The Flywheel of Fame

Hard to get started, easier to keep going

I don’t know if you know what a flywheel is, but the picture above will start to give you an idea. It is a heavy wheel that is hard to get moving, but once it gets moving, it keep spinning for a long time. The faster you get it going at the beginning, the more the wheel picks up speed, as its own weight helps increase the speed.

I think this is a good analogy for the process of becoming well known and establishing yourself as an expert. When I first “got the call” to become a speaker and author, I was an unknown and nobody came knocking on my door saying, “We know you have lots to contribute; we’ll hire you and publish your books.”

I had to establish my reputation and learn to get my work out into the world. It was a lot of work, much of it didn’t yield any results, and I was often frustrated or stymied. But gradually, since I never gave up and just kept putting what I was passionate about and thought the world needed out there, little by little, successes and connections began to accumulate.

After some time, I noticed it was no longer me that was trying to convince people to hire me to speak, publish my books, and so on, I was starting to have to turn down offers and possibilities because I didn’t have the time to do it all. The flywheel effect was happening.

My point: The beginnings of your journey into Your Life of Freedom is hard; lots of work, some frustrations, lots of patience. But if you stick with it; work smart; build a reputation as an expert and find mentors, coaches and connection, sooner or later the flywheel of fame effect will occur.

Bucky Fuller and what’s wanted and needed

I was of fan of the late Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller. He had a simple idea:

We’re all in this universe for a purpose; nature doesn’t make things without a purpose.

We’re designed to make a contribution to the planet/species.

We are given intuition to discover what our purpose is.

Then we can simply look around at the world we see and notice what is wanted and needed that fits with what our intuition tells us we are to do.

Pretty simple, really.

So, what is your intuition telling you is your purpose?

And, what do you notice, looking around, is wanted and needed in the world that you think you could make a positive difference and contribution in?

Start now. Don’t worry about the money or how it will be a career. Don’t concern yourself with who will judge your actions negatively. Don’t let yourself be stopped by the “who the Hell am I” kinds of self-doubts.

Bucky believed if we all did this, the world would work for everyone, with no one left behind.

Getting people to find you and your work

I am committed to making a positive contribution through my work and to helping others make their unique positive contributions. In order to get my work to be noticed, though, I had to learn how to attract people to it. I dove into the world of marketing and specifically, web-based marketing, since I didn’t have much money to spend on marketing, and learned a lot.

Here’s a succinct overview of getting people to find you and your work using affordable web-based tools and strategies. Hope you enjoy and learn something.

And check out my new teleseminar with Ruth B. of NICABM.com at:
“Getting traffic” teleseminar information

Errors of ignorance versus errors of ineptitude

In his latest book (The Checklist Manifesto), surgeon Atul Gawande makes a simple yet profound distinction. Some mistakes are made because the person doesn’t know enough or know the right information or have the right skills (these are errors of ignorance), but other mistakes arise from not applying what we know.

In implementing strategies to move my life, work and income in the direction of freeing my time from money and still making a meaningful positive impact on the world, I must admit most of the mistakes and missteps I have made have been from not applying what I know.

I procrastinate on implementing what I know would help move me forward: hiring some more outsourcing help to implement the overwhelming number of ideas for projects I constantly generate; hiring a coach/project manager to “herd my cats,” that is, to help me stay focused and working on the right things and moving projects to completion in a more systematic and timely manner.

So, this post is to get you thinking about what kind of mistakes you make: Do you need more information or skills? Or do you need to use what you already know in a better way?

Will Smith’s wisdom – You gotta see this!

Mindset as part of Your Life of Freedom

I was recently reading the book by psychologist/researcher Carol Dweck called Mindset (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322?ie=UTF8&tag=billohanlon&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322″>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322?ie=UTF8&tag=billohanlon&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322″>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322?ie=UTF8&tag=billohanlon&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322).

Her research shows that kids (and adults, of course) who approach a challenging learning task with the idea that they can master it with effort are those who succeed in school (and in life). Their “mindset” is one that holds that the brain is akin to a muscle and must be challenged and stretched to grow and stay fit.

What might this have to do with Your Life of Freedom? Well, when I first decided to embark on this journey of freeing up my time and creating ongoing sources of passive income so I could contribute to the world without being so crazy busy and stressed, I came upon an internal barrier. Some of the pieces I would need to learn to make this happen were hard to learn and intimidating, since I am not that much of a techie. At first, I was stopped by certain daunting tasks in implementing.

But one day I got myself in hand and thought, “Wait a minute. You’re a smart guy, Bill. You’ve learned a lot of things in your life. This is just a particularly alien and intimidating area. Knuckle down and work at this and you will figure it out. Persist.” And I did. And it has paid off.

I also convinced myself to do this stretch learning as it would be good for my aging brain. The brain plasticity people say that what keeps the aging brain alive and growing is challenge and engagement. This stuff was definitely challenging, and because the outcome was so important to me, it was definitely engaging. And some of it turned out to be really interesting.

So, I wrote this post to give you a pep talk if you find some of this material stretching you beyond your comfort zone. A while ago, I read something someone said about success. He or she said that many people stop just before they break through to completion, since that is often when things get really hard. If you just persist past the difficult parts, you often find things get easier after that. Because many people give up when things are really hard, the road to success in that area gets less and less traffic as you go.

The music in you; one reason to go digital and time-free

I was listening to the radio and heard the line: You got the music in you. It reminded me of one reason I made an effort to learn about how to go digital with my material. I had written a number of books before I began to put my digital products (ebooks, digital audios, digital videos, online courses, email tips, etc.) up on the web. It wasn’t that easy to learn this, since I am not naturally a techie. But I persisted. In part because I couldn’t get all the material that I wanted to share with the world published in print books.

Sometimes that was because the material was too short to make a book. Sometimes it was because it didn’t lend itself to print or I had already done the print version. Sometimes it was because the print version would take too long to get out (usually a couple of years from conception to realization). Sometimes it was because the print gatekeepers (literary agents; editors; publishers) decided the book wasn’t worth doing or wouldn’t sell.

I have music in me that I want to get out to the world (and that, immodestly, I think the world needs). I don’t want to die with the music still in me. I want it out there in the world signing to whomever is willing to or wants to (or needs to) listen.

Of course, it is also nice to be earning some passive income from getting it all on the web and being able to free up my time to do even more music.

What music is still in you that needs to be broadcast to the world?