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The Home Run vs The Single

LightHouse

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Also I'd like to add, and this post can also serve as an answer to the other post "Staying Motivated" -- I like to make very small goals for myself and then reward myself when I make them.

When you're trying to conquer what seems to be a monumental task, the only way to see yourself at the end of the long journey, is to break apart the process in little tiny bits, accomplish them 1-by-1, and recognize yourself for the achievement.

I recently started a new journey to writing a book. Yes, I'd like to sell a gazillion copies but that isn't my immediate goal. The goal is to finish it. I will reward myself when I do, regardless if I fail and sell only 1 vs 1,000,000. Then I move the goal to sell 10 copies. Then maybe 100.

With respect to this forum, my first goal was just to get it up and functioning. Wholla, a few days later and I did it. I smoked a cigar even though I had ZERO users. :smx1:

Then the goal became 10 users. Thanks to my disgruntled friends over at RDPD, they took initiative and participated. Thank you to those folks (Erin, Russ, bob, BioPhase, SteveO, Jesse, ATW, Kimber, GreatBear)

Then the goal was 50 users. A few weeks later it happened.

Then the goal was 100 users and 1,000 posts. I see we are almost there.

The point I'm trying to make is the road is long -- there are many signposts, pit stops, bathroom breaks, and refueling stations -- you can't make a cross-country journey all in 1 big sha-bang. You've gotta stop, refuel, and adjust course. Just make sure when ya stop, go to McDonalds and spoil yourself with a chocolate shake.

Recognize your achievements no matter how small. :smxG:


good points, might want to reword for that thread and post there for later reference and future vistitors/patrons.
 

camski

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When I first decided to pursue an entrepreneurial path, I wanted to make as much money as I could, as fast as I could. I was in essence always swinging for the fences for the home run. I wanted it all and I wanted it now. I was lways looking how I could make the quick buck.
MLM promised quick money, so I tried that. FAILURE! Someone approached me about something called gifting ( a typical pyramid scheme) so I tried that. FAILURE! I tried HYIP’s and thought I found the holy grail of making money. FAILURE! I bought the latest hot stocks (with absolutely no stock market knowledge). FAILURE! I tried MLM another couple of times. FAILURE!
I was swinging for the fences and always striking out. Then it hit me. Not every baseball player is a home run hitter. In fact most are not but yet many are very successful just hitting singles all the time. Off the field controversy aside, who has had more success hitting, Pete Rose or Barry Bonds? One is the all time home run leader while the other is the all time hit leader. Both achieved a tremendous amount of success, just through different methods.
I finally realized that I am not a home run hitter. Instead of always swinging for the fences and striking out all the time I needed to change my focus and just try to hit singles. Instead of trying to make big money quickly I needed to try and just make a little money. I needed to try and create my wealth a little at a time. I needed to just make something instead of always losing it on my get rich schemes.
Once I decided to change my methods things really started to come together. I started making money and then reinvesting it. My singles turned into doubles and sometimes even triples ( think compounding). I wasn’t hitting home runs but I was still getting around the bases. I wasn’t making a fortune but I was making money. I was tasting success, small drops of success but success all the same. Trust me though when I tell you that even drops of success taste much better than the buckets full of failure that I had tasted in the past.
So that is where I am at today. I am not financially free, yet. But I am much closer than I was just 3 short years ago. I no longer look for the get rich pill that I can just take and become wealthy overnight. I grind it out every day trying to improve on what I did yesterday. Don’t get me wrong I would love to be able to hit the home run and make the easy money but I am not swinging for it. I am just trying to round the bases one hit at a time.
 
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Peter2

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true, true.

The other big issue is that people give up too soon. The payoff doesn't come soon enough, and so they quit just before the success arrives.

It is funny how this happens - time and time again - it gets really hard just before a GIANT leap forward.

That is so true. In my first successful business I had at least four or five times the first year where I had maxed out all my credit cards and was practically out of business, only to one year later be taking $100,000 weekly pay checks. What if I would have given up early?????
 

MJ DeMarco

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Also I'd like to add, and this post can also serve as an answer to the other post "Staying Motivated" -- I like to make very small goals for myself and then reward myself when I make them.

When you're trying to conquer what seems to be a monumental task, the only way to see yourself at the end of the long journey, is to break apart the process in little tiny bits, accomplish them 1-by-1, and recognize yourself for the achievement.

I recently started a new journey to writing a book. Yes, I'd like to sell a gazillion copies but that isn't my immediate goal. The goal is to finish it. I will reward myself when I do, regardless if I fail and sell only 1 vs 1,000,000. Then I move the goal to sell 10 copies. Then maybe 100.

With respect to this forum, my first goal was just to get it up and functioning. Wholla, a few days later and I did it. I smoked a cigar even though I had ZERO users. :smx1:

Then the goal became 10 users. Thanks to my disgruntled friends over at RDPD, they took initiative and participated. Thank you to those folks (Erin, Russ, bob, BioPhase, SteveO, Jesse, ATW, Kimber, GreatBear)

Then the goal was 50 users. A few weeks later it happened.

Then the goal was 100 users and 1,000 posts. I see we are almost there.

The point I'm trying to make is the road is long -- there are many signposts, pit stops, bathroom breaks, and refueling stations -- you can't make a cross-country journey all in 1 big sha-bang. You've gotta stop, refuel, and adjust course. Just make sure when ya stop, go to McDonalds and spoil yourself with a chocolate shake.

Recognize your achievements no matter how small. :smxG:
 

Peter2

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All hits are good ... the big issue with most people is they don't get out of the dugout and play the game. If you don't step up to the plate (taking action outside of your freaking job) and SWING, you have no chance of success.

Swinging and striking out (Failure) is a part of the process.

Id rather go down swinging vs sitting around in the dugout hoping my turn, someday, will be called.
:iamwithstupid:
You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
 
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randallg99

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That is so true. In my first successful business I had at least four or five times the first year where I had maxed out all my credit cards and was practically out of business, only to one year later be taking $100,000 weekly pay checks. What if I would have given up early?????


the vast majority of the population gives up early and they justify their positions by cutting their losses and going back to school to become teachers so they can have good benefits. (or something like that... and, no disrespect to teachers)

those who bench early (lots of references to sports in this thread) probably forget exactly why they got into in the first place. They lost their passion, they lost focus on their goals, whether it was to be independent, or wealthy, or pursuing dream, or whatever... I cant imagine any entrepreneur going into any venture with the notion of quitting early, so something has to go awry everytime someone calls it quits.

Like Peter, I leveraged every resource I had and pushed myself beyond the threshold, financially, emotionally, financially, physically, financially, mentally, fina... that most people would not even consider doing, but desperate times call for desperate measures but in the end, and the one that prevails is the one that chanced it, or took the shot, or swung the bat...

I have a question, which I will post on a new thread.
 

Peter2

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Maybe you are not ment to be a baseball player. You could be an exceptional three point shooter. Maybe basketball is your game.:D

My point is that most successful people tried and failed in many ventures before they finally found the right one for them. If you keep stepping up to the plate, you will eventually hit a home run.
 

AroundTheWorld

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Will you QUIT or LEARN?

:iamwithstupid: yup - failure happens.

I am curious - how do you define "home run" ?

Because hitting a home run can be perceived as an overnight success....
it happened all at once...
picked up the bat one day....
decided to swing....
ball soared over the fence...
rags to riches....

Not true.

How long had JK Rowling been a writer before she published her first Harry Potter book? She didn't just pick up the pen out of the blue one day and create that series.

How long had our baseball boys been hitting a ball in the back yard? I'd guess since childhood.

The only way you REALLY fail
is if you QUIT
instead of LEARN

:smx4:
 

WheelsRCool

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Re: Will you QUIT or LEARN?

From my understanding of J.K. Rowling, she was on welfare and then did just oen day pen that first harry Potter book, but she had to send it to multiple publishers and be turned down a bunch of times before anyone would except her (man I bet all those editors or agents are kicking themselves to this day!!!).
 
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AroundTheWorld

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from wiki...

As a child, Rowling enjoyed writing fantasy stories, which she often read to her sister. "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it," she recalls, "Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee".[10]


On her website, she also talks about writing from an early age.

Her story about Harry may have come in an inspiration one day, but she was certainly a writer before that day.

Also - the idea came to her in 1990, and her first book was not complete until 1994. That is not an "overnight" success and she wasn't done yet.... she still had all those rejection letters to get through.
 

MJ DeMarco

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All hits are good ... the big issue with most people is they don't get out of the dugout and play the game. If you don't step up to the plate (taking action outside of your freaking job) and SWING, you have no chance of success.

Swinging and striking out (Failure) is a part of the process.

Id rather go down swinging vs sitting around in the dugout hoping my turn, someday, will be called.
 

AroundTheWorld

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the big issue with most people is they don't get out of the dugout and play the game.

true, true.

The other big issue is that people give up too soon. The payoff doesn't come soon enough, and so they quit just before the success arrives.

It is funny how this happens - time and time again - it gets really hard just before a GIANT leap forward.
 

camski

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I moreso am talking about overnight success, or instant wealth. It does happen although rarely, yet most people who frequent forums like RDPD are looking for that. I was. But I learned that most success is the result of long hours and hard work. And not only that but it is incremental and happens over time.
All I am saying is that if you go out thinking you are going to make a million overnight and easily (swinging for the fences) you are more apt to strike out rather than succeed and hit a home run. Rather if you go out determined to just make say $1000 a month ( a single) you are more apt to have some success that you can build upon.
 
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JesseO

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Good point, camski. I have a friend who's only ever swung for the fences. He comes up with some great plans, but I don't know if it's possible for them to pan out. For a while I thought he was gonna make it big in the music industry. Seriousness aside, maybe he should have looked up Peter2's Fastlane Funnies post :rofl: I agree with what you've posted here...everything happens gradually; not in a week or month.
 

MJ DeMarco

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That is so true. In my first successful business I had at least four or five times the first year where I had maxed out all my credit cards and was practically out of business, only to one year later be taking $100,000 weekly pay checks. What if I would have given up early?????

Still waiting for that Peter2 story to be posted so we all can relish. Even the winning the bodybuilding contest story will work. :rolleyes:
 
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Peter2

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Still waiting for that Peter2 story to be posted so we all can relish. Even the winning the bodybuilding contest story will work. :rolleyes:

I have been meaning to write a book called "The hole", because of all the times I had to dig myself out of a huge financial hole.
 

Rawr

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But don't stop and become complacent.

Always know what is the next step that you want to do (if you actually do know) and dont sit on your a$$ too long celebrating - at least that's how it's been for me so far in life.
 
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andviv

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I recently started a new journey to writing a book. Yes, I'd like to sell a gazillion copies but that isn't my immediate goal. The goal is to finish it. I will reward myself when I do, regardless if I fail and sell only 1 vs 1,000,000. Then I move the goal to sell 10 copies. Then maybe 100.

The good news is that at least the first 50 members of this forum will get the book for free, so I promise I will at least start reading it!!!!

:hurray::hurray:
 

snowbank

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Also I'd like to add, and this post can also serve as an answer to the other post "Staying Motivated" -- I like to make very small goals for myself and then reward myself when I make them.

When you're trying to conquer what seems to be a monumental task, the only way to see yourself at the end of the long journey, is to break apart the process in little tiny bits, accomplish them 1-by-1, and recognize yourself for the achievement.

I recently started a new journey to writing a book. Yes, I'd like to sell a gazillion copies but that isn't my immediate goal. The goal is to finish it. I will reward myself when I do, regardless if I fail and sell only 1 vs 1,000,000. Then I move the goal to sell 10 copies. Then maybe 100.

With respect to this forum, my first goal was just to get it up and functioning. Wholla, a few days later and I did it. I smoked a cigar even though I had ZERO users. :smx1:

Then the goal became 10 users. Thanks to my disgruntled friends over at RDPD, they took initiative and participated. Thank you to those folks (Erin, Russ, bob, BioPhase, SteveO, Jesse, ATW, Kimber, GreatBear)

Then the goal was 50 users. A few weeks later it happened.

Then the goal was 100 users and 1,000 posts. I see we are almost there.

The point I'm trying to make is the road is long -- there are many signposts, pit stops, bathroom breaks, and refueling stations -- you can't make a cross-country journey all in 1 big sha-bang. You've gotta stop, refuel, and adjust course. Just make sure when ya stop, go to McDonalds and spoil yourself with a chocolate shake.

Recognize your achievements no matter how small. :smxG:

this is such a good post. i often want to get from point A to Z by tomorrow, and sometimes lose some motivation when i don't. trying to get better at this.
 

djs13

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I'm not really all that sure that swinging for the fences is a bad thing. For example, I'm currently working on one venture that has huge growth potential. But I've also had a few other e-biz ideas that were very small and didn't allow for a profit. I was thinking about building a site that would take many months just to payoff the web design fees but ultimately put that on hold.

I sometimes catch myself getting ahead of the game. My biggest goal right now is to create a business that profits by the time i get out of college (which is in about four years). I'd like to be able to jump into both real estate investing and other start ups and not have to worry about a job to finances both of these after college. I guess my biggest fear right now is time.
 

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