Crazy Internet Success Story

If you learn nothing else from today’s article, it will be that you shouldn’t eat vegetables.

That said, I guarantee you’ll learn a lot more in this story about Mastermind Member Kristian Manietta’s near-death experience, and how he was able to make dollar bills from his hospital bed while turning this traumatic event into a life-changing lesson.

Another story of never giving up, and proof that no matter what life throws at you, that you can turn it into something good. When life hands you a raw carrot, make carrot juice.

Over to Kristian to give us the dramatic details of his Man vs. Vegetables battle.

“From Deathbed to Dollar Bills”
By Kristian Manietta, www.TriSpecific.com

About 3 months ago after a morning training run, I was settled into a great morning of working in my online business, TriSpecific.com, where I coach world-class triathletes from all over the world.

It was time for a bit of lunch, and I was ‘harmlessly’ shoveling down my own freshly made, raw veggie salad and two egg omelette while sitting at my computer.

Suddenly, the vegetables attacked.

That’s right, it was a real life “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”, but with the help from other, nastier vegetables.

My last mouthful felt like it went down sideways. There was immediate discomfort in my chest directly behind my sternum.

Within minutes the pain escalated to such an intense level that it floored me.

I ended up at a local Hospital where they found some air outside of my oesophagus (meaning that there was a small, yet deadly tear in the tube that transfers food from my mouth to my stomach).

The doctors quickly hooked me up to an IV, inserted an uncomfortable catheter, and transferred me over an hour away to Royal Brisbane Hospital to get specialized help.

I was told that it was good news that they got me on the strong antibiotics quickly but the bad news was that I’d likely get worse before getting better. They also said I’d probably end up in the ICU.

The next day I had the option of choosing to have my chest ripped open for surgery, or to take a conservative “wait and see” approach. I chose the latter, and I’m glad I did.

Within days the hole in my oesophagus started to close, and I thank my healthy lifestyle for the rapid recovery.

Six days (!) later I was home.

But the incident left a permanent mark on my attitude towards life.

This incident scared the crap out of me. I am the sole breadwinner in the family and our son was just about to have his first birthday.

All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet.

During my time in the hospital, my wife bought in my laptop and I was able to tether it to my iphone and work on my business so that our family could survive financially.

Ironically, like many people, my goal with my online business was to be able to work anywhere in the world. Little did I know that one of those “special locations” would include a 6-day “holiday” at Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Regardless, thanks to the power of the Internet, I was able to still GSD (Get Stuff Done) and bring in income.

Specifically, I was still able to make money off an affiliate product launch while lying nearly incapacitated in a hospital bed. That was pretty cool, when you look on the bright side.

The incident also focused me to fix another part of my business. You see, in addition to the online triathlete training business, we also have a physical therapy product business, that we were previously running out of our garage.

However, it was killing me in terms of the time devoted to the manual labor of shipping product, so I simply followed some advice from Tim Ferris’ “4-Hour Work Week” and searched for a shipping company that could fulfill my online orders automatically.

This didn’t come without its challenges, but eventually we had it operating smoothly and this has opened up so much more time to work on my main online business.

In the end, looking back at the incident, I take the view that “Everything happens for a reason” and there is always a lesson to be found.

The major take away for me was that life is short and to stop screwing around. Sure I was doing pretty well but I was playing well below my potential.

I basically said screw it, let’s do it, and I stopped caring what the naysayers in my life might say.

I increased my focus on bringing immense and continued value to my clients and subscribers by providing solutions to their problems.

After the incident I injected more personality into my emails and my open rates and click-throughs have soared – as have sales ;-).

To give you an example, here’s an excerpt of what I sent out to my triathlon list recently…

“Life is bloody short – so aim to always bring your best to the table… sometimes we coast but we just can’t.

“Success means work…it usually means 10x the work than we think. In our sport, that doesn’t mean 10x the volume – it means 10x the work. And that is different.

“Take a look at what isn’t getting attention in your program. Is it diet, recovery methods, sleep, or even a belief that your goals ARE possible?

“Keep working your mind. This all takes much more work than we originally  think and that is just in terms of training for our sport. Never forget about the roles of family and friends … we all have catching up to do. Momento Mori!”

The response to my personality infused emails has been fantastic, and although I had to learn the hard way, it was a great lesson to get.

Finally, I just want to mention something that happened after the accident…

After sharing the story with our Mastermind group, I got an email from Bedros saying that this incident could be the best thing that has ever happened to me (in a weird way).

And you know what? Bedros is right.

I could have sat there saying “woe is me” and feeling sorry for myself, but those days were long gone.

I’m actually grateful for that event in my life. It opened my eyes to what matters and it has solidified my mission for both of my businesses.

Not only am I getting to create the life of our dreams from anywhere in the world which is pretty cool, I’m able to change the lives of my clients and subscribers all for the better too.

I’m on a roll and can’t wait to share my progress at the next Mastermind Transformation Contest in September.

Kristian Manietta
www.trispecific.com

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Thanks Kristian. That’s a powerful reminder of the right way to look at adversity.

Congratulations on turning this potential tragedy into motivation and inspiration to do more, be better, and to make a bigger impact.

Looking forward to your success story in September,

Craig Ballantyne

“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” – Paulo Coelho