Start Something

“Failure is not the opposite of success. It is a stepping stone to success.” ~ Ariana Huffington

Ok, it is time. I can’t wait another minute. I have to start something! I have wanted an online business for as long as I can remember. Since first hearing about the coming information age in the early 80’s. Yet, everything I have tried, I have given up on too soon. I can’t bare to hear one more success story while I sit at a temp job wondering if this is all there is to life when I know full well that success is there for the taking. I know I have just as much potential to make it as anyone else. I can no longer fool myself by saying that I have to further my education or have money to make money. In the last week alone I have heard of two drug addicted criminals who turned their life around and are now making a fortune online and in their business. One is Robert Nava. Robert’s story is the one that has pushed me into action today!

I heard about Robert Nava on Shopify’s TGIM podcast. Robert started The National Parks Depot Feb 2014 and has made $2.5 million in sales in two years! They went on to say that he recently started eCom Premier Academy and made a million dollars in three days! I can feel my blood pressure rising as I am listening to this story. I am happy for him, but I want this type of success so bad I can taste it. Seeing your dream right in front of you like a mirage can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing that you have the vision to begin with and a curse to have to endure many setbacks and overcome overwhelming obstacles to make your invisible dream come to life.

Robert’s success story makes me want to cheer and cry at the same time. I want to cheer that he was able to turn his life around and also for showing us the potential that we all have for success. I want to cry because he said a year before he launched his business he couldn’t imagine being where he is now. A year? I have worked on having a successful business for 20 years and still am not there. One online endeavor after another, one failed idea after another. It makes me want to scream!

Instead of throwing my hands up in despair and crying about what I don’t have and focusing on what I have failed at, I am going to use it as fuel to get my butt in gear and take an idea and go for it!

That is exactly what I am doing as of today. In fact, it is what I was doing when I ran across the TGIM podcast that featured Robert. I was checking out Shopify because I saw where it could be integrated on the free WordPress platform. I need free or as close as I can get to free right now because every dime I make is going to keep a roof over my family’s head, food in the fridge, and cover the basic utilities which includes internet so I can keep working on my new business venture which is infused water.

I got the idea for infused water from learning about the success of Simple Green Smoothies. I had an idea years ago about putting bits of fruit in water and bottling it up and I had an idea of bottling water long before it was ever a thing, but of course I never pursued it. I started podcasting before it was popular too, but again, I didn’t stick with it. So many millions left on the table. I believe it was Steve Jobs who said we all have million dollar ideas, it is pursuing the idea that makes a difference.

I could wallow in these near misses and epic failures or I could do like Arianna Huffington suggests and use the failures as stepping stones to success. That is exactly what I plan to do! I plan to use this as my platform to share with other ambitious entrepreneurs who are sidetracked by shiny objects so we can learn together, so we can support each other, share our wins and motivate each other to move past, over or through our obstacles.

I will share the books, blog posts, podcasts and other things I find that help me on my entrepreneurial journey in an effort to help other aspiring entrepreneurs and those stuck on the sidelines with a dream.

If homeless ex-cons, former junkies, and recovering alcoholics can become mega-successful entrepreneurs, I see no reason why someone who has spent their entire life with their nose to the entrepreneurial grindstone can’t succeed. The major difference is people like Robert Nava, Khalil Rafati, Rich Roll, Lewis Howes, and Dani Johnson took CONSISTENT ACTION on an intensely focused goal to make their dreams happen. If they can do it, we can too!