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…)

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…)

“What do you think of this idea for my new startup?”
“Eh, yeah, it sounds pretty interesting.”

Ever heard this before? If you have, your startup may be barking up the wrong tree. (more…)