Having something go viral is the dream of every entrepreneur.   Going viral, as related to working on the Internet, relates to having a product, promotion, or some other activity be perceived as something so incredibly special that it gets passed around, usually via email, from one person to another to tens of thousands or millions of people.

So, literally, word spreads — like a virus — about you and your product, usually without you having to do anything.  This is the marketer’s nirvana.  The dream world.

And, I’m pleased to say, I’ve had a recent experience with something going viral.  But, the interesting thing about what I learned is that you cannot plan for something to go viral — it just does.  Oh, I’ve tried to come up with all sorts of clever ideas that I thought would go viral — My goodness, I say to myself, how can others not realize how brilliant I am here? — but none never have.

Until recently, when the whole idea of viralness (yup, that’s a word) never even entered my thoughts.

At InfoSource Learning, we created a product called SimpleAssessment that is designed to test the digital literacy skills of school kids.  Now, this is an important thing these days because the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) statutes from the federal government mandate that kids have these skills by the 8th grade.  Consequently, schools need a way to assess their students.

Enter SimpleAssessment.

We decided to give it away (as a way to introducing ourselves to new customers, who we hoped would buy something else from us later) and our lives have changed dramatically.  We simply can’t keep up with the demand that has been created for SimpleAssessment, and the freebies are now turning into paying customers.

My point is that we didn’t set out to get people passing our offering around; we were simply immersed in trying to create something that we thought we could share with the educational community.  We’ve been creating and selling educational products for over 25 years, and this was one small thing we could do to give back.

And, the dang thing has gone viral on us.

Which got me thinking about what it might take to get your own personal dream job to go viral.

Let me ask you this:  Are you obsessed with finding and having your dream job?  Because, like getting something to go viral, maybe focusing on it too much is not such a good thing.

Here’s an idea for you, then:  Whatever your dream job passion, just start working on it, even if it’s a few hours a week.  Just plug away at it.  Don’t obsess over the fact that it’s not your entire life just yet.  Work at it, sow some seeds, do a little more every day.  Maybe, just maybe, who knows, you might turn around in a few months and find that your work has gone viral and you’re actually working full time in your dream job.

Popularity: 71% [?]