How To Be Successful By Not Following The 7 Steps To Success

It’s A Good Time To Be A Comic Book Geek

The Batman/Superman trailer is out and that’s one of the things that got us going today. It looks awesome, not to mention that it seems like there’s going to be a great story arc.

My long time friend Jay Acey is a super comic book geek who attends ComiCon in full costume. In fact he recently won a best-of designation from Rotten Tomatoes.

And another series, the Suicide Squad, has Jared Leto playing a brilliant version of the Joker.

Looks like we’ve got some movies in our future.

We Add A New SuperFred Title

Last week we got a disgruntled message from my brother in law Kevin who wondered why he didn’t get to be named Chief Executive Pride Officer. Rather than battle it out in the Thunderdome, Kevin agreed to a compromise:

Tammie Rampley could keep the title Chief Executive Pride Officer if he got to be the official Chief Executive Mixologist of the Web.Search.Social Podcast.

Since we’re pro-anything cocktail, we agree, even though we still think a battle for the title would have been fabulous.

Are You Watching Whiteboard Fridays?

Friend of the show Mark Traphagen and his business partner Eric Enge just did two back to back Whiteboard Fridays. They’re hosted by MOZ, an authority in the world of SEO and they have some great (and very understandable) info about SEO.

If you’re not watching them already, they’re worth adding to your list.

A Very Special Tuesday In July

At 7:49AM Eastern U.S. time on Tuesday July 14^th, the craft New Horizons will be traveling the closest anyone has ever been to Pluto. The next 10 hours will be the culmination of nearly 10 years traveling just to get there.

When you think about the vastness of space and the “bigness” of the world and universe, it can help put things in perspective. Sometimes we get caught up in the minutia of our daily lives – that Twitter follower we lost or that ad that tanked – and when we look at it against something as big as the universe, those other things start to seem a lot less huge.

When you’re caught up in the day to day drama of your Internet life, reminding yourself that there are things much bigger and with much more magnitude than whether or not your blog post was retweeted, can really help put things in perspective.

And thinking about how the people involved in the Pluto mission have dedicated ten years of their lives – some of them their whole lives – to having a few hours near Pluto, is incredibly inspiring.

The 5 Or 10 Or 12 Steps To Being A Successful Entrepreneur

There is an endless supply of articles telling you what the “most successful” people do. According to many of these, successful people get up early. But not 6AM early – like 4AM when some people are first getting to bed early.

Carol Lynn says that she is not a morning person. She gets most of her work done late afternoon and evening. So to try to fit into that box would not be productive or enjoyable for her. Maybe you can relate.

Lots of these articles say that successful people meditate. But do they meditate to become successful or do they meditate because they already are successful and now have the luxury of taking on those types of activities?

The problem is that these articles may be good at telling you what other successful people do but they are not a formula for you to follow. There is no magic entrepreneurial plan that starts with “get up early” progresses through “meditate” or any series of steps and ends with “and be successful.”

Kevin O’Leary Says There Is No Such Thing As Work Life Balance

Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank recently spoke at a conference attended by a colleague of ours and he was asked about how to achieve work life balance.

His answer was refreshingly uninspiring. He said, simply, that if you’re starting a business there is no such thing as work life balance. If you love what you do and you want to grow your business so you can have financial success and freedom later, you need to be willing to work hard for two or three or ten years to make that happen.

We’ve been there. Sometimes we’re able to take off Fridays and go to the movies. Other times we have to give up weekends and decline invitations to things that might be more fun than work. But we do it because we have a passion to grow our business.

What Does Success Mean To You?

It’s impossible to tell people how to achieve success when we can’t possibly define success for anyone but ourselves.

For one person, running a business day to day is success. For another, building a startup and getting investors is success. Some people are big on material success – big houses, nice cars. Other people want the fame. Still others want neither and are happy just to work a good day.

Nobody is right or wrong. You have to decide what success means for you then figure out what helps you get there, no matter how many articles tell you to “get up early.”

Your Marketing Action Item

From Carol Lynn: Turn off your computer, phone and all digital devices and read a book. Not a business or marketing book. Not on a Kindle or an iPad. An actual book made of paper. If you don’t want to buy one, you must have one somewhere in your house, even if it’s a children’s book. Read it! Don’t touch your phone. I know you want to, but take some time even, if it’s only ten minutes at a time, to take your mind away from the minutia of business and marketing to think about something else, something bigger, something outside your bubble. Too much focus on work is scientifically proven to make you less creative and less productive. What are you reading? Leave a comment below and let us know!

From Ralph: Make a plan for your entrepreneurial journey. First, make a list of the things that make you most productive. It could be getting on the treadmill or working in a certain coffee shop. Then make a list of the things that make you unproductive. For example, you may love coffee but if you’re too amped up after three cups to concentrate, cut it down. Get rid of the people in your life who don’t elevate you. Then do more of the things that make you productive and less of the things that don’t. Remember, only you can define what success means to you.

Links & Resources

• Watch Mark Traphagen’s Whiteboard Friday Becoming Better SEO Scientists
• Watch Eric Enge’s Whiteboard Friday UX, Content Quality, and SEO
• Watch the interview with Kevin O’Leary where he talks about the impossibility of work life balance
• Watch The Year of Pluto – New Horizons Documentary Brings Humanity Closer to the Edge of the Solar System and imagine something much bigger than yourself
• See a zombified Jay Acey at the San Diego ComiCon
• See Jay’s best-of mention by Rotten Tomatoes

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