Do You Want Success? (Advice From A Veteran)

I'm by no means any special veteran - I only spent a little more than 2 and a half years in the military and never was able to actually go overseas to defend the country I readily signed up to protect, even if it meant sacrificing my life for the sake of those here.

However, it was actually during my military years that I started to see a lot of my business success, and so I thought I would share this on this Veteran's day.

Please note, I actually wrote this for someone who worked for me for a while, and while I've edited it to make it more generic, some of the things that we were talking about may still be in it).

Life Is Always Going To Be Difficult

"You would need to really show me that you want this - 4 articles a day is really the minimum that you would put into this (you should be doing more), since that should only take about 8 hours each day."

How passionate are you to making money online and see your website succeed?

I know money, life, or whatever is going to be tight or difficult. I get that.

I've been there - Over a little more than a year and a half ago, I was in a job that I hated (the military, lol), and my ( at the time pregnant) wife were living in a van that didn't have any A/C in the dead of summer.

We would go to the local library to borrow their internet and wouldn't leave until they closed for the night. Not only would we go the weekdays but also the weekends for most weeks.

Fast forward to 8 months or so (right before I hired you earlier this year), and I was working so hard, I probably was only getting 4-6 hours of sleep a day for a while, because of all the work I wanted to get done everyday.

I took a pay cut over the summer (I shared some during that time), where some months the business barely made anything (and if you add on my personal family expenses, my actual bank account went down several thousands of dollars during those months).

Even right now I'm not physically where I want to be - I'm living in a place where I'm reminded everyday why I don't want to be here (It's not bad place or anything, it's just not mine, which is what both my wife and I are currently working on to achieve next).

You've Been Given Everything You Need To Succeed

I've handed everything to you, and you didn't take it. I'm not trying to put aside everything that you were going through.

But, even with writers block - you could have easily reached out to me and just asked for help during that time. I'm always here and I've always responded to you and answered any questions you had or tried to find solutions for things for you. (Note to all those reading this - if you ever need help don't feel like you can't reach out. I'll see what I can do, even if it's point you to the right next step).

You've worked for me, so I know that when you are on your A-game, that you have a good solid work ethic. You're still young (early 30s), so I know you can still put in 16+ hours a day to make this succeed, including working some on the weekend.

If you are really serious about this, then go crazy on your business.

Post 3-4 articles a day, and start creating pins for Pinterest every day for the articles that you created and answer questions on Quora/Reddit that you know the answers to (You're doing this, so that you're diversifying your traffic from the start - If you're serious, ask me for training on these and I can get them for you).

Read every day something new about business or even Tiny Living so that you can better yourself and your site in the future.

If you (and your wife) are passionate for this to happen, then make it happen.

Fears And Excuses Will Always Try To Hold You Back

Nothing is holding you back from achieving this - with or without me paying you to work on this. The only thing that holds people back from their dreams are fears and excuses.

I have fears - fears that I don't know enough, that AI will destroy my business, the economy might collapse, I might have to live where we're currently living longer that I want to, that I might not be able to spend as much time with my wife and daughter.

I have too many excuses - "I don't need to work as hard as others because I've already put my work in." "I'm not going to be able to achieve the success that others have gotten, because I just don't know what they know or have the experiences they have." "There is no way for me to make my business make XYZ in this short amount of time, so why even try?"

I'm a human, and honestly, there is nothing different between you and me.

Nothing was handed to me on a silver platter.

I've worked hard for where I am, having to work even in the midst of the pain and emotional turmoil.

There was a time where my marriage was in a horrible place (because of things I had/hadn't done - I wasn't a good man or husband during that time, and am way better thanks to the Lord and to the promptings of my wife) with a lot of tension between my wife and I.

It was so bad that I was actually living with a friend, (way early on in our marriage) for a few weeks. I would go to the work that I hated, spent the evening trying to reconcile with my wife and then stayed up till 2 AM working on my business (only to wake up at 5 AM to get ready for work and do it all over).

Most days I didn't eat much because of the stress of everything (lost quite a few pounds).

Have Drive, Determination, And Faith

Point of all this is that there isn't any situation or excuse or fear that I haven't had and haven't overcome.

You honestly don't need me to achieve what you want. You just have to have drive, determination, and faith in God that this will all work out.

If you want to do this, then give yourself tasks every day - Recently I haven't been putting as much work in as I could either, so my wife and I talked, and I now give her my daily tasks that I'm going to do every day - I take on as much work as i can confidently take on, and my wife keeps me accountable (screenshots of the past two recent days below).

We're just using the Canvas section of Slack (A free program my business team members and I used to chat through) to do all this.

Don't Stop "Working", Ever!

Find ways and people to hold you accountable when your slacking.

If there are times when you can't 'work', because your taking care of children or have errands to do or something - I've been there before too.

I personally will try to listen to something (sometimes nothing, but most days something beneficial around business/personal success, even finances) while taking care of my daughter.

If I can't work on my business, then I'll work on myself.

You Will Get What You Seek After. Guaranteed.

Like I've reiterated multiple times, if you want this, if you really, really (and I mean really) want this, then you will have it.

There is no 'wishy-washy woo-woo' in that statement - whatever you want in life, if you want it bad enough, you will get it.

As one person (Earl Nightingale) so aptly put it, "If we know what it is we seek, it will, it must be accomplished barring an act of god or a catastrophe over which we have no control."

One of my very earliest goals was to make $2K in a month from one of my websites (I had gotten close to that number, but never that actual number). I set myself a goal of 30 days, and believe it or not, I achieved the goal.

That site now is bringing over $7K+ a month 18 months later, with my current 30 day goal is netting/profitting over $10K from that one site (once again, I've been close, but will definitely achieve it after this month).

I wanted to have a portfolio of websites that I ran with a team of VAs early on when I first started in digital marketing 5 years ago. While I'm not where I want to be perse, I've been able to create several of my own business, purchased two sites with cash (one for $34K and another for $24K,), currently working on 4 other website ideas and created a team of 5ish VAs to help me run all the sites I currently own.

One of my personal goals is to never go into debt - That's hard when you want to purchase a property. But my wife and I have a plan (i.e. a goal, a vision, a drive) to purchase our first property with cash that we've saved up in the next 3-6 months.

Those are just a few goals - one I've succeeded at, another I'm going to very soon, and one that I will in the near future.

Before my wife married me, she set some phenomenal goals, and was set on track to achieve them all ( Her last goal was to become a world-renown speaker with her own products and books published).

She was so good at her job, that her boss's boss's boss offered her a job (a position that he was going to specifically create just for her), with her being able to set her initial salary (in the high 5/low 6 figures). She turned it down to marry me, but the point is the same.

If you want something. if you know what you are seeking for, then you will get it. You will find it. There isn't anything that you can't get if you put your mind to it.

So go get it.