I sat down with a blank piece of paper and thought, how can I go the extra mile? how can I leverage

Last year Tim Ferriss posted an article on his wildly popular blog titled  My Unusual $20,000 Birthday Gift (Plus: car rental deals for utah Free Roundtrip Anywhere in the World ).  I read the article and thought, Hey, that s cool.  I should enter.   I glanced at the due date for applications and, noticing that I still had a whole month to participate, told myself car rental deals for utah maybe I d do it later, like thousands of others.
A couple days later, a friend of mine reposted it in our 4HWW Berlin group and I noticed that I had read the application date wrong rather than thirty-two days until the fundraiser and competition was complete, there was actually TWO days.  I thought, shit, it s now or never, car rental deals for utah isn t it? I noticed that there were hundreds of comments supporting the idea or contributing to the conversation about it, but there was a relatively low number of people entering the competition part of it to win that roundtrip ticket anywhere in the world.
That surprised me.  Still, I didn t feel I had a reasonable car rental deals for utah shot at winning because several of the people who had actually entered seemed to have quite a large following, compared to me but also by most standards.
But then I remembered car rental deals for utah what Ferriss wrote in his very own book Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, car rental deals for utah so they aim for the mediocre.  The level of competition car rental deals for utah is thus fiercest for realistic goals.
I remembered car rental deals for utah the story of how he offered a class of students a free trip around the world in return for writing to 3 seemingly-impossible-to-reach people and getting a reply from one, and not a single student even tried to complete the challenge because all of them overestimated the competition, no one even showed up.  And I thought.. well, I m probably not going to win, but I m going to give it all I can.  I can still show up .  If I don t enter, I can t win.
To enter the competition, all you had to do was leave a comment telling car rental deals for utah how you promoted his charity drive.  I looked at my situation, and assessed it.  For spreading the word about his charity goal, most entrants had tweeted, facebooked, and emailed their followers and contacts.  In terms of social media, I had a modest twitter following, a strong but small email list, and a fair number of facebook friends.  So if I was going to go the traditional route, it looked like my chances were slim.
I sat down with a blank piece of paper and thought, how can I go the extra mile?  how can I leverage my strengths and what I DO have to set me apart?   I focused on my strengths and what resources I had at my disposal.
One of my favorite parts about Tim s ideology is that you can create win-win situations.  It just takes a bit of planning and creativity. The gist of what he writes about is that you can make money through your business, help others and provide immense value to them with your work, have plenty of time to do whatever you want by creating passive income streams, car rental deals for utah and even enjoy the work you do.  He asserts that life doesn t have to be trudging through a dull job you dislike just because its normal and it pays the bills.  And I know its true because I ve had a taste of it myself, both with successes in my own company and vicariously through many of the friends I ve made from our 4HWW Berlin group.
So on my blank sheet of paper, I took stock of my resources and racked my brain to formulate a win-win car rental deals for utah scenario.  I wanted to tie everything together to incorporate my greeting card company  (which is even based on the 4HWW model), benefit my customers and potentially car rental deals for utah bring in new ones, harness my best skill (creativity), advance the charity drive, and create a positive feedback car rental deals for utah loop to pay it forward .   I came up with an idea, and before I could second-guess myself, I took immediate action right then and there with the mantra I m going to give it all I can.  If I don t enter, I can t win on repeat in my head.
The idea was this I released a brand new design for sale in my store dedicated to the charity drive, and created car rental deals for utah a storewide sale in which the customer received 50% off and I gave 50% to the Room to Read Charity in Tim s drive.
After several hours of this inspiration-fueled burst, I felt satisfied that I gave it my best.  I had no idea if it would be enough, but at the very least I could be proud of myself that I did all I could.  The rest was in the hands of Tim and his crew they would choose the top 5 commenters who would proceed to the next round in the competition.
The next stage of the competition, which was to decide the winner of the roundtrip ticket, would be decided by a pure and simple vote.  I still didn t think I stood a serious chance, especially up against a guy with 50,000 youtube followers and a woman with an incredibly heart-wrenching story among the lot.  But I stuffed my worries and reminded myself what mindset got me into the competition in the first place it was one where dreaming was allowed and I went for it anyways with a why not? attitude.
I wrote and messaged and called car rental deals for utah as many people as I could personally, one by one, telling them how grateful I d be if they could vote and spread the word in any way.  I included a message they could copy-and-paste as their statuses, so that if they wanted to, they could repost it or edit it.  I asked my friends to help me brainstorm and get involved.  I talked about it to everyone I encountered and asked them to go home and have their moms and dads and grandparents and cousin s dogs vote and spread the word.  I asked everyone in my 4HWW group.  I even made a joke youtube video .  I exhausted my brain and my body and then let go I waited to hear the results for several weeks, without trying to think or worry about the outcome (especially because I was traveling at the time).
Almost four weeks from the original post went by and I heard nothing.  One day I woke up early to go on a run I was in Geneva in a hostel on a trip with my brother.  I checked my email and saw nothing of interest, then loaded up Ferriss s website to see if there was any news.  I saw that the results had been posted, and since I hadn t received an email I didn t think I had won.
He thought car rental deals for utah I was joking.  I repeated it a couple more times and shoved the computer towards him.  I felt a huge rush of adrenaline rush through my body, jumped up, shaking, excited.  After a while I remember I was going on a run, so I headed out the door and along Geneva s picturesque Rhône riverside in the morning sunshine.  The rush of adrenaline lasted the entire run and I felt a huge wave of appreciation and gratitude.
I used the ticket I won to do just what I said travel around the world and write a creative cookbook called The Eat Team .  For the past 5 months, I ve traveled Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and today I m writing to you from Auckland, New Zealand.
This entry was posted in 4HWW , Berlin , Dreaming , Entrepreneurship , Gratitude , Passive Income , Success , Travel and tagged 4HWW , Business , dreaming , Success , Travel by Melissa Rachel Black . Bookmark the permalink .