From my perspective and my own life’s experiences, there is only one thing that separates those that achieve great things from those that don’t; those that achieve take action, and the ones that don’t only dream.
My own life forever changed because of an action I took when I was only 12 years old. I walked into a business and asked for a job. When they declined, I didn’t take no for an answer and offered to work for free. They saw my chutzpah then and accepted. The trajectory of my life changed from that one moment as I’d stay with that company for the next 8 years, and it would be the reason I left home and changed cities, and exposed myself to new experiences. I also gained 8 years of business apprenticeship.
In my early 20s I saw a need I could fill by importing vinyl records for DJs from the UK to resell to Canadian and Americans. I called the phone numbers I saw printed on records and asked if I could buy from them. I created an early (mid-1990s) ecommerce website to sell the records, when that was all new technology.
I sent demo tapes out to record labels in the United States, even though I wasn’t a professional DJ with any experience. I signed a record deal immediately because I took that shot and was the right person in the right place at the right time. It wouldn’t have happened if I had not taken action. None of my peers at the time thought to try.
Years later, when I found my DJ career hindered by getting myself banned from entering the US for working without a visa, I took action once again to leave all that behind and start something else – comedy stage hypnosis.
I took action by pitching a local morning TV show, even though I had never performed hypnosis. They immediately booked me simply because I told them I would be a great guest. And I was.
I walked into a downtown Toronto bar and told them “I’m a hypnotist” and would like to do a show at their bar. As simple as that, and it was extremely scary.
I booked myself on a cross-Canada tour for hypnosis shows, mostly at high schools. I booked 10 high schools before I had even performed at one. There was a single school that I was talking to that asked for references. I had to sheepishly tell them I had none. That was embarrassing and they didn’t book me. It didn’t stop me from booking the 10 others who didn’t ask.
Later, when I co-founded and created all the technology for my webinar business, it was launched only 3 months from when I started work on it. This type of development now would be called “lean”, to create a “minimal viable product” and see how the market reacts. I didn’t know any of that then, I simply did it, and it made money right away.
I can clearly see the strand that ties all of those events together. I just did it. I also witness what I refer to as “wantrapreneurs” every day of people who dream, but don’t take the action needed.
Taking action is scary. I felt scared every time I did it. I risked a lot. I risked failing. I risked finding out the answer that this was not going to work.
I’m also able to list my successes because they stand out and are memorable. There’s so many things that went nowhere I have difficulty even remembering them. It took me a moment to remember that I had one school ask me for references and didn’t book me.
To be honest, I probably spoke to 100 or more schools to get those 10 bookings. And that doesn’t include the many more hundreds I marketed to who never even responded.
That record label that made a deal for my DJ series was the one that contacted me back. I forget how many other tapes I sent out, where I heard nothing. You only hear about that one.
You hear about the TV show I got myself on, but not of the ones I never heard from.
You hear about the bar I booked my show at, and not the others who weren’t interested.
Had I created stories for myself about why I shouldn’t try, I wouldn’t have gotten the ones I did.
What’s the action you need to take right now?
