Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

What are your examples of courage?

Filed Under Guest Writer, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

As we move forward in our journey towards independence, it helps to have examples of perseverance, courage and successes to keep us motivated. As I’ve made reference to in previous posts, the road to our goals can be lonely sometimes. Count on it.

For those times when my real-life cheerleaders are sparse, I rely on the celluloid choir that lives in the movies. I can cue up any one of these seven listed below and be instantly reminded that It’s Worth It. Challenges are meant to be overcome. People aren’t always going to understand me or my dreams. Some may actively seek to undermine them because they challenge the status quo.

If we are to live lives of autonomy, we must remember that victories are possible and that we can make a difference. The following, in no particular order, are what I refer to as my Magnificent Seven. I would love to hear about your personal favorites in the comments section.

Get out your popcorn and join me on the couch (Oh, BTW, here there be spoilers):

1. RUDY (1993) – Even though it could be construed as a recruitment vehicle for Notre Dame, I don’t care. Everything from the score to the “pull your head out of your tookus” reprimand from The Janitor inspires me to keep going when the mediocre in me wants to quit. Rudy’s teammates on the scrub squad ask him to downplay his passion for the team and the game, but ultimately, his work ethic and love for the sport win the respect of the first stringers who sacrifice a spot in the line up for his benefit. Their action reminds me that commitment to excellence pays; those who respect commitment and quality reward effort and that together, people with vision can achieve their goals. On the off chance that you have not yet seen this movie, I won’t give away the ending. No Googling. Watch it.

2. BREAKING AWAY (1979) I wish I could find a better clip than this cheezoid trailer, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. This is a quiet, but inspiring film that resonates with anyone who ever felt misunderstood. Dave is a midwestern teen who is a misfit in so many ways, it’s difficult to keep track. One of the most admirable things about him is his dedication to bicycling. His grueling training doesn’t matter to him, because he loves Italian bicycling racing more than the English language can convey, which is why he has immersed himself in the Italian culture. A story about the self-imposed shackles and mindsets of small town Americana/socio-economic groups juxtaposed against the boundary-less echelons of achievement within the construct of a college town, we get to see Dave experience joy, heartbreak, renewal and ultimately triumph.

3. THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (2001, 2002, 2003)  The ultimate Quest Movie, the LotR films embody the Emerson quote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic series comes down to a paradoxical parallel narrative: the battle of/over good and evil ranges within and without. We are our own microcosm and projection onto the worlds we inhabit. It is always within us to choose the highest course, and we have within us depths that we never fully plumb. The central nugget of the quote within the YouTube clip prior comes from Gandalf, who says, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

4. THE MATRIX (1999) – There are so many moments and scenes in this movie that help me focus, but the overriding theme that keeps me from giving up? Alignment with who you are, accepting your gifts and responsibilities that grow from them. Also central to this movie is the importance of ACTION. Theory is fabulous. I love thinking and I love talking with a bunch of folks about making things happen. However, nothing happens without implementation, or the kinetic expression of your intentions. In order to change the world, you need to walk your path. Non-negotiable.

5. SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) – This movie succeeds at silencing my inner complainer. Andy DuFresne was railroaded into a jail sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. Sometimes, life isn’t fair. However, the way you choose to respond is always within your power. The trailer clip highlights hope and the famous line ..’to get busy livin’ or get busy dyin…’ and I see the power in that. But I am also encouraged by the way Andy escaped. Painstaking attention to detail; knowledge of the system that confined him (both figurative and literal – and his ability to leverage that knowledge). Whether through routing monies or carving his way through the rock walls, he knew how to make the most of what he had been handed.

6. ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000) – As a single mother who has had to juggle her kids between her work and personal lives, this one is probably the most analogous to my own experience. There are of course, significant differences, but watching someone evolve and become the woman she was created to be is encouraging. Erin Brockovich possessed an innate intelligence and a tenacity that enabled her to keep going, despite poverty and setbacks (both personal and professional). When she began to channel those traits into a means to help others, her life began to flourish.

7. MIRACLE (2004) – “Again.” This word literally streaks through my head when I want to give up. Dig deeper. You are stronger than you think. This particular clip also underscores for me that teamwork and collaboration have an amazing power. Another is the fact that we are all in this together. All of us. There is only one way off this rock. Until then, we. Are. All. In. This. Together. This scene highlighted in the clip reminds me of a quote from President Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Now it’s your turn! Please let us know your personal movie list and how it helps you to keep moving forward.

——-

Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive Foundation) or “Like” them on facebook.

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Rebuilding from wreckage and tragedy

Filed Under Guest Writer, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

This week’s installment has been difficult to write. The anniversary of the terrorist attacks of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington DC and the aborted mission of United Airlines Flight 93 marks an end to a turbulent ten-year span. Illusions have been shattered, lives have been altered and the world’s citizens have come to grips with a new reality.

Part of me knows that this blog will join millions of other such reflections, and so I hesitate to “jump on the digital bandwagon,” but to not mention it would be remiss.

I wish to honor those who lost their lives and their families, so instead of making this a political piece, I thought I’d share with you how 9/11 affected my life and ultimately led to the establishment of Women With Drive Foundation. It will be a departure from the rest of this series, and quite frankly, it’s a bit of an experiment for me. But since we’ve been together for a year or so, I feel like I can trust you. So here goes.

My ex-husband is a brilliant, insightful man who happens to be an expert in nuclear nonproliferation and Middle East geopolitical issues. He is a poet; plays a mean slide guitar and eats cheese straight out of a can. During our first date over coffee, we talked about politics, religion and Star Trek: TNG. He had found a woman who both knew what heavy water was and could tolerate his eating cheese from a can.

We embarked upon the first decade of the century hopeful for our future.

The attacks of 9/11 changed that drastically.

Despite the fact that he was a third generation Prairie Schooner descendant, he had inherited a darker, more olive complexion than most of his forebears. When traveling throughout the Middle East, he was mistaken for a local all of the time, with people approaching him and talking to him in Farsi. His standard joking reply was that he spoke “Pentagonese,” but not Farsi.

The increasing frustrations of airports, security, the nature of his work and the way that it permeated every moment of our lives eventually took its toll. Our marriage became collateral damage of 9/11.

I was also becoming aware that I had relied on him for things (both temporal and esoteric) that I could (or should) be able to provide for myself. It took me about three years, but I began to work on the solutions to frustrations I had been experiencing. Those solutions became the framework of the programs we built into Women With Drive Foundation. Approaching independence from a systemic, holistic perspective and fusing it with providing transportation differentiates us from other organizations. It’s a lot messier though; that’s for sure.

But it also enables us to work with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Our partner agencies and organizations are staffed by creative, innovative, gracious and beautiful people who astound me with their generosity and passion for helping others. What’s really heartening is that the women we serve realize this, too. A recent journal entry from a WWDF participant reads, “It’s amazing: there really are good people out there, it’s just knowing how to find them.”

And that’s just it, isn’t it? Despite pain, ugliness, fear and terror in this world, there is also hope, courage, love and compassion. Nations and people are resilient. Structures and systems can be rebuilt and refashioned. Love wins. Do not ever forget it.
——-

Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive Foundation) or “Like” them on facebook.

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Top 3 Little Challenges of Working From Home

Filed Under Business Life, Guest Writer, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 2 Comments

A Guest Post by
Rachel Carlson

cooltext443809602_strategy

Last week, we covered some of the big, client-end challenges of working from home, but what about those little challenges you’ll face on a daily basis? The top three little challenges of working from home are:

Trouble Staying Motivated –

Without a big bad boss checking your every keystroke, motivation can tank when you work from home. Remember that you’re working to survive, not to please a boss. Set an honest goal just above what you need to do each day and do everything you can to achieve it. It takes a while to switch your mindset over to working because you want to, not because you need to make someone else money. But you will get the hang of it.

Too Many Distractions –

This is a big one. You can literally do almost anything you want when you work from home. I often put a movie on when I’m working on something boring, but this doesn’t work for most people. Try different things when working from home and pay attention to how they impact your productivity. Sometimes having some music on while working can make you more productive, but again, this isn’t the case for everyone. This challenge will require some trial and error.

Taxes –

Most people can look forward to tax season with the possibility of a refund. Work-from-home people dread April. Keep track of everything you do in a spreadsheet, and have it ready for tax season. Try to save 20% of all the money you make in a separate account meant only for taxes. Better yet, pay the government 20% of your earnings every quarter. If you put off taxes until the last minute, you could find yourself in a terrible money pit with the government. I still owe taxes from my first year working from home because tax season caught me by surprise. Don’t make this same mistake – it can cost you thousands of dollars in fees and more than a few sleepless nights.

Every job has challenges. What are the little challenges that get in your way when you work at home?

—-
Author’s Bio:
Rachel Carlson is a writer and student that works from home. While she spends a lot of her time writing, she also helps different companies like Clear Wireless with gaining exposure through various blogs and websites. She has recently started a new Twitter account and is finally going to give it a real shot. She can be followed at @carlson_rachel.

Thanks, Rachel. Great follow up to last week’s post!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

The power of an apology

Filed Under Guest Writer, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 9 Comments

I was walking along at a pretty good clip, a quarter of the way through my Daily Constitutional when I met her. Almost clear of the driveway, I caught, out of the corner of my eye, a sedan barreling my way.

Its pilot blissfully unaware that I existed, her hair the same shade of blue as her car, she backed out onto the street probably thinking of a million things that she needed to accomplish that day. It appeared as though running me over was one of them. As her rear quarter panel narrowly missed me, I began my silent litany.

Instantly, my brain started whirling. Indignant, I began an inner rant, railing at her incompetence. I was ramping up my dark fantasies of rounding up geriatric drivers and using a huge magnet to suck their car keys from their papery-skinned hands when I noticed her again.

She had pulled over, rolled down her window and was trying to get my attention.

“I’m so very sorry,” she began. “I wasn’t paying attention and I didn’t see you at all. I hope you are alright. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Do you know what the dying Pac Man sounds like?

That’s how I felt. Deflated and chastened – by my own Higher Self. I managed to chirp, “No problem. I’m fine, ma’am. Have a pleasant afternoon.”

What I felt like doing? Apologizing to her.

“Apology is a lovely perfume; it can transform the clumsiest moment into a gracious gift.” – Margaret Lee Runbeck

This moment was a gift. This woman had given me the opportunity to exercise my faith in action. Was I going to treat someone the way I would wish to be treated (ie. being forgiven)? Or was I going to continue on the trajectory of being an arrogant jerk?

In accepting her apology, we had completed a social contract. These sorts of interactions, replicated across communities and between people, form the tethers that hold us together. They constitute the million individual and independent decisions that forge our common future.

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boese

When we apologize, we allow for expansiveness and possibility. We are taking responsibility for the action that caused someone else pain or inconvenience. Accountability for our actions leads to mindfulness, which in turn allows us to change our actions. This chain of decisions anchors independence.

Her choice to apologize affected me and will affect my interactions with other people, from this point onward. I’m glad that our paths crossed. Has there been a time in your life when you’ve had to apologize? How did it affect your relationship with that person? with others since?

——-

Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive Foundation) or “Like” them on facebook.

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

The Big Challenges of Working at Home

Filed Under Business Life, Guest Writer, Successful Blog | 1 Comment

A Guest Post by
Rachel Carlson

cooltext443809602_strategy

BIG Challenges of Working From Home

One memory of my experience working from home sticks out to me – a video Skype meeting with one of my first clients. I rushed to put on some nice clothes, cleaned up my office a little and prepared as best I could. When the meeting finally happened, the client remarked “I expected to see a person in their pajamas in a tiny one bedroom apartment.”

And that’s a part of the “work from home problem” isn’t it? Normal business people, as they like to think of themselves, have some fairly critical prejudices against work-from-home workers. With that one remark, I realized that the client thought of people who work from home with two things in mind:

This misconception is one of the biggest challenges of working from home – among many others. Once you convince your clients that you aren’t some slob, furiously clamoring for a living from the scraps of “real businesses,” you have an opportunity to overcome all the challenges and become a successful entrepreneur.

Setting Reasonable Hours

It’s true that few of us work the 9-5 grind. And why do so if you don’t have to? What is it really about that eight-hour period that makes it so “work-worthy?” I honestly admit that I hate working 9-5, and I don’t normally work in periods longer than four hours. When you work with clients, however, you have to set reasonable hours for when they can contact you. Try the following to keep those hours, without interfering with your preferred work schedule:

Competing With the “Big Box” Providers

This seems to be a bit of a misconception carried over from the brick and mortar business world. You can actually compete with larger companies quite easily. In fact, you have some decisive advantages:

Meeting With Clients

It’s fairly rare that a client requests a face-to-face meeting. Actually, most of your clients will be very busy (or will want to seem like they are) and will convert after a single phone call or email. Some will prefer to do a video chat. If you serve some local clients, they might want to meet. But as a general rule, never invite the client to your home to do business. Instead, learn to love lunch meetings. Offering to take a client out to lunch to discuss a new contract is a great way to avoid having to reveal that you work from home, while showing a potential client that you have a professional attitude towards business.

On the other hand, I’ve secured more contracts over a beer than over lunch. If you work in a particularly casual industry like web development, SEO, or content writing, your best tool can be a clean, quiet bar. This works well for meetings after 5 p.m.

But remember that working from home is just an alternative to working in an office, not necessarily a license to show up in shorts and a t-shirt. Business people will still expect you to look professional, and you have to be very careful about casual business conversations. You still have a product to sell, and you need to project an image of professionalism at all times.

Sure there are little challenges that we face at home or in an office, but …

What do you find are the big challenges of working at home for you?

—-
Author’s Bio:
Rachel Carlson is a writer and student that works from home. While she spends a lot of her time writing, she also helps different companies like Clear Wireless with gaining exposure through various blogs and websites. She has recently started a new Twitter account and is finally going to give it a real shot. She can be followed at @carlson_rachel.

Thanks, Rachel. You covered this big topic in fresh way.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.
« go back — keep looking »