My life long dream (which I didn’t know until recently) is to build a business of my own and work for myself. We’re about to face some tough times and I have looked around and found a few suitable opportunities in the field that I’m educated in which is mechanical engineering.

One girl where I work figured she’d avoid getting laid off and would instead go start her catering company. I couldn’t be more proud of her for her courage! It made me think….is this my time to man up and get serious with my internet marketing?

The survivor in me immediately poked his head around the corner and asked “how fast can you earn enough money to keep the bills paid?” and the answer didn’t make happy feelings come about. I’m miles away from replacing my j.o.b. income with internet marketing income so it seems like suicide to just try to go full time with I.M.

Wife and I were talking about business success stories and we found it interesting that many of the success had pretty extreme circumstances drive them to make it happen. Jason Moffatt lived in a hut in the woods, Bill Bartman lived on a park bench, Julius Henderson was homeless, Eric Rockefeller had his brother die. These are all pretty scary situations that drove these people to develop “do or die” attitudes and drove them to keep going.

My wife said “we just need to become homeless or have something really bad happen to us” and I’m sure she was joking….at least I hope she was joking.

So here we are with my resume all polished up and ready to rock. Do I get out there, apply to the spots I’ve found, forgo my dream and continue working in the soul depleting field that is slowly killing me day by day….but puts groceries on the table or do I take these trying times and write the pages to the next success story that YOU read?

Knowing me, it will be a combination of both but only time will tell…..

After my ride, I was out grocery shopping with my wife and daughter and we bumped into a friend who has 2 small kids. Her husband fell from the rafters of a barn a few months ago, suffered massive trauma and died a few days later. She possesses a strength that I have a hard time grasping.

While these situations are drastically different, having them both happen in one day led me to realize something about life and the reasons people fail at things. The reason is that we allow ourselves to have options with failure being one of them.

Think about it:
- Dieters give up on eating healthy and getting fit because they have the option to eat crappy foods and be lazy.
- Smokers fail to quit because they give themselves the option to just go buy more smokes when they can’t hack it anymore.
- The unhappy 9-5 worker keeps slugging away at their dead end job that they hate because they are afraid to reach out and take a chance on a new venture and they have that cushy comfortable spot to fall back into.

The list could go on and on.

I am a part-time musician and I once read an interviewer with a guy called Mike Portnoy from the progressive rock band Dream Theater. The interviewer asked Mike what he would have done had music not panned out for him. What was his back up plan?

Mike told the interviewer that he never had a back-up plan as they are just an excuse to fail and they allow you a way out. He decided he wanted to be a professional musician and from that point on he refused to let anything stop him. Mike has gone on to win more drumming awards than any other rock drummer.

So I ask you? What will you let stand in your way of you reaching your goals and dreams? Never quit, remove it as an option and I think you’ll be surprised at what you’re able to achieve.

Mike