The Secret to My Success

A reader watched my new DVD, Humbug, and was apparently impressed with it.

He emailed me this question:

"Was there one point in your life that was the turn around? I often ask people who've obviously hitched themselves to a Saturn 5 rocket the same question."

I get that question a lot.

I've been thinking about it long and hard.

I know that taking on the attitude that anything is possible is part of the answer; so is knowing the Law of Attraction and the idea that getting clear leads to preferred results; so is always saying yes to life; and so is the idea of being ruthlessly honest about your desires.

But those are mindsets I've developed over time.

They don't answer the question about the single event that changed my life.

The thing is, there's no "one point" where everything shifted for me. It was more a series of defining moments, some more memorable than others. For example:

Landing the book deal to write The AMA Complete Guide to Small Business Advertising for the American Marketing Association back in 1993, was a marker for me. I wasn't paid much money (almost none) but it was my first book deal with a traditional publisher and the project made me feel accomplished and important. It also got me more clients and more speaking engagements. (I still love the book and use it myself, though sadly it's now out of print. Some of it ended up in my new book, Hypnotic Writing .)

Recording my program, The Power of Outrageous Marketing for Nightingale-Conant in 1997, was another turning point for me, one I had longed to have for over ten years. People who knew that company and their wonderful products began to treat me like I was a deity in the marketing world. That also influenced my own sense of value. (That's also when I raised my fees. ) The program still sells like crazy today, and I'm still very proud of it. (One of my favorite sections is where I stage an interview with the great circus showman and master marketer, P.T. Barnum.)

Certain people helped me step up to a new level, as well.

Paul Hartunian changed my life. This publicity genius who once sold the Brooklyn Bridge as a PR stunt and got on Johnny Carson for it, once spent three hours over dinner in Houston telling me how to change my business. I took notes. I acted. Paul's giving was a defining moment in my career. I'll never forget him. He's one of my heros.

Mandy Evans has been a "miracles coach" in my life for more than twenty years. This wonderful author of such books as Travelling Free has always been only a phone call away. Whenever I feel stuck and ready for the next level, I call her. I love her. She helps me get clear .

Bob Proctor -- a living legend in the self-help movement -- changed my life when he politely nudged me to publish the little book I was fearful about releasing, Spiritual Marketing. That book became an Amazon bestseller twice, got me into The New York Times, and led to my rewriting it and seeing J. Wiley publish it as the now long running classic, The Attractor Factor. And of course The Attractor Factor got me into the movie The Secret, which led to my being on Larry King, eXtra TV, Time, Newsweek and...well, you get the idea.

Obviously, there's no one event that transformed me.

If you want to know more, I've written about my journey through life in such books as Adventures Within and of course The Attractor Factor . They reveal other defining moments and the people who triggered them for me.

I really wish there was a simple answer to the question of what was my turning point moment, so we could both learn from it.

But what may be better is to assume every moment is your turn around one, and act from that perspective.

Life would then take on a glow .

Backed into a corner, and forced to say something was the one thing that changed my career, I'd give credit to the Internet.

I began as an Internet skeptic in the early 1990s. I didn't believe all the hype about gold in cyberspace.

I was wrong.

I later wrote one of the first books about online marketing (CyberWriting ).

And later, when Mark Joyner urged me to let him release my first e-book (Hypnotic Writing ), I began to taste fame and fortune.

So I have to give credit to being active online as a turning point in my career. (Note I said active online. I was and am busy creating and promoting products, not waiting for the world to come to my door.)

The Internet let me take what I was doing locally and distribute it to the world.

But, as you can see, it was one of many defining moments.

Maybe the best way to wrap this up is with the following story:

I'm hearing from people from my past who saw the movie The Secret and then searched for me online. When they get to my main site , they write me and ask something like, "Are you the same Joe Vitale I worked with thirty years ago?"

One gent did that recently. Turns out we had worked at Exxon together long, long ago.

He saw me on Larry King and couldn't believe my level of success. He wrote to me saying, "I wish I had known what a gem I was hanging around back then."

I thought, what if each of us treated each other like we were gems already -- just unrecognized and maybe unpolished.

Wouldn't that single change of perspective make every moment of our lives a turning point?

As Goethe wrote, "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being."