Country music icon Dolly Parton fought back in 2008. It had been nearly twenty years since she had found success on mainstream country charts. She never stopped recording and found success in bluegrass music and a few guest appearances on Miley Cyrus' Disney series, Hannah Montana and other shows. Some say she should be happy with that.



After all, Dolly had taken her success and developed a successful theme parked named after her. She had shows she performed and fans that continued to beg for more music. However, in her early sixties Dolly looked to modern technology to bring her mainstream career out of the closet.

She developed her own label and hired a half dozen promotions experts to get her new music out to the people. The initial push must have worked, because her album “Backwoods Barbie” climbed to the number 2 position on the country charts in its first 2 weeks of release.

Reports indicate she views this effort as an investment in herself.

While other artists seemed content to live off the residuals of a career that's in the past Dolly was determined to reach for something more.

It takes a brave individual to follow a hard path and try something new when it would be easier to take what life has given you and make due with the remnants of past successes.

From what I understand professional golfer Tiger Woods has used three different golf swings since entering the ranks of professional. Wouldn't it have been easier to just settle on one and hope for the best?

Tiger's win/loss record speaks for itself. By wrestling with a constant desire to improve he has – in fact – improved.

These are two great stories designed to illustrate why learning and using new marketing skills online is so valuable.

It is probable that you could find one or two marketing strategies that work and end up with some success. That's the point when it becomes very easy to sit back and rest on the residuals. This is an act of allowing income to trickle in without pushing the boundaries.

What if, just when you are finding success, you pushed for an additional marketing strategy to add to your line up? What if you continued to build on your success instead of assuming that your revenue stream is good enough?

I'm not advocating discontentment, but I am discouraging the idea of disengaging.

When you decide to rest on your residuals it is a bit like that old weird uncle we all have that allows his house to fall part one piece at a time. He may recognize there are issues, but as long as he puts a bucket in the right place to catch the rainwater, and as long as he doesn't step on certain floorboards he might get by without making any repairs.

Your business could be coming apart at the seams and you may be allowing other businesses to siphon existing customers simply because you are reluctant to move past former successes to the hard work of success yet to be.

Is there life left in your business? Can you breathe new life into it? Are you willing to make a new run at success?

Blaze on.