Yes, rub your eyes and read that again! I won a freaking car recently. More than winning, I “earned” a free car Here’s the back-story:

I was visiting a colleague fighter, Mike Filsaime, at his office in New York to do some video filming for our upcoming project (releasing in Mid May). However, he was also just days away from launching his own product.

They were currently in their “buzz building” mode and had all their promotional partners (including me) promoting.

I was #5 in “most leads generated” and was (at the time) set to win an Amazon Kindle (but who cares, I already have one).

Well, while at New York, I was checking my e-mail late that night and I got an email update from Mike regarding who’s leading the “lead contest.” I went to read it and I was amazed at something…

Right before my eyes, he listed that if someone get 4,000 leads, they win a FREE CAR.

“I’m sorry…WHAT?! All I have to do is send you 4,000 leads (free leads, they just have to put in their name/email) and you’ll give me a freaking free CAR?!”

Here’s the thing…

1. Getting 4,000 is *not* easy - many times, just getting 4,000 CLICKS is hard enough. To get 4,000 leads, you’re looking at needing to send at least 16,000 clicks - wow.

2. I didn’t know this till the END of the promotion. There were 2 days left.

3. He already had 40,000 leads! That meant that 40,000 people had already filled in this form and wouldn’t do it again (even if they did, it wouldn’t count).

A lot of the people who promote, we have very similar “lists (of customers)” so it’s very competitive…

So…lots of reasons why I “couldn’t” do it.

But here are a few reasons I *could* do it (the positive):

1. I was AT his office. I had an advantage. I could make quality video interviews, etc…to send to my list.

2. For a recent promotion our company did, we had generated over 8,000 leads and close to 20,000 clicks!

So…all in all…I decided to take the challenge because I LOVE challenges.

Proof - Concrete Goals WORK!

I have to admit that in the last 3 years I can’t remember the last time I had worked this relentlessly to hit a goal. It was down to the wire (4 hours left) and I was only 400 leads away!

I had done everything I could. I had mailed my customers multiple times, promoted HEAVY.

But I’m so close, what to do?

“Ok time to do some out-of-the-box thinking…” - It led me to doing things I never imagined possible…

A) I immediately went and promoted this to my lead lists that were in completely different niches - I mean COMPLETELY different.

I had NEVER promoted anything like this to them. I did it anyways.

B) I immediately had one of my team members help me start a PPC campaign. She was awesome, even after a long flight, she sat down and did this as a personal favor for me.

…and now for the crazy part…

C) I e-mailed my friends who had customer lists and asked them to send their list MY link!  Yes, imagine if Coke called Pepsi and said “hey buddy…can you send a blast to your entire customer base and make us money - help us win this contest?”

…Although I’m not enemies with the ones I asked, we are technically a bit “competitive” - but we’re all great friends.

I’ve never had the nerve to ask for anything like this. Even when I was up for “Top Entrepreneur Under 25″ by BusinessWeek, I never had the nerve.

NOW…I was taking it one step further.

What Were The Results?

3 out of the 4 I asked IMMEDIATELY sent the mailing to their list as a friendly favor! What great people…

The contest ended 12 AM ET (Tuesday) and when it ended I was still 200+ leads away

However, the product did not launch for another 13 hours. I had a feeling that Mike would quietly extend the deadline for all his affiliates and he did JUST that!

Someone from Mike’s team (Becky) was awesome, she stayed up all night with me and kept me updated.  At exactly 8 AM (5 hours before he launched), I hit the 4,000 mark!

This truly was an amazing feat because I did it when he already had 40,000 leads! I got into it so late and barely had any time.

I was the #1 promoter!

The Car…

I won a Toyota FJ Cruiser, but really don’t want it. So, I’ll be taking the cash value in order to get something different (something I can love).

The Lesson?

Bottom line, you need a short (realistic but hard to get) goal in your life. These goals can REALLY drive you.

The key is to have a strict deadline. It’s also best to maybe have a deadline that is not “you” giving it, it’s a 3rd party (so you can’t just move it).

I’ve learned a lot about myself this week. I see that I’m an incredibly “goal” oriented person. This new knowledge is going to really help me structure my life and make some major changes (leading to mo’ money)!

Go and make a goal, fight for it. You’ll see amazing results and maybe walk away with a free car too!

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For those of you wondering where the heck I’ve been the last month, there you go - I’ve been under my desk!

Of course I’m only kidding, I only spent a few hours there

But it does bring up an interesting question - why was I down there to begin with?

Here’s what’s been going on the last couple of months…

We had an ENORMOUS product launch, the biggest in our company’s history and to say “we had some problems along the way” would be an understatement!

We launched a huge brand new eLearning system and well, it crashed. We also brought in over 6,200 customers so you can imagine - every time someone so much as “farted” inside the system, we got TONS of emails!

But, you know what? I have NO bad news to report - only good news.

I’ve Never Learned So Much About Myself & My Business…

This launch really was the moment of truth for us and a test to the will, power and “fighter mentality” for everyone on the team.

I learned a TREMENDOUS amount about my own fighter mentality and also that of those on our team.

I also have great lessons that came out of it - things I will share over the coming days with you right here on this blog.

We’ll start with the first lesson today…

It’s OK To Freak Out - Just Do It Fast…

Look, we’re all human and it’s only natural for us to “lose it” or get overwhelmed. Being a fighter does not mean you’re not allowed a moment of weakness.

Being a fighter means you can recollect yourself fast and snap out of it.

Let me give you a story I remembered while I was under my desk…

This Lesson Brought To You By a TV SHOW - “Lost”

Background of the show: A plane mysteriously crashes on an island. Lots of people die but lots also survive. The island is weird and lots of unexplainable things are happening - people are still dying; everyone is scared out of their minds.

As in all crisis moments in life, a leader rises to the occasion. His name is “Jack” and he’s a spinal surgeon back in the ‘real world.’

He gathers everyone and starts to provide structure.

During the first season, something horribly horrifying is happening that they don’t understand and he needs to take a moment to calm down his “right-hand man” - who happens to be a woman (Kate).

She’s on the verge of a breakdown and asks him how he is keeping his cool.

Here’s what he says (I’m paraphrasing, I don’t remember exactly what he said):

“I was once in a surgery, life-threatening surgery, one small mistake and the patient would be dead and it would be MY fault. Well, it was one of my first surgeries and it was a very serious case…

I’m in the process of the surgery and I did something wrong, something terribly wrong - I had the patients entire back open and all her spinal nerves exposed.

Whatever I did caused ALL of her spinal nerves to pour out of her like spaghetti - I had basically sentenced this woman to death - holy sh** what had I just done?

Panic came over me, I freaked out and I filled with fear…here’s what I did:

(Pay attention to this part - it changed the way I handle crisis moments…)

I told myself ‘Jack, it’s OK to be afraid…here’s what we’ll do - go ahead and freak out, go nuts, lose your mind, fill yourself with fear - but do it for FIVE seconds. That’s it.’

Jack goes on to say: ‘I counted down from 5 to 1 and I let fear overtake me, but the instant my 5 seconds were over, I cleared my mind, got rid of the fear and FOCUSED. I fixed the problem and the woman survived and is living a healthy life.’

So what’s the moral of that long paraphrasing?

It’s OK To Be Afraid - Just Get Over It Fast!

Look, the launch that went sour this past month for us, the results could have been catastrophic - my name/reputation/team - everything I spent 4 years building could have been gone in the snap of a finger.

Scary eh?

And, yes, I WAS afraid. But, when I was under that desk - I told myself:

“Your team, your business, your customers - they need you right now, people are counting on you. It’s OK that you’re afraid, just let it overtake you for a minute or so - don’t fight the fear, let it come…

BUT, after that, shut up, sit up and get it done!”

What was the result?

The result was a record-breaking launch not only for the company but for our entire industry.

I’m actually being PRAISED and RESPECTED for the way we handled the aftermath - it’s freaky but it’s almost like it HELPED us. That, my friends, is called making lemonade out of lemon!

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The moral of the story is to NOT fight back against fear - let it come, accept it, acknowledge it, even let it overtake you. BUT, always control it.

YOU tell it when it can come in and YOU tell it when it has to leave. Let it come in for just a bit, then kick it out, re-focus and bring the fighter back out to solve the crisis.

Till next time…

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** This post has been dedicated to 2 Indians who actually got Tshirts printed with this blog on them! hahaha…

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Every now and then I see a story that really strikes me and reminds me again why the “fighter mentality” is so important. Unfortunately many who are not stuck in dyer situations are not motivated enough to awaken the fighter mentality…

I found this video recently of Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon professor who encompasses everything I mean when I say “Awaken The Fighter Mentality.”

The video is called “The Last Lecture” for 2 reasons.

1. He used to do this lecture on “life happiness” every year as it is anyways and it would be his last lecture.
2. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and told that he had 6 months to live, so unfortunately in it’s most literal sense, this IS his last lecture.

I was very excited to see his attitude, enthusiasm and it did nothing but motivate me (as well as saddened me a bit to see his situation). Yes, he is still alive today, you can follow his health and great enthusiasm at the following blog:

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/

Watch this video and think, learn and grow. It’s about 75 minutes long, so shut your door, grab something to drink and enjoy!

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