Experts, Opportunities and Puffery

Over the last week, so many interesting opportunities have come, either by phone or email or in person, that I am amazed.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when my brain is stimulated, I tend to be able to see bigger pictures and think of relationships of things. So I ask you to forgive the seeming sidetrack for a minute.

I was thinking about House – the TV show. Here you have a team of doctors who nearly kill their patient diagnosing all kinds of diseases and treating them to various treatments until in the last 5 minutes, Dr House (Hugh Laurie) makes the right diagnosis and saves the patient.

Now think about how that relates to business.

If you go to a marketing expert, their solution is always a marketing one, even when you need more money it is always to do more promotion or advertising.

If you go to an accountant, the solution is money oriented – recording, making more sales, saving money or all of them.

If you go to a lawyer, it’s usually a compliance need.

They are all right but…are they right for YOU?

In looking at the opportunities coming across my desk, my current challenge is that my contract is coming to an end and I need to find new ways to have fun and earn some dosh. So yes, dozens of opportunities are presenting themselves. Will they work for me? Perhaps. Which will I choose?

Now there’s the rub. I asked the question in another forum the other day about are people truly making money on-line and one of the answers I got helped me filter ALL the opportunities so that I can make some decisions once I am finished investigating.

The filter – does the opportunity fit my life purpose.

My purpose is to help others.

I have often done things that seem to be harmful to me to help others but I have never really been harmed. I have tried something and learned something new and tested something out and now can help more people.

Oh and the other filter – am I willing to do what I am told to do?

One of the challenges I have in life is that I only follow instructions until I know where they are going not until I reach the desired destination. Reaching the destination just isn’t as important to me as learning how to do new things.

So what this means is that – I enjoy life, help lots of people but I am unlikely to ever get rich and famous because while I have done my 10,000 hours (Malcolm Gladwell- Outliers),once I have mastery, I move to the next 10,000 hours of learnings.

Why puffery? Because so many of the opportunities promise things they are unlikely to deliver but they try to excite me with wondrous and fabulous profits to get rich quick.

So watch this space – where to next?

I just hope it takes me on a speaking tour throughout Asia Pacific. That is one of the things that I want to do next.