Re earlier post how did those now in the novice stage and beyond get passed the first few challenges

Cynical Boyd?

I don't think so.

In fact, your post reminds me of another similar post years ago. You may recall it... "A desparate note of randomness".

Baby Mugs. Video Fireplace. et al. Remember?

We've all heard the story of the homeless woman come cheesecake success, right?

How many people all over the country also have a plethora of tasty recipes for cheesecake? How many try to sell em? Lots I imagine.

But how many were homeless and living in a car? And how many could use that unique thing and have newspaper stories written about them? Only her I bet.

I'm big on the idea of something being able to be duplicated.

Unfortunately, most "success stories" involve a desparate act of randomness. And those acts of randomness center around people who, at the time, were not interested in nor entertaining the thoughts of success.

There are many successful people who are successful as a result of pure hard, consistant effort over a period of time. BUT, the media never writes about them. They go about their business and no one knows. They are the silent successes. Or rather, the more silent successes.

But even those have an element of chance about them.

KFC's originator may have had to knock on 10,000 doors before someone took on his recipe. But what if the person who'd taken on the recipe just happened to be the fist door knocked on?

Either way, the success of KFC can be broken down into Making A Contact With Someone Else That Makes or Can Make It Happen. Getting a break in other words.

I spent a good deal of Sunday chatting with a guy. His business makes about $62k a year in the hand. He has a total of 6 customers. Wanna know how it began?

He got one customer. Just one. An Asian restaurant on a corner. A little while later the Italian restaurant across the road also became a customer. Then, just up the road, one restauranteur with five Indian restaurants, became a customer. Then another Asian restaurant across the road became a customer. Then one of the customers (another business owner) of one of the restaurants became a customer. And finally, the place his girlfriend worked at became a customer.

Not counting the customer who employs his girlfriend, which could be a case of nepotism, he has five customers in total. But it all began with just one. The first one. A single contact who gave him a break, so to speak.

But he never would have made that contact if he'd just sat at home. He took action. Just enough to get one single customer.

One single customer.

Just one.

One.

Doesn't seem so hard to get.

Perhaps, and I could be speaking out of my hat here, the problem lays in the conceptualized size of a business people consider.

1000 customers giving me $50 a year each is $50k a year.

Boy, what a lofty goal considering you don't even have one customer.

Remember how I mentioned a while back to break things down?

So, break it down. Break it down into its smallest components.

You'll always come to that first single customer.

So instead of concentrating on getting 1000 people to pay you $50 each. How about concentrating on getting just one.

When it's just one it doesn't seem so hard. It's only one customer. Just one. A first one.

Maybe that first one will refer others to you. Maybe they won't. Either way it's a start.

And after that first customer, you can then concentrate on getting just one other customer. After that second... concentrate on getting just one more. So now you have three.

Three doesn't seem like much, but remember the guy I just told you about... he only has 6.

Who knows, after that first one an act of randomness may strike you too. It may not... but you'll never know unless you get the first, single, solitary customer.

Michael Ross.