First off, I just want the world to know that I bought and IPad AND AM FREAKIN’ EXCITED!! I pre-ordered it on the first day it was open and it’s scheduled to arrive on Apr 3rd, which is a Saturday. But I had mine shipped to work, which means that I won’t get it till Monday. :-/ Whatev. What is two days, right? I’m going to use it as much as I can.

Second, I found a freaking awesome wordpress plug-in, called Seaweed, which let’s you write posts on your blog. Like, on your blog, with the same theme as your blog and everything! It’s in beta, but the only issue I’ve had is that on my net-book the toolbox sometimes moves around. But that only happens when I am not scrolled all the way to the top. 

And third, I am already only my next gadget. I really want this watch. 

That is all. (Yeah, NERD!)

Okay. Great. But how?

The traditional way (and the one that I am currently partaking in) is to get a job and spend X number of hours a day doing work for other people. Most of the time this is work that you really don’t care about. On top of that, unless you get a raise you pretty much know what you will be making for the year. There is no room for extra (unless you work for a commission).

The other way is to work for yourself. You can either start a company and hire the people who take the traditional way. Or you can do something even more non-traditional, such as be an internet marketer or a performance artist.

For me, working for myself sounds super appealing. Here is why:

1. I don’t like sitting in the same place every day. If you work for yourself, you can move around and work from different locations. This might be a silly reason to put as number one, but it really is important to me. My current job would be 10 times better if I could choose where I did it.
2. You could do something that interests you. If you work for yourself, you more than likely won’t start a company that you hate. Yes, there may be work that you don’t like to do, but you will at least be interested in the topic. That will help drive you forward.
3. I don’t want to worry about money. If I am successful in creating my own company, I won’t have to worry about things like being fired. (Well, usually. Steve Jobs may disagree).
4. You have the flexibility to take time off and travel more than you do in a traditional job.

Here is the situation that I would like. I work all year creating something of value. Then I launch it. I make my year’s income in a week. Hopefully I can make more than a year’s income. Then I take some time off and travel. I may learn something new. Then I go back to work creating the next thing. Rinse and repeat. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Don’t think that it could happen? Lets look at the numbers.

I currently make $40,000 a year as a computer programmer working 4 days a week. I will use that as my base salary in doing these calculations.

If I have a $1000 product, I would need to sell 40 of them.
If I have a $500 product, I would need to sell 80 of them.
If I have a $250 product, I would need to sell 160 of them.
If I have a $100 product, I would need to sell 400 of them.

Do you think those numbers are unreasonable? For a year? If you have a really good product, selling 400 of them for $100 each would not be that hard. The key is that you need a really good product.

Now take a different approach. Sell a monthly subscription service. Maybe that is a membership site where you provide weekly teaching on a topic that you are knowledgeable in. It could be a subscription to a product that you sell (think ‘Wine of the Month Club’ style). It might be a website that is a really good tool that people really find useful.

Okay, now say that you charge $20 a month for it. That is $240 a year. Can you get 167 people to buy this product or service? Plus, if it is a super good product people will keep using it. You won’t have to worry about making $40,000 in new sales the next year because some will follow over from the previous year. Your income can grow.

I pay for a NetFlix membership, a World of Warcraft subscription, an email newsletter service, an announce-my-blog-post service, a membership forum, and probably some other things that I am not thinking about right now. People do actually buy that type of thing.

Well there is a lot that I need to do and learn before I get there. But no.. its not a pipe dream. I just need an idea for a great product or service. Working on that one…

Last week, I had a bad day so I took the following day off from work. I just wasn’t going to push myself too hard. I spent that morning surfing the Internet, including Craigslist.

Previously, I had been thinking about trying to find some freelance work that would help me learn more about marketing for the Internet, which is an interest of mine. I hadn’t really thought too hard about that possibility, and I sure didn’t go out of my way looking for it.

But then I stayed home and surfed Craiglist. And there I ran across an ad posted by a local Internet marketer. Although the job wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, I applied anyway. I didn’t really want to get a new job, just some side work.

As it turns out, my application to that job has shaped itself into some freelance work that will let me learn more about Internet marketing. Just what I had been thinking about.

Now I am not saying that we should just sit on our butts waiting for life to drop things in our laps. Just be open to serendipity and you may be surprised how often it shows up.

Actually stop reading this blog entry and write a list of everything that comes to mind that you are thankful for.

Seriously… do it now.

Done? Great. How do you feel? Got a smile on your face? Feel a little bit happier?

Remember that no matter where you are in life or what is going on around you, there is always something for you to be thankful for. You’re breathing, right? That’s a good place to start.

Here are a few that I came up with to be thankful for:
- I have someone special in my life.
- I have family who will always support me.
- I make a decent living and can afford to live comfortably.
- I have a wonderful opportunity to learn more about a topic that interests me.
- I just ate a good meal.
- I own a nice comfy blanket on a cold day.
- I have chocolate pudding to eat for dessert
- and yes, I’m breathing.

I’d love to hear what you came up with.

On top of that, I had a student job that I was using as a distraction from school, which lead to me working about 30 hours a week while I was going to school. Between school and work, I had no time for personal projects. Yet, on top of both of those, I started playing World of Warcraft, which sucked up any extra time I may have had.

And frankly, I was so burnt out with it all that I didn’t care at all.

Then I graduated and had a month off before I started working full time. I used that month to go on a trip to visit family in Oregon. I just spent the month in chill mode. But seriously, a month wasn’t long enough.

So then I started work. I just continued working with the web development company I had worked for while going to school. At first it was a lot of fun, but then as I started to think about getting started with my own personal projects, I began to realize but how little time I had. And that job was beginning to get stressful as I moved from student work to staff work. I began coming home with no energy and would just chill in the evening. I never had the motivation to work on anything else.

But I’m an independent worker by nature. I need to have personal project going to make me happy. A few months into my job, and I just got more and more unhappy with the whole situation. So I started a few small side projects.

But…. I failed.

I just couldn’t stay motivated with all the stress in my life from work. And stress is bad. It makes you sick. So I never finished any of those projects.

By late 2009, I had to do something about this. So I made three goals for myself:

• Work Part Time – I’d ask to work 4 days a week instead of 5.
• Take an Art Class – I would pick something to learn that is completely right brain and different from anything I was currently doing.
• Start learning Internet Marketing – I wanted to learn something that would give me the potential to make residual income. Internet Marketing had interested me for a while and I thought it was a good place to start.

So I was determined to do all of them. And I did. I found a drawing class at a local art school that started in January and signed up for that.

I also asked my boss for a day off in order to take my art class. Saying “I want a day off to take this art class.” is a whole lot easier than just saying “I want a day off”.  He had no problem with it and happily agreed. I took an income cut, but that was fine with me.

Lastly, I started doing Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge. This was a good introduction to Internet Marketing. I got about half way through the challenge, trying to keep myself motivated.

Well, that brings me up to Jan 2010. In my next post I’ll write about where I am not and where I’m planning to go to make 2010 the best year ever. I’m still struggling a bit, but I finally have myself motivated to change my life.