I graduated form Ohio University with a degree in Education. My major was English and I was pretty sure that I wanted to be an English teacher. When I started university four years earlier, there were not enough teachers to fill all the available positions. I was told that if I became a teacher that I would have no trouble finding a position, once I graduated. Well, guess what! The market for teachers had dried up and now there was a glut of qualified prospects vying for a handful of jobs. Then I did what every aspiring teacher did in those times, I found another job that wasn’t in education. I got an interview with a large, national retail company and they hired me on as a store manager trainee. It was a pretty great job, that didn’t pay very much money but I got the chance to learn the ropes from some very smart business people. The other great thing was that I got to dabble in technology. It was a few years before computers would come into general use but I was hooked and I learned everything that I could about the future technology wave. I worked for that company for 3 years and then tried various sales positions. After selling automobiles and insurance, I found a job with a company named ComputerCraft. It was a company that was selling and making quite a killing on the IBM PC Jr. and the Apple IIc. Both of these little computers were the precursor of the IBM PC, that would appear about a year later. One of the best things that ever happened to me was that when we sold a computer, we had to go into the work room and set it up, deliver it and teach the customer how to use it. The technology skills that I learned in that job have served me well over the years and I am able to figure out most hardware and software products in a few hours. I still wasn’t making much money but things were starting to look up.
The first computer I ever owned was a Radio Shack TRS-80, that I would use in a landscaping business that I had just started. I had that computer for about 6 months and then started to upgrade to every new computer that would come on the market every month or so. All of my friends knew that I had technology skills, so they were always calling me to help them with their computer problems. Then one day, a lady who owned her own bookkeeping and accounting business, called me. She had heard that I helped people out with software problems, so I told her I would see if I could help her out. I went over to her office and checked her computer and everything seemed to be working well. Then she showed me the software error that she was getting every time she tried to work on accounts payable. I gave the company, that had provided the software, a call to ask them if they had any idea what we might do to fix the “bug”. Here is what they said. “We are aware of the accounts payable problem and there are several more problems that we will have fixed when the next update comes out in 3 months.” “In the meantime, you will have to do a manual workaround.” I thought, OK, that sounds like they stand behind their product and they would be fixing it within the next quarter. Then, the person on the other end of the call dropped the bombshell. He said, “the update will only cost $2500.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A company produces a product that they know has problems, they sell it to you for an inflated amount and then charge you another $2500 so it will actually work the way it was supposed to. The next week I had my first interview with a software company. I mean, that sales model was a license to print money. Can you imagine what it would be like if an automobile manufacturer sold a car that they knew had major problems and then charge you several months after the fact to make the fix. I mean there have been some major screw-ups in the auto industry but to actually bring a product to market with the idea that they will iron the bugs out as the user finds them. Unprecedented! It was a new way to do business and it is still going on today. You may not get charged for every update but products are released that are incomplete or have bugs. The software manufacturers got around that little wrinkle by coming up with the technique called the “new version.” You want to upgrade to the new and better version, here it is and it’s going to cost $X. It is an incredible money machine and I had finally realized it. I wasn’t happy about it because I was one of the users that had to pay for the endless version upgrades but it was here to stay so I figured I should make a little money too.
In 1994, I started my own computer networking company and I was bringing in enough money to move to the South Pacific. The money was great and who wouldn’t want to live in the warm weather and sunshine every day of the year. I had found the goose that laid the golden egg and I was having a great time. Of course, nothing lasts forever and when you have to depend on governments and small companies for your income, you are bound to have problems sooner or later. I found out that just because you do work for someone, doesn’t mean they will pay you on time, if at all. The other revelation was that there is always somebody who will do the work cheaper and that doesn’t mind waiting months for a past due invoice to be paid.
Fast forward to July 2016, I was surfing the net and came across a guy that mentioned two things that would change my life, yet again. Number 1, was that he was making money while he slept and Number 2, he was able to make $1,000,000.00 in one day. That was it, I was hooked. I soon figured it out that if you could sell 1000, $1000.00 courses during a 2 hour webinar, that you had an income of $1,000,000.00 in that one day. Then I found out that with the proper landing pages and email lists that people would buy your products all day and all night, so you could make money while you sleep. I sold my first product in 3 months later, and I have been working online ever since to get my business running on “auto-pilot”. It’s not easy and it takes dogged determination and commitment. You have to be able to take action and you also have to be able to filter out all the “white noise” that pervades the Internet. I have had some success with different products but I know that if I really want to do well, I will have to launch my own products. I know that owning and selling your own product is the ‘Holy Grail” of online marketing. If you look at all the “heavyweights” and successful entrepreneurs out there, almost all of them are launching products over and over again.
That is where I am right now on December 7, 2020. I am about 5 days from launching my first product. I have the self-motivation that I need and I have a desire to be successful in whatever I do.
I don’t think that the evolution in my story is unique. People could change the dates and the places and the jobs and their stories would be similar to mine in many ways. I know that, but I never give up and I understand that with laser focus, I will reach my goals.
Please join me here for the ride.
P.S. If you ask me to recommend one thing that will help you get started on your own road to success, this is it. Develop your self-motivation and never waver from it.