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As I was winding down the last few days of my day job to start working online full time as an internet entrepreneur, I was frequently asked what I was going to do next? With a lot of people I joked about taking a few months off before figuring out what I wanted to do. My old job was a high tech job, so everyone assumed I would move immediately to a big company. I told several I was looking at the Walmart greeter job (which I do believe is a great job!)
My close friends and a few who probed deeper were given the truth – I planned to work a few hours a week out of my basement selling software and helping others build online businesses. Most of them thought I was crazy to leave my executive job. I told them this was not a joke – I had been planning my cubicle escape for well over 10 years, run multiple businesses and actually knew what I was doing.
The next reaction was either – “You’re still crazy” or “Wow – that is so cool – I wish I had the skills to do something like that. I would love to be doing what you are doing.” To which I always reply “what are your favorite things to do? What are your passions?”
They would inevitably tell me they really loved to fish or paint or play guitar or any number of other things. I would ask them if they ever spent any money doing or learning about these things? They would answer that of course, they often invested large amounts of money on equipment, training, books and other material related to their passion. For fun, I would sometimes ask how much they had spent in the last year?
I would ask – “Have you ever considered using your knowledge and expertise to sell equipment, services or teach others about your passion?” Inevitably they would say no – and then follow with a thousand excuses such as “I couldn’t make any money doing that” or “I’m not enough of an expert” or “who would pay me to do that?”.
I would say “But you just told me you regularly spend (sometimes large) amounts of money on equipment, training and other materials related to hobby/passion X, and you have years of experience in that pursuit?”
They would often cede that point, but usually come up with a new set of excuses on why it would not work. I would ask “Do you realize you can now access a worldwide audience of potential customers through the internet? Not just those in your town or city, but many thousands worldwide who might want your product or service? And you can reach them with a very minimal startup cost – just an investment of your time?”
Most would laugh and say they could never do that – its too hard, they’re not technical enough, they can’t build web sites, etc. However a tiny fraction – perhaps one person in 25 would actually ask me how? I would then talk to them about focusing on a niche product, test marketing, establishing a brand name and domain name, and building a simple blog. Those that stayed with me might learn about building an email list, a podcast, a community and an audience. I would even offer to many friends my help for free in getting started.
Of that small fraction, an even smaller percentage – less than 1 in 100 would actually bother to follow up with an email or phone call. And of those even fewer would take the very first step I recommended in getting started.
Motivation is a funny thing. You see, people are in love with the dream – almost everyone I tell my story to wants a business that generates a steady income on a few hours a week. However, less than one in 100 of these dreamers will even take the first step to make that dream a realty. And even fewer will have the persistence for the 12-24 months it takes to build an audience, create a community and build any substantial income.
I firmly believe that you can build a successful online business even in today’s competitive environment on only a few hours a week – but you need the motivation to take that first step, and you need to have the persistence to stay with it. The question is whether you are willing to be the one in 100 who actually get started, and whether you will stay with it to see it though?
Here’s an article by blogger Mark Cuban on motivation when he was getting started:
- Success and Motivation P4 « blog maverick – “You never quite know in business if what you are doing is the right or wrong thing. Unfortunately, by the time you know the answer, someone has beaten you to it and you are out of business. I used to tell myself that it was ok to make little mistakes, just don’t make the big ones.”
I’m here to help – subscribe to the Online Business Zen newsletter for more information, and please take the first steps and get started today.
