The tsunami recovery project I've been involved with lately suffered a serious setback when the aid vessel we were raising funds for sank off the coast of Indonesia. The Endless Sun, with 20 volunteers and crew aboard, struck an uncharted coral reef and went down fully loaded with relief supplies.

Everyone on the boat survived, but one of the volunteers tells a tragic story of how no one helped them to shore, but instead scrambled for a share of the supplies floating in the water. Imagine this happened to you -- you're a lawyer from Australia volunteering your time and travelling to Aceh at your own expense to aid tsunami and earthquake victims, your ship sinks, and the people you are there to help leave you to drown and rescue bags of rice instead.

What would be the impact on you of this experience? Would you return to your own country, shaken, and decide you had better look after yourself in the future instead of trying to help others? Or would you reflect on how desperate those villagers must have been to value rice over their fellow humans, and redouble your efforts to be of service to them?

Winston Churchill once said, "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Perhaps that attitude is one of the hero's secrets.

P.S. Due to the loss of the Endless Sun and a variety of other factors, the tsunami recovery fundraiser I mentioned in my last post is being postponed to a later date.

Labels: heroism, social action, volunteering

Beginning April 19th, I'll be participating in a virtual fundraiser for tsunami recovery and the Global Initiative to Advance Entrepreneurship. Hundreds of thousands in Indonesia are still without permanent homes, and last week's earthquake has caused even more hardship. You can help tsunami victims regain their livelihood while helping yourself or your business become famous! Please pass the word to others in your network about this important cause.

Get Slightly Famous (tm) - Online
A 12-Part Teleseminar Series Featuring Jay Conrad Levinson, Joe Vitale, Steven Van Yoder, C.J. Hayden, and 8 Other Marketing Experts
Virtual Fundraiser for Tsunami Recovery and the Global Initiative to Advance Entrepreneurship (GIVE)
Starts April 19th, 2005

This is the age of the virtual customer. All businesses, regardless of size, industry or location, are finding that the online world affects their business. Your prospects now "Google around" and expect to see your name. And there’s a good chance that prospects find you in the first place through an Internet search engine.

Prospects expect you to make a virtual case for yourself. If you don’t pass the test, make a bad impression, or appear lackluster in relation to your competitors, you lose potential business you never knew about.

No business today should operate without an up-to-date, integrated Internet marketing strategy. From April 19 through May 25, 2005, Get Slightly Famous - Online, a 12-Part Teleseminar Series hosted by Steven Van Yoder, will bring you the most effective online marketing strategies available for today’s business owner.

In this groundbreaking series, Jay Conrad Levinson, Joe Vitale, and many other online marketing experts will share online marketing strategies that really work in today’s economy. You will learn strategies applicable to any business owner or independent professional.

What You’ll Learn

o How to create an integrated online marketing strategy using publicity, e-mail marketing, and a prospect-attracting web site
o Seven ways to increase the effectiveness of your web site
o How to transform your expertise into information products such as ebooks, audios, and learning programs
o How placing your articles on other people's web sites can drive thousands of new paying customers to your web site
o How to use an E-Newsletter to hypercharge your web presence
o 12 steps to leverage online networking sites and blogs to become a virtual guru
o How virtual action groups and mentor programs can extend your reach and maximize your income

Help Tsunami Victims In Indonesia Help Themselves

Get Slightly Famous - Online is a virtual fundraiser for the Global Initiative to Advance Entrepreneurship (GIVE), a nonprofit foundation supporting tsunami recovery efforts in Indonesia. GIVE provides a new approach to global philanthropy through its Marketers Without Borders (tm) program. Your participation in this series will help rebuild the hardest hit regions of Indonesia.

For less than the price of one hour with any one of these online marketing experts, you can learn from all twelve in 18 hours of powerful teleseminars beginning April 19.

For full details or to register now, go to www.getslightlyfamous.com .

Labels: social action