The other night I was putting my daughter to bed and I read her a book about the planet Earth.
"Urt?"
"Yes, that's the planet Earth. See how big it is?"
While looking at a picture of the globe in the baby book, I was reminded of the day that I myself learned how big the world is.
There once was a time when I was frustrated in my business. It seemed like something wasn't right, my products or my approach. Sales weren't great. I knew that I could help other people, and I really wanted to help them...but I didn't know who they were, or where they were. I couldn't find them; instead all I found was struggle.
So I started blogging and making YouTube videos, unleashing my soul into the camera. In one video I tell my story of how I passed the CFA exam the first time, overcoming challenges that at the time seemed insurmountable. To this day, I believe over 20k people have watched that one video and it has created a following for me that launched two new business lines. My services are now sought after by people from all over the world, from all over the continental United States to The Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, India, The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Mexico, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, and Canada. And these new businesses I created have had an impact of their lives that is beyond compare to whatever I did for anybody before.
My point here is that before I discovered the power of thinking broadly, my business was held back by myopia. Now that I see how shortsighted I was, getting frustrated and dwelling on small pieces of local New York City business that didn't come through while the whole time there were hundreds of millions of people outside of NYC waiting to hear from me.
Whereas before I was filling time pursing a few hundred people who didn't need me, now my problem is that I don't have enough time to find all the ones who do. I now see the whole world as a potential client. So for my friends out there reading this who are frustrated, confused, or discouraged with their business or career, I would say this. There are 7 billion people here on Earth and I'm sure that somebody somewhere needs something that you can provide, so go and figure out how to best serve them. There is unlimited opportunity to touch the lives of others if you can just broaden your vision and seek with your heart.