My quote of the day - “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” ― Peter F. Drucker

[vickieito]

Three of my recent orders have been based around beta reading self-help books and researching business quotes. So it's been a really nice break from creating e-courses for insurance adjusters and writing IT resumes.

As soon as I saw this quote, I really liked it. I always knew successful sellers on Fiverr make tough decisions every day, but I never thought of those decision as "courageous" until now. But they absolutely are courageous!

Here are a few:

• Posting your first gig? Courageous.
• Letting your family and friends know that you are "in business" on Fiverr? Courageous.
• Sticking to your prices when buyers want to "negotiate"? Courageous.
• Saying "no" to orders that simply aren't good opportunities? Courageous.
• Remaining calm and professional even when your buyer isn't? Courageous.
• Admitting when you're wrong and doing your best to correct the wrong? Courageous.

These are just some of the "courageous decisions" that I have seen successful sellers on Fiverr make - whether they are newbie sellers or TRS.

So how about you?

What are some of the "courageous decisions" you have made or seen other successful sellers do?

[katakatica]

38 minutes ago, vickieito said:

Admitting when you're wrong and doing your best to correct the wrong?

I realized VERY quickly that non-fiction writing isn't for me. I find it boring (to start with), but it also just... doesn't match my writing style. I tried for a while but ended up with lots of cancellations (like, genuinely a LOT), so... I went back to fiction. This way wayyy back in 2017/2018 and doesn't really 'affect' me anymore, but it was definitely a weird time. 

(I've been writing way before I even knew Fiverr was a thing but it was mostly fanstuff (though a lot of it did pretty well, even for not so popular fandoms.) So while I had some experience, it took me a bit to really understand what I liked writing and what I'm terrible at! 

It's honestly fun to see other sellers sort of try new things as well, being bold (or brave, I guess.), though of course sometimes... those ideas might not work out and that's OK. 

[smashradio]

1 hour ago, vickieito said:

Three of my recent orders have been based around beta reading self-help books and researching business quotes. So it's been a really nice break from creating e-courses for insurance adjusters and writing IT resumes.

As soon as I saw this quote, I really liked it. I always knew successful sellers on Fiverr make tough decisions every day, but I never thought of those decision as "courageous" until now. But they absolutely are courageous!

Here are a few:

• Posting your first gig? Courageous.
• Letting your family and friends know that you are "in business" on Fiverr? Courageous.
• Sticking to your prices when buyers want to "negotiate"? Courageous.
• Saying "no" to orders that simply aren't good opportunities? Courageous.
• Remaining calm and professional even when your buyer isn't? Courageous.
• Admitting when you're wrong and doing your best to correct the wrong? Courageous.

These are just some of the "courageous decisions" that I have seen successful sellers on Fiverr make - whether they are newbie sellers or TRS.

So how about you?

What are some of the "courageous decisions" you have made or seen other successful sellers do?

My two cents on this, is that it's based on two generations who didn't experience real pain or danger in their lives. Little to no real struggles. I'm not talking on a personal level, because you'll always find people who struggle to get by or with medical issues and so on. 

But as a whole, my generation – millenials, and our beloved Gen Z, have been put up on a pedestal, handed our liberty, and never had to work hard for anything. 

So, I can see why young people today will see posting a gig on Fiverr as courageous. I don't agree with that statement, obviously, but when you haven't faced war, extreme poverty and famine, it's easy to lose sight of what this word actually means. 

Courageousness, to me, is when a woman runs in front of a bus to save a kid. It's when a man goes to war to give his family a future. It's when a police officer risks his or her life in the pursuit of making our community safe. 

With all of that in mind, I haven't really made any courageous decisions as a seller on Fiverr. I've made some smart ones. I've been determined. 

One of them has been to increase my rates, even though I knew the growing competition lowered theirs simultaneously. That was a smart decision. Sticking with it was difficult, yet my detemination kept me going, and I don't regret it. 

I also think your examples (except the one about posting your first gig, since anyone can and will do that these days, regardless of skill) can be tough, and they are all relevant as something we should strive for. 

I like your list! I just don't agree with the word courageous in this context, and now I'm ranting about it. Sorry about that! I tend to ramble when I've had too much Monster with my morning coffee. 😂

Edited June 2, 2022 by smashradio

[vickieito]

19 minutes ago, smashradio said:

I like your list! I just don't agree with the word courageous in this context, and now I'm ranting about it. Sorry about that! I tend to ramble when I've had too much Monster with my morning coffee. 😂

Yikes! Monster with morning coffee?! That's pretty potent stuff. I hope that's not a daily thing! 😂

I think it does take courage to be smart and determined (it's so much easier to be lazy and play dumb). But then again, that's going off of my definition of courageousness.

What do you think Drucker meant when he said "courageous" in the quote above?

25 minutes ago, smashradio said:

except the one about posting your first gig, since anyone can and will do that these days, regardless of skill

Haha...that one is actually me. 🤣 It took me 2 1/2 years to post my first gig. I lacked creativity and just couldn't think of any skills that I had that people would pay money for. But yes, I found people that were offering gigs to sing "Happy Birthday" with their goat and I thought that was the type of skill (if you could even call that a skill) people were sharing on Fiverr. So I'm glad I didn't post my first gig until I new what skills buyers were looking for and would be willing to pay for.  Now I know buyers want me to write, read, organize, and design.

1 hour ago, katakatica said:

I realized VERY quickly that non-fiction writing isn't for me. I find it boring (to start with), but it also just... doesn't match my writing style. I tried for a while but ended up with lots of cancellations (like, genuinely a LOT), so... I went back to fiction.

I am the opposite! I used to do a lot of creative writing when I was younger, but being a scientist for many years working with data, forms, and technical writing has caused my writing to become very boring and dry. So I would love to do non-fiction. "Creative" writing for me these days is resume writing and rewriting content for web pages.

[sabinespoems]

With keeping in mind that courageous can be interpreted in different ways 😜 I did take a step I didn't think I would've taken! 

I'm a very private person and although I did tell my family about my Fiverr endeavors, my close friends don't know about it. To explain in short, simply because I like having this to myself. However, about a year ago a journalist of a well-known newspaper here in my country approached me. He asked if I wanted to take part in a piece about how the internet creates possibilities for freelancers that wouldn't have been possible without it. With my custom poems traveling around the globe, the internet is definitely crucial for my business having potential! I said yes, thinking I could take part anonymously. 

In the end, my name and last name were necessary for the piece to be published. Having done an interview and the journalist dedicating his time to it I didn't have the heart to say I didn't want to be included. 

So my courageous step was despite wanting to remain anonymous, I said yes to being published in a national newspaper! With keeping in mind that news is fleeting and not many people would read it (it's not like it's front page news) I took the plunge. Despite one friend of my dad asking if it's me, nobody noticed. Although it pops up if you google my name so it's there forever for people to find, I do feel a sense of pride (and 'bravery') I did it despite it being counterintuitive for me! 

P.s. In case you were wondering, no it didn't bring me any business haha 😅 Only one person contacted me based on the article. I didn't expect much of it since most of my clients are from other countries anyways, but it's interesting to know nonetheless!   

Edited June 2, 2022 by sabinespoems

[smashradio]

39 minutes ago, vickieito said:

Yikes! Monster with morning coffee?! That's pretty potent stuff. I hope that's not a daily thing! 😂

I live on the stuff. I 17 oz can of Monster and a large cup of espresso. If I don't get it, you don't want to be around me. I did manage to quit drinking a gallon of Cola Zero every day though. Now I'm drinking a gallonof Cola Zero Zero – apparantly without caffeine as well. 😇

39 minutes ago, vickieito said:

What do you think Drucker meant when he said "courageous" in the quote above?

I think Drucker was a very smart business man. I think he knew that using words like "courage" to describe the simple necessities of success, would effect the optics. If you market a business or a business person as "courageous" instead of "enterprising", you can do all sorts of things with it. 

It's no different than using words like "mission" or "transformational".  It's a buzzword. A nice one, for sure, but when used in business like this, it becomes watered down, in my opinion.

But hey – marketing someone as courageous (when in fact they're sitting at a computer, in a heated home, enjoying liberty and security, not presented with any real danger) can at least make it sound like we're on a "mission". 

"We enable couragious business endevours in the digital enablement space."

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? But it doesn't mean anything. That's what happens when we dillute the real meaning of not just a word, but the entire concept it describes. 

It's no surprise that buzzwords, at least officially, have their origin in the business study hallways at Harward. (Check out Buzz words at the B School by Hallgren & Weiss.)

Yet I think Drucker was just as much a part of this, through his work in business management. You see it in the quote you shared. 

My favorite Drucker quote:

“There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”

39 minutes ago, vickieito said:

So I'm glad I didn't post my first gig until I new what skills buyers were looking for and would be willing to pay for.  Now I know buyers want me to write, read, organize, and design.

I think that's admirable. I truly do. Perhaps not courageous in the true sense of the word, but surely smart! And you should be proud of that. Far too many sellers on Fiverr come here with no plan. From what I've seen, you're an excellent writer!

Edited June 2, 2022 by smashradio