On my previous post, 17 No-BS strategies for Creating Viral Content, I talked about "writing to inspire." One thing I forgot to mention was that in order for you to write to inspire, most of the time, YOU have to be inspired.
Inspiration is often a key ingredient in most success stories.
Without someone, somewhere being inspired to do something, the world would still be in the dark ages.
Inspiration can come from the most unexpected sources. For example, an apple inspired Newton and a bath inspired Archimedes. It's sometimes that strange.
While trying to find inspiration for my next posts, I decided to throw a question at some of the world's most popular bloggers.
I asked them what moments actually inspired them to do what they do and I've decided to share their stories here. They are both inspiring and motivating.
1. Trent Hamm - The Simple Dollar
The defining moment of my career was when I held my infant son in my arms and realized that I needed to give him everything, but that everything meant *me*, not an excess of money. That led to career advancement that focused on time flexibility above salary.
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2. Pat Flynn - Smart Passive Income
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3. Zac Johnson - Blogging Tips and ZacJohnson.com
One defining moment that made a big change in my business and mentality was when my father and I flew across the country from NJ to CA to attenda Commission Junction University in 2000. I was still in high school and already making money online for a few years now. This was the first affiliate/internet marketing event that I went to, and being a 17 year old kid amongst the mega million dollar dot com companies was quite a thrill. I would go on to speak and attend a ton of conferences in the coming years, but this was my first event and it made a huge impact on my business and helped me get to where I am today.
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4. Henri Junttila - Wake Up Cloud
The first thing that comes to mind was the discontent I felt. I wasn't doing what I really wanted. It was literally the straw that broke the camel's back. I knew that what I had been doing wasn't working, so if I wanted different results, I needed to change my game plan, which I did, and here I am.
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5. Chris Guillebeau - Art of Non-Conformity
The defining moment for my career as an author came long before any actual writing. In 2002, I was depressed after 9/11 and moved to West Africa for a four-year volunteer commitment. I consider that experience the foundation for everything that happened next.
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6. Erica Douglass - Erica.biz and Whoosh Traffic
Looking back, I think the defining moment so far has been the day in
2006 when I decided to sell my last company, as I knew that web
hosting wasn't what I wanted to do long-term. It took me a year from
that point to actually wrap up the sale, but it has been totally worth
it.
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7. Mars Dorian - MarsDorian.com
It was the moment I came back from my year-long travels and realized:
Shit, now what ? I don't want to work for the man - I want to create my OWN career.THAT shock of having to work for someone ELSE boosted my passion like dynamite nitro and made me work EXTRA hard to achieve that goal. FEAR can be your grrrreatest motivator IF
you know how to use it.
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8. Abhijeet Mukherjee - Guiding Tech
When I came across blogging and the fact that money can be made from it in a magazine
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9. Cori Padgett - Big Girl Branding
I was cleaning vacation homes for a living, NOT loving it on any level, making probably only $200 bucks a week, if that, and thought "There has to be something bigger and better than this." I was miserable and not very fun to be around.
I started researching online opportunities, got a lot of help from fellow online entrepreneurs from a forum I was a part of, and somehow fell into writing web copy for a living! I'm honestly not quite sure HOW it happened, other than God was leading me in the direction He wanted me to go, the pieces fell where He intended, and here I am. :)
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10. Grethen Rubin - The Happiness Project
Gosh, it would be hard to say. When I learned to read, I suppose! :)
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Over to You
If you're a blogger, what moments inspired you? What got you started.
Share in comments, We'd love to hear them..
