I’m very grateful for the life I have had so far. My family was never rich and I spent my early years learning to appreciate the simple things in life and the value of good, honest work. I honestly believe that this upbringing set me on the path to always strive to do well at everything I do and to never give up even when times are tough – sometimes you fail but you learn and you move on.
I’ve had a pretty varied career, I started working as a petrol attendant after school and ended up doing that and delivery/warehouse jobs for a few years while I tried to make a living as a professional musician. Music was a big part of my life for many years (still is!) and working my butt off doing a full time job during the day and playing professionally at night taught me a few really valuable lessons:
*It takes hard work to succeed
*You have to take a few calculated risks along the way if you want to do really well
*You have to believe in yourself, be prepared to do whatever it takes and never ever give up no matter what life throws at you!
When I was in my early twenties I had 2 significant events that really helped me to become the person I am today. The first event was when my boss at the time eventually gave me the opportunity to go from being a delivery driver to a salesman, even though I had no selling experience or skills.
He didn’t offer me the job at first though, he was looking for someone with experience which I just did not have. I decided that I really wanted the job so I thought long and hard about how I could get him to see my potential and I went for it. Unfortunately he still said no! But I didn’t give up and I tried again. In the end I got the job and then said to myself “Holy crap, I don’t know the first thing about selling!”
So I learnt.
Back then the internet existed only in Universities and Defence so I went to the local library and read everything I could find, which wasn’t much. I fumbled along and did a reasonable job but I decided that if I wasn’t the world’s greatest salesman then I could at least be the world’s fastest salesman so I set about going hell for leather and getting as many customer calls done per day as I could.
After a while I was doing pretty well but I was getting tired and a bit sick of working my butt off and I knew there had to be a better way.
Around that time the second significant event of my Twenties happened and I stumbled upon a book that changed my life. It was the Dale Carnegie classic “How To Win Friends And Influence People”.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that book absolutely revolutionised not only how I viewed the world and the people around me and made me a better person, but it also transformed me into a sales machine. Before reading it I was a bit arrogant and self assured and I never really thought much about anything but what “I” wanted. Something about the book just clicked and I realised that I was just going about everything the wrong way.
I’ve always been a happy, positive person but this book taught me so much about thinking about things from other people’s perspectives and how important and satisfying it is to give without expecting return, to put yourself in other people’s shoes and think “If I were them, what would I want out of this?”
By doing so you unlock an incredible amount of goodwill, potential and relationship building that benefits both parties immensely.
By understanding people better I was able to see how I could help them and incredibly I stopped having to try so hard to sell as it all just started to come naturally. My efficiency went up, I worked less, sold more and even more importantly I had a great time doing it! I built relationships with people that I never thought I would and I really learned how to make lasting friendships and business relationships.
If ever you get the chance please read the book, the returns you will get in your personal and professional lives will be incredible.
In the late 1990’s my wife and I started our family and have 2 wonderful children who are now adults – how time flies!! Having children gave me a completely new perspective on life and really allowed me to understand what is really important and what is not. Funnily enough having kids made me more relaxed in many ways because I realised that the only things that matter are family and health. At the end of the day nothing else really matters. So when I would get stressed about a particular customer at work or I would get angry about the amount of tax I had to pay I became able to step back, look at the situation from a bigger perspective and think – does this really matter? Is this worth me getting upset about? Will this issue still be bothering me in a month, a year, 10 years? Of course the answer was no, so it simply wasn’t worth wasting any more time on. It’s very easy to get caught up in the moment and worry about the things that are happening right now, but if you just take a step back and evaluate what is really going on you will almost always realise that stressing is just a big, fat waste of time!
So after quite a few years of working in the “real” world and doing ok for ourselves my wife and I decided to try our hands at making some extra money online. For more details see my blog post How I Have Made Money Online. We had a lot of fun but it was never intended to be anything other than creating a hobby and supplementing our income.
By this stage I had been following John Thornhill for quite some time – I bought something off him waaay back when he was selling on eBay and still working in the car factory. I remember when he quit his job and I thought that was cool but I didn’t think I would be able to build a business like that online. It was tough just doing it part time. So I continued following him with interest and started just doing some things for myself.
I learnt pretty quickly how to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and got quite good at it. I worked out how to be an affiliate which eventually led me to joining John’s coaching program and having my first launch. It was quite successful but I made some mistakes and the old self doubt started creeping back in. This online stuff was great but I didn’t think I was cut out for being a full time entrepreneur. We were still going through a rough time financially after nearly losing everything in the housing market crash during the GFC and all in all it was just not the right time for me to try to make a go of it online. So I did what “regular” people did and just put my head down and worked harder. I still played around and developed a few online products but never really did much with them.
In 2015 I picked up a great contract which allowed me to quit my sales job and work full time from home. That was an amazing experience and really showed me the potential, plus I absolutely fell in love with the lifestyle. What’s not to love about being your own boss. So long as the work gets done it is up to you when you do it – no one is looking over your shoulder. It was great but after a while the contract ended and so I started up a mobile coffee business with a friend. Unfortunately that didn’t work out for a number of reasons, so I started doing Uber to pay the bills. It’s actually a really good job and suits my lifestyle as I get to work on my schedule, no-one tells me when I have to start or finish work.
I am now ready to make a real go of creating a full time online income. I have reconnected with John’s Partnership to Success coaching program and at the time of writing this (March 2020) I have started afresh. This time I am going to follow the coaching to the letter – no shortcuts, no shiny objects, no going off on a tangent. The coaching is great and I now have some very clear direction. I know exactly what I need to do to and now it is up to me to do it! My success is in my hands.
I hope you have enjoyed my little life story and I also hope that at some point I will be able to help you along your journey in some way.
Feel the fear – and do it anyway!
P.S. If you would like to know more about John’s coaching program and how it can help you please check out the recording of his no obligation introductory webinar here.