Success Starts Here…?, Not Here… X …

In any good pirate movie, search for Aztec gold movie, or any good cowboy movie looking for the gold robbed from the stagecoach and buried in the Sierra Madres, you will see a weathered, leathery brown, burned edged, wrinkled up… treasure map!

And on that map you will see where X… marks the spot. The final spot, the buried spot, the successful spot if you can get there… from here.

But where is here?

Where do we start on a treasure map, or where do we start on a journey to success?

Maps themselves are awesome. Lots of people put in lots of work so that you can type into Google Maps and have exact directions pop up for you so you can visit a friend out in Montana, or find a handmade pottery shop a half an hour away.

But where do we start from?

Each individual person will have to start from the exact spot they are in right now.

Then decide on taking a logical next step in the right direction to move yourself toward your goal, destination, or buried treasure.

Back in the 1900’s when you turned eighteen and headed off into the workforce, whether you went to college or not, when you entered the workforce you would enter into what was called… an ENTRY LEVEL position.

Every type of business, industry, or market has them.

SUCCESS nugget #1… You never start at the top… or… the X.

Even though they do mark the spot.

As I endeavor to learn how to become a more skillful writer and author I have recently learned that my weekly posts on each of my three websites are acting like “marketing” for each websites main idea or book I have out.

In a nutshell the articles allow people the opportunity to stay engaged with my content thereby learning more about me and what I’m offering.

See also:

So as a new web guy, who still has his spots, learning how to navigate the Ocean Web using the available “maps” of other successful people, I have discovered also, that coffee mugs are… a sort of… ENTRY LEVEL position… or offering… that can allow a new guy the opportunity to learn the ropes of setting up vendor relationships, purchasing accounts, product quality guidelines, and customer service… without too much responsibility or risk.

We know where we are personally, maybe we are afraid of the next step, we may not know what it is, or we may know and just lack the confidence to shove off out into deeper water.

I have taken the next step to contact a vendor in regards to handcrafted coffee mugs for two of my websites.

What allowed me to take the step?

The vendor is a daughter of a good friend and mentor of mine, I got to know his daughter years ago, so I feel comfortable moving forward with someone I know, who is offering a product that meets my desires for my websites.

There is also a writing nugget I liked… there is a story attached to this potential partnership.

The backstory goes… “I had an office once, the office was located in a building called “the old school,” there was a large main work room in the old school and this larger room contained a pottery kiln, I could look out my office window, across the large open workspace, and be looking directly at the kiln… suffice to say when I came in on a particular Monday I could tell my friend and his daughter had “utilized” the old kiln, in the old school, over the weekend because of the noticeable… fire damage to the building!”

And now here we are… years later… her a business owner/pottery artist, and me a fledgling author with entrepreneurial tendencies, and ENTRY LEVEL butterflies!

The funny thing with maps is… the destinations are fixed, even the X… but you can start anywhere, right where you are even, and move yourself forward, toward that treasure in the Sierra Madres, your friends house in Montana, or your own little successful gig… so go on… and step up onto that ENTRY LEVEL!