A long time ago – half my lifetime – someone once told me, “Success is a matter of being in the right place at the right time. In order to do that, you have to be everywhere at once.” This guy was an acting coach in New York City. If anybody knew about the vagaries of a dog-eat-dog world, it was he.
Doesn’t that just make sense, though? You and I have heard it before. “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” Same thing. You’ve got to lay your foundation for success, hold the vision aloft, even when it seems freakin’ impossible for your dreams to become real – even when the people you like or admire are telling you you’ll never attain what you seek. You’ve simply got to keep moving in the direction of your goals. Failure must not be an option.
I’ve had my share of folks putting me down, attempting to discourage me, telling me what I’m seeking in my online world is unattainable, friends patronizing me, ribbing me for working so hard and even calling me a workaholic. Anyone living in the world of black and white finds it damn near impossible to understand the passion compelled by living color.
I’ve always been a hard worker, mostly because I respect the notion that is Work. It’s noble, even divine. It’s what we’re here for – to put our God-given talents to use for the betterment of ourselves and society. I’ve been in the World of Work for a long time, mostly in media and marketing of some type. I began my online career offline – by ghostwriting a book for a track-tested expert on traffic conversion, giving me a boost that few other newbies enjoy. I’ve devoted almost every waking moment to the topic of e-commerce since then.
For just over two years, I’ve been devouring everything I can get my hands on about e-commerce. I get literally thousands upon thousands of e-mails a month from posturing promoters, feeble newbies and suave gurus. I subscribe to their pitches just so I can analyze their campaigns. I download their freebies so I can whoosh through their profit funnels like a ride at a water park. I’m the only person I know who devours her spam folder as a cautionary exercise, just because I find it juicy and diverting. All of this frothing activity has led me down the road of preparation farther than anyone thought possible. What’s that whispering rush up ahead?
I now have over a hundred URLs under my loving care and development, along with a dozen blogs. I am truly an online socialite, joining and exploring as many networks as I can realistically keep current with. In the twilight of my dreams, I hear the chatter on Twitter and it rousts me. I wake up with inspired new ad campaigns, ideas for blog posts and altruistic marketing tactics motivated by the betterment of our crazy, lazy, wonderful society. I am everywhere at once.
All of this knowledge and activity seemed for a time to be a vague form of busy-ness until a month ago. I was heading somewhere – that whispering rush just ahead had grown louder, hinting on the verge of a dull roar. At first I thought it was a cheering crowd. Others told me I was heading over the falls. A month ago I was presented with an precedented opportunity. The chance to join and promote the Blastoff Network , the Internet’s hottest new social network, was planted firmly, squarely, unavoidably in my path. At the same time events conspired in my daily life to place all my e-commerce activities on hold. For a week, the only thing I could work on was promoting the launch of the Blastoff Network. No other option was available.
Fast forward 30 days. My traffic efforts – honedf or 2 years by hurtling myself into the realm of e-commerce – have propelled my online promotions into the fast lane. Blastoff Network had 100,000 members even before pre-launch, giving me a load of stiff competition. Heavy hitters in the corporate world are poised to make Blastoff a household name by next month. And yet my own path was made clear. I knew what I had to do. At last my own gut wrenching, restless, impassioned, frothing preparation has met opportunity. Can you hear that? What’s that deafening roar? …It’s the traffic of the freeway.
