Think that you’ll never have the life you’d dreamed of? Feel like you’re just not good enough?
I certainly didn’t. I had shitty jobs for nearly 20 years. I used to get up in freezing cold winter mornings in London and go to work on crowded underground trains. Sometimes, I used to spend three hours a day commuting.
To make matters worse, my mental state was not good. I was negative. I was unhappy about my life. I blamed anything and everyone for it. And I couldn’t see a way out.
Fast forward to today
I hate the expression “living the dream” and I apologise for using it.
But I’m living in a Thai paradise while running my businesses online – which only takes me a few hours every day.
I’m happy. I have a wonderful life. I’m incredibly grateful. Sometimes, I pinch myself and wonder what exactly happened. I’ll try to explain as it may help you.
Working in crappy jobs
I know how it feels to be desperate. I was working in shitty jobs for almost 20 years.
I was doing very menial tasks in boring offices. I’d arrive, get told what to do, sit behind a computer for 8 hours (it seemed longer), and then I’d go home.
That was 20 years of failure, stagnation, drinking, smoking, a lot of drugs, and crap TV.
The Internet “happened”
It was during that time the Internet “came out”. It had been in existence for ages but I was first aware of it in 1995.
The more I heard of this new Internet thing, the more excited I became. 1995 was the year I bought a 28.8 bps modem. I spent hours and hours trying to find things on Netscape Navigator with the Altavista search engine. I remember thinking, This is going to be huge! This is going to change everything!
I was still young, I was in my twenties. I wanted in. I racked my brains of some way. After all, I was working with Photoshop at the time – the web was full of GIFs and JPGs. Surely there was something I could do in this exciting new world?
… and yet nothing happened
This was in 1995 and I was working in shitty jobs. Well, fast forward to 2005, and I was still working in shitty jobs!
So I was looking at the Internet for ten years, thinking that I wanted to be a part of it.
For. Ten. Years.
Guess what? I did nothing about my dreams. Nothing except think negatively about my own failures and blame them on people and things beyond my control.
However, 10 years later …
In 2005, I finally managed to build my own website. It wasn’t much: Three pages of static HTML on free hosting space from my ISP.
Trust me, it must have looked like a dog’s dinner. But later that year, I’d got my own domain, hosting, and even set up WordPress.
These were the very first steps on the path of running my own online business and being able to stop working.
From “I’m Not Good Enough” to “Living The Dream”
So how did it happen?
How did I overcome despair and get to where I am now?
It all started with mindset.
Initially, it was serendipity. A few things came to my attention: I read an article about happiness and Buddhist meditation; I saw a TV programme about NLP and self-hypnosis. And finding information about these things was easier now that we had broadband Internet.
I became interested in Buddhism and NLP. Then went on to read about all sorts of other things: personal development, positive thinking, Taoism, mysticism, etc.
I was interested in the Law of Attraction concept that what goes on inside you affects what goes on in your life. Your thoughts and inner state causes what you experience in your life.
I wasn’t sure if this was true. But I thought, what the heck, why don’t I put it to the test?
So I started meditating, positive thinking, and changing my thoughts to an abundant and positive mindset.
Did it work? Hell, yeah!
My message to you
I have a message to everyone out there who’s desperate. Listen to my heart felt plea in this video:
You are definitely capable of doing anything you want to do! But I understand that you may not feel that right now. Maybe you feel like you’re not good enough. I thought I wasn’t good enough but I changed and proved to myself that I was.
Give yourself a small goal like writing a blog post, or putting up a website, or creating a product, or anything that you think is “difficult” or “beyond you”.
Then, when you’ve successfully achieved something you thought you were incapable of, that will give you confidence to get what you want in life.
I will write more and make more videos about this. But first, a quick plug:
I say more about my meditation, affirmation, and positive thinking techniques are in this book: Mind Freedom: Re-program Yourself for Success and Happiness with Meditations, Affirmations, Mindset Shifts.
So, what now?
You don’t have to buy the book. I just put it there because a lot of people have asked me about things that are covered in the book recently.
I would love to know if this article helped? And would you like to hear more about this subject? Leave a message in the comments.
And, if you want to know more about starting and running online businesses, you could download some of my free e-books or take a few of my free courses.
Great video and blog Rob and I agree 100%. You can do anything you put your mind to!! 🙂
You’re proof of that, Iva
I appreciate you so much, Rob. Thank you for all your help and all your emails. Thank you. You and my stories are very similar. Have a wonderful day. I’m still trying to be as good as you. I will keep going like you said and you have said in the past. I remember you advice at different times all the time.
“As good as me”!!! Believe me, I’m OK but I’m not good lol! I appreciate you, Sedelia. It’s a pleasure connecting with you.
Great idea for a post, Rob! I should update my business-life story as well. Congrats on your successes!
BTW I have STILL not been approved by Merch by Amazon. ?
You won’t be approved til next year now, Louise, because of Christmas. Keep an eye out and let me know when you get approved.
Oh, my God, Rob you make me cry cause your situation is just like mine; working hard in shitty jobs, unhappy, negative thinking and all that jazz. I discovered “the internet thing” in 2008 and make my first site in HTML with Dreamwever for my local brick&mortar little business. It just died after 8 years due to market evolution. I live in Romania where monthly salary is no more than $600. I know one thing for sure:: this internet lifestyle is possible & working every spare minute to make it possible for me. The only big downside is that I choose to make ecommerce with dropshipping and FB Ads and for payed traffic you need a lot of money.
My boss is coming every year in Thai and tell us how life is there; I wish I have the chance in my pwn life for visiting Thai and Bali. As a matter a fact I wish to become like you one day and make all that depends on me for that. I m 43 years old, so I am thinking that I do not have another 10 years for struggling with this life of mine and not enough time to make my living from writing & selling ebooks. What are your thoughts on this Rob?
Sorry for my bad english!
Thank you for this post!
Hello Nicole, yes, it’s great that you live in Romania and life there is so cheap. I live in Thailand, it’s similar.
If you want to know my thoughts I wouldn’t say: “I do not have another 10 years for struggling with this life of mine” that’s a negative “I do not have another ..” and it’s not a positive affirmation: “I am enjoying working towards a life of freedom” would be better self-talk, and still true!
I don’t know what you should do, only you know that. But don’t complain to yourself or to anyone. That’s what I think. But I may be wrong.
You’re English is superb.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Great stuff Rob!
I think I’m going to go and give my copy of Mind Freedom a virtual dust off and fire up the Kindle.
I got my first modem in 1997, it was a 36k and Freeserve was the ISP! It took me until 2009 to make my first money online!
Cheers,
Joe
Hehe, we are similar. We should meet one day …
I wonder if I’m going the other way! I’m now working two days a week instead of full-time freelancing but must say it’s a better balance for me. Entrepreneurship is a lonely path and requires great self-discipline. Not my best quality!
I could be doing a lot more with my blog in terms of monetizing it. It has helped me to get another role writing for a top WordPress site, so that’s good.
Well, Claire, I’m sure that you’re doing the right thing. And I’m pretty sure you’re sure as well.
Yeah, we’re all missing opportunities but so what? We’re happy, right?
More power to you. You’re awesome!
Inspiring, Rob.
How about holding a workshop or event on these topics, hosting it in Thailand?
I really appreciate your work, particularly your “no bullshit” approach, and how you know what it is like to work in shitty jobs day after day.
– Charles
Well, Charles, no. So many reasons:
I sent my list an email about this and it was not successful.
In fact, a conference / event is very hard to organise and hard to make money at.
I don’t want to.
And, I don’t want to “work” in Thailand as my visa doesn’t allow for it.
Impromptu meetups, yeah!
Thank you, Charles, I really appreciate you as well.
Rob, another inspiring post, I can relate to everything you have said & describe.
Your email is a confirmation that I must be on the right path, because I am mediating everyday, positive affirmations, & I am a believer in LOA.
I am beginning to seeing manifestation in other areas in small doses.
Prior to reading your email, kid you not I was sitting at my desk on the boring job, thinking it’s more to life than this, I do websites, a blog,
& other digital format informally, but not on a consistent basis. Time to kick it up a notch & believe.
Thank you again for the confirmation and a timely post.
Charlene
Talking about small doses, Charlene. One of my affirmations is / was:
I’m enjoying increasing the passive income profits to my businesses and personally.
I said that everyday, after 10 minutes of meditation, even repeating it to myself whilst walking in the park.
It was years, years, years, before I made any passive income at all.
But I did, eventually.
You’re doing great. And you have a plan and a way forward. Keep going.
You’re awesome, Charlene!
Rob
Congrats Rob! Very inspiring.
Also I wanted to thank you again for contributing to our post with experts’ tips on how to get sales on Merch by Amazon.
https://merchreadydesigns.com/how-to-get-sales-on-merch-by-amazon-experts-tips/
Thank you, Andrew
Awesome, Rob! I’m on a similar journey, except I didn’t have to work for shitty jobs for 20 years. Thankfully, the internet has always been a thing in my life, but I never knew I could utilize it to make money and grow a successful business. It took a couple of years of desk jobs for me to realize that I wasn’t cut out for that. I wanted more than just enough money to pay rent and student debt. Now, I’m running a few successful blogs and getting more money per week than I did in 2 months. I know I can do more because I see many people do. So, there is no stopping me and I’ll continue to be more successful every day! Thanks for keeping me motivated!
That’s awesome, Stefan, I’m so happy for you. Yeah, most people don’t need nearly 20 years in shitty jobs to realize it’s not what they want – but for some reason I did. 🙂
Thanks Rob. Mindset has been my biggest hangup over the past 48 years. Still working on it. Building a website presents so many options that I get overwhelmed. I like your genesis theme approach. Is that still the way you do things or have you changed your approach?
I emailed you not long ago about it and you suggested I put content first, so that’s what I’m doing, but since I ultimately want my content to be about making money with creativity, I need to teach simple approaches to web design, so, in other words, some of my content needs to be about web dev/design. I’m in a bit of a catch 22 there.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Yes, I still use Genesis. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best theme framework out there. But, whatever WordPress theme you decide to go with will be fine as you can always change and change again later. That’s why I say you should concentrate on the content. The “look” of your website will never be perfect. The paint will never be dry. So you might as well start with some reason people would have to visit it – content. No one will visit a website because of the theme.
Just because “some of my content needs to be about web dev/design” doesn’t mean the website has to be perfect when you look at it.
So, as you can see, I’m still advocating just concentrating on content. Creating something that people want. Don’t get to hung up on the peripheral things, like the design, the logo, the domain name, etc.
The most important thing is to enjoy creating something that people want. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
I seem to have made it through my winter and am happy not to have any major challenges. It’s nice to know there are other people who agree it’s ok to be content and enjoy life. Thanks for sharing.
Hey I got to know about your website through Udemy..
After reading this personal and so much attached post there is a lot that I can relate to my life right.
Will continue wander through your website in future.
Thanks
Thank you so much, Lokesh, I’m glad you can relate to my site and delighted you’re here and want to read more. Enrol on one of my free courses and you’ll get on the email list and then you’ll be emailed about anything new I put up here.
Hi Rob, thank you for this post. Resilience is something that is underrated in my opionion and posts like this help keep me going to achieve the goal. I was made redundant six months ago from a job of five + years that I didn’t enjoy at all (although it was a design job) and am looking to create a business for myself. I remember purchasing one of your courses from Udemy a couple of years ago about running a web design business but at the time didn’t know how to design websites front and back end. Now I do. I’ve learnt some code and have created my own website in WordPress. I hope to be able to earn enough money so I can be home more for my wife and two young but need to get some clients. Thank you again for everything you share with people. Sean
Hey Sean, Thank you for your message. Great to hear your story and thank you for sharing it with us. Best of luck for the future and remember you’ve got to hustle hard. Let me know if you have any questions.
Found this post by accident, and yet it speaks directly to me. I’ve been trying to overcome my negativity while having Retainer clients and 12 other venture projects, still not enough for the Bill’s and patience is running thin. it’s hard for me to see the trees from the woods. I appreciate this information and you reaching out with your own personal victories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mike, I really appreciate the comment and I’m glad you found my site. I’m sure you’ll find some way to pay the bills. I had a lot of luck along the way. I wish you luck too because we all need that. 🙂