The Difference Between Winning and Losing - A Wonderful Blog by a Friend

I'll give you a snippet here, but please follow the link and read the entire thing. It's a must read! By my good friend, Diane Kennedy.

"Ever so often I send an email that resounds with a number of people. The one I sent a week ago, 9/3/08, was one like that. Here it is again. Thank you all for your kind comments.

The past year and a half has been the most challenging I’ve ever faced since I’ve been in business. And last week, in the worst storm in Phoenix’s history, a tree went through our roof. It was a bad enough storm that I looked under the trunk the next morning for little witch’s feet, but apparently it wasn’t that bad. (That was a Wizard of Oz reference, by the way.)

There was a time in my life when this would have been devastating. Now, it’s a hassle, but not the end of the world. Since our son David came to join our family, I’ve found that I think a lot more about my reaction to things. I strive to be the adult that I want my son to become. And I’m better for that.

So, what is the lesson that I should take away, and teach my son about, from all the turmoil that’s come our way? There are a number of them..."

http://www.taxloopholes.com/connect/trackback/1235

Diane Kennedy, CPA and Tax Strategist is co-founder of Diane Kennedy's Tax Services, a leading tax firm that works with clients throughout the U.S. and founder of taxloopholes.com, an award-winning online tax education site. Diane is the author of The Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestsellers, "Loopholes of the Rich" and "Real Estate Loopholes," and co-author of "The Insider’s Guide To Real Estate Investing Loopholes," "The Insider’s Guide to Making Money in Real Estate," "The Insider’s Guide to Tax Free Real Estate Investing" and "Tax Loopholes for eBay® Sellers."

The answer is always NO if you don't ask - or in this case, participate!

A thread in a Forum that I regularly post in had a link to http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/09/04/come-to-the-seo-thinktank-2008-on-me/ - a contest for an all expenses paid spot at the SEO Think Tank in San Diego at the end of September. So I looked at it and said to myself, why not enter? I may be new to this but that's why I want to go to this event, to learn more!

I have an "information addiction" and I love to share all of the stuff I find and learn about. My blog is just in the testing stage, but it's evolving and I'm learning in the process.

"People told me they wanted to go to an Internet business event that focused on Networking and learning from each other, in a casual environment." Hmm, that's a quote from the www.shoemoney.com site about how the event came to be. So learning from each other and networking is right up my alley! I'm soaking up as much as I can about how to create a presence on the internet, partly because it's fun, partly to earn some money, and partly because I'm at a place in my life that I can give back some of the knowledge I've learned over the past 30 years of being a business owner.

I have a website under construction (not ready for primetime!) for my newest company, Bridgeway Connections, LLC -"Helping Businesses Work Together to Achieve Their Goals" (tm) and my website for a network marketing company, www.SendOutCards.com/cardgallery that I've begun to promote.

I participate in a Mastermind Group that helps me to stay on task and focussed, and hopefully I help the others in the group as well. I set up a private Google Group for us to post on which was a totally new endeavor for me.

I'm running AdWords campaigns and now Facebook ads to test what that might do for me. I'm beginning to learn about Facebook and LinkedIn and every day is exciting because I know I'm going to learn more!

I have a passion and a crusade for making businesses aware of the pitfalls of Merchant Service Providers and have found and make referrals to the one honest, ethical credit card service provider I found in all of my research. I was doing research for my own company, but when I found them I called the Vice President of Marketing and said, "I want to refer businesses to you, what can we work out?" So, if you're reading this you can save substantial money by going to www.bridgeway.merchantrates.com - don't take my word for it...get a quote and see for yourself! My main business is saving about $400 a month with them (now we do process about $150,000 a month in credit cards).

Now if I can just figure out SEO and get traffic to my sites! LOL - I guess this is part of that attempt, now isn't it?