Bon Bons Delivered Fresh Daily, Naked Fan Boys and Other Lies

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I was reading a post by Carrie Wilkerson on what it has taken to get to this moment in her business career. It's a story not filled with all flowers and rainbows, but real honesty of what it takes to build a business. For many of us who are really active on social media networks sometimes we can get the idea that all a certain segment do are fly around the world giving lectures to thousands of adoring fans and money just flows down from the heavens above.


News flash. The reason they can fly now is because they laid the groundwork. They did the tedious work, wrote the books, held the webinars, built their fan base while they were home. Their names didn't just drop from the sky, but good relationship building went into it. They blogged, did podcast, met countless people at events who just wanted  a "piece of advice."

They spent hours alone working with accountants, lawyers, partners, and clients. All that while trying to keep some semblance of a family life and not becoming strangers to their friends. You can say they actively worked towards their dreams.

Way too many are under the illusion that if they quit their job, set up a blog and yap on social networks then all the doors of prosperity will open with a flood. Uh, nope. Sorry, the get rich quick line is down the hall overflowing with fools waiting for that same thing. It takes work to make a dream come true. Mr "Four Hour Work Week" didn't start out there, he had to build his systems to get to that place. He had to have a team to help him. No work fairies, sorry.

So, if you are waiting for someone to notice you, might I suggest you will be waiting a very long time. Not meaning to hurt your feelings, but people hire people who are busy getting results. They don't hire the person with the open calendar. So, that blog you built might be indispensable if you actually filled it with information that people find valuable.

Before you follow the trend and hang out that "expert" shingle perhaps you might want to have your actions speak for your expertise. People are impressed by results not titles anyway. If you will spend the time doing the work you need to do, then you are well ahead of those waiting for that golden egg to roll to their feet.

As I have said often, if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Want to be a renown photographer, then you might want to take some pictures. The days of being an expert in a weekend are over. It's time to get to work and earn the right to give those speeches to your adoring fans. Not to swipe a line from Fame, but if you want a business, it costs, and this is where you begin to pay.