Story Mentor Blog

5 Ways to Ensure Your Website Visitors Never Return!

clarice — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:48:35 +0000

Make sure your website doesn't add stress to your visitors' lives!

I recently revised a website planning guide I wrote titled Telling Your Story on the Web.

As a result, I have been thinking a lot about how websites need to be designed–and what kinds of information they need to contain–in order to successfully build relationships with visitors and encourage them to return again.

Some of the basic truisms about website design include making sure that the website is easy to read and easy to navigate. It should also answer your visitors’ questions, offer them solutions, and help them get to know who you are: the person behind the company.

Above all, your website should NOT add any stress to your visitors’ lives or give them a reason to leave and never return!

If you want a website that truly grows your business, think twice before you introduce any of the following into your website design:

Stylized, flashing entry pages with little or no text

People surf the web for information. When they land on your home page, they want to know in about 3 seconds whether or not your site contains the information they’re looking for. If your home page consists mainly of graphical moving parts that present a “look” rather than information, your visitors are likely to leave without bothering to read further. This is ESPECIALLY true if the entry page requires them to search for (or even worse, chase after) the button that opens up the main part of your website.

Automatic downloads of voice overs, music or videos

A website that automatically hits visitors over the head with voice overs, music or videos is irritating! If a visitor is particularly interested in your product or service, she may put up with the bombardment once, but she will NOT return–ever again. All of these features CAN be effective, but only if you give your visitors the option to play them if–and when–they want to themselves.

Pages that are hard to read

Many web designers just love putting white text on a black background because black looks hip and edgy. They also love using really light gray text on a white background because it looks modern and cerebral. However, both of these options are hard to read and strain the eyes. If your visitors are truly motivated, they might skim your text lightly, but they are unlikely to spend much time reading anything about you and your products/services in depth. They may also hesitate to return again.

Websites that are hard to navigate

I recently designed a completely new website for a wonderful Italian artist named Ettore de Conciliis. One of the reasons he needed a new site was that the navigation on his first website was so complicated. The web designer had uploaded small images of Ettore’s paintings–all smashed together–and then added interior navigation bars that forced visitors to scroll down the page to see a complete picture image, and then scroll sideways to see one image after another! Not only did this arrangement fail to show off Ettore’s beautiful paintings well, but the whole experience was extremely frustrating for visitors.

Websites that lack information about you and your products/services

Your visitors want to know what you have to offer, who you are as the business owner, and how you are different from your competitors. In other words, they want to know your story. If your website fails to tell a human story, your visitors will fail to connect with you as a human being, and they will soon leave.

The moral of this story is:

Make sure your visitors’ experience on your website is as positive as possible.

Create a home page that immediately lets them know what you do and whom you do it for. Make sure the text is easy to read and the navigation is simple and straightforward. And be sure to share a bit about your personal story because the key to growing your business through the web is developing relationships.

Is it ever too late?

clarice — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:11:55 +0000

My twin sister and I spent 4 hours at a restaurant last week catching up with a friend from our childhood whom we hadn’t seen for 40 years! It was wonderful finding out what had happened in her life and sharing highlights of our lives with her.

One of her experiences really struck a nerve in me, though.

At the age of 41, my friend had decided to go back to school to get her college degree. She told her college counselor that she wanted to become a lawyer. The counselor, however, told her she was too old to start such a career. He asked her what her second choice was. “English,” she replied. “Great!” he replied. Because she had more confidence in him than in herself, English became her major.

I felt dismay for my friend–not because English is a “bad” choice, but because an “expert” kept her from following her dream.

My friend’s story reminded me of one of my clients, who immigrated to the U.S. from Peru (illegally and alone) when he was just 17. This young man’s family was very poor, and none of his relatives had ever finished high school. His dream was to come to the United States, learn English, finish high school, and go to college.

As soon as he arrived in Portland, he found two or three menial jobs to support himself, enrolled in high school, and started learning English. At the beginning of his senior year, he met with the high school counselor and expressed his desire to go to college. The counselor advised him strongly, however, not to shoot so high. Instead, the counselor said, he should get some practical skills training and move out into the work force.

My client was extremely upset by such advice. Instead of meekly acquiescing to it, however, he got mad, and his resolve to follow his dream became even stronger.

The result?

My client eventually earned a quadruple major at Portland State University, applied to top graduate schools all over the country, was accepted by most of them (including Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics) and chose MIT. After graduating, he was hired by a major East Coast firm in the banking industry. Now in his mid 30s, he has already achieved enormous success by anyone’s standards.

My client had a very strong will and an overwhelming drive to follow his dream. Above all, he had self-confidence. Many people are not that lucky, however. Like my friend (and like many immigrants of color with whom my client has worked), they are discouraged from following their dreams by someone in authority who is blinded by personal prejudice and a smorgasbord of “isms”: ageism, racism, sexism.

It’s dismaying to think how many lives have been sidetracked as a result.

I would like to believe, however, that it is never too late for people to get back on track, to wake up one morning and decide to follow their dreams–regardless of what a parent, spouse, friend, counselor or some other “authority” might have told them they were capable of doing or becoming.

I guess this is why I am so passionate about lifelong learning.

Heads-up Scholars: APA Reference Requirements Have Changed!

clarice — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:12:21 +0000

APA Rules for References Have Changed!

I have been working as a freelance writer and editor since earning an MA in Writing/Publishing in 2004. Over the past six years, I have edited a lot of academic papers for professors around the world who are publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

If I do say so myself, I am pretty good at what I do! As far as I know, all of my professors have published their papers after I have edited them. And almost every new client becomes a regular.

So you can imagine my dismay when a paper I had edited for a long-time client (a professor in Taiwan) was rejected by his journal! They informed him that the references didn’t adhere to the correct APA style. At first, this mystified me because if there’s one thing I know by now, it’s how to convert references into APA style—and I knew that I had carefully done this for my professor’s paper.

The rejection letter from the journal explained that the references were missing DOI numbers—as required by APA’s 6th edition. I had never heard of of a DOI before, so I headed to Wikipedia for an explanation. Then I threw my APA Manual (5th edition) into recycling and ran out to buy the 6th edition. It turns out that they have made some major changes in this edition in regard to electronic sources.

Here is what I learned.

Keeping Track of Electronic Sources

The challenge today is that more and more journals are only published online—not in hard copy. Articles—even journals—come and go on the Web, which means that a link that worked today may not work tomorrow. Even when there is a hard copy, the electronic versions are sometimes updated when the hard copies are not.

Because scholarship depends on being able to locate the exact source cited by an author, this has become a big problem.

What Is a DOI?

To resolve the issue, a group of international publishers got together and created the digital object identifier (DOI) system, which assigns a unique alphanumeric string to each article. An article with a DOI enters a clearinghouse, so it can always be found on the Web. The DOI also serves as an embedded link in electronic references, so you can access the article simply by clicking on it.

After learning all of this, I spent five hours (!) researching each of my client’s references to see if a DOI had been assigned to it. I did find a few—especially among the more recent listings—and added them to his paper. (I also found a few discrepancies in my client’s references—such as years and article titles that weren’t quite accurate—so the exercise was actually worthwhile for him, too).

Going Forward

Clearly, more and more journals are going to require the DOI since it resolves a major issue in scholarship. Therefore, if you are a student, now is the time to understand what the DOI is. If you are a professor who specializes in a certain area of scholarship—and you use the same references over and over in your papers—it would be a good idea to research your references and add any DOIs to them that you can find.

Whether you are a student or a professor, be sure to add the DOIs to all of your references going forward.

Want to Grow Your Business? Provide Your Website Visitors with the Information They Seek

clarice — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:56:16 +0000

People surf the web for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. When a keyword search brings them to your website, you have an ideal opportunity to provide them with the answers and solutions they seek. Doing so will help you build rapport, demonstrate your expertise, show you care, and move many of your visitors to pick up the phone and call you (instead of one of your competitors).

How can you discover what your visitors really need? By putting yourself in their shoes.

For example, suppose you are a chiropractor who specializes in treating car accident victims. A woman named Ann was in a minor car accident. She thought she was fine, but she woke up on the third day in excruciating pain. She hobbles to her computer and begins searching for someone who can help her. Your name shows up at the top of the list (yea! your search engine optimization efforts have paid off), and she clicks on the link to your site.

What does she need to find there that convinces her you are the right person to help her?

Above the fold (e.g., on the part of the home page that is visible without scrolling down), she needs to see:

A headline and a brief amount of text that make it clear you are an expert in the evaluation and treatment of injuries from car accidents.
A prominently-displayed telephone number with words to the effect that “same day appointments are usually possible” (if this is true).
A quote from a previous client whom you have helped.

What else does Ann want to see? Navigation bars at the top of your website with links to:

Information about you–your background, training and approach to patient care.
What to expect during a first visit and what kind of paperwork Ann needs to bring with her. (If the first consultation is free, feature this prominently in the information above the fold on the home page.)
What happens in a car accident and how chiropractic and massage can help.
Testimonials and success stories.
Information about costs, insurance and billing that is clear, concise and reassuring.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Wellness tips for people who have been in a car accident.
The ability to download an intake form so Ann can fill it out before she comes.

Make sure the design of your site is soothing (no bright, harsh colors that would further irritate a person who is in pain), easy to read and easy to navigate. It is also a great idea to include a brief (about 2 minutes) video on the home page in which you welcome your visitors and let them know you have solutions that will help.

These principles apply no matter what your business may be. Think about who your ideal clients are and what they need: then provide it for them on your website.

Mind Mapping: My Favorite Prewriting Technique

clarice — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:46:13 +0000

Have you ever experienced the following?

You suddenly realize that the article you’re supposed to write is due tomorrow, and you haven’t even started it yet. In a panic, you sit down at the computer and begin typing, determined to pull an all-nighter if you have to.

As the hours drag by, your head begins to throb, your stomach contorts into a mass of iron, and rivulets of sweat stream down your back. A voice in your head begins to whisper that the article is dead in the water, but you are determined to complete it, so you remain glued to your computer. You begin agonizing over every word until the few ideas flowing through your brain finally peter out altogether. In fact, it feels like you’ve dead-ended into a sulfurous, murky swamp!

What is wrong with this picture? How did you get into such a predicament?

What could you have done differently that would have led to more positive results?

In The Mind Map Book, creativity expert Tony Buzan writes:

Each bit of information entering your brain—every sensation, memory or thought (incorporating every word, number, code, food, fragrance, line, colour, image, beat, note and texture) can be represented as a central sphere from which radiate tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of hooks.
Each hook represents an association, and each association has its own infinite array of links and connections. The number of associations you have already ‘used’ may be thought of as your memory, your database, your library.

If this is true, it means you embarked on your essay working against your brain, instead of with it! If you had allowed your brain to function optimally, you would have given it the chance to make associations before you started writing.

Example of a Mind Map

Mind Mapping

Let’s suppose you have learned your lesson. How will you approach your next article differently?

You decide to work with the dreamy, creative part of your brain first by experimenting with some prewriting techniques, such as mind mapping. You might even curl up on your bed with a cup of tea and put on some slow, rhythmical music (adagios from Mozart and Bach work especially well here) to calm your mind and put you in the mood for creating.

To mind map, you take a blank piece of paper and a pen (maybe even some colored pencils) and write down the major topic of your essay in the middle of the paper. Then you draw a circle around it. As your mind starts to make associations (and it will), you write down the next idea that comes to you. You draw a circle around it, too, and connect it to the first word with a straight line.

You continue this process—without judging or criticizing your ideas—as quickly as you can until circles and connecting lines fill the page. Now that you have plenty of material to work with, you allow the logical side of your brain to come to the fore.

You’re amazed at how easy it is to see which of your ideas are the most important, which provide support, and which are weak and irrelevant. In just a few moments, the framework of your argument has become clear: You know where you want to start, you know your most important points, and you know your conclusion. Only after you have completed this process do you move to the computer and begin typing. Once you do, you’re amazed at how easily your ideas flow out. In fact, your article almost writes itself!

Much better than getting bogged down in a murky, sulfurous swamp, isn’t it?

What I Remember About Kandahar

clarice — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:55:35 +0000

I read today that the U.S. is planning to launch its next major offensive in Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban. For most Americans, the word Kandahar conjures up images (if it conjures up any images at all) of bearded men with Kalashnikov rifles slung over their shoulders, burning schools and preaching hatred—of the West, of their own women, even of music and kite flying. For me, however, Kandahar conjures up a completely different image.

I joined Peace Corps in 1976 and was assigned to Afghanistan as a teacher of English as a second language. I arrived on July 6th after a journey from Washington, D.C., that took 24 hours and involved hours of waiting in airports in Frankfurt and Tehran. After a two-month training that included history, culture, and Dari (Persian) classes, I was assigned to the Kabul Teachers College, where I taught both men and women in completely co-ed classes.

After a hot, dry summer and an absolutely glorious fall, a cold, dark winter descended on Kabul. I started feeling somewhat depressed, so to cheer myself up one night in early December, I decided to accompany some friends to the Happy Hour that took place weekly in the basement of the house where the American Marines lived.

Soon after arriving, I looked up and saw an interesting young man walking down the stairs. He started talking to Jackie, a Peace Corps friend, and then moved over to the bar. I asked Jackie who he was. She said his name was Hans, that he was from the Netherlands, and that he and his father owned an oriental carpet business in Rotterdam. Jackie introduced us and one thing led to another. Two weeks later Hans asked me to marry him, and I said yes.

In February 1977, Hans told me that he needed to make a business trip to Holland, and he asked me to go with him. Since I had vacation coming by then, I was able to do so. We left our large, 2-story adobe home and tree-filled garden (whose privacy was ensured by 12-foot high mud walls), drove through streets filled with people, carts, donkeys, camels and all manner of noisy, honking automobiles and boarded an Ariana plane, which had to bank sharply to rise above the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush Mountains.

Five hours later, we descended into Schipol Airport. Hans’ father picked us up in his black Mercedes and headed for the autobahn, where I watched the cold, flat, wet, green Dutch countryside flash by while Patti Lupone sang “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” on the radio. We finally arrived at Hans’ family home, which was just one of a whole street of small, neat, two-story brick duplexes with a tiny patch of grass and a huge picture window in front. Culture shock descended on me in full force.

After three weeks in Holland, we got word from Hans’s Afghan partner that he needed a truck to haul stuff with. So Hans bought a huge DAF semi and we embarked on our return journey to Kabul driving overland. After a fascinating trip that took three weeks (I’ll tell that story another time), we finally arrived at the border that Iran shares with Afghanistan. Unfortunately customs officials said there was a problem with the truck’s import papers, which meant that Hans had to spend more time in Iran to get the papers amended.

By this time, however, I really needed to get back to my job, so I decided to continue on alone to Kabul. I made my way through border security and climbed on a bus filled mostly with Afghan men. The bus pulled out and headed for Kandahar, where the passengers would spend the night at an inn before continuing on to Kabul the next day. A young man sat down in the seat next to me, and we conversed sporadically in English for the next six hours.

When we got to the hotel in Kandahar, the young man was standing just behind me in line when I got to the check-in desk. In astonishment, I suddenly heard him tell the innkeeper (in Dari) that we were together. I yelped out “Durustnes!” (It’s not true!) With a look of disgust at the young man, the innkeeper handed me a key to my own room. I headed there immediately and crawled into bed, grateful for the comfort of a real mattress and sheets after three weeks of sleeping in the truck cabin.

I awoke early the next morning, got dressed, and opened door. Right in front of me, sound asleep on a hard wooden chair, was the innkeeper. He had slept there all night to protect me!

After a breakfast of nan and tea, I climbed on the bus for the last 6-hour leg of the journey to Kabul. Sure enough, the same young man sat down next to me again. When we got to Kabul, he insisted on escorting me to my home because I was a single woman traveling alone. He left me there, acting like a perfect gentleman, and I never saw him again.

Ever since that day, however, whenever I hear the word Kandahar, what comes to my mind is the image of an innkeeper who spent a night sleeping in a hard wooden chair in order to protect a stranger from harm.

3 Creative Writing Techniques

clarice — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:13:45 +0000

A friend of mine, Tim Dawdy, is a wonderful Dobro player (and fire chief) in a small town in the state of Washington. He told me on Facebook this morning that he is writing an article about Dobros for a magazine and is struggling to pull it all together. Below are some suggestions I gave him that might help you, too, when it comes to writing your own articles and blogs.

Ask Questions and Listen

Tim mentioned that he had already done a lot of research, so I suggested that he take a look at his notes and ask himself: “What story wants to be told here?” By this I mean that it can sometimes be helpful (as well as a fun creative exercise) to pretend that an object, or a melody, or a pile of research can speak to us.

The trick is to quiet our thoughts down, ask the object what it wants to say, and then listen carefully. As we do, we may discover that some amazing ideas, suggestions and solutions begin to occur to us that we had never thought of before!

Write to a Real Person

I also suggested that Tim choose a real person to “talk” to as he writes. What is this person’s level of knowledge about Dobros and music? Are they experts? Novices? What do they need to know in order to understand and enjoy the article?

For example, I asked Tim to pretend that he is standing in the middle of Artichoke Music, which is an acoustic instrument store, music school and concert venue in Portland, Oregon. As he looks around the store, he sees three people he wants to talk to about his Dobro article. The first person is Richard Colombo, the owner of the store. Richard is a professional musician and recording artist who can play just about any acoustic instrument and has an excellent knowledge of music theory.

The second person is one of Tim’s Dobro students, who is just learning to play the instrument, and the third person is me! I love to sing, but I don’t know anything about theory or stringed instruments, and I only play the piano (badly). The way Tim tells his story to each of us will change considerably due to our different levels of knowledge.

This is just as true in writing, which is why choosing a real person as our audience and “talking” to them when we write is so helpful. Our audience helps us choose the level of detail we provide, the examples we give, and the information we leave out! Tim is also a wonderful storyteller with a hilarious sense of humor. Pretending he is just talking to a friend when he writes can make it easier for him to bring that warmth, feeling and flow into his writing.

Turn Off the Critic and Just Play

My third suggestion to Tim was the most challenging: Sit down and write out your article as quickly as you can—without listening to the critical voice inside your head that is telling you your writing is all wrong…terrible…full of grammar errors…will never work…

The critic can keep us from expressing the fullness of our knowledge, finishing a piece of writing, or ever getting started, so try making a deal with it. Tell it that you appreciate its advice and concerns but that for now you want it to go do something else (like count the daffodils in your garden) while you just play. Then relax, take some deep breaths, and start putting your ideas down on paper.

Once you have finished, invite your critic to come back again and help you revise what you’ve written. Your goal is to turn the words on the page into a story that flows as smoothly as possible from beginning to end. The fun thing about the revision process is that it will often generate additional details and anecdotes that make your story even stronger—so put those in, too.

Once the story feels complete (but not until), work together with your critic to proofread your article for typos and errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. Then press the publish button and pat yourself on the back for having written a great article!

Writing: Finding My Calling

clarice — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:38:10 +0000

I just replied to a question on another blog about when I realized I was a writer. I thought I would continue this discussion on my own blog. I’d also like to ask you a similar question: When did you know you were a ____ (writer…artist…coach…entrepreneur…scientist…whatever)?

Writing has always been as close to me as breathing. I grew up on a ranch in Montana in the days when there was just one television station, so I read constantly and wrote a lot of REALLY bad poetry as a teenager.

I also loved learning foreign languages, which in turn taught me a great deal about English. And I had a wonderful, inspiring English teacher when I was a junior in high school. Her name was Mrs. Quanbeck, and (30 years later) she is still my favorite teacher–even though I’ve since earned a BA and two MAs! (I tracked her down through the Internet last year, called her out of the blue, and told her how much she’d meant to me. It was wonderful talking with her.)

As an adult, I’ve taught writing and English as a second language to hundreds of college students, and I’ve written my share of corporate communications, too. I’ve also edited lots of stuff–business communications and academic papers, mostly.

My major passions revolve around human performance development and lifelong learning, so I tend to write nonfiction articles, ebooks, and ecourses that teach something.

What most astonishes me about writing, however, is the power it has to help us learn, create and heal. It is such a wonderful tool for self-discovery–whether we understand how to make our verbs agree with their subjects or not!

All Writing Tells a Story

clarice — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:27:24 +0000

I believe that every kind of writing tells a story—whether it is a blog, a personal statement for a graduate school application, a business letter, a scientific article, or the Great American Novel. Stories from our families, our communities, and the media form our worldview and shape our lives.

Our storytelling faculty appears to be innate; this means that we unconsciously seek a well-told story in everything that we read. When a piece of writing meets our expectations, it can have a powerful effect on us; when it doesn’t, it can leave us confused, irritated, even angry.

Stories Help Us Learn

Scientists have discovered that our natural ability to create stories is intricately connected to our ability to learn. This is because our brains seek to create meaning through relationship, and stories do this superbly.

Because stories form such an important part of who we are, it is important to understand their underlying architecture.

Stories Have an Underlying Structure

At the most basic level, every story has a beginning, a middle and an ending. The beginning draws the audience into the story and makes them want to hear it. The middle tells the basic events in some kind of logical order so that listeners can follow the story easily. Finally, the ending ties up loose ends and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion.

Stories Are Targeted at a Particular Audience

Successful stories are always targeted at a particular audience and use language and terminology the audience understands. This means storytellers never tell just one version; instead, they constantly revise their stories in a creative process that keeps them new and fresh. For example, they may add an extra dollop of humor in order to relax their audience and create a feeling of community; they may change their vocabulary and details when they tell the story to children; or they may change the order of events to add emphasis.

Stories Use Concrete Details

At all times, however, storytellers use concrete details and strong, active verbs to create forward movement and energy. Their language creates pictures in the minds of their listeners, and each word is important in moving the story along. Storytellers are also masters at creating rhythm. This means that their pace is sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Sometimes it stops altogether. This gives the audience the opportunity to absorb what has just been said.

Stories Help Us Feel

Above all, storytellers use emotion to connect deeply to their audience. Skillful storytellers can make us laugh or cry. Their use of emotion helps us identify strongly with the topic, engages us in the message, and unlocks our ability to create and problem solve. Emotions help us remember, they inspire us, and they move us to take action.

What does this mean to you if you just want to write a business article?

It means that you carefully write an introduction that captures your readers’ interest and tantalizes them with the essence of the message to come. It means that your ideas flow logically from one major point to another and that you avoid inserting ideas that are random or out of place. It means that you use concrete details, active verbs and strong nouns and avoid useless fillers and fluff.

And it means that you become adept at listening for rhythm, that you play with your writing until it “sings.” How do you do this? By always being willing to revise what you have written. By changing your vocabulary and the length of your sentences and paragraphs. By playing with different kinds of punctuation, using parallelism, and adding headings and subheadings when appropriate. Finally, you do this by being conscious of white space and giving your readers plenty of chances to stop, breathe, and absorb what you have written.

Most importantly, it means that you find ways to engage your readers’ emotions so that they care about your message.

How Do We Discover Our Transcendental Purpose?

clarice — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:31:57 +0000

This blog revolves around a question for which I do not have an answer! (Maybe you can help me?) One of my Facebook contacts (Nikhil Kripalani) just published a quote by Patanjali that states:

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

I think this is an absolutely wonderful quote. (It sounds a lot like the one attributed to Goethe, doesn’t it?) This is why I have always admired (and to be honest envied) people who have found–or just seem to be born knowing–what their great purpose is.

One man I know–Ettore de Conciliis–is a superb artist in Italy. Ettore was born knowing he was an artist and has spent a lifetime just getting better and better at it.

My two biggest heroes are Greg Mortenson and Muhammad Yunus. Greg is the American author of two amazing books (Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools) that detail his successful efforts to build schools for girls throughout the remotest areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. About 16 years ago, he just happened to stumble into the Pakistani village of Korphe after a failed attempt at climbing a mountain and ended up promising to return and build the people a school.

Muhammad is the Bangladeshi (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) who started the microcredit movement that has now moved thousands of people (mainly women and children) out of poverty around the world. Thirty some years ago, Muhammad just happened to loan a few dollars out of his pocket to a poverty-stricken group of women who wanted to start their own business. They paid the loan back with interest, and a worldwide movement began!

In other words, both of these men “accidentally” discovered their life’s mission and look where it has led them!

What about those of us who aren’t sure what we born to do? Who struggle throughout our lives to find the big “What”? How do we find a purpose that so inspires us that we transcend our limitations and literally move mountains, too?