For those of you who know me, you likely think that I’m going to get into a Lenny Bruce, NYer, thang. Well, not exactly.
The “F word” that I’m referring to is focus, and how it changes lives and changes fortunes…
Well, it’s not all that grand, but I think you get my overall point. And here’s why I’m writing about it.
I only recently started Colloquy and I had two focal points. One, to immediately build some business in town, and Two, to build this website and start to branch out a bit. But really, just a bit.
Having moved to this little town in SE Iowa from Denver, where I had a 30 person web marketing and development firm for 3 years, many of my friends and colleagues here thought that it was natural for me to focus on getting business in Denver. Surely, I have contacts there who would like to work with me again.
Of course I knew that I could do so, but my answer was “not so fast.” I had a lot going on right here in Iowa, and with the IOWATasmic and UWEBC conferences coming up, I knew I’d meet some good prospects there. And at some point, I’d “get to” Denver.
And, this is where the “F word” really kicked in.
As I prepared for each of the conferences, creating collateral, finishing my website, contacting attendees and speakers, something else altogether happened. My contacts in Denver reached out to me. In fact, I’m going there next week for a finalist interview on a website redesign as well as an initial proposal on an identity and, ultimate re-brand. Not only that, but yesterday, I helped a colleague complete an RFP response that I’m included in – for a Denver-based company. Additionally, although not Denver per se, I got a call out of the blue from a former colleague in the Bay Area who may have a pretty sweet general marketing assignment for me.
The point in all of this is not to toot my own horn, but to toot the horn of FOCUS. You see, this has happened to me before, at least twice, when I was putting energy into efforts in one place, and unexpected (and welcome!) results came from another. And that’s what this post is really all about…
To encourage you to use what I call “the power of focus”, and to ask you to spread the gospel of focus to your friends and colleagues, because it works wonders. Really, it does.
Perhaps there is a metaphysical answer to this. Perhaps not. But now that this has happened to me again, for the third time in the last 5 years, I am convinced that there is something more than hard work and a little intelligence at play here. There is something “larger” that has to do with the application of positive energy, which certainly equates to hard work, that opens doors everywhere not just in the place where the energy is being applied.
If I had empirical evidence, and more stories to tell, I’d love to write a book on this, as I feel that strongly about it. But for now, I’ll get back to focusing on my upcoming presentation, the two proposals I need to write, and continue to ponder how and why focus in these places can and will lead to other opportunities yet to come.
Do you have any related stories to share? I’d love to really get this conversation going!