We have established that the world is changing and we have a feel for the factors that are creating this change. In his inaugural speech Obama said, ‘Greatness must be earned; there are no shortcuts.’ The same principle applies to being online.There is a feeling that prevails wherever I go and meet people that they know they have to start playing and be part of this new ‘thing’. Finding case studies of successes are ten a penny as everyone can quote a moment in their day online where they found the right piece of information or the right person. Woody Allen famously said, ‘Ninety per cent of success in life is just showing up. If you’re not in the game, you can’t win, lucky or not.’ The new world is exactly this, you just have to turn up and play.
In this chapter I want to focus your mind on creating relevance and attraction around your personal brand to increase your opportunity for success. While I advocate that you cannot be focused on your own success and that success is the by-product, you do have to create a vibration, I call this an ‘emotional vibration’ – an atmosphere of who you are and what you can contribute. In other words, create attraction. This comes from the clarity of what you contribute, which we covered in the last chapter, and also it comes from building attraction around you.
Don't plan, just play
We have all been taught that ‘if you fail to plan then you plan to fail’. This has created a world where we are fearful of doing anything ‘off plan’. We are worried that unless we know exactly why we are committing to a task, then we may not hit the bullseye. Tasks dominate our lives, as to-do lists get ever longer. But perhaps there is another way.
One of the most challenging thoughts of the twenty-first century is that planning can perhaps restrict and limit your opportunity for success. I am not advocating that complete chaos rules. However, there is a danger that being targeted with your online networking and utilizing the tools to achieve your ‘bullseye’ may stop you from having the peripheral vision you need to adapt, compete and achieve success. In Chapter three I introduced the idea that ‘success is the by-product’ and that by considering a wider set of motives and by looking at your contribution you can actually achieve success, by accident. We need to look at this more closely.
Serendipity
Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.
A brilliantly worded explanation on Wikipedia:
When you are not looking for the answer you will discover what you need to know.
Get your head around that thought! One of the toughest ideas I have to teach when explaining the power of social networks and social media is the power of serendipity.
This phrase sounds spiritual and deep, and is hard for task orientated business people to get their head around. However, we are learning that the random nature of social media is what creates success for all those that take part.
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Extract 1: A Changing World - The Individual Capitalist
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Extract 2: Contribution Currency
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Extract 3: Building Attraction and Being a Magnet
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Extract 4: Leveraging Social Networks For Your Business
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Extract 5: Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me
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Extract 7: Like Me: Creating Your Social Networking Footprint
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Extract 8: Follow Me: Creating Social Transactions
| This is an extract from Know Me, Follow Me, Like Me, a book by Penny Power and Thomas Power, who founded Ecademy, the UK's first social network for business, in 1998 with her husband Thomas Power. The Ecademy community now has members in over 230 countries and encompasses over 5,000 clubs and networks
Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me by Penny Power and Thomas Power is published by Headline Business Plus at £14.99. |
