I was having some issues sending email through our email software.



I reached out to my SMTP server – if you don’t know Internet tech jargon, that’s the software that allows you to send thousands of emails at a time – and had an hour long chat conversation with them.


Long story short, The SMTP server told me that they had lost access to, and could not locate, the IP address for my emails.



What that means, in plain language: My emails would not be sent without re-establishing a connection to this missing address.



The person I was chatting with told me that he would go back through his log to try and find it.



This took 10 minutes.



He came back and told me he was unable to find it, but would connect with his team to try to figure it out.



And, that he “appreciated my patience while he worked to resolve the matter.”



He asked me for an email address that had received my last successful message, so maybe he could trace things that way. I gave him one. He returned 10 minutes later, still empty-handed and unsuccessful at figuring this out.



Mind you, just to start this back-and-forth took 20 to 30 minutes. The support staff for my SMTP service is very hard (and slow) to get in touch with. I could not abort this mission; email is one of my most important methods of communication with my audience. Unlike social media, I have complete control and ownership over it (well, until things like this happen).



I NEEDED to get this back working.



Finally, I got a great idea.



What if there was a way for me to find the IP address myself?



I did a quick Google search, and within 90 seconds, I knew how to look for my own email IP address via a past received message. I’m on my own email list; every email you get, I also get.


Within two minutes, I found the missing-but-now-found IP address.



I jumped into the chat with my SMTP server agent, and shared the information with him. He immediately confirmed that it was correct.



Within 30 seconds, my email was working again.



***



I wrote an article a few months back, telling you that you could no longer afford to be lazy. The above experience is a reflection of exactly what I mean.



I figured out in less than four minutes what this customer service technology “expert” could not figure out in 45 minutes.



Or, maybe he could have figured it out – he just had the wrong tools, or he didn’t know how to explain to me how to help him help himself.



Had I not had the idea to figure it out on my own, I might still be in that chat with him, at this very moment, instead of you reading this article.



The Takeaway: in every aspect of your life, as much as you can, be willing and able to take matters into your own hands.



Even when you’re doing something in which you may not be an expert – I am far from an expert at Internet geek stuff, like IP addresses – you never know what you may figure out.



And more importantly, how quickly you can get something solved, as time is the most important consideration.


After all, it is your life and your situation. If things get screwed up, make sure it’s because of you – not someone else.



This is the extreme ownership mindset.



Extreme ownership is one of the 12 (actually 13) Work On Your Game Commandments.



What to do now: Join Work On Your Game University, so you can understand the underlying principles that feed the strategy and direct your tactics for your business and in your life – all with my personal help.



Start here: http://www.WorkOnYourGameUniversity.com
​