Project Warrior Proves an Inspiration

After having what I can only describe as a shitty morning at work I decided to splash out for a posh lunch and drove over to the McDonalds up the road.

The usual types hung out there. Tracksuits, bulging wastelines and untidy in every sense, but I knew I needed to get away from some of the suits that smile at everyone and have their high five sessions every 10 minutes. Not that they have anything to celebrate - they just do it to stay motivated. This isn't my team by the way, or even those sitting enxt to me, but a group of upstarts on the other side of this open plan office. I digress.

Anyway - I sat down with my hot Chicken Pita and latte and the proper fluffy stuff, not the stuff that could clean the insides of a car engine.

Munching away at this surprisingly chicken like piece of meat I stared at the two-kid family sitting in front of me slowly filling themselves on their staple diet, I heard a word I never expected to hear in McDonalds:

"Accountable"

I perked up and turned around to see who else looked like me and would be within earshot.

The only people that I could see talking was a kid around 14 and a nice looking roubenesque blonde lady around my age. Couldn't be them as they spoke like people do when they come from the gutter.

"Your Goals"

Ok. Stop joking with me - who's taking the piss? I looked around and now these two who I had assumed were mother and son were suddenly talking about what he wanted to set himself as goals. I only caught faint parts of the conversations, but they were talking about what he wanted to do, what his dreams were, about the feedback he was getting from someone I assumed he was working or doing things for.

"Time Keeping"...."But you are reliable, so they know that even if you DO come in late, you work well and do a great job"

What on EARTH?

Here is a 14 year old KID getting the same sort of performance review I am getting as a 33 year old!

The conversation drifted onto the things he wanted to achieve before Christmas. I don't know what they were, but what struck me the most was when he was asked what he wanted for a reward when he achieved what he had set out to do:

"I've always wanted to try Pitch And Put"

He was looking forward to a game of Crazy golf - WHEN he had achieved his goals for December!! That was ALL he wanted...

They basically had an accountability meeting right there, to help him focus on what he wanted to achieve. The, by now very sexy looking voloptous blonde bombshell, had a n individual development performance plan that she was filling in and when he signed it I caught a glimpse of the words " Project Warrior" and the council logo.

Great name for a project helping dis-advantaged kids take responsibility for their own futures - especially as HMS Warrior, the oldest Warship in the world, is docked in our harbours. ( it's a couple of hundred years old - Henry the 8th built it I think - I may be wrong - i'm really bad at British History as I am not a brit )

Anyway.

I was hoping they taught these kids how important it is to keep those sorts of reviews going and that making yourself accountable to someone regularly is THE KEY to achieving ANYTHING. There are enough adults that don't know it.

I was SO tempted to say something, but as per usual i chickened out ( pardon the pun ) and left feeling incredibly inspired by the appraisal and accountability session that had taken place.

To my luck ( or not ) I noticed that they left just after me, and followed me to the car parked right next to mine.

It MUST have been a sign - I tell you, and I just could not help myself:

"Excuse me, can I ask you something" I stuttered.
"Yes, sure", the blonde lady madonna said to me and smiled her lovely smile - I swear she melted my heart there and then! She just looked so increadibly happy and content. Imagine yourself having a job where you KNOW that what you're doing is making a difference to someone elses life!

I glanced over at the boy, who looked at me with curious but curteous interest. The attention they both gave me was a positive one. It was as if they were expecting a request for help paired with their DESIRE to help if it was needed.

I cocked my head like I do when I get nervous and stuttered a few words about how I over heard some of what they were saying.

"not that meant to over hear anythingbutIcouldn'thelpitandionlyhearafew wordsanyway but i - I, Id." I took a deap breath to calm myself down And looked at them both.

"What you two just did in there was one of the most inspirational things I have ever seen. It's great to see you being accountable. Making yourself accountable is the KEY to everything, and I'd just like to thank you for making my day"

I made them both smile from ear to ear by saying that.

It might be cheesy. But I would have regretted NOT saying anything. And hopefully, if he ever has bad days, I hope he remembers the day when a complete stranger came up to him and told him he had been an inspiration.


And if either of you read this, thanks again from the strange stuttering bloke who made no sense and looked like he was crying. I wasn't tearful at all by the way - it was the wind!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

PS. I did a search on google and found some basic information about project Warrior.

Search on the following term on google and you'll only find about 10 results ( 11 when this page gets indexed I presume! )

=> "project warrior" education portsmouth

Idea tracking

Last week I added 3 ideas to my mind map I have to track these ideas. Others rely on books, but whatever method you use, NOT writing it down is the surest way to forget that GOOD idea.

One day in and I have already written down an idea again.

But as a fellow poster said in a comment on one forum - the value in writing them down when you read a 3-4 week old idea and thing - whooa, that's a GOOD one.

And that will be a rare experience - trust me!

But it won't happen at all - and certainly not with the sort of progress you see others make that DO write things down.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

A swell Idea

I have so many possibilities ahead of me when it comes to picking a way to make a living from an online method that I really don't understand why I am still holding on to my regular job.

If pushed on the matter I am sure I could come up with at least 10 different strategies. And all of them legal useful products.

So sitting at work today doing yet another day of computer based training, it dawned on me that there are some very easy ways we could expand out publishing business into more of an electronic publisher.

Looking at how much I am managing to earn simply from a few simple google campaigns, the opportunities out there are endless, if you know where to start.

Maybe I should try to get this blog syndicated to a newspaper or something, so REAL people could find out what it is that I am doing.

Worth a thought.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Learning from unexpected places

Today I actually learnt something useful at work.

As per usual, these aha moments of mine never appear as a result of new knowledge, but from knowledge I had already aquired being explained in a new way, or at a time when I need to hear it explained.

I've got a problem though.

At the moment I can't remember what the lesson was, but I know that first sunday of January 1999 was the 3rd, and that mount fujiyama (?) is 12365 feet tall and that the mnemonic to remember the great lakes is "HOMES".

I also remember that I was going to write down my goals, hand my wife a letter I wrote at work and that I was going to write down the vision for what our business will look like in a couple of years. or at the end of 2005 even.

I did write down what I envisaged my employee review for 2005 would be, which was a surreal but motivating experience!

How can this be of any use to you? well. Do you write christmas "newsletters" to all your friends and family? In that case, write it a year in advance detailing all the positive things that happened to you in the year ahead.

See, even writing it, it looks wrong! :o)

But does it make sense?
You will obviously have to alter the letter a year later before you send it, but my hope is that I won't have to change much of it. And it doesn't really matter anyway, because it was fun writing it :)

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

As I forgot to tell you this yesterday but

I was busy preparing for my wife's eventful day for business and getting things out of the way at work so I could spend the day at home with my sick son.

So I was busy. I am busy now as I should be writing a Friday Progress report, but I am still backing up this blog!

But I think this has been a very productive week. We've progressed on a number of things that had to be done, and I have also managed to progress a number of things that were never on the agenda until half way through the week!

But thanks for reading ;)

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Fingers Crossed - Our books are selling...

Tallied up the invoices we have sent since we took over and it is only about £25 shy of the loan payment. And that is only 3 weeks of trading.

I am keeping everything crossed to hope that this success continues.

So if you are in the UK and want to help me promote the book, buy book number 3 in the series written by bettina varese from amazon.co.uk

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

May I remind you: In Sickness

I have had the obligatory autumn "flu" this weekend. It started on Thursday really with the usual cough and tickly throat. Being in a new job I didn't think it would be a good idea to have a sick day on a Friday, so against better judgement I went in. So THAT ruined the weekend. Absolute torture. I was almost dead I think at one point. Monday morning and I felt better but by no means well. I was worse than on Friday.

Now though I am pretty much as I was on Thursday. The tickle is still there which means the REAL flu is still biding it's time.

Business has therefor suffered on my part. I haven't been able to make as much progress as I would have hoped anyway.

But I blame my wife for that ;o)

You see, I think my wife is obliged to take care of me when I am ill. Although I have a hard time convincing her this actually means that she has to give me more than the usual attention and affection.

She argues that she is already cooking for me, cleaning for me, ironing my shirts for me, bringing up our son when I am at work, working 3 different part time jobs in addition to being the CEO of our newly purchased company - http://www.collectivepublishing.com/

.. so how could she possibly do more?!?

Note to other men with a manflu:
the above question is NEVER well answered if you say

"How about taking out the rubbish? "

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing (from the rubbish bin))

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Tempting Websites

I've been shown some "pre-made" websites that are for sale covering some reasonably popular niches and I am tempted to shell out the $50 to see what I can do with one of them - or $120 for all three.

I am also tempted to run a diary on the progress of them, to see if I can make it work.

I must admit this is far more interesting than going to my J.O.B - although all accounts indicate I could be good at it.

Decisions decisions...

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Bend Over And AdSense it.

Go figure this one out - my adsense ads always show up as public service ads on another website I've put it on.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the URL it is on - surely that shouldn't matter?

While I wonder, I will have to get on with my business bits. Tara!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Any AdSense?

Adsense is so far on track to match the performance that should be expected at this time of the year for my keywords.

I'm trying a new campaign out today, so we'll see how that fares.

It's time to go to sleep. I've been hard at work for so long these days I am absolutely shattered by the time it's time for Friday....

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

My Achievements Today

Took the day off work today to meet my book industry expert / mentor in London and we all had a GREAT time!

I studied with him in Norway aaages ago so we go WAY back.

He was genuinely surprised at the print quality of the books and gave us some really good ideas for how to build our contacts among the buyers in the industry.

And I think we actually gave him a tip for saving some money on the printing costs as well! Pending freight and currency costs of course.

After our luncheon meeting we visited 3 mega huge bookstores to check out their stocks. We even replaced a book for one of them as the one they had on the shelf was not in a sellable condition. Which must have been a bit of a shock to them. I am presuming it isn't normal for a publisher to check up on the bookstores.

But anyway, we got lots of ideas A copule of action items and a whole laod of inspiration from it.

And I didn't speak to an internet marketing guru all day!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Alien Vs Predator

Went to a Sales team meeting in London yesterday.

Boy did it bring back memories. No, I have never had a sales job in my life. At all. My degree was a business degree in international management and had a lot of "wannabe consultants" in the course.
The conversations we used to have in the student bar were EXACTLY like the one's I listened to last night. And they were seriously alien to me, but familiar at the same time.

8 years in a techie environment had me forget my heady days of business studies, but last nights even brought it back home again.

And the predatorial attitudes still prevail.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Scary weekend

Halloween over and I have a plan.

In fact, my life seems to have a purpose. Which is a worry. I'm increasingly weary of busses, lorries and other cars on the road, as things are just too good.

Oh, right. There is the money issue. I will be on commission from the first of January. For two months, I will not be paid anything but my base salary. Which is 15 per cent lower than my current fixed salary.

We have a massive business loan to maintain the payments for, without exactly knowing where the money will come from.

So maybe I shouldn't worry so much.

It's just that it's a little scary and a little surreal to think that we are now actually business owners. But owing the equivalent of an annual salary is giving us a far stronger focus on what we do for our business. We simply HAVE no choice but to make this work.

It's not rocket science. It's perspiration and persistence. The previous owners have laid pretty decent foundations and it is up to us to build upon those foundations.

We need to increase the number of outlets we sell our books from - how?
1) Find outlets that already sell similar products & target our audience
2) Call them and ask if they would like to sell our books too

We need to get the books better known in the public - how?
1) Find someone that are already communicating to our audience
2) Ask them if they would tell our audience about us.

We need material for our next books in the series - how?
1) Ask writers to send us stories.
2) Repeat number 1.

What we have found as well is that we are actually dealing with 3 "customers" and we have even classified them in our business plan.

Do you know what else I have learnt?

I have mentioned this before, but it wasn't until this weekend that I knew I was right for saying this, but

Having had experience from an MLM organisation has been essential in our education to become entrepreneurs. The mindset they drum into you - if they are good ( and those are few and far between ) - is absolutely critical if you plan to succeed in business.

and success isn't easy. Not only because it is difficult to succeed financially if you start a business, but also because success can become it's own punishment if it does not give you what you wanted in the first place.

If you want more free time to spend with your kids, don't quit your job to start a retail store. In fact, don't start something that requires you to define opening hours.

If you want to enjoy working for yourself, don't start up something you're not completely in love with.

It's not failing you should be afraid of if you jump in head first - it is succeeding!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=