But seriously, I’ve met so many people who have amazing lives, doing what they love and getting paid very well for it, having a good time traveling the globe.

Do they have a private beachfront? Nope. But they don’t mind jumping into a lake with… well, anybody.

They comfortably dip into exclusive 5 star environments, turn around and do a little barbeque in the park.

They realize when they’ve been working too hard, make a few phone calls to rearrange their schedule and hop over for a week of diving in Thailand, cycling in Italy or whatever floats their boat.

One of them is actually coaching lots of high-level executives from companies like Coca Cola, IBM, government agencies, etc. They have their nice family villa, a Jaguar, a Benz and a Jeep in their garage, an attractive wife, two kids… and they’re on medication and behind that expensive facade desperately trying to get a life. The ones I talked to I’d call good people who tried very hard and finally succeeded climbing up that latter - just to find out that it’s the wrong latter.

However, having been running my own businesses for several years now, I’ve learned that as an entrepreneur you do have the OPTION to really do it your way - but it still takes a lot of guts. And while the corporate world sedates their slaves with “security” (at least until they figure out that computers or Indians can do it cheaper), I have to admit that every once in a while when I meet a guy my age who’s earning five times my income all the while looking fancy and smug - I do get jealous and feel resentment. Funny enough - it’s not so much about the money or the car, but about the respect they get. (But even that is a lesson for me in how I treat other people and communicate with them - bathing them in the same amount of respect that I secretly crave).

I am a divorced Mom of two girls under 11 and I want so badly to build a better life for us. I discovered how to make money in brokering hard money loans. Sometimes I will make 8 or 10 grand at a time. I worked with other successful investors and brokers in Washington State. I was a little discouraged about a 1.3 million dollar deal that took months then fell through. I lost my well you know on that one. So I left the brokerage house and found one RE Attorney whom I have as my one and only private investor. To date I secured a couple of large commercial pieces of property with a 14% interest only loan on the short term. I am having a hard time though on my own and would like to know if you could give a gal a little advice on a start up internet biz that would allow me some financial freedom. Like a vacation once a year of some music lessons and gym for my girls. I hate being poor. I just thought after reading your blog that you could and maybe would advise me.

Angel

What a great blog. I’m glad to see you fixed the technical part, so we all can keep up to speed with your posts.

I know a little while back you offered to answer some questions. I don’t know if that was a one time shot or an ongoing thing…but…if you ever need some ideas for a blog entry, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on the “back-end” of marketing….where the real money is made. Any tips, strategies, battle plans, or secrets you’d be willing to share for rookie direct response marketers like myself.

Thanks for everything!

Michael

For the last ten years, I used what I learned there (project management, team, mgmt training), to apply to what I do now as an entrepreneur. I always knew I’d be an entrepreneur, but I worked in the system to gain the experience, which I knew I’d use outside of it some day.

Always a lone wolf, the executive VP who did my exit interview at Ford Motor world headquarters said, “you’re a top performer, but you’re not a team player”. No joke. I don’t like politics and helping others look good. It’s bs. I said its’ hard to fly like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys. He said that’s my problem. I said no, it’s yours. And walked outta corporate life forever. And it’s been great. Moved to hawaii, great life and more.

Glad I never had to make payroll. John your article should be must-reading for all the small biz owners out there.. so many I worked with, looked exhausted and broke. But at least independent. But payroll, other employees, just another kind of prison, like corporate.

Been working in my shorts in front of the pc making a bundle for the last 5 years and it’s great. I like it solo. thx for the blog, great stuff in here.

ken calhoun

p.s. how do I put paragraph spaces in here? couldn’t find at the movable type site..

(Although rare. I’ve seen more entrepreneurs dealing with serious “let-go” issues than a CEO with a PhD who was hired after the “empire” was created. I personally know of one guy who started as a one-man show, and now has 60 employees, a huge office and tons of headaches. He recently paid like over half a million to a consulting company to learn how to … delegate. Ugh.)

(Ya, nice to be on the beach with fancy drinks with little umbrellas … ’cause you’ll need the alcohol to numb the pain of the looming heart attack.)

On the funny side, check this site out. Check out every page. Damn funny.

huh? Corp.

http://huhcorp.com/