What Color is Your Mirror?

Mirroring the Image

When I was still in my corporate job few years back, I remembered vividly all the roadblocks I have to go through moving up the executive levels. Decision making was tough especially involving firing people, retaining the right folks, even promoting the right managers…Even these days, I still receiving emails from formal staffs asking for career advice. Guess what..I was doing the same thing 10 years ago.

I often ask myself a question: if there is someone who can guide me through all my career path, won’t I be able to avoid all the mistakes I could have possibly avoided. You bet!

I like to use the phase “mirroring the image” in each step of your career, and the same principal applies to internet marketing. The fact is we are all students of learning. Every student if fortunate, can always become a better student with the right teachers. The best one will become the master one day:)

Why Mirror?

If your mirror is yellow, you will see yourself as mellow yellow. Vice versa, if your mirror is blue, your will be a cheerful blueman.

The reality is no one can be good at everything but at the minimum you have to realize your own strengths and weaknesses and constantly evaluate yourself including setting SMART goals.

Good students often have good teachers, good teachers always have good masters. So what do the masters do to improve themselves?

The masters are good at mirroring others. That being said they are constantly improving themselves. Seeking ways to network, learn and benchmark with like minded individuals in the same circles.

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” ~ Bruce Lee

Question: why do you think 95% of people fail in internet marketing? One of the key reasons is they failed to mirror themselves.

How to Keep Your Mirror Clean and Shiny All the Time?

Here are a few tips and you should be able to apply depending on where you are right now.

1. Self Realization

Before you progress any further, you always need to know where you are at the moment and how much risk you can take! Don’t ever go beyond the limit if you know you can’t handle it. I see many people jump start their internet marketing career without proper savings or even realizing how much afford is needed to kick start their business.

Thus rule number one, always be truthful to yourself. If you are short of money, make sure don’t quit your regular job before jumping full time on the ben wagon.

2. Mentorship

Find a mentor and most of the time you will have more than one mentors through all walks of your life. Trust me:) We are not superman, even the guru needs mentor.

Be sure to listen to the right person, the wrong person can really ruin your internet marketing journey. For example, one of my favorite things I like to do is subscribing to the email lists of a few reputable marketers and see what they said in their emails on a regular basis and learn from there. See, you can’t copy them but you can mimic and mirror them.

2. Goal Settings

I am a strong believer of goal setting. Goal can help you visualize your outcome and you can constantly adjust your goal sheet to better suite your needs or wants. Bear in mind, be realistic, don’t ever set goals that you can’t deliver.

“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: Now.” ~ Denis Waitley”

3. Obstacle

Entrepreneur will not be successful without obstacle. Obstacles can only make you stronger and don’t be afraid to fail. Because failure can only make you wiser. When things don’t seem to work well as planned, consult with your mentors, analyze the outcome, re-evaluate your strategy and strike back.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ~ Michael Jordan

Always keep in mind, the person who chooses to give up is always yourself:) No one can make you a better person unless you choose to make it happens.

4. Solution vs. Problem

When the sky is falling, don’t be panic. Stop thinking about the problems as it is not millenarianism.

Thinking from a solution perspective rather than problem will often help you find a better solution. eg, “what can I do NOW to improve problem XYZ”(Solution approach) vs. “Problem XYZ cause damages to ABC etc” (Problem approach)

5. Keep it Simple

You will be pleasantly surprise things can be simplified if your follow your daily action plans. Many people tend to complicate things and never get things done. Be sure to keep things simple and work on your own pace. Everyone is born differently, and you are not at a race. Work on your own pace you are comfortable with.

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucious

6. Make it Better

Another confucious lesson:)

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

In the real World, there is always competition, and the winner is always company that provides the best products and services to its customers. So we always have to learn how to make things better.

Always be a student of learning regardless of what age or race you are. Let go you ego, there are always room for improvement.

Mirroring to Success: The Sky is the Limit!

As an entrepreneur, we are not born perfect. Your educational level has nothing to do with your success, your past experience does not guarantee your future.

Keep this in mind, only your WILL, Perseverance, Motivation and Determination to WIN will layout the foundation of who you will become in the future.

Question: Do you believe Leaders are born or Leaders are trained? I say both..some may disagreed.

To wrap up, Life is always full of ups and downs, and most of the time it all depends on how you mirror it. So, my friend, what color is your mirror:)