If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. - Unknown

In his book, the 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John Maxwell tells the reason why a lion-tamer brings a stool inside the cage. It is to keep the lion distracted. The lion, seeing the four legs of the chair will get distracted, not knowing which one to focus on. A predicament that many of us face personally and in our business or profession.

As I was building this website and my other website www.mabutingbalita.net, I got distracted by a myriads of items. I began designing and coding only to find out that I can get somebody to make it better and faster. Then I worried about the content, marketing and sales and advertising, and then the online payment gateway.

The result? Nothing happened!

I spent a few weeks denying that I was in going nowhere until my wife asked, “So how is your project doing?” I could only mumble an unintelligible answer. I have lost focus.

Where did I go wrong? I got distracted and forgot all about the the objectives of each website: For www.magandangbalita.com, To bring the good news to you and for www.mabutingbalita.net, To share the Good News, To Live the Word. To focus on providing content instead of doing other things that can be done by others. So I got Eman, an open-source advocate to get the site up and running. Now, I know where I should concentrate and on which part I should delegate.

John Maxwell suggests the folowing guidelines on how to Focus time and energy.

Focus on 70% on Strengths: Effective Leaders who reach their potential spend more time focusing on what they do well than on what they do wrong. To be successful, focus on your strengths and develop them. That’s where you should pour your time, energy and resources.

Focus 25% on New Things: Growth equals change: If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving. If you dedicate time to new things related to your area of strength, then you’ll grow as a leader. If you’re through growing, you’re through.

Focus 5% on Areas of Weakness: Nobody can entirely avoid working in areas of weakness. The key is to minimize it as much as possible, and leaders do it by delegating.

Maxwell further suggests:

Work on yourself. You are your greates asset or detriment.

Work at your priorities. You will have to fight for them.

Work in your strengths. You can rach your potential.

Work with your contemporaries. You can’t be effective alone.

You might be a lion, but you might be looking at four legs at a time.

There is nothing like the first time. In my case, my first ever online sale, courtesy of a friend. It took us about two weeks to finalize the deal and I can say that it was a good experience.

Did I make a profit? Yes, but more than the profit, I earned (intentional play on learn) my lessons well. It’s good to have friends who help you as customers and as counselors.

She explained to me what she liked most about our transaction was the good customer service I showed throughout, from the pre-sale, delivery until post sales. She says she will certainly be a repeat customer and that she will recommend my service and products to her friends and co-workers.

Then she proceeded to tell me to offer more products, make the payment more transparent and innovate.

I think I will.

A lesson learned the hard way.
by Jun Asis

I was alone.

The kids and the wife were sleeping and I had the time to myself. Now I can get some work done.

I turned on the PC and proceeded to update my other website, www.mabutingbalita.net. I had just added a new product on my online store and was testing if the link I placed worked fine. “Hmmm. The text could use some improvement,” I thought to myself.

Error…No page displayed.

“Must be the connection. I wish I had a DSL line.”

I reloaded the page. Same result.

I went to some other sites and all of them were fine. Must be my host I said.

Sure enough, the message in my host’s website declared downtime. And that meant I could have some play time.

The following day, I tried my website again with a bunch of warning messages. I immediately contacted tech support and found out that they were still restoring files. A few hours passed. Then the announcement that everything was restored.

And then it hit me. My site was missing a lot of files. And upon inquiry from tech support confirmed my worst fears…My files were gone forever due to hardware problems they’ve encountered.

And I had no backup!

So I am starting from scratch and have learned my lesson.

Backup is necessary, important and essential.

Backup now. Before it’s too late.

1975.

This was the year Og Mandino’s classic book The Greatest Salesman in the World.

July 2006. This is when I read it.

Oh, I knew about Og Mandino and may have read some of his books before. It just so happens that i got around to getting a copy now. And as with everything else, I believe that didn’t happen by chance.

In a summary, he states the four laws of happiness and success:

* Count your blessings.
* Proclaim your rarity.
* Go another mile.
* Use wisely your power of choice.

These are contained in a document called God’s Memorandum, a memo from God to You.

Oh I knew of these principles before. But ever since I’ve read the book and got to thinking about these four laws, I seem to find myself practicing these secrets.

I’ve began again to specifically detailing the blessing in my life from my family, resources, talents, possessions and got around to thanking God for the internet, computers and PC games and appreciating nature more, enjoying and thinking about wonder of it all. Included are the trials and problems I’ve had which made me better and stronger. Books, music. My community, Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon, food, small pleasures. I realized the list is endless and still growing.

I don’t usually work “overtime”. I was the type of guy who punched out a minute after my time off. Now, I put in some hours and feel happy about it. And I see great results too. There was also a time that I wished my wife would be self-sufficient in everything, especially in computers. But now, I go out of my way to help her. and our relationship has never been better.

Rarity. I know I’m unique. I’ve got lots of talents. And the book made me realize that I was lying to myself about my talents. I was limiting myself to the things that I can do. And the world will be better of with my contibution.

Choices. I have chosen to lead a positive life. To be creative. To lead. To learn. To educate. To serve. To have abundance. To help. And to love.