Escape Velocity and Your Internet Business

My 7 year old 2nd grader, who is homeschooled, is particularly interested in space travel and airplanes. So, we read a lot of books on the subject for science.

One day while doing some reading with him I came across this concept of “Escape Velocity”. I was immediately struck by the implications of this principle for internet business and had to share this with you. (See how these great ideas for blog posts come at the funniest times?!)

What is Escape Velocity and what does it have to do with your online business?

Wikipedia puts it this way:

“… (escape velocity) is commonly described as the speed needed to “break free” from a gravitational field (without any additional impulse)…

… the escape velocity is the minimum speed an object without propulsion needs to have sufficient energy to be able to “escape” from the gravity, i.e. so that gravity will never manage to pull it back.”

Explaining this to a 7 year old, I basically said that the space shuttle has to take off SO FAST with all the power the rocket boosters have so that it can break away from the earth’s atmosphere. Then once it gets free of the pull of gravity, it’s in orbit and it takes very little energy to stay up there.

Do you see any implications here for your business?

What are you doing to create escape velocity?

Everyone loves to talk about “passive income”. What they don’t say as much is that while passive income is very possible, it takes a whole lot of WORK to create it.

It ain’t passive in the beginning.

We have to “escape” the “gravitational pull” of the following:

  • Our own procrastination
  • Time restraints (we have other stuff going on besides our business)
  • Learning curves
  • The competition
  • Our fears, insecurities, lack of confidence
  • Insert your own gravitational pull here

So, the question is: How do we create escape velocity?

Here are a few ways to get into orbit.

  • Get Mentored and Coached

    • Getting good coaching from someone who is already AT where you want to BE is a wonderful way to shave months (years?) off your learning curve. Why do Olympic athletes hire coaches – people who were once top athletes themselves? Because they know their stuff. If you want to get to the top you must learn from others who are already there.

    Hanging out with other successful people is also important. One of the things that can drag us back to “earth” are our negative thoughts. If you don’t know anyone offline who is making a full time living from the Internet, you won’t have much of a cheering section. Get with people who are a few steps ahead of you and observe what they do. If they can do it, so can you.

  • Create Public Accountability

    • Create a challenge for yourself that stretches you. As an example, I recently launched a challenge on my blog. I planned on writing 30 articles to promote my business in 30 days. When I first heard about someone else doing this, it sounded unreasonable. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was actually quite doable. So to make it more fun and create accountability for myself, I issued a challenge on my blog. Surprisingly, almost 50 people have joined me. We’re cheering each other on and the majority of us will get it done because we want to be able to brag about it at the end. :)

    There are challenges like this all over the internet. You can join a group doing it or create your own – how hard was it for me to simply write a blog post? You can pay to get “in” to a challenge group or do it for free. Doesn’t really matter. Just look for the opportunities that scare you just a little bit!

  • Don’t Wait – Work

    • Do NOT wait until everything is perfect to get going. Right now I’m helping my mom launch her blog. While she is articulate, funny, a great writer and entertainer and has had several successful businesses through the years, she thinks she won’t have anything interesting to say on her blog! That’s utter nonsense of course – but what many newbies don’t realize is that the best education comes in the process.

    If you wait until your blog/website/information product/etc are perfect, you will never get going. It’s like waiting for the perfect time to get married or have a baby – the perfect time doesn’t exist!

    What’s more – the thing about procrastination is that it’s often more fatiguing than the actual work involved. We are so creative at coming up with all the “reasons” we can’t do something. One of the participants in my 30 Day Article Writing Challenge kept twittering about why she couldn’t do it – until she joined us and DID. I sent her a message that teasingly said, “I was wondering when you would stop wasting energy saying No and just say Yes”.

    I hope these tips help you realize the importance of getting going and getting ON with it. Think about how you can create Escape Velocity in your business – and come back in a month and tell us how different your business looks. :)