be able to assist them towards their goal? You must have a servant's heart.
If you have good customer service and a great relationship, they won't cancel because the company took too long to do this or someone didn't call them back right away. They will stay on because they trust that what you promoted to them would overall benefit them like you said it would.
For example, even though McDonalds' doesn't have the best food, they are pretty successful, right? McDonalds' knows that just because a worker messes up an order that they won't lose a customer. Why? Because, that customer has been coming to McDonalds' since they were a kid. Now that customer brings their children there. This type of relationship develops over time and the same goes for your business.
Imagine…you own your own franchise and your people won’t quit because you didn’t have to sell them. They sold themselves and trust in your system. They are in long-term because you took the time to build a relationship and let the system train them.
2. Network Marketing Is NOT Just "A Numbers Game."
People are people and not numbers. It is true that you should not dwell on the people that say no. However, if you burn through your warm market with hard-sell techniques, you are only making things harder on yourself.
Do your prospects have hopes, dreams, and goals? Take the time to get to know what they are. When you want them in your business...listen. When they get in your business...listen.
Find out their why. Don't use their why against them. Use their why to help them get what they came into your business to get. Many sponsors operate in the "Phase 1" mentality constantly.
All they do is get people in. That's it. No training or mentoring involved. Those people quit and they find new people to replace them. It is always important to bring new team members to the table.
However, you must build relationships with everyone in your organization or they will flat out quit on you.
Get to know them and their family. If you communicate with them effectively, you should know the names of their kids or spouse. Everything is not always about business. Now this is important: Businesses come and go, but relationships last. If you had to walk away from your business today, how many friends would you still have? Think about that.
The "sale"(for customers) or "agreement" (for reps) papers are not the end of your relationship; it is just the beginning. If something should go wrong, you should be the first to know. This builds your retention tremendously. But most importantly, will help build stronger relationships.
Your customers and representatives will bring you referrals because they trust you with their people. So if you take the time to build your empire of close-knit business associates, you will surely reap the benefits.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Newbie's - Fear No More - You Can Now Easily Drive Traffic To Your Website
Newbies on the World Wide Web, listen up! Here you will find some of the easiest techniques to improve that much needed targeted traffic for your website. Let us deliberate first on some of the free traffic ideas for your website. Let's get this party started!
Article Writing
Write articles that you can submit to article directories. This is one of the best techniques to get the traffic started for your website. You will just have to point that link to your site, which will mean a long-standing traffic for you. People will be able to find your website through the articles that you've submitted. Here are some of the best directories out there:
articlecity.com
ezinearticles.com
ideamarketers.com
goarticles.com
Blog It!
Create a blog. It is quite easy to make one. When you finish creating your blog, link it to your website. Google will regularly come by to index the postings on your blog site. So it is advisable to keep your blog site updated. Your blog content will be fed through the search engines. So be sure that you are strategically putting keywords on your fresh contents.
If you achieve this, your ranking will definitely sore high on search engines. That will in turn benefit you, because it will definitely drive traffic to your website. Below are some of your free options for this purpose, access them for you to get started:
wordpress.com
blogger.com
Online Specialized Forums
Visit these online forums and post some of your ideas or opinions on them. It will give you a chance to put your links in your signature line. This will get you that much needed traffic from forum members. However, it is important to have a captivating signature line, this will attract forum members. If you manage to attract them, then they will visit your website.
Joint Business Ventures
Online marketers are constantly finding new products to market. Most of them have an extensive mailing list of buying clients. They will provide you that mailing list for a commission on sales.
This will work well with information products. The joint business venture option will increase your sales and mailing lists in a short period of time. However, you must have an excellent product for this to work.
Link it!
The World Wide Web is an immense linking paradise. If you want it, then hop on board. Get in touch with website owners. Ask for a mutual link from their site to yours. However, be sure that you choose a link partner that is related to your category.
Publish A Newsletter
The World Wide Web may be a vast place, but still, people want to be kept informed. Publishing a free newsletter will help you exceptionally. Your free newsletter should be focused on a topic. Newsletters should at least be published once every two weeks.
Ezines
Contact ezine owners, but be careful they are a bit picky. Be sure that their ezine has your targeted readers. Purchase some ads from them. You should test them first. Make sure that your investments return.
You should try to negotiate the rates. There are actually a lot of ezines on the Internet. My predictions would be that sooner or later their rates will be reduced to the lowest possible price. And those picky ezines will not be so picky anymore!
To all newbies out there, marketing your website is a very tedious job. Patience is the keyword. You have to learn to do things the right way. Rushing through it will not help you. The time will come when you know how to do things right. When that time comes, you will not be called a newbie anymore!
Article Writing
Write articles that you can submit to article directories. This is one of the best techniques to get the traffic started for your website. You will just have to point that link to your site, which will mean a long-standing traffic for you. People will be able to find your website through the articles that you've submitted. Here are some of the best directories out there:
articlecity.com
ezinearticles.com
ideamarketers.com
goarticles.com
Blog It!
Create a blog. It is quite easy to make one. When you finish creating your blog, link it to your website. Google will regularly come by to index the postings on your blog site. So it is advisable to keep your blog site updated. Your blog content will be fed through the search engines. So be sure that you are strategically putting keywords on your fresh contents.
If you achieve this, your ranking will definitely sore high on search engines. That will in turn benefit you, because it will definitely drive traffic to your website. Below are some of your free options for this purpose, access them for you to get started:
wordpress.com
blogger.com
Online Specialized Forums
Visit these online forums and post some of your ideas or opinions on them. It will give you a chance to put your links in your signature line. This will get you that much needed traffic from forum members. However, it is important to have a captivating signature line, this will attract forum members. If you manage to attract them, then they will visit your website.
Joint Business Ventures
Online marketers are constantly finding new products to market. Most of them have an extensive mailing list of buying clients. They will provide you that mailing list for a commission on sales.
This will work well with information products. The joint business venture option will increase your sales and mailing lists in a short period of time. However, you must have an excellent product for this to work.
Link it!
The World Wide Web is an immense linking paradise. If you want it, then hop on board. Get in touch with website owners. Ask for a mutual link from their site to yours. However, be sure that you choose a link partner that is related to your category.
Publish A Newsletter
The World Wide Web may be a vast place, but still, people want to be kept informed. Publishing a free newsletter will help you exceptionally. Your free newsletter should be focused on a topic. Newsletters should at least be published once every two weeks.
Ezines
Contact ezine owners, but be careful they are a bit picky. Be sure that their ezine has your targeted readers. Purchase some ads from them. You should test them first. Make sure that your investments return.
You should try to negotiate the rates. There are actually a lot of ezines on the Internet. My predictions would be that sooner or later their rates will be reduced to the lowest possible price. And those picky ezines will not be so picky anymore!
To all newbies out there, marketing your website is a very tedious job. Patience is the keyword. You have to learn to do things the right way. Rushing through it will not help you. The time will come when you know how to do things right. When that time comes, you will not be called a newbie anymore!
Monday, January 26, 2009
How To Generate Keyword Density For Seo And Traffic
SEO or search engine optimization is a process of improving the quality and volume of traffic from search engines to a web site through natural search for target keywords. Keywords and their density are thus necessary to achieve the high ranking of website exposure.
Keyword is very important since this is the heart of any online ad. The clear messages they can convey lead to sales and profit and any misconceptions can only lead to disaster. It is thus important to carefully generate keyword density for SEO and traffic. This can be done in many ways.
SEO professionals recommend an average of 3 to 7 percent keyword density. These words should only be those relevant phrases. Too high keyword density, say, 12% may seem to appear as artificially stuffed. This can be regarded as spam by search engines. The vitality of a well written page will have to contain prevalent keyword phrases.
Keywords on your site are intended to appear 1 to 3 times for every hundred words. Though it doesn't sound like a lot, if you are having a page with thousand or more words; you will have to put 30 keyword incidences. This will altogether be seen by search engines and you will be penalized for a poor listing. You may replace keywords with those which can make any subjects clear. There are numerous examples from the web which you can look into.
Basically, there is the SEO Keyword Density Tool which presents keywords that you can use and what can be done to improve the traffic and eventually the ranking of a search engine without the need to send hundreds of queries on the search engines.
It carries several features such as it helps create your website such a powerhouse search engine. It also warns potential problems with your webpage. Based on the existing content, it also suggests keyword phrases to be used and scans the best keywords.
There are still other known tools relative to keyword density. There is the META Tag Creator and Keyword Density Analyzer. This is regarded as 2 applications in 1. It can create a report on keyword density for any pages on your website. Another purpose of this tool is to allow you to choose any of the keywords that will generate META keywords for your tag titles.
Another application is the Word Tracker which has a compilation of terms that people usually search for. Just enter some keywords and it will give you statistics on how often people search for those words and how many of the competing sites also use those keywords.
Word Tracker also had its Keyword Research Guide for free. A fictional organization is created and experts are asked to give real solutions to problems being faced by its CEO. This will result in an e-book which is packed with tips, techniques and insight on keyword research that can be applied on your personal website.
Still there are some keyword density programs which can greatly help anyone in the generation of proper keywords for their sites. Examples are the Keyword Generator Lite 1.0 which is a powerful tool to produce keywords and save them for free. There are more than 100 keywords that can be used for webpage content, tags and titles. These keywords are very useful in making your page remarkable when ticked on any search engines.
Another program is the Keyword Ranker 1.1 which can help you make money through traffic from Google and through presenting the keyword ranking. This program can help you track changes, and what strategies can be applied to have better page rankings.
You must be conscious enough of keeping the density of your keyword in moderation. You should not only sprinkle these keywords to have it on your article or web content. Chances are, you will be banned from search engines and this will spoil your goal of being profitable.
Utilizing the right keywords can be considered to be the cornerstone of any successful SEO businesses. They are the main vehicles that can help you to be the first rank among the famous search engines. Remember though to choose appropriate keywords that can serve their purposes.
Always remember, that the basic purpose of using keywords is to have high page ranking will not have to end here. You will have to think of other things to effectively create enough search engine traffic on your page that will eventually lead to success.
Keyword is very important since this is the heart of any online ad. The clear messages they can convey lead to sales and profit and any misconceptions can only lead to disaster. It is thus important to carefully generate keyword density for SEO and traffic. This can be done in many ways.
SEO professionals recommend an average of 3 to 7 percent keyword density. These words should only be those relevant phrases. Too high keyword density, say, 12% may seem to appear as artificially stuffed. This can be regarded as spam by search engines. The vitality of a well written page will have to contain prevalent keyword phrases.
Keywords on your site are intended to appear 1 to 3 times for every hundred words. Though it doesn't sound like a lot, if you are having a page with thousand or more words; you will have to put 30 keyword incidences. This will altogether be seen by search engines and you will be penalized for a poor listing. You may replace keywords with those which can make any subjects clear. There are numerous examples from the web which you can look into.
Basically, there is the SEO Keyword Density Tool which presents keywords that you can use and what can be done to improve the traffic and eventually the ranking of a search engine without the need to send hundreds of queries on the search engines.
It carries several features such as it helps create your website such a powerhouse search engine. It also warns potential problems with your webpage. Based on the existing content, it also suggests keyword phrases to be used and scans the best keywords.
There are still other known tools relative to keyword density. There is the META Tag Creator and Keyword Density Analyzer. This is regarded as 2 applications in 1. It can create a report on keyword density for any pages on your website. Another purpose of this tool is to allow you to choose any of the keywords that will generate META keywords for your tag titles.
Another application is the Word Tracker which has a compilation of terms that people usually search for. Just enter some keywords and it will give you statistics on how often people search for those words and how many of the competing sites also use those keywords.
Word Tracker also had its Keyword Research Guide for free. A fictional organization is created and experts are asked to give real solutions to problems being faced by its CEO. This will result in an e-book which is packed with tips, techniques and insight on keyword research that can be applied on your personal website.
Still there are some keyword density programs which can greatly help anyone in the generation of proper keywords for their sites. Examples are the Keyword Generator Lite 1.0 which is a powerful tool to produce keywords and save them for free. There are more than 100 keywords that can be used for webpage content, tags and titles. These keywords are very useful in making your page remarkable when ticked on any search engines.
Another program is the Keyword Ranker 1.1 which can help you make money through traffic from Google and through presenting the keyword ranking. This program can help you track changes, and what strategies can be applied to have better page rankings.
You must be conscious enough of keeping the density of your keyword in moderation. You should not only sprinkle these keywords to have it on your article or web content. Chances are, you will be banned from search engines and this will spoil your goal of being profitable.
Utilizing the right keywords can be considered to be the cornerstone of any successful SEO businesses. They are the main vehicles that can help you to be the first rank among the famous search engines. Remember though to choose appropriate keywords that can serve their purposes.
Always remember, that the basic purpose of using keywords is to have high page ranking will not have to end here. You will have to think of other things to effectively create enough search engine traffic on your page that will eventually lead to success.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
5 Steps To Launching Your Career As A Motivational Speaker
Words have the power that can change lives and while many of us cringe at the thought of speaking in public, there are a few who have ventured bravely into this domain. Now, they enjoy a life that allows them to travel, share their ideas and inspire thousands. If that is your idea of a great job, here's how to launch your career as a motivational speaker:
Use Your Life Experience.
Many of the best motivational speakers tap their life experiences during their lectures. Erin Brockovich, a mom and activist and Olympic great Mary Lou Retton are just two very well-known speakers who have taken their experiences and used them as a rich source of inspiration for other people.
However, don't think that you have to be famous or do something radical with your life in order to become a motivational speaker. Think of all the things that you have accomplished in life like completing school, getting a job, starting a dream business, writing a book, building relationships, even successfully overcoming a destructive habit. These experiences can be an excellent source of examples for your speeches and lectures.
Find A Value In What You Have To Offer.
Telling people about your life story won't do the trick. To be able to launch your career as a motivational speaker, find out how your lectures can guide or help other people who want to make their dreams come true, solve difficulties and generally make their lives better.
Define Your 'Specialty'.
Determine which niche you want to specialize in. You can't do it all even if you want to. Imagine how suspicious your audience will be if you offer solutions to everything in their lives. Pick an area you can truly specialize like improving leadership qualities, finding romance, losing weight, getting rich, becoming a better parent, selling more, etc.
Prepare A Series Of Lectures.
Giving a series of small yet connected lectures is more effective than having one big lecture. This helps you get a feel of what it would be like to work as a motivational speaker. It also helps you improve yourself over time. Try to develop a succession of lectures that can help people improve, a sort of like a step-by-step series that allows people to move from one level to the next.
Improve Your Public Speaking Skills.
This is the core of everything you will be doing as a motivational speaker. Learn how to use your voice, gestures and general body language. You also need to practice the appropriate facial expressions and intonations. And yes, the way you speak will make a huge difference in your success, so practice, practice, practice.
Use Your Life Experience.
Many of the best motivational speakers tap their life experiences during their lectures. Erin Brockovich, a mom and activist and Olympic great Mary Lou Retton are just two very well-known speakers who have taken their experiences and used them as a rich source of inspiration for other people.
However, don't think that you have to be famous or do something radical with your life in order to become a motivational speaker. Think of all the things that you have accomplished in life like completing school, getting a job, starting a dream business, writing a book, building relationships, even successfully overcoming a destructive habit. These experiences can be an excellent source of examples for your speeches and lectures.
Find A Value In What You Have To Offer.
Telling people about your life story won't do the trick. To be able to launch your career as a motivational speaker, find out how your lectures can guide or help other people who want to make their dreams come true, solve difficulties and generally make their lives better.
Define Your 'Specialty'.
Determine which niche you want to specialize in. You can't do it all even if you want to. Imagine how suspicious your audience will be if you offer solutions to everything in their lives. Pick an area you can truly specialize like improving leadership qualities, finding romance, losing weight, getting rich, becoming a better parent, selling more, etc.
Prepare A Series Of Lectures.
Giving a series of small yet connected lectures is more effective than having one big lecture. This helps you get a feel of what it would be like to work as a motivational speaker. It also helps you improve yourself over time. Try to develop a succession of lectures that can help people improve, a sort of like a step-by-step series that allows people to move from one level to the next.
Improve Your Public Speaking Skills.
This is the core of everything you will be doing as a motivational speaker. Learn how to use your voice, gestures and general body language. You also need to practice the appropriate facial expressions and intonations. And yes, the way you speak will make a huge difference in your success, so practice, practice, practice.
Know The Baby Shower Traditions And Trends
Baby showers are simply cute! But to be honest, the event started out as a rite of passage and comes complete with its own trends and traditions. A baby shower is a ceremony meant to celebrate the birth of an infant where both mother and child are showered with presents.
Many have gotten so used to the traditions of baby showers and yet many have applied new trends to this special event. Just like anything in history, the traditions have changed over the years as the affair evolved with many incoming trends. Mentioned below would be some of those wonderful traditions and trends that come with every baby shower.
It is important to note that some races do not celebrate the affair at all because they believe that it is bad luck to buy things for a baby before it is born. Traditionally, the affair was meant for females only where those who hosted the party were the closest of friends and relatives. Soon, parties included men and children. Before long, Daddy Showers were also celebrated.
Tradition also dictates some of the activities done during baby showers. Games like guessing the sex and the date of birth of the baby and the mothers girth size upon delivery are always fun to do. Other fun games to play are guessing the baby food flavor or diaper throwing games.
Of course, a baby shower wouldn't be complete without the mother opening the gifts in front of the guests. At present, gifts given are usually practical items that the mother or the baby can use. But long time ago, gifts were always hand-made. Having a ceremonial champagne toast is permissible to wet the head of the baby.
Over the years, trends took the place of more traditional activities during baby showers. Celebrators thought of more creative ideas in cake decorating, games, recipes and theme ideas. Yes, even baby showers have taken on different themes to add excitement to the affair. Retro baby showers come with retro colors and patterns in all of the baby shower aspects from the invitation down to the party give-aways.
Baby showers are such happy events. Every celebrator or baby shower sponsor should do whatever it takes to make this event as exciting as possible for the soon-to-be mom. This event is extra special for a first-time mom so it would be well worth it if you give extra effort in making it really special.
Many have gotten so used to the traditions of baby showers and yet many have applied new trends to this special event. Just like anything in history, the traditions have changed over the years as the affair evolved with many incoming trends. Mentioned below would be some of those wonderful traditions and trends that come with every baby shower.
It is important to note that some races do not celebrate the affair at all because they believe that it is bad luck to buy things for a baby before it is born. Traditionally, the affair was meant for females only where those who hosted the party were the closest of friends and relatives. Soon, parties included men and children. Before long, Daddy Showers were also celebrated.
Tradition also dictates some of the activities done during baby showers. Games like guessing the sex and the date of birth of the baby and the mothers girth size upon delivery are always fun to do. Other fun games to play are guessing the baby food flavor or diaper throwing games.
Of course, a baby shower wouldn't be complete without the mother opening the gifts in front of the guests. At present, gifts given are usually practical items that the mother or the baby can use. But long time ago, gifts were always hand-made. Having a ceremonial champagne toast is permissible to wet the head of the baby.
Over the years, trends took the place of more traditional activities during baby showers. Celebrators thought of more creative ideas in cake decorating, games, recipes and theme ideas. Yes, even baby showers have taken on different themes to add excitement to the affair. Retro baby showers come with retro colors and patterns in all of the baby shower aspects from the invitation down to the party give-aways.
Baby showers are such happy events. Every celebrator or baby shower sponsor should do whatever it takes to make this event as exciting as possible for the soon-to-be mom. This event is extra special for a first-time mom so it would be well worth it if you give extra effort in making it really special.
Family Values: Are you sacrificing your family for your career?
Do you want to know what the worst feeling in the world is to a man or women who is working hard to create a better life for themselves? It is when we take a step back from our work and realize that what we consider to be the most important element in life, our family, is getting pushed down the list of important things and being ignored altogether. When this situation has been going on for a long time, virtually undetected, some family relationships get ripped at the seams.
I will never forget the night that this very same realization happened to me some years ago. I was spending days, even weeks, on the road working hard to close bigger and bigger accounts for my sales position. One night on the road I was in my motel and received a call from my wife. She was reminding me to be home early the next day to attend my daughter's big play at her local junior high school.
There was just one problem. The next day was my chance to close a huge deal that I was working on for months. I was sideswiped when my prospect called me back that very night, before I talked with my wife. The client wanted to meet and I was in his area by chance working on another deal.
I couldn't pass it up. It meant earning an extra thousand dollars per month if I got this sale and I felt that my family was just too important to pass it up. I'm getting to the worst part now, and that is that I lied to my wife and daughter on the phone when I said that I would be there. I already knew that my work was going to come first by signing up this big account, but I didn't have it in me to tell them over the phone. I knew that I was going to sign the deal, make a lot of money, miss my daughter's big day, and then make up an excuse why I was not there.
Now considering that I was already doing very well and considered pretty successful at the time, that night was a very low point in all areas of my life. I realized then and there that I was putting aside what matters to me the most, my family. And they were loosing faith in me, not expecting me anymore, not caring, breaking away...
The next morning I woke up and realized that I wouldn't have been able to live with myself had I gone through with the appointment and missed my daughter's special event. Money cannot replace love and family. I phoned my appointment and totally expected this man to hang up on me and find another company to do business with. However, I told him the truth. I explained that my family needed me and that I understand if he wants to do his business elsewhere with someone that is more reliable.
That was the day that I made the right decision to put my work aside and be there for my family, and risk loosing the “big account” that I was after. Needless to say the business man that I had to cancel on respected what I had to say, and he even rescheduled the meeting. One week later I successfully signed the deal. Moral of the story? Put your family first, work hard in between, and success in all areas of your life will follow.
I will never forget the night that this very same realization happened to me some years ago. I was spending days, even weeks, on the road working hard to close bigger and bigger accounts for my sales position. One night on the road I was in my motel and received a call from my wife. She was reminding me to be home early the next day to attend my daughter's big play at her local junior high school.
There was just one problem. The next day was my chance to close a huge deal that I was working on for months. I was sideswiped when my prospect called me back that very night, before I talked with my wife. The client wanted to meet and I was in his area by chance working on another deal.
I couldn't pass it up. It meant earning an extra thousand dollars per month if I got this sale and I felt that my family was just too important to pass it up. I'm getting to the worst part now, and that is that I lied to my wife and daughter on the phone when I said that I would be there. I already knew that my work was going to come first by signing up this big account, but I didn't have it in me to tell them over the phone. I knew that I was going to sign the deal, make a lot of money, miss my daughter's big day, and then make up an excuse why I was not there.
Now considering that I was already doing very well and considered pretty successful at the time, that night was a very low point in all areas of my life. I realized then and there that I was putting aside what matters to me the most, my family. And they were loosing faith in me, not expecting me anymore, not caring, breaking away...
The next morning I woke up and realized that I wouldn't have been able to live with myself had I gone through with the appointment and missed my daughter's special event. Money cannot replace love and family. I phoned my appointment and totally expected this man to hang up on me and find another company to do business with. However, I told him the truth. I explained that my family needed me and that I understand if he wants to do his business elsewhere with someone that is more reliable.
That was the day that I made the right decision to put my work aside and be there for my family, and risk loosing the “big account” that I was after. Needless to say the business man that I had to cancel on respected what I had to say, and he even rescheduled the meeting. One week later I successfully signed the deal. Moral of the story? Put your family first, work hard in between, and success in all areas of your life will follow.
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