I haven’t had to fill out an application or a resume in nearly 6 years. So the process of landing a job (preferably in Internet Marketing) is exciting and scary at the same time.

I haven’t blogged in a long time. Most of my posts are from a couple of years ago when all I could see were the benefits of working from home. Now though, I have more perspective and feel strongly that if you want to have your own online business you should have a day job and have a business on the side.

Here’s why,

It’s hard to make money online

In the beginning, I believed all the self-proclaimed gurus who said it’s easy to make money online. The truth is, you have to learn many different skills and put in months of writing, designing, marketing, and testing to see real results. Even with consistent effort in the right direction, it usually takes 6 months – 1 year for a website to start getting the traffic necessary for conversions. And when you have no other source of income, it puts you under tremondous pressure to perform.

Some people are great under that pressure. However looking back, I would have kept a job while learning this business in my spare time.

It’s easy to work too much or not enough

Being your own boss can be the best thing and the worst thing. And that may fluctuate on a daily basis. When you first start you’ll probably spend 12 hours a day working on websites and learning new marketing skills.

After you start making money though, it’s easy to get complacent and lazy. After some time you’ll notice that working for yourself isn’t is exciting as it once was.  The process of making money with affiliate websites can become cumbersome. If you’re not passionate about your market, it’s going to be tough to take your business to the next level.

By keeping a job while you build an Internet business, you have time to find a market that you’re passionate about and figure out ways to add value to their lives.

Your comfort zone shrinks

I’ve found that overall,  my comfort zone has shrunk in the last few years ( and in some weird ways too). For example, driving on the Interstate is more uncomfortable than ever. When I was teenager, I was Fast and the Furious. Now, I’m Driving Miss Daisy.

I’m a people-person by nature. So having little (or no) social interaction throughout the day has definitely taken it’s toll.

That’s part of my excitement with getting a job now. I look forward to building new relationships and working with a team towards a common goal.

I’ve seen a few positions that I’m really excited about. Hopefully, I’ll have an update soon.

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What could be more appealing than working 12-hour days without making the first dime? Entrepreneurship is hard work. It means working long hours with little monetary reward (at least for most people starting out). So why would anyone want to become an entrepreneur? I can’t tell you what will fulfill your own goals, passions, and skills the best. All I can do is share the reasons I believe being an Entrepreneur is more satisfying than a regular job. In this article, I’ll share my own reasons for becoming an entrepreneur, and recommend a few great books for those considering entrepreneurship.

Reason #1: Independence

I’ve never liked working for other people. Don’t get me wrong, I try to be a good employee when I’m in a 9 to 5, I just know it’s not my long-term goal. In my opinion, most entrepreneurs value their independence. As a business owner, you still have to answer to customers, vendors, and possibly lenders. So in that sense you’ll never be without bosses. If the thought of working for someone else your whole life makes you cringe, you may want to consider entrepreneurship.

Reason #2: Creating passive income and time freedom

Probably one of the biggest reasons that people become entrepreneurs is to create a business that generates income, even if they are not present. The ultimate goal for me is to have enough time and income freedom to work from anywhere, while pursuing other endeavors like travel, volunteer work, and fun with family and friends.

Passive income from a brick-and-mortar small business

Many entrepreneurs start some type of small business and end up owning a job. What I mean is that they work IN the business, instead of ON the business. The real goal is to design a business that can run without you there. Small business guru, Michael Gerber, calls this the “franchise prototype”. Your goal is to design a business that can operate independently of you. To do this, you pretend as though you are going to be franchising (or selling the business model) to others so they can duplicate your results. What you end up with is a business that anyone can run. If building a company with employees is not your thing, you can also build passive income with an internet business.

Making money on the internet

The internet provides great ways for anyone to build income from home. There are young teen entrepreneurs, stay-at-home moms, college students, and retirees building internet businesses everyday. Here are just a few ways you can build passive income on the internet.

• Make money blogging – You come up with a topic that people want to hear about. You write quality content and engage your readers. They subscribe to your news feed or sign up for email updates and begin to trust you. You find complimentary products to recommend to your readers. They sign up through your affiliate link and you make a commission.
• Information products – If you engage and motivate your readers, they will eventually want more of your expertise. This is a great time to write or record your own ebook or online course.
• Membership sites – if you have a lot of high-quality content you can build a membership site where you charge each member a fixed monthly fee.

For the most part, the type of freedom and passive income I have described is not available to those who work a typical day job.

Reason #3: Helping others by adding value to their lives

A more altruistic goal of entrepreneurs is to add value to other people’s lives. Every product or service you see is the result of someone’s idea that was acted upon. My dad was a very intelligent man. He had a very mechanical and engineering-oriented mind. He would often come up with inventions, which he’d take the time to lay out in detail. He always believed it would be too difficult to get them going. I would often hear him say how a certain invention he came up with years ago was now being mass-produced.

Although my dad never saw one of his creations hit the market, he always told me I could achieve anything. I hope to make him proud by putting my ideas and skills to work creating valuable content and helping others.

If you have great ideas, make them happen! Entrepreneurs see a need, formulate ideas to create value for their customers, and are willing to take the risk to make their ideas a reality.

Reason #4: Challenging yourself in a powerful way

To become a successful entrepreneur, you have to adopt many positive habits, while defeating the negative ones. I once read where a successful entrepreneur said, “Dedicate yourself to becoming a millionaire, because of who you become in the process”. It takes an immense amount of willpower, discipline, and hard work to build a successful business. Not to mention the skills you must develop like organizing, researching, and marketing. This is the ultimate self-improvement challenge to me. It gives me the motivation I need to change certain negative habit patterns, while developing new positive ones.

Further reading for prospective Entrepreneurs

Here are a few great books I highly recommend for developing the entrepreneurial mindset.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki tells an inspiring story of lessons he learned from his own father (Poor Dad) and his best friends father (Rich Dad). His own father urged him to get good grades, go to college, specialize in a field, and get a good job. Rich Dad explained to him how to build a business, work for experience – not money, and how the rich avoid the taxes that plague the middle class.

The E-Myth Revisited – Earlier in this post I mentioned the author of this book, Michael Gerber. Although the title leads you to believe he is discussing something on the web, it actually stands for “The Entrepreneurial Myth”. The book walks you thought the steps it takes to build your business using the “franchise prototype”. It teaches you about the different roles an entrepreneur plays in a business. More importantly, it teaches how to work ON your business and not IN your business.

4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss’s fabulous book aimed at switching your mindset using his coined phrase “Lifestyle Design”. This book is all about showing you real life ways that you can stream line a business, outsource the work, and organize your life. His main goal is to inspire you to achieve time freedom, because your time is more valuable than money. Tim leads an exciting life. One that’s definitely not for everyone. But one thing is for sure, he will inspire you to change you way of thinking about work forever.

Potential Entrepreneurs: Have you decided to become an entrepreneur? Or do you feel like having a 9 to 5 job is better?

Current Entrepreneurs: What are the reasons that you decided to become an entrepreneur?

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I love trying to make money online, but some days I find it extremely difficult to wake up motivated. I know it will be weeks, months, or maybe years before I start making a substantial income from blogging. Then today, I found an article by Yaro at Entrepreneurs-Journey about remaining productive when you feel like giving up.

I felt like this article spoke directly to me. So using Yaro’s article for inspiration, I decided to write my own post to motivate all my fellow entrepreneurs on how to overcome fear and self-doubt in your business.

You might be unmotivated if…

You wake up feeling overwhelmed.
Before bed at night, I often tell myself all the things I want to accomplish tomorrow. When I wake up the next day, I dread getting started because of all the things I need to do. Then, it’s even more depressing knowing that I will not see monetary results for a long time. As an independent business owner you deal with everything. The marketing, finances, customer service, product creation, all rest on your shoulders. If each day you feel completely overwhelmed with the endless to-do lists, chances are it’s causing you to lose motivation in your business.

You distract yourself with unproductive work.
Yes, unproductive work does exist. These actions won’t bring you more business, but keep you busy. Productive work is work you do to bring more value to your customers and generate more business. For a while, I thought I was the only one who would spend hours working on a header image, searching for plug-ins, or making template changes. Since then, I’ve heard other entrepreneurs talk about doing unproductive work, while avoiding the important tasks, like a blogger writing content, or a brick-and-mortar business making cold calls.

You regularly contemplate quitting.
Probably the most painful thought of all for an entrepreneur, is quitting. Considering going back to a 9 to 5 job is like kryptonite to an entrepreneur. The thought that people will think you’re a failure, as well as, your own feelings of failure, can be crippling.

Although I think it’s important to surge forward in the face of adversity and failure, you also need to realize when putting food on the table is more important than your business. Personally, I’m looking at taking on at least one part-time job, studying more about web design in order to freelance, and selling stuff on Ebay to supplement our income until blogging starts paying the bills.

Tips on staying motivated while facing fear and self-doubt

Take action each day in the right direction
Your mind is your most powerful weapon. It can be used to help create great things, or tear you down with fear and doubt. You must become a master over your own mind and force yourself to take action every day. Do something to increase your business or potentially generate revenue. Here are 7 tips for growing the action habit that I took from the book The Magic of Thinking Big.

1. Be someone who does things. Be a doer, not a don’t-er.
2. Don’t wait until conditions are perfect. They never will be. Expect future obstacles and difficulties and solve them as they arise.
3. Remember, ideas alone won’t bring success. Ideas have value only when you act upon them.
4. Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Do what you fear, and fear disappears.
5. Think in terms of NOW . Tomorrow, next week, later, and similar words often are synonymous with the failure word, never. Be an “I’m starting now” kind of person.
6. Don’t waste time getting ready to act. Start acting instead.
7. Take initiative. Be a crusader. Be a volunteer. Show that you have the ability and ambition to do.

Enjoy the small successes.
On one of my first niche sites, I started building content day after day with very little visitor feedback. Then people starting finding my site. I would occasionally get a comment or email like “Thanks for building this great site”. It’s still tough because it’s not generating any revenue. However, the other day I got my first affiliate sale! Even though it was only a couple of dollars, it made me feel like success was still a possibility. At the early stages of your business, especially online, look for small successes to keep you motivated.

Remember the turtle… BE the turtle.
The moral of “slow and steady wins the race” applies to Entrepreneurs in a big way. To win this game you need patience, dedication, and persistence. Most over-night successes are not “over-night” at all. Study the characteristics and qualities of successful entrepreneurs and realize that integrity, self-discipline, passion, and good old-fashion hard work is what will drive you towards success.

The journey to success starts TODAY

The hardest part of changing behavior and mindset is overcoming the person in the mirror. Some days will be difficult, but you have to force yourself to take some action, even a small one, in the direction of your goals and dreams. Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu said it best. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

What step will you take TODAY to make your business a success?

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As I started to research the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their success, I started to realize just how relative the idea of a “successful entrepreneur” truly is. To illustrate my point, consider the following question.

Which of these is the MOST successful entrepreneur?

1. The 60 year-old small business owner who has owned a local hardware store for 30 years, makes just enough to get by, but loves what he’s doing, and calls everyone in the town a friend.
2. The 35 year-old CEO of a software firm who works 70 hours a week, stays stressed, never sees his family, but makes over one million dollars in revenue per year.
3. The 40 year-old single mom who makes money online with several blogs, and gets to spend all the time she wants with her kids.
4. The 23 year-old college dropout who created a few websites that he manages a few hours per week and now makes enough to travel the world, spend time with friends and family, and pursue his favorite hobbies.

Chances are, each person that reads this will have a different point of view of who is the most successful entrepreneur. It doesn’t really matter. What matters, is that you know what success means to you.

It doesn’t matter if you want to create a giant corporation or write for a blog that makes just enough to pay your monthly bills. If that’s what fulfills your vision of purpose and success, go for it.

I still wanted to know what characteristics and qualities link successful entrepreneurs. So I turned to the book The Millionaire Mind by Thomas Stanley . In his book, Stanley interviews and surveys hundreds of millionaires in order to understand their success. Most of the millionaires in his book are Entrepreneurs and other self-employed individuals. This post is inspired by the data in his section on Success Factors.

In this article, Top 10 Characteristics and Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur, you’ll learn which factors influenced these millionaires the most. I’ll also share a couple of factors that, you’ll be shocked to learn, influenced them very little.

1. Integrity

Someone once said, “Right is right even if no one is doing it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it”. We all hear the news stories about corporate greed and corruption. However, the truth is, successful entrepreneurs and millionaires rated “being honest with everyone” the number one factor of their success.

2. Self-discipline

To become a successful entrepreneur you have to be highly disciplined. If you are trying to build a business from the ground up, a lot of times you’ll be faced with doing all the job functions of a company, such as accounting, marketing, web design, and customer service. You have to develop the ability to get things done, even when you don’t feel like it. Luckily, you can learn self-discipline with the right information and conscious effort.

3. People skills

Another critical factor among successful entrepreneurs is having good people skills. You should make an effort to genuinely like, respect, and appreciate other people. The ability to win people over will carry you far in all walks of life, especially your own business. If you have a blog, you might want to check out my tips to have better people skills online.

4. Supportive spouse

Don’t worry all you singles; I’m not suggesting that you get married before becoming an entrepreneur. But you should know that having a supportive spouse is another big success factor for entrepreneurs. Many times as a business owner, you’ll face tough and risky decisions.

My wife is amazingly supportive and I don’t know what I’d do without her. I’ve made enough business mistakes over the course of the last two years to fill up a book, and she still stands behind me 100%. Having a spouse that truly believes in your goals, dreams, and abilities is priceless.

5. Strong work ethic

There’s no substitute for hard work when it comes to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Most people want to do the fastest and easiest solution when it comes to work. If you want to be a success, dedicate yourself to persistent, productive, old fashioned hard work.

6. Passion

It almost goes without saying that in order to become a successful entrepreneur, you need to be passionate about your business. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to build a business around something you love. You can (and should) identify a profitable market and then build your business.

Ed dale talked about this in the 30 Day Challenge when he brought up the niche market of trout fishing. He pursued it because of its profit potential. He admits that he didn’t know anything about trout fishing prior to starting a website about it. He became passionate about his niche and learned all he could. Now it’s one of his most profitable businesses.

Loving your business will also make it easier to get through the start-up phase, and other future obstacles.

7. Strong leadership qualities

Being able to communicate effectively, motivate others, sell your ideas, and be decisive, are just a few of the qualities of a good leader. In order to become a successful entrepreneur you must dedicate yourself to improving your leadership skills and abilities.

8. Competitiveness

Competition is everywhere. In business, it’s the survival of the fittest. If you can out-market and outperform your competitors, your chance of being a successful entrepreneur will be much greater. Play to win, but never sacrifice your integrity for the sake of a few bucks.

9. Well-organized

I struggle with this one myself. But I’m constantly trying to improve my organizational skills. One of the main reasons small businesses fail is a lack of organization. If you too are unorganized, don’t worry too much. Everyone can learn organization skills with enough hard work, practice, and persistence.

10. Sales ability

The ability to convince others to make a conscious buying decision is a key becoming a successful entrepreneur. Sales guru Zig Ziglar says, “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons”. Being able to appeal to other people’s emotions is the key to selling your ideas, products, or services.

Characteristics and qualities of millionaire entrepreneurs that had the LEAST impact on success

Here are a couple of surprising factors that ranked among the lowest in regards to, the success of entrepreneurs.

Luck

Some people look at those with money, fame, or a successful business and say “they were just lucky” or “they were in the right place at the right time”. The truth is, most self-made millionaires and successful entrepreneurs don’t depend on the lottery, gambling, or other people to make them a success.

People see actors and musicians who suddenly become the next big thing and say, “wow they were lucky to be such an overnight success”. When in actuality, most actors and musicians work diligently for years in order to achieve such fame.

There’s a good quote that says, “The harder I work the luckier I get”. I also like the quote “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Don’t make the mistake of believing that luck determines how successful an entrepreneur you can be.

Education

Another surprise revealed in this survey was that education (including the choices “attending a top rated school” and “graduating at/near the top of my class”) was ranked near the bottom as a factor of success. The lack of a formal degree should not keep you from pursuing your own business.

This doesn’t mean you won’t have to learn. On the contrary, successful entrepreneurs and millionaires are good at gathering the knowledge they need in order to apply it to their business. The average millionaire reads one non-fiction book per month. Education is important in life, but getting bad grades in high school is not going to keep you from becoming a successful entrepreneur.

To wrap things up

As you can see, the most significant factors that will determine your success as an entrepreneur deal with how well you deal with other people and your own personal behaviors. Our society tells us that we have to get good grades, to get into a good college, to get a good “secure” job. Instead of teaching us to innovate, think creatively, and dream big, we’re taught to fear failure, wait until age 70 to retire, and to depend on the government for our needs . I hope you won’t fall into the same pattern of thinking.

Instead, I hope you’ll take this bit of wisdom on your journey to become a successful entrepreneur.“Whatever you mind can conceive, you can achieve”

Have you been inspired to become an entrepreneur? What do you think it takes to become a successful entrepreneur?

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1. The Pursuit of Happiness is a tear-jerker based on the true story of Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Gardner is a down-on-his-luck (at one point homeless) single parent, trying to fight through a no-salary internship at a prestigious stock brokerage. Although the story is not one of entrepreneurship, it highlights the principles of dedication, hard work, and perseverance that will benefit any business professional.
2. Cocktail may not be one of the best movies of our generation, but it has it’s value. In this movie Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) comes to New York with big entrepreneurial and business ambitions. He quickly finds out that the road to success is paved with obstacles. He takes a job as a bartender while studying business and becomes a local rock star. While trying to find his million-dollar idea he learns the hard way what can happen when we become too selfish.
3. Boiler Room is a movie about Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), a college dropout, trying to make it big and gain acceptance from his father who’s a Judge. Seth runs his own business, an illegal home casino. When an old buddy visits one night with a fellow broker who drives a Ferrari, Seth sees a chance to make more money and impress his father. He joins the firm and starts making sales. His dream quickly fades when he learns the inside illegal methods the brokerage is using to make them all filthy rich.
4. Jerry Maguire is a wonderful mix of romance, humor, and inspiration. Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a sports agent who decides his company needs a change. One night he decides to write the company a new “mission statement”, where he suggests fewer clients, with a focus on more personal relationships. After getting an initial positive reaction from his fellow co-workers, Jerry finds himself booted from the company, with only two clients of his own. It’s a great tale of dedication to others, and to your own purpose.
5. Remember the Titans is another great inspirational movie, although it has nothing to do with business or entrepreneurship. It’s based on the true story surrounding the integration of black and white students at T.C. Williams High School. Their football team (the Titans) struggles as racial tensions flair. Eventually, the Titans come together, and as a result, bring their classmates and community together. This is a great movie that depicts how team work, respect for one another, and a sense of purpose, can truly benefit the human spirit.
6. Office Space is a hilarious account of what it’s like to work a dull 9-5 corporate job. Peter (Ron Livingston) is fed up with his office job, bosses, and TPS reports. He decides to turn to hypnotherapy to gain a more laid back outlook. It goes to extremes when he stops going to work, and even plots to steal money from the company. A must have for any entrepreneur.
7. Wall Street is a powerful tale of big business in the 1980′s. Gordon (Michael Douglas) is a Wall Street legend who lures a young broker (Charlie Sheen) into the world of illegal corporate dealings. The connections between this film and Boiler Room are clear, especially with the funny scene in Boiler Room, where the brokers are watching and quoting Wall Street word-for-word.
8. It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t just for Christmas anymore. This classic tale shows how doing good deeds, big or small, can make a huge impact on others. When George Bailey (James Stuart) realizes his life hasn’t ended up how he dreamed, he makes plans to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. An angel visits and shows George what the world would have been like without him, in an effort to prevent his death.
9. Citizen Kane is undoubtedly one of the greatest films of our time. Orson Welles wrote, directed and starred in this classic about Charles Foster Kane, which was inspired by the life of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. The movie depicts the moral that money, power, and fame do not buy happiness. This is something we all need to be reminded of from time-to-time.
10. Pirates of Silicon Valley gives an interesting account of the contrasting personalties of super-rich techno entrepreneurs, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. It’s a war between uber-nerds, need I say more?

While compiling my own list I found this post about the top movies for entrepreneurs . If you want a few more, less mainstream movie ideas, I invite you to check it out.

What are your thoughts on my list of movies? Are there any movies you would add this the list?

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