Listen to the Voice?

byTheCatherine

14.5K followers

Updated 10 years ago

Yesterday I wrote a post about distractions buzzing in your head and pulling you in different directions.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/katkatskitchen/blog/should-i-be-worried

That post threw up some very interesting points in the comments. One of the most repeated ones was how disturbing the image was! I have to admit it was disturbing but it was a distraction.

I Had Shot Myself in the Foot

I used an image that many people including me thought a disturbing photo, so whilst they were reading they were thinking of that image. It got me thinking how easy it was to do and how often we do it in a blog post.

Many of you sent me a pm to say how difficult it is to get into the entrepreneur mindset when they come from a corporate background or they have been an employee for a long time.

Although I have never worked for anyone else I understand that sentiment perfectly. i would find it absolutely impossible to work for someone else, and be given orders.I also understand that if my life depended on it or my family would suffer if i didn't do it, then I would GRIT MY TEETH, and however difficult I would do it.

We all take the easy way when we can, that is human nature we are in our own private comfort zones. To come out of the comfort zone is challenging and painful, and it is much easier to let life get in the way and let our dreams slide.

Thomas Edison - My hero

Thomas Edison was a man who was truly tenacious, he had no concept of how to give up. He failed to invent the light bulb hundreds of times, most "normal" people who had given up and said that the electric light bulb was not possible. Thomas Edison saw every failure as an opportunity he kept thinking if he could eliminate all the things that don't work then he could eventually find a way to make it work.

Here at Wealthy Affiliates we don't even have to work out what works, we have a proven system laid out, but it is a system we have to believe will work. Jewel made a comment on yesterday's blog post that she wanted to be a tenacious lady, that is one of the easiest and hardest things in the world to achieve.

I Won't Give up

In some ways my life had been easy because I have got everything that I wanted to get, and many many people over the years have said how lucky I am. Yet there is no luck at all in success it is not a lottery ticket!

It is having a system and being tenacious and not letting go whatever happens, don't even think of failing because failure is not an option. In 1976 I had my first retail business with a shop premises. It was not my first business but it was the first that had a premises to pay the bills for, I was 21 and thought I could conquer the world.

During that time I tried to sell many different types of products as I could to find out what worked and what didn't. One day in September of that year one of my friends and suppliers went back to Pakistan for a holiday, he gave me his stock to look after saying sell what you can and pay me when you get back.

I had already started a wholesale business, in truth to avoid being classed into a particular band for tax purposes. However, I did use it and used it daily, I went out every evening to friends who had shops asked them what didn't sell, took the goods away on a sale or return basis and left some other stock on sale or return

The benefit here was that a dozen businesses who were not in the best position looked prosperous, it looked as though stock came and went. Sometimes it was difficult to know whether whether I had made a profit, because I rarely came home with money, but it was a system that worked, even though I may exchange knitting needles for teddy bears.

One day I gave one of these shops a type of radio a citizen's band radio, unbeknownst to me they were about to become legal in the UK. To be honest I forgot all about it, it was one of a hundred swaps I made each week.

The owner's name was Nic and he decided to put an advert in a trade magazine, which came out monthly. Anyway he received orders for a lot of them I have long long forgotten the amount I needed about 1700 I think, but I do remember very clearly that I I managed to buy them I would have a profit of £1,000. That is about $1,500 not a fortune now but forty years ago a lot of money.

So he had sold them as a mail order item, he had a limited time to deliver them. I had eight days to source them. The first thing I did was phone my friend Ajaiz in Pakistan and he said I can't help you it was a sample I don't have a supplier. He normally bought from an importer but in this case he hadn't

So I phoned every wholesaler I knew in London and came up with nothing, they all had them on order but there were none to be had in my time frame. My husband said what a shame but it's not to be! I remember thinking "that's what you think"

Well my husband had worked in the importing business for many years and we had a box marked EC we knew that this radio had originally been imported, by a company with ECL in it's name, all I had to do was find the name, and the only way of doing that was to find who had imported it.

So I rang every airport every, every shipping agent in the country to find out what that company was. No one could identify it, the clock was ticking. In the first three days I spent all day crouched on the step going up the stairs to the flat above the shop, because that was where the phone was. I spent every minute of the commercial day on the phone.

After a few days it was becoming increasingly clear that it was an impossible task, but instead of giving up I intensified my efforts. I phoned every contact I knew, I made calls to the far East, - Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka anywhere that may be making this product.

After 6 days I was in pain being hunched up crouched all day, I ignored the stiffness. Then came something I could not ignore my voice went to a croak. Despite the sore throat, I knew I only had three more days, then the opportunity was gone forever. I had got the bit between my teeth I wanted to succeed more than I wanted physical comfort. I persevered and twenty four later my voice went totally.

Still I wouldn't give up, in truth I couldn't give up, I forced the vocal to work which caused unbelievable pain but I didn't admit to that either I just said it sounded worse than it was. So I went through until 10 minutes before my deadline I had to source them by Friday evening because they had to be in London by Saturday because they had to be in the post by Sunday to comply with the law, any that weren't in the post by that time the people who had paid the money could ask for a refund.

It was 16.50 and I had ten minutes and I had run out of steam, ideas, inspirations and lost. My husband said please please give up you have failed but not for the lack of trying. I remember stretching on the stairs thinking I have no more ideas. I got up to give up and then said, wait there is a little importer two hundred yards from my business I have not tried them. Mt husband said reasonably they are too small, and i said what have I got to lose it's last chance saloon.

My strategy had been to ask them to go through there records and see if they could trace doing business with ECL but with ten minutes to go I hadn't time, there were no computer then it had to be done manually.

So I had to be creative, the young boy who answered said it was his first week working there, so I applied some pressure in fact, I lied. Not my finest hour and not one I am proud of, but I needed leverage. I told him I worked for HM Custom's and Excise department and I believed he had imported some goods and not paid the correct duty.

I frightened the poor kid to death, told him I needed the information now and nothing would happen to his shipping company if he gave me the information I was seeking. My husband was appalled he said you can't do that, and I thought needs must. I hung on, in fact I was tired, exhausted dejected and in pain, but most of all the biggest humiliation was I was beaten, I had no where else to go.

At 17.40 I was still on the phone forty minutes after that shipping agent should have closed, I was desperately wondering how I could make it up to this kid when he came back and said it is Evercourt Limited in Manchester and told me the address.

I was speechless (literally and figuratively), I asked my husband to phone them and he said they will have closed. I thought they should but try it anyway. The owner of the business was there doing paperwork, he said he could fulfill about 85 percent of the order.

I went to bed immediately and went to Manchester the next morning the business Evercourt would normally be closed but he agreed to be open because of the size of the order. We drove a thousand kilometers to pick them up we had to do it twice because my vehicle was too small. We spent all night packing them wit Nic and one of us drove to the all night GPO to post them.

In short we made our first £1,000 days pure profit which gave us the freedom to develop the business. Everyone was happy even the kid who had given me the info, I went to the business and 'fessed up and gave him a full days salary for his help.

So don't give up keep going be tenacious and believe in your ability and a proven system . Most people give up here just before they start to make money. Don't let it happen to you, just listen to 1 voice, not the cacophony of the bees all buzzing for your attention