I think bumper stickers are the modern versions of Chinese proverbs. When I see a parked car covered with them, I get butterflies in my stomach. I just stand and stare at the car, taking it all in. I saw this “car of proverbs” in Woodstock, VT while vacationing with my family.
Risk is the only rule.
So true. Successful people get it. Risk means breaking out of your comfort zone. It means discovering new things. It means discovering a new you. It means growth. It means no regrets. That’s success. Risk is the only rule.
Thanks for the daily encouragement Mike! Your blogs and books are a constant help to me. At first taking a RISK and focusing on doing only what I was good at was really tough. I lost a lot of clients, but now that I am focused and doing my daily “Pumpkin Farming” the new customers are coming in and they LOVE my business! I can not thank you enough!
THAT…. IS…. AWESOME!!! Congratulations on your courage and commitment. I am very impressed. I would love if you could share what the transition was like, what the loss of clients was client, and how you stuck with it.
I was working for another company and had a list of 36 clients that I worked with. I had some issues with how things were being run at my previous employer and when I spoke up about some things that I thought were going wrong, I was promptly asked to leave.
After leaving I started my own company, I called all my clients and told them I was starting my on business. Only 1 client followed me. It was devastating! I was really depressed about it, but then I sat down and really thought about it. The one client who followed me was the one client that I felt everything was going 100% right with. The other 35 were the reason I complained to my previous employer. So… I SHREDDED my client list… Literally shredded it. I can not tell you how good that felt! In two short months I have grown from 1 superstar client (focusing on their needs) to 10 superstar clients. I focused on what I was best at and only do business with people who have the same goals as me. I even raised my rates. And I am definitely not afraid to say NO to clients who are not 100% on board with my ideas. I am not afraid to say NO to special requests that are outside my area of focus. Life is so much easier with focus.
Focus Focus Focus… That is my #1 word now. I FOCUS on the one thing I do best. I FOCUS on my clients who have the same FOCUS as me. I am now in a WIN WIN situation with all my clients.
I am not yet an entrepreneur because I am still doing all the work 🙂 But I know that I am well on my way. With my new found free time I am able to FOCUS on building a system and mark specific mile markers in my business so I know exactly when to bring on another staff member.
Pumpkin Planning really does work in ANY business field. I would add that there are 70-80 alternatives to what I do within a 5 minute walk, but people are coming here because I do the one thing I do very very well. Thanks for the encouragement Mike. Keep doing the thing you do very very well!
Holy smokes… that took courage. Ironically (or not so), when I started my first business, I too only had a few clients follow me. I thought they all would. Plus (and legitimately so) my former employer sued me for taking any clients – I didn’t know you couldn’t do that. So I started from scratch. It is scary, but it is the right thing to do and you can build your client base exactly how you want to do it.
Wow, I did not know that you could be sued for taking clients either. Fortunately, that was not the case with me. My old employer did however try to block us from opening and lied to the remaining clients (and our local regulating body) as to why I left. I probably had a good case to sue for libel, but after reading your blog “Avoid Envy at all costs” and the TPE I knew it was better to forgive/forget and the only thing I needed to FOCUS on was moving forward. (That is when the shredding of the client list happened) I could have focused on suing my former employer, but what good would that have done? It is infinitely better to take the risk start and start from scratch. I would encourage anyone who has not taken the leap of faith yet to do it. It really does work!
I could not agree more. The only way we know if something works or not is to take risks. One can never be fully successful if they do not get out of their comfort zone.