This is a guest post from Vik Tantry of There’s Money Everywhere.

Failure. It’s a scary word. It means that we made a bad decision, and we fear that our failure will reflect poorly on us as a person. But as we all know, failure is a part of life. Without failing, we’ll never succeed in a big way.

Things Are Rarely As Bad As They Seem

At the beginning of 2009, I was working at a large investment bank during the depths of the financial crisis. I really disliked my job, but felt I didn’t have any alternatives. To me, banking was the only path to financial and societal success. As the economy worsened, the bank had to reduce costs, and in April of 2009, I lost my job.

At first, I felt very insecure. The market was terrible, and I felt that I’d never get another job. For the next couple of weeks, I felt very depressed. How was I going to get my life back on track? (more…)

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a small mastermind. Four of the five people participating had sold or built businesses for at least $1 million, and the fifth person was a successful, high-income earner in real estate.

I attend a lot of marketing meetings and conferences, and listen in to many conversations entrepreneurs have. And it struck me that the conversation we were having varied significantly from the conversation most beginning entrepreneurs have in one significant way… (more…)

If I hear someone say “I am a life coach!” in their elevator pitch one more time, I swear I’m going to go all Homer Simpson and throttle them around the neck.

Let me explain. You see, I go to a lot of networking events…and I meet a whole lot of people. Unfortunately, 99% of those people are completely forgettable. That’s a problem, because when you go to a networking event, you really want it to be profitable for you. But how can it be profitable when no one remembers who you are and what you do? (more…)

I was talking with Clay Collins this past weekend (Clay is someone you should get to know, by the way) and he brought up an interesting point: Many people expect that they will be “discovered” by a “savior” and then–then!–everything will be set for them.

This is a dangerous attitude. It puts your fate in the hands of others. You expect to be discovered and then are crushed when no one pays attention to you. You put all your chips on the next interview, the next blog post, the next publicist or editor or meeting with a potential client. You set yourself up to be devastated when things don’t work out exactly as planned. And, if you’re not careful, this can quickly turn into bitterness at how “they” got discovered when you–the person with better talent! who is more awesome!–didn’t.

I’ve come pretty close to falling into this trap a hundred times or more. Let me show you a recent example: (more…)

Erica’s note: Several members of my community recently asked me how to hire a virtual assistant. I figured an awesome virtual assistant would be the best person to answer your questions, so I invited Laurie Cantus from YourGoToGirls to write a guest post. If you have more questions, make sure to check out her free teleseminar–the link to sign up is at the bottom of this post. Here’s Laurie: (more…)