Right here, now today, I know it. I’m gonna tell you in a minute. Let me tell you the back story first.
I stumbled upon how I could make $24,000 in about two days. I thought it was the secret to making $2500 in about two days when I ventured to do it — I really wasn’t expecting to be so successful. This wasn’t something I discovered alone. When I partnered up with a certain friend of mine, our combined energy created this.
And if that wasn’t enough, the following weekend, we created it again. This was about two years ago.
Now, you’d think that since I figured out this secret, all I have to do is
1- Do it again, and,
2- Do it every week.
But I’ve been afraid.
You see, shortly after this monumentous thing happened to me, when I figured out how to make a lot of money in a short amount of time, it was all taken from me. To put it simply, there was a middle man collecting the money. To add insult to injury, other money this middle man was holding for me, I didn’t get either.
And this middle man decided I couldn’t have my money. Until recently, I didn’t get any of it. Even now, I only get a little taste here and a little taste here. The details of why, and what I eventually decided to do about this to fight back don’t matter here today. The fact is that I figured out how to never have that problem again.
Which begs the question why?
Why in the name of all good things don’t I just do the same thing that I did again? What’s the big deal already?
I’ll tell you why.
It’s because I’m afraid. Specifically, I’m afraid of that feeling, that awful feeling that comes from having something you worked hard and honestly for ripped from you.
That honesty part is very important. Because the lure of easy money, of getting money the wrong way but also getting hurt in the process is very real and present.
I’ve been offered the opportunity to do things very shady to things that are technically legal, but morally wrong. Literally millions of dollars had been offered to me to take the easy way out, but I’ve always declined on ethical grounds.
I wanted to make money the right way, and waiting to do just that really made me feel smart when I finally made money the way you’re supposed to, through hard work and the value exchange.
And having it taken away made me feel like the world just has it in for small business owners online. I got into my head that “they say” we’re only allowed to make so much money before we’re smacked back down into our “place.” Coming to my realization helps me see how this just isn’t true.
The feeling of realizing that someone’s not just taking everything your whole life had been building towards, but also eliminating the positive cash flow your business had finally attained ate me alive, to the point that I fell physically ill, the complications of which I am still recovering from.
And the feeling was so much more devastating in contrast to the feeling, only 24 hours prior, of having generated so much wealth in so little time, based on the fact that I partnered up with someone who complimented me perfectly as a short-term business partner.
Now, having realized that consciously (instead of subconsciously, where I’m sure it lurked for years). I am filled with a sense of bliss. A sense of complete power over my own destiny. I can’t describe it to you. I only know this.
My pledge is: I am going to take a risk that big again. I’m going to do an even bigger project, with even more exposure, and even more partners. And I will succeed.
The reason I know it is that my failure wasn’t a true failure, it was a learning experience. No matter how it shakes up in any other view, I did make that money. No one can ever take that away from me. Because I know now that even if I were to fail,
1- I know how to survive it, and
2- I know how to keep my business from going bankrupt because of it.
Of course, this time, if the middle man doesn’t give me my hard-earned cash, I’ll just have all my customers ask for a refund, immediately, instead of trying to run a world class project on a shoestring budget.
There’s something else I was afraid of, too, that I’m taking the pledge not to be afraid of anymore, starting today. I’ll write about that soon.
What are YOU afraid of?
And what are you gonna DO about it??