Comments on: Freelancing Success In One Word http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/freelancing-success-in-one-word/ It's Your Freelance Career - Make it Rich! Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:27:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Ed Gandia, Editor http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/freelancing-success-in-one-word/comment-page-1/#comment-962 Ed Gandia, Editor Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:15:23 +0000 http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/?p=644#comment-962 M Smith - I couldn't agree more that entrepreneurs and solo professionals are key drivers of economic growth and prosperity. Here in the U.S., we don't treat this group very well. We slap them with a tremendous amount of needless regulation, paperwork and other obstacles. We tax the crap out of them. And we make it hard for them to grow. It's the sheer will and determination of many of these self-reliant people that keeps them moving, despite all the obstacles. But I'd still love to see more education in this country (and everywhere, for that matter) about entrepreneurship and business in general. Why our schools don't make such classes mandatory (or even offer them as electives) is beyond me! If more people understood entrepreneurship, free enterprise and how a business works, we would create even more prosperity for all. But I digress... ;-) M Smith – I couldn’t agree more that entrepreneurs and solo professionals are key drivers of economic growth and prosperity. Here in the U.S., we don’t treat this group very well. We slap them with a tremendous amount of needless regulation, paperwork and other obstacles. We tax the crap out of them. And we make it hard for them to grow. It’s the sheer will and determination of many of these self-reliant people that keeps them moving, despite all the obstacles.

But I’d still love to see more education in this country (and everywhere, for that matter) about entrepreneurship and business in general. Why our schools don’t make such classes mandatory (or even offer them as electives) is beyond me! If more people understood entrepreneurship, free enterprise and how a business works, we would create even more prosperity for all.

But I digress… ;-)

]]> By: M Smith http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/freelancing-success-in-one-word/comment-page-1/#comment-961 M Smith Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:49:50 +0000 http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/?p=644#comment-961 Interesting article. Commitment truly is THE word, THE mantra for freelancers. Aside from that, there's an article that states that the economic success of even a country (the UK) is brought about by entrepreneurs and self-employed freelancers : http://freelancesupermarket.com/news/2009/10/30/freelancers-are-the-key-to-economic-success.aspx :) Interesting article. Commitment truly is THE word, THE mantra for freelancers.

Aside from that, there’s an article that states that the economic success of even a country (the UK) is brought about by entrepreneurs and self-employed freelancers : http://freelancesupermarket.com/news/2009/10/30/freelancers-are-the-key-to-economic-success.aspx :)

]]> By: Pete Savage, Editor http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/freelancing-success-in-one-word/comment-page-1/#comment-960 Pete Savage, Editor Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:47:09 +0000 http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/?p=644#comment-960 @judith - Thanks for pointing out that commitment is an ongoing thing. Like a diet, like a relationship... these things take ongoing effort and energy. Avoiding the temptation to falter (or quickly getting back on track when we do) is key! @victoria - Great story. One of those "unexplainables" where you do something over here, and you get an outcome over there. Commitment is commitment, sooner or later (in your case, sooner!) you reap the rewards. I'm glad you mentioned the Copywriting Summit because I had wanted to use that as an example of commitment when writing the blog article but it (the article) was getting too long as it was! I was a presenter at that conference and I was thoroughly impressed at the commitment I saw while the conference was happening. Attendees were active in the forum... asking questions of presenters to clarify points so they could GET GOING right away on the things they were learning. That's commitment on two levels: 1) those attendees forked out, I think around $300 or more to attend the event and 2), they were propelling themselves forward with the learning, applying what they were discovering. I think point 1) begets point 2). Investing money in your development changes things. Makes you have some skin in the game. My business took off like a rocket after I paid Chris Marlow $3000 to coach me. Was her coaching program some sort of magic? Of course not. It certainly was a great program, but it was equally MY sweat, energy and commitment that propelled me forward. Making a huge investment (all of it on my credit card at the time, by the way :) ) demonstrated -- to ME -- that I was committed. And that changed everything. So...kudos to everyone who attended that event and to everyone who has ever shelled out their own money (or plastic... been there) as part of their ongoing commitment to succeed... whether you invest $3000 in coaching, $300 for an event, or $15 for a book, each of those gestures is a major signal to yourself that you're committed to orchestrating your success. @judith – Thanks for pointing out that commitment is an ongoing thing. Like a diet, like a relationship… these things take ongoing effort and energy. Avoiding the temptation to falter (or quickly getting back on track when we do) is key!

@victoria – Great story. One of those “unexplainables” where you do something over here, and you get an outcome over there. Commitment is commitment, sooner or later (in your case, sooner!) you reap the rewards. I’m glad you mentioned the Copywriting Summit because I had wanted to use that as an example of commitment when writing the blog article but it (the article) was getting too long as it was!

I was a presenter at that conference and I was thoroughly impressed at the commitment I saw while the conference was happening. Attendees were active in the forum… asking questions of presenters to clarify points so they could GET GOING right away on the things they were learning.

That’s commitment on two levels: 1) those attendees forked out, I think around $300 or more to attend the event and 2), they were propelling themselves forward with the learning, applying what they were discovering. I think point 1) begets point 2). Investing money in your development changes things. Makes you have some skin in the game. My business took off like a rocket after I paid Chris Marlow $3000 to coach me. Was her coaching program some sort of magic? Of course not. It certainly was a great program, but it was equally MY sweat, energy and commitment that propelled me forward. Making a huge investment (all of it on my credit card at the time, by the way :) ) demonstrated — to ME — that I was committed. And that changed everything.

So…kudos to everyone who attended that event and to everyone who has ever shelled out their own money (or plastic… been there) as part of their ongoing commitment to succeed… whether you invest $3000 in coaching, $300 for an event, or $15 for a book, each of those gestures is a major signal to yourself that you’re committed to orchestrating your success.

]]> By: Victoria Ipri http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/freelancing-success-in-one-word/comment-page-1/#comment-959 Victoria Ipri Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:38:03 +0000 http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/?p=644#comment-959 Excellent article, Pete. And very timely. Yesterday, I finished up the last of my projects and today...POOF!...I suddenly realized I had nothing new on the board. This is unusual for me, but I had a recent death in the family and was trying to keep working during that chaos...bottom line is I dropped the ball on marketing my services. Hey, it happens. So I did what any committed freelancer does - I panicked! Then I grabbed ahold of myself and said, "OK, you can either start prospecting, or spend this "free" time on other areas you've been neglecting." I chose the latter. In fact, I chose to reinforce lessons learned from The Copywriting Summit by going over a few of the presentations again and taking better notes. I also caught up on a ton of emails and did some social media stuff. Lo and behold, the phone starting ringing, the emails started flowing, and by mid-afternoon, my project board was filling up. Eureka! The moral of this story: Commit to something! But never let yourself do nothing. I could have given up, parked myself on the couch, gone shopping, cleaned the house...anything. But I chose to continue working, and those good 'commitment' vibes rewarded me big time. Excellent article, Pete. And very timely. Yesterday, I finished up the last of my projects and today…POOF!…I suddenly realized I had nothing new on the board. This is unusual for me, but I had a recent death in the family and was trying to keep working during that chaos…bottom line is I dropped the ball on marketing my services. Hey, it happens. So I did what any committed freelancer does – I panicked! Then I grabbed ahold of myself and said, “OK, you can either start prospecting, or spend this “free” time on other areas you’ve been neglecting.” I chose the latter. In fact, I chose to reinforce lessons learned from The Copywriting Summit by going over a few of the presentations again and taking better notes. I also caught up on a ton of emails and did some social media stuff. Lo and behold, the phone starting ringing, the emails started flowing, and by mid-afternoon, my project board was filling up. Eureka!

The moral of this story: Commit to something! But never let yourself do nothing. I could have given up, parked myself on the couch, gone shopping, cleaned the house…anything. But I chose to continue working, and those good ‘commitment’ vibes rewarded me big time.

]]> By: Judith Laik http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/freelancing-success-in-one-word/comment-page-1/#comment-958 Judith Laik Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:00:01 +0000 http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/?p=644#comment-958 The thing about commitment that trips up a lot of people is that it isn't a one-time decision and then you're done with it. The temptation to falter comes up over and over, and you must recommit every time until you've achieved that goal. To use the commitment to lose weight for an example, though it could be any goal, someone is sure to shove a plate of candy in your face and say "have one." And your temptation in that moment is to think "maybe just one little one won't hurt." But you have to say, "no thanks." Most people resist change--it's scary and it's hard and it's just so much easier to stay in their comfortable little rut. An inspirational article, Pete. I just came to your blog for the first time and downloaded your free kit. Thanks for offering it! I'll be back to visit often The thing about commitment that trips up a lot of people is that it isn’t a one-time decision and then you’re done with it. The temptation to falter comes up over and over, and you must recommit every time until you’ve achieved that goal. To use the commitment to lose weight for an example, though it could be any goal, someone is sure to shove a plate of candy in your face and say “have one.” And your temptation in that moment is to think “maybe just one little one won’t hurt.” But you have to say, “no thanks.” Most people resist change–it’s scary and it’s hard and it’s just so much easier to stay in their comfortable little rut.

An inspirational article, Pete. I just came to your blog for the first time and downloaded your free kit. Thanks for offering it! I’ll be back to visit often

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