Author Archives: Guus

Small is beautiful

I was happily surprised with the e-mail, the daily post, from Seth Godin today. As it confirmed that I am not the only one concerned that ‘big’ seems to rule the world more and more, that e.g. policies of large organizations mostly seem to be more important the people, the people they serve. Actually I was even crying after realizing that he indeed wrote about the humanification I often have in mind. Actually I know Seth Godin even used that word a long time ago as when you search for humanification in Google his name shows up somewhere, or at least it did before.

And I was happy because he has the reach, at least much more reach than I have, to turn this ‘bigger is better, bigger is more power’ thing that seems to be virtually everywhere in the world at the moment. And I think it is so important as I guess I am not the only one who often feels powerless against large organizations, not only rich and private companies, but also government institutions and departments.

So yes, let’s go back more to the idea where the weaker, the slower, the smaller have the priority, not the large and powerful. We’re human and can think, so let’s be human and protect the weak. Isn’t that the biggest evolution in history?

How do they do it

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I am still wondering how other bloggers do it, the successful bloggers, like Leo Babauta and Alden Tan. They also often write about difficulties and stuff, but somehow they seem to be able to make it into something inspiring, where I have the feeling I’m just complaining. And yes, often, at the end of a post, I try to make some kind of positive statement, but I have the feeling many others handle their pain and sorrow much better.

Like right now, my life is still not in order as there is still no money coming in. And my partner and I are fighting, yes, a silent battle, but still. And somehow part of it, maybe even the biggest part, goes back to the fact that neither of us is good in earning, in getting money in. So slowly we got from having quite a lot of money, which I had when I left The Netherlands around ten years ago, to no money and the last few years to borrowing money. And it all went so silent, in such a sneaky way, that it was too late when I realized how bad it was. And right now I don’t see any way to get out of it, except ‘working hard’, which I do with my new project, but that has been something I have done all my life and somehow that didn’t work out.

And yes, lately I have kind of stopped the outgoing money flow, even though there is still quite a lot going out every month in a hidden way, in unpaid mortgage for the house and unpaid interest for the loans. So I did improve things. But right now I am kind of on a crossroad again, as there is nothing really coming in this month, meaning soon I will probably have no option but to borrow again as I have no clue how to increase my income. As I tried ‘everything’ to ‘earn’, except moving to another place, another city, another country, and nothing has worked.

And yes, I had some recent requests, but one prospect chose for another party and another prospect I can’t reach after sending a proposal. And both cost me quite some effort and time, although not really, just one or two days. And the first I thought I ‘had’ as we had quite a good conversation on Skype. But his main reason to choose for another party was that I am working alone right now. And of course that’s a risk, but that’s also kind of a chicken/egg problem. As if I don’t have enough customers I can’t grow my company, unless I find a partner or investor of course.

And I tried Elance again, but I did not hear anything from the few proposals I put there. And yes, as indicated before I started a new project, a new venture, a new challenge. And I won’t give up and I know somewhere deep down that if I continue ‘standing up’ one day success will come. It must.

But right now I feel a bit the same as when I started this site, where I was hoping I could have talked about my success already. But for now you’ll just still have to do with my complaints and stuff. But I hope one day, when you end up in this post or another complain-type post, you will also find my success story. So you will know that if you feel like me right now, if you just continue, the success will just be there.

So until then!

Inspirational tools

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Yeah, that’s in my mind, inspirational tools, the idea of providing a service like other websites to where you can keep track of your planning and such. And that was something I wanted to build, to have in this website from the very start. And yes, I started with it, and it’s even working and I think it’s even useful. But somehow people are not using it, not even me. So that’s not really motivating me to continue building them further. And I wonder if most successful people know this loneliness, this thinking and building and doing alone. And I know at least some of them do. As recently I read a story from Ed Lester who also said it took him years to get his idea, his blog, his project moving, years he also did it all alone as far as I know. And I know Alden Tan is also doing most things alone, writing alone.

And it seems Seth Godin and Henrik Edberg also work alone. But what about Richard Branson and Donald Trump? And Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, although I know from Steve Jobs he was kicked out of Apple, so that must have been pretty lonely.

Ah, yes, and Apple. It took them quite a while, something like thirty years, to finally become really famous, really big.

So well, maybe it’s all about persistence, about continuing going, continuing building. And yes, that’s what I wrote in my Dutch post today, that it is fun to see that traffic is slowly, very slowly, increasing on that site. And that site was note even intended to become popular or something as it’s more my personal diary.

So let’s continue building, somehow I know something must come out of that, and yes, something big if I just continue.

Marketing

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Marketing, yeah, everything seems to be marketing. And I just don’t like it. At least that’s what I feel, that’s what I believe. And I still don’t know why I don’t like it, as somehow I am proud of the things I make, the things I do. Like this site, it may not have the best content in the world and sometimes or often I’m complaining, but I am proud that I am writing every day. My Google index graph is still going up slowly and that is very satisfying to see. The traffic to the site however is going down at the moment. And I have no clue why, except maybe that there are no new links to the site. And I guess Google still ranks sites mainly or at least party based on the number of links towards it. But I was thinking about how to get links to this site and I don’t really know what would be an appropriate way to do so.

Yes, of course I can write comments in other sites and add a link to this site there. And I did several times in the beginning, but right now it feels too artificial, too cheap. Another option, a good one, is writing a guest post in another site, another blog. And that is what I tried to do also when I just started here, mainly to beat the site Under 30 CEO. As their page 44 success quotes to inspire and motivate you was the highest scoring site for ‘inspiration for success’, the name of this site. So of course I wanted to beat them by adding a post on their site linking to this site, so this site would benefit from their ranking.

And strange, looking back, as of course now this site is always in the top 3 or so in Google for ‘inspiration for success’. And somewhere in the future I am quite sure it will be stable on number one. and the page 44 success quotes to inspire and motivate you is now somewhere at the bottom of the first page, so basically ‘nowhere to be found’ as only the top 3 or maximum the top 5 is important as most people don’t look any further. And at the time the problem was that I was not successful. And that site is about success. And of course they wanted a useful article about success. Which I was not able to make in the time I wanted to spend on that article for that purpose at the time. And I was, and I guess still am, not that good in writing ‘good articles’. So in the end I decided not to push through as it was too much effort or whatever.

But of course with my new habit of finishing things and writing this post right now I am thinking of indeed finishing that article. Or another article. And have it posted. And this time I guess for the right reasons, as I just want to finish it. And not for some kind of SEO reason, although of course it might still help, especially related to what I stated at the start of this article, that this site needs more links towards it to become successful.

So well, marketing. The thing I don’t like. The thing I always hated. And the thing I always bumped into, the things people, bosses, ‘society’ (for earning my daily bread and butter) want me to do. And yeah, I know it’s a bit different than the idea I have about ‘sales’ (and marketing). As with me, and I guess most people, ‘sales’ has a very bad image, like the car salesman wanting to sell you a car that you don’t really want or need for too much money. But slowly I also know that sales, good sales, is something different. Good sales is providing a solution for a need or a want of another human being. And yes, being paid for it, getting something in return for it. So a good salesman would not sell you something you don’t want or need. But then again, what if you think someone else needs something and he or she doesn’t know it’s a need. Like today I was just looking for the hospitals in Cagayan de Oro City to put them in the DoctorsConnect beta site and found many of them don’t have a website. Or not a website that is somewhere on the top in Google for the phrase ‘hospitals in cagayan de oro city’. And apparently the did not register their hospital properly in Google Places, as I saw many weird things in the list Google displayed for this type of search. And then my business partner and I ended up in some discussion like what’s the (financial) benefit for them to have a website and/or to show up properly in Google. And then I am still Dutch and a web developer, an internet marketer, as to me it is kind of logical, kind of a necessity that a hospital (or a hotel or something like that) shows up properly in Google, has a website. Just as service to the customers (or patients) so they could easily get information about that institution or business fully owned and managed by that business itself.

But yes, Cagayan de Oro City is Cagayan de Oro City and business is business (profit), so maybe I am wrong and should a website always have some financial return. But I am not convinced, so I will think about it a bit more.

And yes, that is ‘marketing’ (and sales) again.

Looking forward to your ideas and comments about this.

Inspiration from an empty screen

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Yeah, as mostly I realized I didn’t write here yet, my daily post. And I was a bit scared of the blank screen as I didn’t know what to write. And I still don’t, as you can imagine from the title “Inspiration from an empty screen”. But somehow it’s an interesting title, don’t you think? I mean, I thought something like I want to inspire people, write an inspirational post. And somehow ’empty’ invites creation, inspires creation one could say. So right now I am thinking I could have left the post empty, so you could have your own thoughts ‘reading’ it, making some creation yourself. And I am also thinking that the screen somehow invited me to write, always invites me to write. So in that way an empty screen is inspiring, at least to me.

And yeah, I am thinking more and more about where to go with Inspiration for Success. As somehow of course I want to be a famous blogger.And yes, of course I still want to write about my success, so you could find all my old stuff being in a similar mood like me and realizing that no matter how shitty you feel or how much of a complainer you are or whatever, that you could still reach success, be successful.

But until now I have not been very successful, at least not in career and finance, the things I have in mind when I think about success. So I don’t have much to share like (other?) successful people like Oprah Winfrey or Tony Robbins. Or maybe Leo Babauta, but he is not really my sample for success.

So while writing right now I realize that I very much know what i am looking for. Something like fame and riches. And not just be a blogger or something. And maybe also not like a CEO of a large company or something, unless it’s a famous company like Facebook or Google. But then again, who knows who is the CEO of Google? And I guess most people wouldn’t know the name Larry Page, one of the founders of Google.

So yes, this empty page did something inspiring to me. As it makes me realize what I am exactly looking for. Something like fame and (public?) success. And not just money or something. So something to think about.

So what about you? Do you really know what you want, what you want in life? Or what success is to you? If not, you might want to start with an empty page. And if you know and you’re not there yet, you may also want to find an empty page and start writing. As writing helps, helps organize your thoughts, as speaking aloud does. But that’s another story.