Intermission 1 – Breaking the “Can I Do This” Barrier
To try and break up the monotony of this money making machine, I thought I would throw in a post every so often that would provide some motivation or give you something to consider. Sometimes I have to hear/see/experience something in just the right way before it makes sense to me. These posts aim to help make it click for you. Let me know how I’m doing.
For this post I want to try and provide a catalyst for breaking the “Can I Do This” barrier. Lower the activation energy so to speak. If you’re reading this blog you’re either a friend who is doing me a favor, or you’re interested in trying to make money online. To me, a lot of these ways to make money online look incredible to begin with: you see so many people doing it, you hear about how much money they make, it looks completely doable. Then when you start to get into it, you start to see that it’s not nearly as easy as you thought; it takes a lot of time to do it, you’re not sure how to approach it. Waah (that’s supposed to be a sarcastic baby cry). The doubt starts to add up and soon you’re overwhelmed (I’m using the proverbial “you”; I could have easily used “me” but then I sound like baby. Waah.). That doubt is was I term the “Can I Do This” barrier. So how can “you” get over it?
Let me start with some plot building. I did the whole “go to college” thing that most everyone of my generation did. I graduated, got a job, moved back home, got another job, went back to school, still have a job. I work a job that I don’t necessarily love (I’m a scientist by trade…hence the chemistry puns last paragraph) and find myself time again speaking to random friend about my feelings for this job. Many of my older friends view this as a necessary evil, much like I do…or did (ooh, foreshadowing). You have a mortgage payment, a car payment, student loans… you have to work. Some of my friends supported me looking around for other jobs. The odd thing I noticed comes when I speak to friends my own age. They tell me that I got get out of there, it’s not good for your soul, you got to follow your dreams. A bit naive, but it really resonates with me.
Then I read The 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. It had crossed my radar a few months before I actually picked it up. I saw a brief clip of him on some newscast promoting his book and he sounded a little too intense for me. Way too Fight Club. I forget what made me want to read it (perhaps an offhand reference from a blog post…like this one?) but I went into the book with an attitude of disbelief. I finished with an attitude of possibility. Real briefly, he lays out literally step-by-step the actions it takes to re-define how to perceive work and life in general, eliminate the extra work that tends to crowd our lives, automate as much as possible with regards to our work lives and/or an entrepreneurial venture that he helps us start, and then liberate ourselves from our current job or business so that we are free to travel the world and do amazing things. There are a tremendous number of anecdotes and case studies that help to reinforce his methods in each section and he provides an enormous wealth of resources to really cut down on the “Can I Do This” Barrier. I was so amazed by this possibility…even if I could only attain a fraction of this (I’m not nuts about traveling around the world)…that I read the book a second time, cover to cover, on my flight down to Florida. It changed the way I thought about work and working for other people.
The second push I got was from Pat over at Smart Passive Income Blog. He has been an “Internet Marketer” for over a year now and he happened to strike it rich (my words, not his) by writing an e-book for LEED certification (think green-home building license) that people bought in droves. He also would state his earnings, for the entire world to see, that he made from his book and a few other projects he worked on. This was incredibly helpful in motivating me; to really see the power of making money online and that a normal guy (roughly the same demographic as me) could fulfill his dream of living free through money he made the internet. And he hasn’t stopped there! He’s got a ton of excellent resources and I highly recommend reading them when you have 40 hours to kill (after your done reading this blog of course!)
These two things are the kinetic force that made me realize that I should get off my ass and make it happen. I hope that they are valuable to you and that you can find a good balance between reading and doing. Making money online isn’t going to happen by itself!
So besides the crappy chemistry puns and random literary terms, how am I doing?
No related posts.
“Sometimes I have to hear/see/experience something in just the right way before it makes sense to me” You said it.
We’re taking similar journeys; I tried resisting “The 4 Hour Work Week” book, but on a random day at Borders, I saw a stack of it right across from me. All I did was pick up the book; and then I knew I had to buy it.
That, and Pat’s blog have really inspired me. I hate the whole ’9-5′ schedule thing. Maybe I’m lazy, maybe I dislike my job, maybe I think it’s impossible to be productive that many hours, 5x a week.
I haven’t been onto your blog for long, but perhaps you can discuss out of all the methods you have listed here, which ones you’ve tried, are the easiest, and are garnering the most profit.
Good luck!
It’s true. I don’t think that humans are meant to sit at a desk (or whatever you happen to do) for 40 hours a week. Same is true with going to work month after month, year after year. I like the idea of the “mini-retirements” that Tim Ferriss advocates in the 4-hr work week. Too bad I’m still stuck with the mentality that you need to save early for the “real” retirement. The power of compound savings still outweighs the dreams of freedom today.
I like your suggestion about reviewing how well each method works, what the potential income is, how much I’ve made, etc. I was thinking of doing a round-up every so often to review each method and give it more detail. The posts are pretty long as it is!
Reed,
I need to read that book again. I pre-ordered the 2nd edition, so I can’t wait. Thanks to my full-time job, I have been able to take mini-trips last year to FL, Gettysburg, CA, and Boston.
While I’m grateful for the check and what it allows me to do, I no longer feel the passion for it. Instead, I wish I was in CA right now, enjoying the sun, or back in that beautiful, cliff-side resort at Big Sur. I now have passion for traveling and don’t want to be bound 9-5 to a desk.
You have a lot of content, and it requires a lot of attention. Why not break it up into two parts/posts if needed?
You should take a massive leap into affiliate sales and try, try, try again. Easier said than done, I know. But it’s simple: people on the internet are looking for products. Why not give them the option of your affiliate product? They buy? You earn.
It’s hard knowing that it can be done but still worrying about your full-time job. Or latching onto it as if it’s the only real solution.
Keep up the good work!
Reed,
I like your blog a lot. The only truly passive way to generate income is through buying dividend stocks of well-known companies such as McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Johnson and Johnson and others. These companies have a long history of raising dividends because they have a product or service that consumers want or need, hence they make higher and higher profits each year. I am currently buying stocks for dividends, reinvesting dividends into more stocks that pay dividends as well. The nice part is that these stocks raise dividends every year, which is a pretty nice bump in income year over year.
Keep up the good work!
Dividend Growth Investor
Thanks for the kind words! I agree with you 1000% (yes, one thousand) about dividend investing and completely plan on adding that to my portfolio and blog. Dividend investing is great because: A) like you said it’s passive and B) it provides HUGE potential over the very long run. However, it’s not without risk (although generally dividend paying stocks are more stable than non-dividend paying type) and it takes money (whereas some of the ideas on the other posts don’t) and it’s a long term strategy (which some people don’t have patience for [which is too bad]). I love how your blog gives suggestions on some great dividend paying stocks and I’ve already added it to my favorites! I may have scour your site while I do my research…hope you don’t mind.
How do you feel about REITs? They are required to pay a large % of their earnings as dividends. How about DRIPS? Certainly a lot of potential with dividend stocks!
Hey Reed, nice post and nice blog in general.
Reading through what you say has motivated you was spooky, as it’s almost exactly how my own project started (I lay it out my Ferris and Pat route in on the front page of my blog).
For me, passive income = creating time. Time that I dont have now, and time that I’d like to have to spend with family, on projects I’m interested in and to travel.
Seems we’re going to be running our projects in parallel and would love to see you suceed – good luck with it all.
I’ll keep popping by to say hi, every now and then!
Cheers
Tim
Hey Tim, thanks for stopping by the site! I like the direction your heading with your blog, don’t worry too much about the procrastination, everything will get there. I wish you lots of success as well and hope that I can help you out on your journey to passive income freedom!