What if your greatest accomplishment in life was the spreading of one powerful idea that would improve the lives of millions?
Let me express this point using an example from the study of the brain (of which I have been doing a lot of research into lately.)
It was previously thought that the adult brain was stuck. That you had what you had and that was that. This theory was “proven” by the fact that elderly stroke patients who experience paralysis in one side of their bodies could not recover use of that side.
It was also proven through tests on monkeys.
Then along came Paul Bach-y-Rita, notably one of the most inspiring neuroscientists of modern times.
He had a great idea that the brain could change late in life and proved his theory through rehabilitating his father to full recovery from a severe stroke and also creating a device that allowed blind people to see.
This one idea completely changed what we knew about the brain and has changed the entire trajectory of neuroscience.
Martin Luther also had one big idea. His big idea was that Christ paid for our sins and all we have to do is accept that to be saved. Full stop. Period. This went completely against the religious beliefs at the time.
Martin Luther’s big idea changed Christianity forever and has allowed many people to find Christ. Paul Bach-y-Rita changed neuroscience forever having a MASSIVE positive impact on the treatment of stroke, dyslexia, autism and many other disabilities.
My question to you is: Do you have one idea that could change the course of the world?
I bet you do!
Christopher McCandless died at 24 years of age. He was a modern day adventurer who travelled the world. His final months were spent in the Alaskan wilderness where he lived by himself in an abandoned bus in an attempt to live off the land.
Unfortunately after 4 months he passed away from starvation.
What does this have to do with leaving a legacy in this life?
Christopher documented his entire journey. His journals were found and were used to recreate his life in a book titled “Into The Wild”. This also became a feature film by the same name. Despite his early death, his story lived on because he documented it.
We have the opportunity to leave a legacy with the words that we write and the pieces of us we leave behind.
Here are some simple steps I want to follow to leave a legacy
#1 – Love people for they are the ultimate legacy
(My wife and my kids are my number one priority, and then those around me who I get to share life with)
#2 – Live an extraordinary life that people would want to know about
(Still haven’t managed to work that bit out yet…I don’t want to live an ordinary life)
#3 – Document your journey
(I blog and I podcast…I even make a few videos)
#4 – Share it with the world (hopefully not due to an unfortunate death)
Sometimes we have great plans for our lives. Plans to make a name for ourselves and make the world a better place.
In my mind I had a plan to be a great entrepreneur. I wanted to fight poverty using education and making it affordable and accessible to everyone.
I even made a mission statement: “To provide the world’s 7 billion people will access to high quality affordable information that improve their lives and the lives of those around them.”
However, when spending time with God recently I felt I heard him say “That is a great cause…but that doesn’t mean you’re the one who should do it.” God basically shut down my big plans for myself and gave me a glimpse of the plans he had for me.
When I talked about the fears of finance God said “Don’t you think I will pay you for your work?”. When talking about my current endeavors I felt compelled to sell CashFlowInvestor.com.au which has been my baby for almost 4 years now. I also felt compelled to start a Christian website.
My wife said to me the other day “lets never be afraid to hit the reset button” and I think that is what I am going to do.
CFI made $500+ this month so it is a great time to sell it. However, I have been thinking about my Christian website and I don’t know what I am going to do.
I know I want to podcast, and I know I want to be real (not a super pastor like Joyce Meyer), I also know I want to tackle some hard questions like that of morality, healing and some other tough things I have come across.
I think I will use this website (my own name) to launch my Christian podcast. No idea what it will be called yet or how I will make any money but “let’s never be afraid to reset”…time for a new adventure.
I was in church this morning and I heard something that really inspired me.
“Whatever you recognize you become thankful for. Whatever you are thankful for will increase in your life.”
I am not thankful for enough things in my life and I need to start being more thankful. Every day there are great things that happen that pass me by that I am not grateful for.
For the next 90 days I am going to find 10 things every single day that I am thankful for.
I do a LOT of driving for my job, so I listen to a lot of podcasts. Recently I was listening to the advanced selling podcast and something really struck me. Bill (one of the hosts) said that something inspirational that was said to him really stuck with him and that was this concept of who are you not to be your best? Who are you not to give your all? That shouldn’t be up to you to decide. You should give your all and then let the marketplace decide if that is something they want. This has really inspired me in my job and online to be my best 100% and then simply let the market decide if that is something they want. I need to stop second guessing myself and I need to stop being a “try hard” I need to just do what I do best, and then let the world, my clients and my readers judge it for what it is.
Last year I set the goal of getting 1,000 visitors to cashflow investor from search engines in a calendar month.
I spent much of my commute time to work writing articles for the site.
After months of growing the content I couldn’t seem to break the 800 visitor mark. So I had a break.
In the last 8 months without adding hardly any new content I am getting almost 3,000 visitors per month from search engines. So it’s Toms to set a new Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
My BHAG
To receive an average of 1,000 visitors per day to CashFlowInvestor.com.au from search engines. I want to achieve this in the month of December 2012.
Today I have decided to begin building a real business and not just creating another job for myself. Let me explain.
CashFlowInvestor is starting to make some money (anywhere from $200-$500/month). This is currently almost on autopilot, as I rarely add new content to the site, but it isn’t really growing.
Over time I could add more content myself.and grow the income that way but I will just be creating for myself another job
I have decided to outsource
With the money I am making from CFI I am going to reinvest it back into the site by hiring writers to write blog posts.
The Goal
The goal is to invest $1,000 per month into the site and have it earning even more than that ($2,000/month). Then the income will.continue to grow on autopilot.
I would then spend my time continuing to.grow my business by investing time and resources into other websites.
The dream is to (eventually) replace my income from my job with my websites. How long it takes me to do that…well that is the mystery.
As well as purchasing a niche site for $155 I have also decided to try and build a niche site from scratch myself.
Ultimately the goal is to build 30 or so niche sites, find 5 that do well and grow them into authority sites. Then either sell off the rest or just keep the monthly income.
My Progress So Far
I started my niche site at the beginning of August 2012.
I purchased a exact match domain (.com) of a term that gets 1,000 searches per month with little competition.
I have written 4 or 5 articles (mostly over 1,000 words) and done some minor backlinking. I write 2 articles for ezinearticles and I am also using SocialAdr to build social bookmarks.
Traffic and Income
$0 in income so far but yesterday I had a breakthrough! My first traffic from Google. 2 visitors. One visitor for the phrase I am targeting and one for a random phrase I am not targeting.
Next Steps
I now want to build out more content. I want to have 11 articles as a minimum and I will do this over the next 6 weeks. I will keep tracking my keywords and see how I am going.
A couple of days ago I bought a niche adsense site for $155. It was making approximately $7.75 per month so that means I bought it for 20X (20 months revenue).
What I would ultimately like to do is buy sites for $2,000 that are earning $100/month and grow them into $1,000/month sites.
This site is a test case of whether or not it is viable to purchase prebuilt websites and turn them into cash cows.
I will be fixing up the content on the site (making it better reading), adding more content to grow traffic and some link building.
My only goal with this site is to make my money back in 12 months. Ideally through income direct from the site but if that fails I will sell the site at the end of the 6 months to.recoup my losses.
I will keep this blog updates on my progress. Today the site received 8 visitors and $0.00 in income. But it also moved from place #6 to place #5 in the rankings for it’s primary keyword. Time will tell if this can be a success.
I love setting goals! They keep me going and they keep me driven.
1. Get CashFlowInvestor.com.au Earning $1,000/Month
This is my baby and is currently my biggest success story. I have recently put ads on the site and it is going great guns. The ads mixed with affiliate income is bringing in a good amount of money each month. I will be reinvesting this money into more articles to grow the site bigger and it is my goal to continue reinvesting my money until I reach $1,000/month in income.
2. Get on The Online Income Lab Podcast
I have been listening to the Online Income Lab Podcast a lot lately and love the interviews that Trent does. He does interviews with people who are successful online. It is my goal to get on this podcast as I have a unique story. I have been trying to make money online for SIX YEARS and I am only just now starting to see some traction!
3. Start 18 Sites (1/month) That Earn $1/day Each
I have been inspired by the Adsense Flippers Podcast to create a bunch on Niche sites. They go for really small sites (less than 10 pages). It is my goal to start as many Niche sites as possible and then keep the ones that are performing and grow them into authority sites.
At the end of 18 months I want to have a minimum of 18 sites earning $1/day. This will equal $18/day (or $500/month) which I will continue to reinvest to build and grow more sites. My actual target is higher than this (I would prefer them to be making $10/day each) but I am going to start small.