Are You Just Three Feet From Your Gold?

 

Many people know of the parable of the junk man that struck gold from "Think and Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill. If you don’t, it is recounted below in the call out. Even though Hill’s book is decades old, this business mindset is timeless. You can have all of the drive, skills, funding, and know-how, but there is always someone who knows more than you in specific areas. When you encounter roadblocks take the time to consult an expert.

So many soloprenuers fall into this trap, just like the novice miner. At one point in time you were finding success doing everything on your own. But, there comes a tipping point when you no longer able to scale yourself in order to be able to serve your clients and customers in the manner you (and they) are accustomed to – not to mention suffering relationships with family and friends.  So please don’t give up as the miner did. Continue down the planned path after consulting with an expert or authority in the area that is giving you trouble.

It is my hope that you follow the way of the junk man. He knew enough to know what he didn’t know. He added an engineer to his team and was able to break through to success with minimal headache and effort.   I’m ready to work with more innovative junk men and women that need an administrative expert to move to the next level.

An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the "gold fever" in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the "strike." They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some "junk" men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with "fault lines." His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found!

The "Junk" man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

The Easiest Way to Reduce PDF Size

I think we've all been there before. You have a PDF that you need to attach to an email or submit to a database, but when you go to send or submit it you get an error message that your file is too large. What now? 

If you have the full [paid version] Adobe Acrobat program you can use the Save as reduced sized PDF option in the File menu. However, most people use Adobe Reader and don't have that option. 

The easiest way to reduce PDF size is to:

1. Head over to SmallPDF.com
2. Drag & Drop or uplaod your file to the site
3. Accept and Save the compressed file

Simple right? It is. Small PDF.com is a completely free service that works on the cloud so there is nothing to download and no free trail period ending to worry about. You don't even have to sign-up or log-in to use it! In a matter of seconds your new file is ready still retaining great quality.

Note: Small PDF.com saves the reduced pdf as:

Your document name[smallpdf.com].pdf 

If you don't want to save it as such with the free advertisement just open and save as and replace the original PDF document or simply re-name the file in the folder where you saved it.

When to Delegate

You don't send a Rolls Royce to pick up the trash - Larry Winget 

Larry Winget has a wonderful video entitled Four Rules for Delegating

The Solution is Closer Than You Think

The Solution is Closer Than You Think

There are times when you may feel overwhelmed, feel like you need to complete a task yourself, or maybe you’re sitting there looking at starting your business saying to yourself, “I don’t know where to start!”

There may even be a number of reasons for your overwhelm:

• Haven’t created a clear plan
• Set unrealistic time frames
• Procrastinated and now the date is upon you and some unexpected events got in the way
• Inefficient use of time (not delegating)
• Allowed self-doubt to get the best of you
• Didn’t ask for help

As the saying goes, “you either have reasons or results.” The good news is you have gotten yourself right where you are today and you can change your tomorrow. The next time you are wondering how to solve a situation, ask one simple question:

“Who is in my life right now to help?”

As most of you know, when I was looking for a new assistant, I sat for a moment and asked this very question. Almost instantly, a former coworker came to mind. One phone call later and I had my assistant hired. Later, when she had to take a leave of absence, another assistant that I had connected with years earlier popped into my head after asking this question. A phone call later and she was able to take over.

When you’re asking this question, look at:

• Your social media networks
• Your business networks
• Your current surroundings, like family and friends
• Local resources

Remember to always nurture those networks and relationships. You never know when you’ll need to tap into them. Start asking others to help with the workload or seek out a mentor or expert who can help you.

The most complex need or request can easily be solved by asking this simple question. So the next time you are faced with a problem or challenge, look around. Your solution is closer than you realize.

Lisa Mininni is a Best Selling Author and President of Excellerate Associates - home of The Entrepreneurial Edge System^TM, a national program showing small business owners how their clients find them, choose them, and buy from them.