80% of Success Is Just Showing Up

So goes the saying by Woody Allen. I can’t tell you how often I remember this saying when I go to an event that I really didn’t want to take the time for, only to be so thankful afterward that I did go.

In self-publishing my first book, A Lifetime of Cherished Memories (former title The Journal of Family Memories), there have been numerous occasions that I have learned just what I needed to at that particular moment–that I wouldn’t have had I stayed home as a couch potato.

For instance, last month I attended Dan Poynter’s class on self-publishing. It was a last moment decision that I was grateful to have made. Since Dan is the “guru” of self-publishing, I naturally learned all kinds of things I need to know.

And, just a couple of weeks later, on the first Saturday my husband and I were going to have together in months, Jacqueline Marcell gave a talk about her self-publishing experiences. Again, I would have rather spent the time with my husband, but just knew that I would gain valuable information, which I did. (By the way, you really need to check out Ms. Marcell’s book, Elder Rage. It’s incredibly humorous and compassionate at the same time.)

At Ms. Marcell’s talk, I met a woman whom I had talked to on the phone about two years earlier. Little did I know that she too has written her first book, so we had more in common than we originally knew. And, she has agreed to review my book.

Some people would consider this type of happening a coincidence. Personally. I tend to view it as the result of keeping on keeping on–the syncronicity that is created by opening your mind to all possibilities.

The moral of the stories? In order to grow (or even maintain) our businesses and lives, we must keep showing up for appointments, cold calls, meetings, seminars, whatever it takes at any particular moment to propel us on. We never know where the next opportunity will present itself.