I’m no guru. I don’t have any talent at teaching. I sometimes don’t know how to explain things that are too simple. I walk around town in my tsinelas worth Php15.00 and my favorite shirt na bigay lang lahat. My cellphone is a nokia 3210 and I seldom use it. To make things short, I’m the guy that you might think that’s a bum (tambay) when you see me. But I actually run an online business. I love to say my job is an assassin for hire. That is when a person asks and I immediately know that they won’t understand the meaning of online business even if you explain it to them. So I just play around.

Yesterday, I received 3 cheques from affiliate marketing commissions and 1 check from adsense. Then earlier today, I went to the bank to have it deposited to my account. While I was talking to the teller, a guy adjacent to me peeked at the cheques while the teller was messing around with the watermark on the google check. “Astig daw ung watermark, itapat lang daw sa ilaw” lol. This guy was amazed about how google pays me. He only knew that google was only a search engine.

When I was about to go out of the bank he yelled “May online business ka?”. I humbly replied “yes”. He seems to be interested in making money online. But he only heard about people making money with google adsense but to meet one personally must be exciting for him. He knows about the A list bloggers. Here and abroad. But you know me. I don’t listen to A list bloggers to make money online. Bloggers don’t make money online. Internet marketers do. If he were a cute girl, I might have asked her out for a coffee at the nearby mall and tell her what I know about internet marketing. But no, he was a guy. So I was immediately thinking of way to escape any “ambush interview” and “teach me how tos”.

He began asking “Do you know, (this guy) or (that guy) because I went to his seminar”. I said to him immediately that I don’t believe what they are teaching. Especially if one is claiming to be a blogger and earns a living for it. To my book, and my experience, it just doesn’t work. I’m an internet marketer and I don’t know how bloggers earn money (if they earn). I stick to what I know.

I love businesses. Big or small. Passive or active. White hat or black hat. If it will make money, I’m all ears. Just when I thought that all of those questions about how I do business online was just about to suck some “trade secrets” from me. I realized, when he gave me a business card, he’s a real estate investor. That’s a rare occasion. So I immediately flip the script and I’m the one asking questions now.

For weeks now, I’ve been thinking of venturing to another field. Real estate and trading. I never imagine that thinking about it constantly will lead me to actually knowing someone who does it for a living. What’s funny about is that we are of the same age.

We’ll, I’ll leave it at that for now.

Is also the education received from experiences. Here are some of lessons I learned (and still learning) that you might find in handy.

1. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Security is for the dead. Nothing good comes out if your in your comfort zone.

2. Never Expect Life To Be Fair

There are rich people and poor people, intelligent, dumb and different types of people in the world out to take what’s theirs. Never expect life to be fair just because your poor doesn’t mean you are being taken advantage. We are animals that are product of a long line of evolution in which we do everything to survive. It is still the same after millions of years. If you expect the world to be fair, you don’t deserve anything. If you’re poor, get up and stop whining. Every man is for himself.

3. Solve Your Own Problems

I honestly believe that if an intelligent person asked for help. Let him be, he’ll know the solution soon. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge.  Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Chinese proverb saying that I remind myself of frequently.  It goes like this:

“A wise man keeps his own counsel.”

4. Never Give Up

There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true.  It goes like this:

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

5. There’s Always A Reason To Smile

Find it.  After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive.  Life is short. “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”. Warning: Most people will make this an excuse to just party everyday. A good entrepreneur knows when to play and when to work.

6. Always be Improving

Never stop investing.  Never stop improving.  Never stop doing something new.  The moment you stop improving  you die.  Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way.  Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen.  Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth. But the learned, find themselves beautifully equipped with the world that no longer exists.”

Why Post?

It’s been a while since I made a new post and I watched an episode on tv featuring a motivational speaker that will let you walk through fire and will say that you’ll be successful. There are lots of seminars and motivational seminars here in the Philippines now. I have been to many of them and I don’t find anything bad with them. It’s just that, they are all the same and it all comes down to the items I wrote above. If you’re really into it, you can read the classic book “Think and Grow Rich” to have more in depth detail about it.

Remember, you don’t need some random guy to tell you that you’ll be successful nor to convince you that you’ll be successful and much more, to even pay this guy to tell you that you’ll be successful. You already know what your dreams are, take a deep breath and work for it.