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Death Defying Feats!!!
by Mike Valentine
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Running any successful business online or off can be like
a tightrope walk of balance and poise. It takes practiced
moves to appear graceful and skilled walking that thin line
with little room for error or slip-ups. It's no simple task
to keep your attention focused on your goal and take the
next careful step toward it without becoming distracted by
the three ring circus going on all around us!
Metaphors like this can be helpful to illustrate the point
I'd like to make this week. Success can be unsettling when
you are making progress toward your goal. This week was like
that at WebSite101. My offline business brought me several
unexpected successes that distracted my attention from this
newsletter and handling other online tasks. I felt as though
I were juggling in the ring below at the same time I was
walking that tightrope overhead.
Then, as I was basking in the glowing positive appraisals
from my clients, I let my attention wander from the online
work just long enough to slip and lose my balance for a
moment on the tightrope! An article that you have already
seen here in the "Reading List" was re-published in a much
larger e-zine called the "Internet Gazette" with a circula-
tion of over 100,000 readers. That success brought with it
a jump in circulation to this newsletter and a surge in
online business that I was unprepared for while so involved
in my offline business.
While all of the things causing me to lose my balance were
positive, the result was the same. Inattention causes slips
and slips can lead to falls if you cannot regain your poise
and keep your mind on reaching the other end of the tight-
rope! I stumbled with a couple of online clients and let a
big job get almost overwhelming but somehow kept my footing.
The adrenalin rush was caused by fear of losing it all in a
quick fall but turned into exhilaration when I regained my
balance!
I am thrilled with the successes but at the same time I'm
startled at how they can be almost as unsettling as complete
failures when focus and attention are so critical to staying
balanced! Maybe I'll learn to juggle while on the tightrope
so that my offline and online lives are at least on the
same rope and not in different rings of this circus.
At least I know while online, I don't need to put my head
in a lions mouth, pull a rabbit out of my hat or ride white
horses bareback in silk tights! Just keep my balance and
juggle!
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WebSite101 "Reading List" Weekly Netrepreneur Tip Sheet
Weekly Ezine emphasizing small business on the Internet
http://website101.com/arch/
e-tutorial online at:http://website101.com/shortcourse.html
By week's end you're ready expand your business to the web!
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