Michael & Boyd -

Excellent thread. That sort of thing happened to me a while back.

A friend asked me if I'd teach a few marketing classes at a large non-profit's national convention. $500 and expenses for a day in Houston TX. I agreed, even though the fee was "below" level, but I desperately wanted to break into the non-profit world, plus I enjoy doing training.

I was in sort of an inspired zone during one of the classes, caught the notice of one of the executives who attended the class, was asked to lunch by another division from the same non-profit and asked to do a "quick and dirty" business unit evaluation (for a lot more than $500).

That evaluation led to a three year retainer contract in a lot of consulting areas, and additional contract some years after that.

All told, the ONE DAY $500 training job led to about $500,000 in business over 7 years. All because I helped out a friend whose original speaker caught the flu!

So, was there luck involved? Absolutely! Was timing key, yes. But, I focused on the one client and parlayed that into lots of work, both with the original and about five other organizations.

So I guess I've been one of the quiet ones who used the techniques and reaped the rewards of good luck, at least for awhile!

Bob