This has been a hard week for me.
I’m not very good at asking for things. But this week I asked a lot.
A LOT.
I’m always trying to think of people I can introduce to each other who can provide value for each other. I’m always trying to think of ideas of what I can do for other people.
I know the one secret: that if I provide value to people in my network, then value is indirectly created for me.
I’ve done this for 11 years straight every day.
Until this week.
THIS WEEK I DID THE EXACT OPPOSITE. Who can help me and how can I directly ask?
And you really helped me.
First, I asked you to buy my book. (http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-ebook/dp/B00CO8D3G4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0) and to also note the offer I make on the first page of my book.
Then I asked my friends to help me. I did podcasts, interviews, guest blogging, guest speaking, I went out on a dozen or so email lists managed by my friends.
I asked people to cover the story of my book. Many articles came out.
People responded. Many people gave copies to their friends. And those people responded.
One person bought an enormous number of copies. I asked Amazon if I could get a special bulk price for him and they helped me out directly by quoting an unbelievably low price for a special hardcover edition. Something they don’t normally do.
I asked and I received.
My book was in the top 100 of Amazon books (both for kindle and paperback) all week. I was, and still am, #1 in all my categories. I’m probably the first person ever to be both #1 for “religion & spirituality” AND #1 for “business & investing” at the same time. For one day, I was even #1 in the world for all non-fiction kindle books.
I don’t know if I will ever do another book like this. Or another book launch like this. It took everything out of me and I feel the book says everything I want to say.
Coming soon I am going to do a post on what I call “Publishing 2.0” – how to self-publish professionally. Everything I did differently this time, all my expenses, all the revenues, how I did it, who I asked, how I asked, what people did.
I’m really grateful.
I realized that “choose yourself” also means “choose yourself to ask”. And this was very hard for me to do.
When you get out of your comfort zone, you change. You learn. Your comfort zone gets bigger. The bigger the zone, the easier it is to be comfortable. But then the harder it is to break out of that comfort zone.
Today my new challenge is: what can I do to expand my comfort zone just a little bit each day.
Thank you.
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[Note: next week back to my regular blog posts]