I just wanted a pic of something badass. I think this one's got it covered.
This post began as an inkling of an April Fool’s joke.
Except it wasn’t funny.
At all.
It may even be the most serious thing I’ve ever written. You may not even want to continue (you were warned).
And I’m publishing it on April Fool’s Day.
How’s that for being a shit-disturber? On with it…
Oh Please
Maybe you should just give up. You know, forget the whole make-money-online thing. Bloggers don’t make money online anyway. People don’t really succeed at their online businesses. You’re only catching them at their most self-delusional while their bills are unpaid but they have a little money in their PayPal accounts.
Really, it’s all an elaborate hoax designed to drain your wallet of money better spent on things like, oh, I dunno, FOOD. You don’t need to learn that marketing stuff, it’s all smoke, mirrors and snake oil.
Forget your dreams of freedom. It’s just another illusion designed to distract you from suffering.
You really think you’re gonna sell an ebook or consulting online? Hah.
Don’t bother.
Get a stupid, boring day job that sucks out your soul and which leaves you feeling trapped and hollow. Stop trying to be different than the rest of your friends and family. By the way, they hate you for that, you know. It just makes them jealous and they’re all secretly waiting for you to crash and burn so they can “console” you and “help” you and say “I wish you woulda listened to me.”
You should just sit there with your head down at your cubicle, getting enough work done so you don’t get fired. Oh, wait, you could get fired, anyway. That’s how employment works, remember?
And never mind what kind of example you’re setting for your kids. You don’t want them to emulate that dangerous “entrepreneur” example, do you?
It would all be so much easier if you just didn’t try.
Are You Pissed, Yet?
Sometimes, writing something along the lines of “try harder” or “try this” just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to be grabbed by the hair. I hope that when you were reading the above, it sounded like the worst thing in the world to you. A fate worse than death. I hope it woke you up and renewed for you why you’re doing what you’re doing. I hope your reaction was: “Oh, HELL no.”
And don’t think like I think I’m so great, or anything. I’m writing this for me just as much as I am for you.
Give up?
Never.
Lock ‘n’ load. Fire.
Leave a “hell yeah” comment and then get out of here. You have work to do.
Image from here.
“Stop trying to be different than the rest of your friends and family. By the way, they hate you for that, you know.”
Oh believe me I totally know this is true. I also know their face doesn't hurt at the end of a 12-hour “work” day from smiling so much. Mine does. And I hope they're jealous enough to follow suit soon
For their sakes, I hope so, too.
This isn't blogging.
This is war.
Well said, and yes.
Cool article and yes, great picture
One of my proudest moments was the beginning of this school year, when my 9-year-old daughter wrote “Entrepreneur” on the “what do you want to be when you grow up?” questionnaire the teacher handed out (she may have misspelled it. But STILL!).
THAT is my motivation when I want to give up. Being (doing) something that my own child sees as, well, a happy choice, interesting, fun, and yes, worthwhile — and not just “someday,” but NOW.
Rock on.
Wendy, that's awesome! Thanks for sharing.
My son is 8 yrs old and he said exactly the same thing to his friends. All the kids where like; i be a fireman, no i be a cop. My son said:
I want to get rich on the internet, I want to be be an Ant on the FLOOR.
We all started lauging, cause we knew that he ment Entrepeneur
Michael,
Hell yeah.
Later…
BTW, what is to the left of that, um.. girl in the pic?
Heavy equipment! Looks like a manufacturing machine of some kind. For what, I dunno. Steel flashlights, they kinda look like, but who knows?
Explosive Make Up, I'd say, LOL!
I meant: Explosive LipSticks :p
Gah! You trying to give me nightmares?
I have supportive family and family that expects me to fail even when they see success. For the latter, that's their problem. My oldest is thinking on following in my footsteps, and knows I'll help her work on her own site any time she's ready.
Yeah family can be a mixed bag for sure. Glad to hear that about your
daughter though. There's no job security except what we create. The future
belongs to creative entrepreneurs, not job-seekers.
Hell yeah! Keep turning the encouragement up to 11 Michael. VERY helpful kick in the pants!
Thanks, Phil! Rock on, buddy.
“Really, it’s all an elaborate hoax designed to drain your wallet of money better spent on things like, oh, I dunno, FOOD.”
Oh, thank God! Someone giving me permission to stop wasting my time and head back to McDonalds… Wanna join me? We could get very fat instead of pissing our lives away online. Then we seriously could just blend in…!
LOL, I eat at McDonald's all the time. Talk about having your cake and…
I spent 14 years peddling that damn corporate hamster wheel. Ain't NO WAY I am ever going back. This year is actually my 10 year anniversary of jacking it in.
Working for yourself is a roller coaster of ups and downs and I am happy to roll with the downs because they go hand in hand with being able to dance with the ups. And the alternative isn't an option.
So a big “hell yeah” from this side of the pond.
No, the alternative isn't an option. It's all one big package. You're a great example, Ali, of how to be realistic and pragmatic without having it come out looking like pessimism.
#BOOM
…and that is all I am going to say.
Oh hell, I do have more to say.
“By the way, they hate you for that, you know.” Some do, but I think more than that, they don't understand what you do. And maybe that is what they hate. I know for Clay and I and Headway Themes, we get questions all to often by those caught in cubicle hell. Questions like, “it can't last forever can it?” Or my favorite, “So what are you going to do when it fails?” Not if it fails, but when. Seriously, really… you are now a freaking fortune teller and you know for a fact our business is going to fail.
And this one, “You know this whole Internet thing is going to pass and you are going to regret not working for someone aren't you?” Lets not forget, “Just how many people are going to buy what you have to offer?” “What happens when you have sold all the possible buyers?”
Come on, I know everyone reading this has heard that bullshit at least once.
Let me just give our business as an example and our possible very “small” market. We build and sell a commercial WordPress theme/framework. There are currently over 30 million downloads of the latest version of WordPress . Yes, 30 million. How many cities have 30 million possible customers in it. Dare I say, very few countries have that many. My point is…
Are we really going to run out of customers when those of us who have online based businesses have the entire freaking world as our marketplace. My answer to some of these comments about our market and running out of customers is this. I would be happy with 1% of the market out of the 30 million downloads of WordPress.
Now, can you seriously see yourself going back to or remaining stuck in a head to the desk, watching over your shoulder, worrying about getting that pink slip in your inbox cubicle job? I know I never, ever want to work for anyone else. Never, never, ever, ever.
And as Michael states, never give up. Period!!!
Sorry Michael, you caused me to rant a bit.
Rant away, my friend.
Let's say your business does fail. SO WHAT. Start another. That's something people who aren't doing this really don't get: how much freakin' power we have over our own lives. Gather the faithful, make something awesome, slap a PayPal button on it and profit. Lather, rinse, repeat.
And also, unlike a person who has all his eggs in one basket via employment, we have multiple income streams. Exactly so that if one falters the rest are there.
And this is why I ? you guys…no really I do. I needed this little pep talk today. So yeah…this is my Hell Yeah! …time to lock 'n' load.
*pumps victory fist* Awesome!
Faced this song all my life from people who moan and die a little each day at their wage-slave job. I work too, while I chizel out my choice of living. Thanks and appreciate it to hear that many feel like I do, and that's alright.
For years I worked a full-time job while I built up this business in the evening and the wee hours of the morning. Said good-bye to the job over a year ago. It was scary-exhilarating.
Still is.
That would be a big “Yeah!” And thank you for the nifty post, and the truly inspiring image! And the post, for that matter!
You're welcome and you're welcome!
I started blogging five years ago, when I was staying home full-time with a brand-new baby. Now I run a multi-six-figure online business in the spiritual development arena. I'm a PSYCHIC, for crying out loud … if that's not an unlikely profession to make money in, I don't know what is! Along the way, I've figured out tons of ways NOT to make money. Failure is inevitable and the most valuable part of learning what DOES work. So tell all the naysayers to get a more exciting life, and stick with it!
Hell, yeah!
I think the “likely” professions don't have even half as much to offer as
There is no escaping the lessons to be learned, so
the unlikely ones.
full speed ahead.
This almost made me cry Michael! After 10 years of being self employed, I can't tell you how many close calls there were, but thank God I never went back! I remember telling my dad (who totally did NOT get why I left a “secure” job) that I was NEVER going to have a boss again. NEVER!
Thanks for this bitch-slap-wake-up-call to remind me of that promise to myself!
You're welcome, Sandi. I'm so glad you never went back! We can always say,
“Look at me now, and the best is yet to come!”
AHHHHHHH!!! I almost stopped reading because it was pissing me off and leaving me annoyed and nauseous. So against everything I believe and everything I have been doing for the last six months.
Except for the part about the friends and family waiting to catch me. You were dead on there.
Glad I kept reading. (Only because of who tweeted the link, actually. If not for my trust in her judgment I might not have made it through without discounting it as self loathing and depressing.) But I am glad.
I wanted it to be depressing (to a point), because I wanted us to remember
what we're fighting against. I wanted to remember what defeat really means
so I don't get soft. I know it's all “positive” to be rah-rah about what
we're trying to achieve, but usually tune that out, precisely because it's
rah-rah and often feels forced. Hollow motivation just ain't my thing, so I
went for the dark meat. Glad you stuck around, lol.
Haha! Martin,
What a remarkably 'flexible' and positive rant/encouragement where you masterfully 'become' the aspiring reader : )
And you are right, 'never give up': that's what the coolest marketing gangstas will tell you, and that's what they ALWAYS do whenever they start something totally new, it's just like having the ability of “ever-regenerating-last-bullet” for your new gun. And better not shoot in the dark, and lock on priority targets: like problems.
Since each problem has a solution, we just have to find it. But if no one hands it (with/without counterpart), we will have to create it with our own hands. Not always evident, but persistence and determination will pay off anyway. If Rome will never come to you, and you still can't go to Rome, then create your own Rome! : )
Thank you Martin for reminders/inspiration, now gotta head to my HQ to handicraft some sylver-laser bullets :p
K'
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the pep talk! I don't want to live the life of a corporate drone who constantly bumps their head on the glass ceiling barely above me but could you maybe have included some advice or real world examples of how to persevere? I would also like to think I could be an entrepreneur without coming off so smug to the people who choose to work for a company. If that is the attitude we are to present, no wonder they don't want to see us succeed.
Yeah there's no need to be an asshat about it. Most people, after all, are
not entrepreneurs. Choosing one path doesn't mean we're judging all other
paths.
*Michael Martine
*Blog Alchemist
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