Kaizen is a Japanese word that is literally translated as “improvement” – nothing more, nothing less. However, given the common practice in Japan of labeling industrial or business improvement techniques with the simple word, “kaizen” has taken on a whole new meaning to the English-speaking world.

Essentially, kaizen has become descriptive of a business philosophy in which the model is to focus daily on small, incremental improvements in every facet of a business. Every individual, from the head of the organization to the worker bee, is responsible for their own kaizen. Over time, these incremental changes not only add up individually, but collectively they lead to compounding and exponential results in improvement.

While this is a great model for business (as has proved to be the case over and over again in Japan), I think it’s an even better framework that you can use to dramatically improve your life…Any of you who regularly read this blog know I am a big advocate of “celebrating the small successes.” No matter what your goal, if you keep your nose to the grindstone and consistently move forward, you can’t help but eventually reach your desired end-game. I realize this is a simplistic viewpoint and that life is anything but simplistic. But that doesn’t mean the statement is untrue.

I think the philosophy behind “kaizen” takes this idea one step further. Applied to your life, kaizen means you focus on improving every area of your life in small yet consistent ways. Over time, these small successes not only add up to make the sum greater than the parts, but the results begin to compound exponentially. What began as a determination to focus on small increments of change can actually lead to life breakthroughs that catapult and propel us forward towards our dreams.

We’re all looking for those breakthroughs that will spring us forward. We continue to cross our fingers hoping our big break is just around the corner. But all too often we sit and wait for circumstances to be right, for things to fall into place. We wait and agonize over external circumstances we have no control over yet minimize the importance of the actions we can take RIGHT NOW. We are essentially waiting to “get lucky.”

But there is no such thing as luck. Breathroughs may seem lucky but they are nothing more than when preparation meets opportunity. The philosophy of kaizen alludes to the idea that breakthroughs only come as a result of the compounding effects of consistent, incremental improvements in the different areas of our life. Through these small but daily changes, we put ourselves in the right position and what may seem like luck is nothing more than positioning ourselves in the right place at the right time.

So maybe we should stop hoping to get lucky. Maybe we should stop being the slugger who sits back waiting for just the right pitch with the hopes of maybe getting “lucky” enough to hit it over the fence (but most likely striking out). Instead, maybe we should dig in and get to work, take our hacks, foul a few off, and worry about putting the ball in play. Maybe we should stop waiting for pitches that may not come and do the best we can with what life gives us RIGHT NOW.

If we do that, eventually our pitch will come…and when it does, we’ll be ready for it.

Paul

P.S.  If you liked this post please subscribe to the RSS feed or “tweet this” to your friends using the buttons below. I would also love to hear from you – drop a comment if this post moved you in any way (or even if it bored you to tears). As always, thanks for following me on this journey…

My video review of the Zero Hour Workweek: Get Paid to be You, the new e-book by Illuminated Mind’s Jonathan Mead, and the concept of the work / life balance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shoot over to Illuminated Mind and download your free copy of the book by clicking here. Jonathan has a great site with a ton of resources for people who are not content to spend their lives in the cage of conformity.

Please comment on what you thought of the video – both the content and the actual presentation itself. Keep in mind this is only the second video I have ever created so don’t be too harsh in your critiques – on second thought, I would greatly appreciate any and ALL feedback so as not to make an even greater fool of myself in the future Thanks!

Paul

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There’s just one small problem…I haven’t made a single penny online and I don’t know what I am doing.

More on that in a bit – for now let me tell you how I got to this point. I am originally from California near Santa Barbara. I did my undergrad years at UCDavis and grad school at the University of Texas, Austin. I spent quite a bit of time in the realm of professional and collegiate sports and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to run my own sports participation-based business. I had an amazing time building the business from the ground up…but then we exploded and I spent more time working IN my business than working ON my business. Every day was spent putting out a new fire and it was tough just to keep my head (and the organization) above water let alone focus on continual growth.

There was one more problem – I was building someone else’s business. My figurative blood, sweat, and tears were making someone else money…a lot of money. I was stuck in a situation that I always told myself I would avoid.

I made a promise at a very early age that I would never settle for a “conventional” life stuck in the rat race. Fighting my way up the corporate ladder by playing the good soldier for 50-65 hours a week for 51 weeks out of the year hoping for a promotion that may or may not come is NOT my idea of living the good life. In fact, I equate the corporate cubicle lifestyle with a slow and particularly boring death. That may seem a little melodramatic but I am determined not to settle for a life I don’t want to lead.

I have just one life to live…and I want to squeeze as much out of it as I possibly can. It’s not just about the money. It’s about having the freedom to go after the life of my dreams.  I won’t go into exactly what those dreams are in this post but suffice it to say that I crave the freedom of working how I want, when I want, where I want so I can do what I want, when I want, where I want. And I can’t possibly live this type of life if I were to stay stuck in the “corporate world.” I knew there had to be a better way.

Ever since I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss my perception of “work” and making money was irrevocably altered. For those of you who haven’t yet read this book do yourself a favor and grab a copy…you will be glad you did.

So, like most of you who are reading this can relate, I began researching “home-based” and online business opportunities. I bought into a number of “fail-proof” systems that guaranteed to make me tens of thousands of dollars virtually overnight. I read sales letter after sales letter, ebook after ebook. I tried data entry and survey systems. I tried MLMs and Network Marketing and affiliate programs. I even tried a “roulette system” for God’s sake (I’m pretty embarrassed I fell for that one – I knew it was a scam but went after it anyway). And, as you can guess, none of it made me a penny. It honestly started to feel like a search for the holy grail…sacrificing and searching for something I didn’t even know for sure existed.

I knew that if I were to have any chance of succeeding in this industry I would have to find mentors. I would have to find people who were already successful at doing what I wanted to do. I needed to find these people to not only prove to myself that making money online is possible but that it is a process that can be learned and that I CAN actually do it!

In my search I stumbled across Eric Farewell and Alex Jeffreys. For those of you who do not know who Eric is, he is a product-launch genius and niche marketing specialist who spends his free time flying, racing, skydiving, traveling and pretty much doing anything that he wants when he wants to do it. He is also a damned good photographer (lucky for me he may be photographing my summer wedding in Jamaica ). He hates the moniker of “guru” but he has achieved that status and has made lots and lots of moolah on the internet – I don’t want to put his earnings on the spot but let’s just say there are a lot of zeroes on the checks he gets in the mail. Oh yeah, he’s also only 24 years old!

I met Eric at Pat O’Bryan’s Unseminar 6 at the end of May, 2009. His outlook on living life to the fullest and financing your own freedom resonated deeply with me and I became one of his students. One major set back, however, is that I was (and still am) a complete novice when it comes to the world of internet marketing. Until that seminar in May I didn’t even know what a squeeze page was. I didn’t know what was implied by the word “copy.” I didn’t even have a twitter account. So though I completely understood Eric’s coursework from a conceptual standpoint, I was far from being able to actually implement any action steps. I knew I needed a mentor that would help me start from the absolute beginning.

Eric actually recommended a guy by the name of Alex Jeffreys. I did a little research on Alex and what I found amazed me. Here was a guy who sounded as though he was exactly the type of mentor that I was looking for. And it wasn’t his own hype that I was reading – it was the words, praise, and testimonials from his past students! Instead of empty promises and conceptualizations, Alex walks his students step-by-step through the process himself – and he refuses to let his students NOT become successful.

At first it sounded too good to be true and I was hesitant to join Alex’s coaching program based on the price tag. But I knew I needed a mentor so I ponied up the money and hoped for the best. And now I am beyond grateful that I signed up for the course! I can honestly tell you that I am light years ahead of where I would have been had I not joined this program a month and a half ago. It would have taken me months of struggling via personal trial and error to figure out what I learned in the first two weeks of Alex’s Coaching program alone. Alex genuinely cares about his students’ success and does everything he can to facilitate that success. I can’t say enough about Alex Jeffreys and the community that he has created.

This brings me to the purpose of this blog. I know there are a ton of you out there that want to develop a profitable online business but don’t know where to begin. Or you have an online business but it’s not going quite the way that you want. You are sick and tired of being bombarded by all the hype without results, or sick of falling for the next “sure thing”, or at the end of the rope and thinking it’s impossible to make money online. I’ve been there. I almost gave up before I even started. But now I have mentors and am part of a highly motivated community of individuals who are successfully making money on the internet. And now I KNOW I am going to be successful online.

This blog will serve two purposes: First, I will be writing about what I learn from the training provided by my uber-successful mentors Alex Jeffreys and Eric Farewell. I will be writing about what is working (or not working) for me and I will be learning from the best of the best. This training will serve to help you, the reader, effectively implement the same strategies that two of the industry’s biggest success stories used to build their own online empires. Second, keep in mind that as of this first blog post I have yet to make a single dollar online. This blog will (hopefully) provide documented proof that someone who is completely new to the realm of Internet Marketing CAN build a profitable online business!

Some people think I am absolutely nuts for leaving a “good job” for something I really know nothing about. Some people are nicer in their assessment and believe me to be naive or that I am just chasing a pipe dream. All I know is that this is the right decision for me.

So why should you care who I am? Why should you come back to read my posts and add your name to my list? Because I am starting from nothing (like most of you) and I am going to show you that it’s possible. I am going to build a successful online business from the ground up. And I am going to help YOU build YOUR business. I have burned my J.O.B. bridge. I have put all of my eggs in one basket and it’s put up or shut up time for me.

Again, it’s not just about the money. It’s about the freedom to pursue the life of my dreams…and this is the first step towards me actualizing those dreams. I look forward to the journey and hope to help as many of you as possible.

But I am also asking for YOUR help. I would love your feedback – if you have any questions about any of my posts please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Or if you have your own suggestions or advice, stop by and drop a line. Or even if you just want to swing by to introduce yourself. My goal is to foster discussions within a community of readers to help each of us build more profitable online businesses. Here’s to all of our future successes online!

Paul Norwine (8/10/09)