Sara Blakely - Lose yourself and win the game

How Sara Blakely lost her way to a billion dollars: 8 years ago Sara lost in the finale of Richard Branson’s reality TV show “Rebel Billionaire”. The loss was one of many that turned Sara into the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire...

Sara’s entire life has been about failure. She says “My dad encouraged us to fail. Growing up, he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn't have something, he would be disappointed. It changed my mindset at an early age that failure is not the outcome, failure is not trying. Don't be afraid to fail.”

In the 1990s Sara became an expert in failure by selling fax machines (remember those?) and was often so terrified of meeting prospects she would burst into tears and drive around the block to calm down before her sales calls.

Overheating from the stress of it, she decided to cut the feet off her pantyhose to cool down. That was her ‘aha’ moment. As she says “When I cut the feet out of my pantyhose that one time, I saw it as my sign.” She decided to start a business to sell the footless pantyhose in 1998 with just $5,000 - all of her savings - and called the company “Spanx”.

Did the failure stop then? No - “When I invented Spanx I heard 'no' for two years. It didn't faze me. I didn't have a special ability, it was sheer drive and telling myself to keep going.”

FAILING BIG

Working from her kitchen, she made a push for publicity, which simply means your failure becomes more public. For example, her experience with the English: “On the BBC, I was asked what Spanx could do for women in the U.K. I said, 'It smoothes and separates your fanny.' The interviewer looked mortified. I had no idea what was going on, so I kept rambling on about fannies until he stopped me and said, 'I think you mean bum.' The word fanny means vagina in England.”

Her publicity led her to Oprah and Richard Branson’s “Rebel Billionaire” in 2005. She ended up losing that too, but the show gave her a chance to realise what she really wanted to do with her future success - Start a charity for women. Branson gave her $750,000 to start her charity, the Sarah Blakely Foundation, to support women leaders.

What happens when your failure rate goes up? Your luck rate goes up too.

To face her failures, Sara had luck on her back - literally!

“I found my lucky red backpack from college in my mom's attic and became determined that it was going to change my path for Spanx because I kept hearing no, no, no. It went with me every step of the way, to the point of being made fun of because I went to Neiman Marcus headquarters with this old backpack as my presentation bag. Now, with the Sarah Blakely Foundation, every woman we send to college or help start a business receives a lucky red backpack. They're usually more excited about that than the money, which I totally get. The backpack is a symbol of their potential.”

THE BIGGEST RISK

This year Sara Blakely became the youngest female Billionaire in the world, with Spanx generating over $250 million in annual revenue. Sara puts this down to her sheer determination:

"The biggest risk in life is not risking. Every risk you take in life is in direct proportion to the reward. If I'm afraid of something, it's the next thing I have to go do. That's just the way I've been."

What are your big dreams? Where are your greatest risks?

Get your own lucky charm on your back, cut off the feet of whatever is holding you back, turn on the music and take the path that Sara took.

Today, 41 year-old Sara makes many speeches to inspire other entrepreneurs, and even the song she uses to get in her zone is the anthem to failure. As she says - “Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' is my go-to song to pump myself up if I'm having a tough time or if I get really nervous right before a speech.”

Now that she’s a billionare, her mission is “World Butt Domination” through Spanx and supporting women through her foundation, which has donated $17.5 million to charities supporting girls and women in South Africa.

Her failure has meant her wealth has come with humility, which is a different kind of wealth: “I feel like money makes you more of who you already are. If you’re an a**hole, you become a bigger a**hole. If you’re nice, you become nicer. Money is fun to make, fun to spend and fun to give away.”

Use Sara's story to inspire your day: Lose yourself and win the game

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

I ask mentors what they thought the most important key to success was. They all had different opinions. Then one gave me the very best answer. He said "All the most successful people have many differences, but they only have one thing in common. They never gave up. The ones who gave up you don't see. You only see the ones who never gave up. So as long as you never give up, no matter what, you'll be fine."


"Winners never quit and quitters never win." - Vince Lombardi

Carlo Feliciano (freelancer)

 " how-i-started-my-freelance-career-with-zero-experience-in-my-field " - Carlo.

Advice by Carlo : "I decided to start my freelance copywriting career months ago, one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome was my lack of experience in the field I wanted to get into.

I decided to explore the idea of freelancing when several people from the office complimented my writing one after the other. My problem was that I had no idea what I wanted to do exactly. Yes, it was going to involve writing of some sorts. I discovered I had a knack for words (my boss even trusted me to write a press release about a new product we were launching — not bad for someone 6 months out of university!) but I had never been specifically hired and paid by others just to “write stuff.”

The biggest question running in my head was: who the hell was I to be charging people for a bunch of words I put together?

Luckily, I managed to push through that hump. Within a month or so, I went from being clueless about freelance copywriting to consulting with my first client over Skype."

If I were to summarize what I learned during that period, I would narrow everything down to these 5 steps:

1. Learn

Let’s face it — no matter what field you’re in, you won’t be able to get anywhere with your career if you don’t actually have any idea what you’re doing.

Although I never thought I’d do this again after college, I got my hands on books about copywriting and studied. I pumped as much material as I could into my brain about the topic. I trolled Amazon and hunted down the respected and credible books about the field. I bought them and read them during my free time. I subscribed to blogs, and most importantly, I practiced my craft.

Not enough free time, you say? I didn’t have much either (I work a full-time job, and maintain a long-distance relationship). I can’t read while I’m on the bus without getting dizzy, so I got my hands on a seminar conducted by a well-known copywriter. I took the audio and put it on my MP3 player. I listened during my commute and took my Zune to lunch. Voila; I just had 2-3 hours of study time everyday.

You might think you’re pretty good at what you do, and you know what? I believe you. But you’re not perfect. Every one of us can use more knowledge and improvement with our skills. Don’t sell yourself short by choosing not to learn.

2. Research

We all know the importance of differentiation, and I’m a huge advocate of marketing something unique about your business. Copywriters are a dime a dozen — it wouldn’t be good business sense to call myself a freelance copywriter and hope that clients came in droves.

How did I find my way around this? As I mentioned in the previous point, I studied. In addition to buying books and actually reading them, I went to tons of copywriter’s websites and took detailed notes. I noted what services they were offering and how they were selling it. I paid attention to their website style and how they presented themselves online. I wanted to know their strengths, and more importantly their weaknesses, so I could make an educated decision on how to position myself against them.

At the end of it all, I decided to focus my services on website copywriting. My goal is to be the guy you run to when you need your website to sell your products and services. Instead of generalizing my services to include everybody, I decided to narrow down the field and focus on what my competitors weren’t offering. Being someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience, not having a lot of people to be compared with works to my advantage.

You can always add more services as you become more established. Don’t worry about offering everything plus the kitchen sink right now. Besides, expanding your business is always a lot better than “downsizing” it.

3. Build

Some might say that building a website isn’t necessary. I’m sure there’s a success story or two out there by freelancers who until this day don’t have a website. And they may be right; if you have a large enough network offline, then you probably don’t need a website to start your freelancing career.

But I didn’t have a business network to leverage. I was completely green (and still am in some ways) and NEEDED a website to advertise my services; otherwise nobody would know I existed. I registered my domain name, signed up for a year’s worth of hosting, and slapped a customized WordPress template on it. I managed to find one that suited my needs (I didn’t want it to look like a blog, but I wanted an easy content management system). Plus, with all the research I did on my competition, I knew exactly what to write on my website so I could stand out.

Although I am up for bootstrapping when starting out, one thing I would recommend is to outsource as much of your website as you can. I’m not a web designer by any means, so I probably spent 3 to 4 times longer than I would have if I simply left the coding to a professional.

4. Spread

While most freelancers hate marketing, this is the part I enjoyed the most. I love coming up with a marketing plan and executing it. It is critical that you spread the word about your new business. You never know who you will run into, so don’t be shy about talking up your business.

You don’t have to market your services to businesses alone. One alternative that not a lot of freelancers think of is partnering up with other freelancers. Programmers need designers, designers need copywriters, copywriters need illustrators, etc.

Talk to the people you know and tell them about your new venture (one of my clients is actually a good friend starting his new business). Participate and forums and put your URL in your signature. If you’re comfortable, write an ebook and distribute it through social media. My first client was actually a referral from Shockboogiedesign who found me from the Freelance Switch forums. She contacted me, and we set up a partnership that works exceptionally well for both of us.

Ask yourself one thing: who would benefit from your services? Then figure out how you can use that to your advantage.

5. Act

Your ducks will never be all in a row, so you might as well get to it now. You will make mistakes along the way, and that’s fine. A Kennedy once said, “Only those who dare to fail can ever achieve greatly.” Airplanes don’t travel in one constant direction — the pilots have to adjust and correct their paths every now and then. Your freelancing career should act in the same way. Ready, fire, then aim.

Avoid the curse of daydreaming. I can’t count how much time I’ve wasted reading about freelancing as opposed to taking action and just doing it. Don’t get me wrong; knowing how to do it right is great. But many people should concern themselves more with actually just doing it, period. Blogs and ebooks are a fantastic learning resource, but be sure you dedicate enough time to taking action, as opposed to learning how to take action.

Conclusion

If you’re delaying starting a freelance career due to lack of experience, hopefully these tips helped you get your mind straight. Starting a freelance career is probably one of the most time-consuming activities I’ve ever done, but it’s also been one of the more rewarding ones too.

Facebook Story & About Mark

Facebook Story - very nicely illustrated 

CEO :

NAME : Mark Zuckerberg

OCCUPATION : Computer Programmer, Philanthropist

BIRTH DATE : May 14, 1984 (age 31)

EDUCATION : Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy

PLACE OF BIRTH : White Plains, New York

AKA : Mark Zuckerberg

FULL NAME : Mark Elliot Zuckerberg

Synopsis

Born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, Mark Zuckerberg co-founded the social-networking website Facebook out of his college dorm room. He left Harvard after his sophomore year to concentrate on the site, the user base of which has grown to more than 250 million people, making Zuckerberg a billionaire. The birth of Facebook was recently portrayed in the film The Social Network.

                                                                                    

Early Life

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, into a comfortable, well-educated family, and raised in the nearby village of Dobbs Ferry. His father, Edward Zuckerberg, ran a dental practice attached to the family's home. His mother, Karen, worked as a psychiatrist before the birth of the couple's four children—Mark, Randi, Donna and Arielle.

Zuckerberg developed an interest in computers at an early age; when he was about 12, he used Atari BASIC to create a messaging program he named "Zucknet." His father used the program in his dental office, so that the receptionist could inform him of a new patient without yelling across the room. The family also used Zucknet to communicate within the house. Together with his friends, he also created computer games just for fun. "I had a bunch of friends who were artists," he said. "They'd come over, draw stuff, and I'd build a game out of it."

To keep up with Mark's burgeoning interest in computers, his parents hired private computer tutor David Newman to come to the house once a week and work with Mark. Newman later told reporters that it was hard to stay ahead of the prodigy, who began taking graduate courses at nearby Mercy College around this same time.

Zuckerberg later studied at Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive preparatory school in New Hampshire. There he showed talent in fencing, becoming the captain of the school's team. He also excelled in literature, earning a diploma in classics. Yet Zuckerberg remained fascinated by computers, and continued to work on developing new programs. While still in high school, he created an early version of the music software Pandora, which he called Synapse. Several companies—including AOL and Microsoft—expressed an interest in buying the software, and hiring the teenager before graduation. He declined the offers.

ELON MUSK - 3

Be Like ELON :)

Food Masters

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola when he was 55 years old.

Ray Kroc bought McDonald’s when he was 59 years old.

Colonel Sanders began franchising KFC at 62 years old.

Tim & Nina Zagat were 51 yr old lawyers when they wrote the 1st Zagat guide.

Charles Darwin was 50 years old before he wrote “On the Origin of Species”.

Julia Child was also 50 years olf when she wrote her first cookbook.

Henry Ford was 45 years old when he created the Model T car.

Microfinance pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, launched the Grameen Bank at 43 years old.

Samuel L. Jackson was 43 years old before he had his first hit film, “Jungle Fever”.

It’s never too late to succeed.
It’s always too early to quit.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
~ C.S. Lewis

What do you and 31 year old billionaire Elizabeth Holmes have in common?

What do you and 31 year old billionaire Elizabeth Holmes have in common?

Right now, Elizabeth Holmes is under attack. Not by her customers or investors, but by the press and the US government. 

She started her company, Theranos, when she was 19. It’s now worth $9 billion and has made her the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. How? Because her company helps people check their blood easily in pharmacies at a fraction of the cost a hospital will charge.

Elizabeth’s a big threat to the medical industry because she’s openly saying “Health care is the leading cause of bankruptcy, and the lack of it is the leading cause of suffering.” If she succeeds in making blood tests cheap and easy, they lose control of your medical data and wallets. We take control.

So one thing has led to another, and in October the Wall Street Journal ran a mud-slinging piece on Elizabeth and her company, quoting 'unnamed sources' who say her tests aren’t all accurate. Now the rest of the press is on the bandwagon and Elizabeth is fighting back, saying “"We’ve seen two articles that were false, and immediately everyone reprints it as if it were true.”

Have you noticed all success stories have a big road bump in the middle, when the establishment or dark forces turn against the hero?

Are you in a similar situation where everything seems against you?

It’s happened to everyone from Bill Gates to Oprah Winfrey, from Mark Zuckerberg to Marissa Mayer, from Mahatma Ghandi to Mother Theresa, from Luke Skywalker to Katniss Everdeen.

Each have had a darkest hour, which has also become their defining moment.

It’s now happening to Elizabeth Holmes and maybe right now it's also happening to you or someone you know.

Mythologist and scholar, Joseph Campbell, calls it part of the “Hero’s Journey”. He showed that every culture told the story of the hero - how we must follow a journey with the same “Three Acts” to reach our true greatness:

In “Act 1 - The Departure” we follow the 'call to adventure'. We start a business, or take on a new challenge, which leads us into unfamiliar territory and internal struggles.

In “Act 2 - The Initiation” we meet the 'road of trials'. We are tested by external demons and dragons to see if we are up to the task. We need to be strong enough to stand tall and humble enough to seek the help of others.

This is where Elizabeth is right now. Most don’t make it through the road of trials, and give up. They never reach the prize - which is to rise above these obstacles to become the very best version of ourselves.

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” ~ Joseph Campbell

In “Act 3 - The Return” once we make it through the trials, comes resurrection and rebirth. We then return to where we began, with far greater power and wisdom to share with others.

This is all our journeys: It’s your journey. It’s my journey. We’re all in this together.

Get strength from the journeys of amazing entrepreneurs like Elizabeth’s. They’re unfolding in real time right in front of us. Keep hanging in their, and know you’re not alone.

8 favourite famous failures

8 favourite famous failures

Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was "too stupid to learn anything."

  
 
Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job as a television reporter and told she was "unfit for tv.”

Walt Disney was fired from his first newspaper job because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

Henry Ford went broke 5 times before finally creating the Ford Model T when he was 45 years old.

While first writing Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling’s mother died, her marriage failed, she had no job, was on welfare, was diagnosed with clinical depression and described herself being as "poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.” She kept writing anyway.

One of Elvis Presley’s first singing gigs was at the Grand Ole Opry, but he was fired after just one performance with the manager telling him, "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck.” He kept singing anyway.

Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, and that was to a friend. He kept painting anyway.

Famous philosopher Socrates’s original ideas at the time led him to be named "an immoral corrupter of youth" and he was sentenced to death. He kept talking anyway.

Each of these 8 famous examples show the difference between mindful vs mindless failure.

Mindless failure is when you keep failing without growing skills and self awareness. Mindful failure is when each failure gets you clearer about who you are, why you’re here, and how to do it better next time.

The key to mindful failure? Set up a rhythm of commitment, action, failure, learning, repeat - and keep persevering to create your own virtuous cycle maximizing failures that steer you and minimizing failures that sink you.

“The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success."

UBER - A Success Story

Here’s a tweet Travis Kalanick sent in January 2010. The reply from Ryan Graves happened 3 minutes later. That tweet was worth over a billion dollars.

January 2010 was the month Travis was doing a test run with 3 cars in New York for a mobile app that he and his friend, Garrett Camp, had just created.

They had decided it was time to start a company around the app and, needing to find a General Manager to run it, Travis took to Craigslist and Twitter looking for the right person.

Ryan’s reply to Travis came as he was looking for something new. He had some experience at GE, and had worked for Foursquare for a while for free after the company turned him down for a job. He was ready for a new opportunity - and took a chance with this tweet.

Travis replied back, they met, they hit it off, and Ryan joined Travis and Garrett on March 1st as their first hire.

With their new company started, the three of them then invited all their friends to demo the product and they officially launched in San Francisco just 3 months later on May 31st.

That was five years ago.

This week, the team that started with that tweet has built their company, Uber, into a company that is currently valued at over $60 billion (they just announced another funding round of $2 billion this week http://bit.ly/ubers-next-2-billion).

Today, Travis and Ryan are worth over $6 billion, and that tweet from Ryan (who today is Uber’s Head of Global Operations) began a journey which has made him a billionaire today as well.

How are you using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube today?

As a wall of content? As a broadcasting tool?

Or, like Travis and Ryan, as a way to find the resources, connections and opportunities you need when you need them?

Depending on how you use it, social media can make you feel apart from everyone, or one step to anyone.

It can overwhelm you, or empower you.

It can be a time waster, or a time saver.

“Never confuse motion with action.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

What do you need or who can you help today? It may just be a tweet away.

Of course, there is no promise that one connection or one tweet will result in you making a billion dollars or impacting a billion lives.

But there is no promise it won’t either.