Musings on The Fool

I've recently rediscovered my Tarot deck and I've decided to reacquaint myself with it as I should have done in the first place. I started, of course, with the Fool. Remember, the first card is always the Fool.

Now, my deck is "Guilded Tarot". It's a little bit different from other decks, though each is obviously unique. Most decks resemble the Mystic Tarot in most ways. This one takes on a style of its own, and the symbolism, I think, brings out more specific meanings than most standard cards do. So, here's the Fool:


The Fool. The First Card. The Beginning. That's the message here. The Fool represents the beginning of all things: of life, of action, of an event, of time itself, and perhaps most important, the beginning of change. The Fool is the in-drawn breath before the plunge. This card represents that perfectly.

Here you see a young man at the apex of a leap. What lies below him is unknown. His destination and his origin are equally mysterious. He represents perfectly the balance that is life itself: from mystery to mystery. The future always cloudy, the past ever fading.

The ring and scepter around his foot represent the physical bindings that trip us up when we try to reach for the unknown (the alchemical symbols he seems to be juggling).

The moon in the background mirrors this symbolism. It may be rising or setting. Remember, the deck represents the cycle of life. The Fool is both the beginning and the end. They say that Death represents change, yet it is found in the middle of the deck. Death, I think, represents a more mundane change. The Fool is a fundamental change of being. An alteration of who, what, and why you are. Death is the Fool's shadow.

I hope you enjoy my interpretation. I'll try and post some of the other cards as I look at them. I'll go through the whole of the major arcana, at least. If you have a different interpretation, please feel free to comment. Now, I should preobably get to bed!

Return of the Blogger

Hello, all,

I know it's been a long time. My electricity has been out for the last couple months and I just recently got it back. I've fallen way behind in everything, but I'm back in the driver's seat and my foot's on the gas, so let's get going.

I'm going to make this a quick one, since it's already late and I'm starting to wind down for the night. I've got several projects I'm working on right now that are really starting to shape up. I'm working on some Camtasia videos for VAVideos.com. A great site a business partner of mine is putting up for virtual assistants. More on that as the project progresses.

I've got a friend doing the Thirty Day Challenge, which is awesome, I must say. It's in preseason right now, but there are already some great tips out there. I really encourage anyone starting out in marketing or online business to check it out. You can look him up as Aedan Flynn on the forum. Anyone joining shoot him a PM, and tell Josh sent you. I believe he's trying to build up a team right now.

I'm looking into some newish concepts in marketing, business, and life in general. I've got a new perspective, a fresh drive, and a running start. I'm optimistic for the first time in a while, and I'm really looking forward to keeping the ball rolling. I know I've been vague and nondescript in this post, but I'm tired and a little high on life right now. I promise I'll take the time to fill you all in on what's new in more detail later, but for now, I'm going to wrap this up.

Night, All,
Josh

In a Dark Place

Hello, all,

I'm supposed to be asleep right now, but I just can't seem to get my mind to stop racing. I don't know why. I'm in a fairly dark mood right now and for some reason that makes me want to blog, so I thought I'd go ahead and write a little something here to hopefully get my mind to slow down a little. Tonight's subject is somewhat philosophical. It's also rather linguistic.

I've been reading about language. Not any particular one, but languages in general. This started as research for another installment of the "World Building" series, but I don't really feel organized enough to put that together tonight. Instead, I wanted to comment on a trend I've noticed with English as I analyze the language. We are a dark, violent, death-obsessed society. How can I tell? Aside from the obvious(I'm sure you can speculate my reference), I simply looked at the number of words we have for death, dying, and killing. There are three right there. Let's take a look at these words, shall we?

First, there's the verb "to die". This has a relatively simple meaning: to cease to live. There is some argument as to the specifics, but we can all pretty well agree on that definition. There are the different tenses of that, of course, and the related noun: death. Ok, so far we have descriptors for a biological process, pretty much necessary, so no judgment there.

Then we have the words for killing. To kill, to murder, to assassinate, to execute, etc, etc. These are all various types of death. While dying is implicitly unpleasant, being killed(a passive tense) is explicitly so. Murder refers to a more planned, decisive act. You kill a bug, you murder your neighbor. Assassination is just murder of a celebrity. Execution is murder of a criminal. So we have words for not only the mode of death, but the object.

Next, there's the "legal jargon". Homicide, patricide, matricide, regicide, etc, etc. Yet more refinement of the brutality. These all tend to involve the object more that the means, but there are a multitude of them. Oh, speaking of the means, there are those, too.

We have words like electrocution, strangulation, mutilation, etc, etc, etc. All of these are not necessarily lethal(oh, an adjective!) acts, but they are almost always intended to be. Right, so then there's intent. That has its own set of words: "involuntary manslaughter" anyone?

Ok, so it could be argued that these are just borrowed for the languages that English evolved from and just because we maintain them in are vernacular does not imply anything about our present society. Ah, if only that were the case. The fact is, though, that these words are not merely our linguistic appendix, they are common, everyday words. They say the average reading level of an American citizen is around 7th grade(though, writing to a 5th grad level is usually a safer bet). However, anyone who is remotely literate(say around 2nd or 3rd grade) would know the majority of these words.

There are languages that have multiple words for fruits, trees, wind, anything you can think of. We have only a handful(one word for each "species" of tree, usually). We also have words like "run" that has too many separate definitions to get into(dictionary.com returns 94 results). Our languages is a supposedly advanced, civilized one, so why do we need so many different words for this simple, biological process? That, my dear reader, is a philosophical question for you.

To apply this to world building(my attempt to actually make a point), note that the diction and vocabulary of a people tells an immense amount about the society of said people. Are your people violent and warlike? If so, you'll want words to match at least all the English words that involve that behavior. If not, you may only want one word "death" or the like. Then, when someone say "he died", the could say something like "he received death". Killed could be "was given death". You see? The same depth of description, but it is considerable more awkward to say "John gave Bob death by touching him forcefully with a blade," than it is to just say "John stabbed Bob to death," or "John killed Bob with a knife."

If a subject is clumsy or difficult to communicate with a language, it generally means that, over the evolution of that language, the subject was not encountered often enough to merit more sophisticated verbiage. So, if you're creating a language, start with basic, simple, broad, and descriptive words, then think about what topics would be discussed the most by the people speaking your language and try to think what words would have evolved to fit the given situation.

I recommend everyone try creating at least a rudimentary language at some point. It give some amazing insight into not only how languages work, but how societies evolved and what things are important to people. If there are 50 words to describe a single situation(or very slight variations on the situation), it generally means that that situation is encountered quite often and is something that the people speaking are either obsessed with or at least very mindful of.

Well, I think think this helped. I may just be able to get some sleep now. I do hope you enjoyed my little rant. At the very least I hope it made you think. I probably won't be able to write again until next week(my father will be in town), so for now, I bid you good night or good morning, as the case may be.

Live and Learn,
Josh

A Newbie's Manifesto

Another one quit today, it's all over the forums. "Single Mom Quit Her Job and Needs Help Getting Started Online", "Help! How Do You Monetize a Site?"...
Damn newbies. They're all alike.

But did you, in your infinite wisdom and guru status, ever take a look behind the eyes of real newbie? Did you ever wonder what drove him, who or what guided him, what got him to the point he's at now?
I am a newbie, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with the internet. I'm smarter than most of the other surfers, even if I don't know it, and the usual tourist traps of the net just bore me...
Damn whiner. They're all alike.

I'm in high school or college, maybe I've even graduated. I've read all the gurus talking about the research that I have to do over and over again. "No, Mike, I didn't write it all out. I just took a few notes."
Damn slacker. Probably stopped at the first page. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a niche I could really get into or a way of getting my message out that works for me better than anything else. Wait a second, this rocks. It works every time. If it doesn't work, it's because I went to fast or made a small mistake - easy to fix. It's not because they won't listen to me...
Or think I'm not good enough...
Or write me off as a newbie...
Or look down their nose at anyone with less experience and have no business calling themselves "gurus"...
Damn newb. All he does is waste our time with useless questions. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing into my brain like caffeine on an IV first thing in the morning, a bright new idea that I've never tried before, an answer to all the questions I've been asking... that answer is found.
"This is it... this is what I should be doing..."
I know everything about this. Anything I don't know can be discovered easily. Any answers I don't have at least have well-defined questions... it all makes sense...
Damn newb. Cluttering up the forums again. They're all alike...

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been tossed scraps from the tables of established marketers when we wanted the full course... the little tastes we got in ebooks and blogs were all but useless and left us drooling for more when there was none. We've been flamed by forum users, or given busy work by so-called "coaches". The few that were willing to teach found us eager students, but those few were quickly overwhelmed and sank back into the shadows.

This is our world, though... the world of social media and Web 2.0 technology, the wonder of video. We make use of services that you're just beginning to hear of, and you say we're wasting our time. We probe into new technologies that are often frowned upon because they're not understood, and you call us "black hat". We think way, way, outside the box, even yours, and you say it'll never work. We work together without bickering, without worrying about our ideas being stolen, without judging each other for our short-comings... and you say we're making a big mistake. You sell cookie-cutter websites on ebay for pennies, you make posts on forums and blogs that give useless information all for the sake of toting someone else's product, you lie, cheat, and steal from each other and us and try to make us think you're trying to help, but we're the ones that get flamed for asking "stupid questions".

Yes, I am a newbie. My only crime is curiosity. My only fault is making my own decisions based on the information I have and the things I see with my own eye, rather than blindly following the word of some "marketing genius". You hate me for thinking of something you didn't and finding an opportunity you overlooked and for that you'll never forgive me.

I am a newbie, and this is my manifesto. We are the next generation that will take over the net. You might crush one of us and stamp out that one spirit. You might overwhelm one of our sites with killer PPC, but we will win in the end because we're all already using the tactics you're just starting to talk about... after all, we are all alike.

Hacking and Torque: The Real Key to Success

Hello, all,

Tonight I'd like to revisit a subject I talked about a few nights ago. That is, what it takes to start a business online(or any venture, really). More specifically, though, I want to address the thing that most people seem to be missing - the real key to success. There are many things that may stop a person from getting started, but this is the one thing that will hold you back more than anything else.

I'm not going to tell you what it is just yet, though. First, I'd like to discuss once more the common excuses people give for not starting their business. The top three are all "lack of" situations, meaning that the excuses involves not having something that seems vitally important. The three things people complain about missing the most when starting a business are inspiration, money, and time. However, as we've discussed before, these are all false obstacles.

Inspiration is a matter or perspective that can be easily overcome with a change of pace or environment. Money is non-issue as getting started online doesn't have to cost a cent(30 Day Challenge), and at most it shouldn't cost more than about $50.00 if you take that route(we'll discuss this more in another post). Finally, we have the issue of time, which is really just an excuse. There are a million things one could cut out of one's daily life to free up time(in the short run, at least). So, there really isn't an issue here, is there?

We also discussed the thing that really might hold someone back - namely, fear. I know I mentioned brainwashing and lack of drive, but both of those are really just evolutionary bi-products of our fear of failure. Honestly, most people have enough drive to win the Indy 500, but just can't seem to get going. The brainwashing and fear are things that have to be overcome on an individual basis, usually by facing the fear and going out on the limb, scary though it may be.

Ok, so by now you're dying to know what the realy problem is, right? If you've got time, inspiration, motivation, enough money($0?), and all that drive, what's keeping your tires from spinning? Torque. Let's use the analogy of a car, shall we? Namely a black 1969 Dodge Charger 500 Hemi with an OHV V8(don't worry, you don't need to understand all that).

Now, this car has 425 horsepower at 5000 RPM. This could be equated to your drive. Add that much power to an all-steel body(your determination) and you can take out solid 4x4 fence-posts without denting your fender(I know, trust me). You could go from 0 to 60mph in 5.7 seconds and run the quarter mile in about 13.48 seconds, hitting a top speed of 109mph in that time. For some reason, though, you're still sitting at the starting line. That's because we've left out one very important spec: the torque. Now, the Charger has 490 torque at 4000 RPM. Can you say the same for yourself?

"Wait, wait, wait! What exactly is torque anyway?" You might be asking. Well, torque a measurement of how well a car transfers power from the engine to the wheels. From a Physics perspective, it's also the translation of linear force into rotational force, but that's a bit more complicated than we need to get right now. Let's get back to our analogy.

What you are right now, it basically a 1960's muscle car stuck in neutral. What we need to do is put you in gear. We need to find the thing that will take your drive and determination and turn it into action. The best way to do that is to find your passion, and the best way to that is to read this post.

Ok, so we've got that covered, just wanted to throw that analogy out there and maybe get you thinking in a bit of a different way. Now, there was one other thing I promised I talk about tonight before I wrap things up, and that was the group of people I think turn out the best marketers and entrepreneurs. Who are they? Hackers.(*gaspshockhorror*) I know, I know, but let me explain.

First, let me teach you the difference between a "hacker" and a "cracker." A hacker finds inventive ways of making a something perform a task it should be capable of doing in the first place. If that means turning your Powerwheels into a Mars Rover, then that's what it means. A "cracker"(try not to be juvenile - if you don't know what I mean, all the better), on the other hand, make a point of trying to exploit a bug of a given system in order to gain access or privileges that they normally wouldn't have. In other words, hacking is about functionality, cracking is about cheating.

Ok, so why do hackers make great marketers and businessmen? Well, that's easy, they have a unique way of looking at things. We(yes, I are one) have a fascination with figuring out how and why things work. We test everything to the point of absurdity, and we're obsessed with covering our own asses. Now do you see why we make good for good business?

All right, I promised some reading material, so I'm going to give it to you, then wrap this up. The one thing I would have you read is the Hacker's Manifesto(Or The Conscience of a Hacker). I've provided it here for easy access.

==Phrack Inc.==

Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following was written shortly after my arrest...

\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/

by

+++The Mentor+++

Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager
Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
Damn kids. They're all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain,
ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what
made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of
the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain
for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms.
Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is
cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I
screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...
Or feels threatened by me...
Or thinks I'm a smart ass...
Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through
the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is
sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is
found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..."
I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to
them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at
school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip
through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or
ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us will-
ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and
you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color,
without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals.
You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us
and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

+++The Mentor+++
_______________________________________________________________________________

So there you have it, folks. Read up. Take this to heart. I may take the time to explain it in another post, but I think you should be able to understand what's being said.

"I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto."

Live and Learn,
Josh

Getting Your Foot in the Door... So to Speak

Hello, all,

Sorry I skipped posting last night. I was tired. Anyway, tonight I'd like to go ahead and discuss something inspired by the great Gary Bencivenga: opening the sale. Most people tend to focus on closing the sale, which is really the point in sales copy, but you can have the best sales copy in the world without ever making a single sale if you don't know how to get your copy read. So, that's what we're going to talk about tonight.

Now, Bencivenga is a direct response marketer, which is great, but he tends to focus on physical distribution(snail mail). There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's not really what I'm into. I am definitely more of an online guy, and that means that I have a bit of a different scenario than the one Bencivenga works with. What I'd like to try and do is take the concepts that Bencivenga puts forth and reinterpret them for the web.

To begin with, let's take a look at the physical aspects. What do we have to do to get our offer noticed in a physical distribution system? Simple, we have to make it stand out from the other offers. That generally means making it look like anything but an advertisement. With real mail that's pretty easy, really. You just make the envelope look different. A handwritten letter will be opened almost every time. A FedEx package will be opened every time. This things are really pretty basic. The internet presents a bit more of a problem, though.

What most people tend not to realize is that the internet is actually a very limited medium. The vast majority of the communication that takes place online is done through text. Oh sure, that text can be stylized to make it stand out a bit, but the fact is that text can only communicate the words. The written portion of a language is really a very small portion of a language. Any language, especially English, is at its best when it's spoken. The infection and tone of voice that fluctuates ever so slightly from word to word conveys so much more than the word itself. Sarcasm, for instance, is almost impossible to convey in text. (?) What's the work-around? Audio, my friend, audio.

The wonders of the new internet(web 2.0, anyone?) are endless, but with all these wonders come a slew of problems that you have to be on the lookout for. In fact, the very thing that makes audio such a wonderful tool is also the thing that makes it so dangerous. You have to be careful what you say. It is much, much easier to slip when you're speaking and there is no convenient delete button for audio. If you mess up on the recording, you almost have to go back and redo it. This problem is compounded even more with video.

Video is the wave of the future. Video is also a bane to many marketers. The fact is that video is the hottest new thing on the web today, and if you haven't caught the wave yet, you're behind the curve(join the club). I'm still experimenting with video myself, but I've found that I much prefer doing screen captures. Regular video tends to be difficult for many reasons. Granted, it's about as close to door-to-door marketing as we get nowadays. Speaking of door-to-door marketing...

What ever happened to the door-to-door salesmen?(they died?) I get that it takes more effort than regular marketing, but nothing beats a face-to-face meeting for getting the message across. People will delete email, throw regular mail away, or disregard a link, but it's really, really hard to ignore a knock on the door. The trick to marketing today as to get noticed. You have to make your ads stand out from all the others.

So let's take a look at the places that you might bring in traffic to your website from. The first and most obsessed-over is search engine traffic. This means any traffic you get from Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. The best, most reliable traffic is from organic listing reached through SEO. I really don't put much stock in PPC advertising because I know a lot of people don't even notice that little sidebar of ads Google puts on their listings. I find the sweet spot for organic listings, though, is not the #1 spot. The best ranking is between #2 and #5. This puts you squarely in the top half of the first page, but not in the #1 position(am I the only one that find the first listing incredibly irrelevant?).

So, aside from search engines, where does our traffic come from? Well, there are social bookmarking and social media sites. These sites are easy to get listed on and have your link posted. It's easy to build traffic this way, but the links won't generally help much with your search engine rankings. That's not the point, though, they will bring in traffic. Remember, we're just trying to get the message out there. Try to make sure you bookmark other sites, though, not just your own. Bookmarking only your own site makes people a bit wary.

So, what links will help our rankings? Real, organic links. These can be purchased from many sites, but if your content is good enough, you won't have to. Link exchanges are a great way to not only beef up your PageRank, but also to build relationships with other site and business owners. I personally love networking with other marketers and getting feedback, and this is a great way to do it.


That's really about it. You're not going to find many other places to get traffic from. Any traffic you get is pretty much going to be through a link, but there is always word-of-mouth. It's always a great feeling when you can look at your traffic stats and see that people are actually typing your URL into their address bar. One way to build this kind of traffic is through audio and video(YouTube, maybe?). After all, it's hard to add an actual link to a video, but adding a URL is easy. "And for more information visit stumblinglife.blogspot.com." It's a wonderful thing.

Well, folks, I think that's about all I've got to give you tonight. Tomorrow, I want to revisit a topic we've discussed before, but hit it at a different angle. I've got a few suggestions for things to read, and I'm going to point out a group of people that make excellent marketers. They're identity just might surprise you, so come on back and we'll keep on truckin'.

Live and Learn,
Josh

The Easiest Way to Make Money Online

Hello, all,

Don't get too excited. I'm not going to tell you anything in this post that you don't already know. You just might not realize you know it yet. I want to start by joining the countless others who have voiced this opinion: I am sick and tired of hearing this question. It reeks of immaturity. The question itself isn't the problem(we all seek to answer it at some point). The problem is that it's not the right question to be asking. You don't want the easiest way to make money online because that implies that making money online is easy in the first place. No, what you're looking for is an easier way to make money online.

Another question that is equally flawed is "what is the best way to make money online?" This is highly immature as well and screams that you're an amateur. The fact is that there is no such thing as the easiest or best way to make money online. These questions don't have answers, so in this post, we're going to explore how to ask the right questions and get answers.

The question you need to be asking is "what is the best way that I can make money online?" and the person you need to be asking is yourself. You can read all the ebooks you want. You can read every blog and forum post on a subject until you're blue in the face, but you're never going to find the answer because no one can give it to you. No one can tell you what the best strategy is for you to make money online. Not even me(I am great, I know, but even I hav my limits).

What I want to do is help you find the answer for yourself. I want to tell you how to find the one tactic that will make you money online. I want to guide you down the path that will get you where you're going with the least hassle and the most enjoyment, and that starts with picking a destination.

Finding Your Why

This is a concept that has been discussed since the dawn of time and will continue to be discussed because it is probably the single most important thing a person can do with their life: set a goal. Figure out why you're doing what you're doing. Figure out what makes you want to make money online. Money for money's sake isn't the answer. You have to dig deeper than that.

This is the first and most important step because it will define the rest of your career and the rest of your life at the same time. As I said before, set a goal. Decide on a dream. Dare to imagine something that you never thought possible. Reach for that one "unattainable" ideal that makes you weep for its beauty. For most people that dream consists of two things: wealth and freedom.

Wealth is a concept. It has nothing to do with the number of gray-green cotton-paper bills you can lay claim to. It has nothing to do with the size of the diamond on your ring. It has nothing to do with the cost of your car, your house, or anything else you own. Wealth in its simplest, most basic form, is a measure of contentment with the station of your life, and thus it is the prime requisite for any suitable goal. The goal is not money. It is the one things money can't buy: happiness.

The next criterion is freedom. I don't mean the kind of freedom that has anything to do with Iraq. I mean the kind of freedom that dreams are made of. The freedom to wake up in the morning of your own volition(no alarms, no phone calls), climb out of bed, stretch, and greet the day without fear or worry of any kind. The freedom to sit on the beach with your toes in the sand, smell the cool air flowing in off the water, and just breathe - absorb the moment for all it's worth. Freedom means the ability to, at any given time, do absolutely nothing if that's what you choose. Freedom is choice.

So, we have our two criteria for the perfect goal. Now it's up to you to put those together into your perfect goal. What will you do once you are wealthy enough to be free enough to choose? This is a decision that needs to be made. It doesn't have to be permanent, but it does need to be set for the moment because everything else hinges on it.

That's Great, but Still No Answer

So what should you do? Well, it's simple, and Alexis Dawes will hate me for saying this*, but you have to do what you love. You have to find your passion and use it to fuel the fire that gets you going. What do you do online that gets you excited? And yes, before you go snickering, porn does count if that's what you want to do. The key is to be passionate and motivated.

You have to either do what you love or love what you do because if you can't do one then you won't be doing anything very long. We tend to tolerate less than pleasant tasks for the bare minimum amount of time necessary, and that means we search for ways to get out of doing them. If you're not careful and you end up doing something online that you don't enjoy, you may just find yourself thinking that that day job you quit a couple months back wasn't really so bad after all.

It's like when you were in high school and your English teacher made you read some horrid tome(mine was The Scarlet Letter). Sure, you might have been one of the few that forced your way through the book chapter by chapter, but most of your classmates just went online and grabbed the spark notes for it. Even having read the book, though, you didn't absorb it as well as you should have and so you probably still didn't get the best grades on the tests or quizzes about it.

On the other hand, when the book was something you liked, when it had a good story that you could connect with, you read ahead of the class because you couldn't wait to find out what happened next. You aced the tests and gave presentations on the book, and you probably still remember that book and the characters in it.

So think about the kinds of books you read. Think about the kind of sites you look at. Think about the movies you watch, the games you play, and the music you listen to. Then think about the things and people you love. If, after all that, you still don't know what excites you and gets you going, you need to take a step back and reevaluate your life.

What was your best subject in school? You didn't have one? Ok, well which one did you enjoy the most? Not sure? Alright, who was your favorite teacher? Good. Why? The last question is the most important: why? If math was your best subject, did you enjoy it? What was enjoyable about it? If you loved history more than anything, what excited you about the subject? If Mr. Smith was your best, favorite teacher, what made him stand out from the others? Answer these questions and you'll find out a lot about yourself that you may not be aware of. Take a walk down memory lane and find the bright spots because those are the ones you want to recreate.

That's All Great, but I Still Don't Know What to Do!

Well now you know what you're passionate about. Now you know what makes you happy, excited, and ready to go. How can you translate that to the internet? For me, my passion is for coding and development. I love writing code and building websites, so that's what I do. I also love writing(hence I'm here), and I do that too. What gets me excited is the thought of having something that I created myself do something exactly the way I intended. Perhaps it's something of a god complex(cock it and pull it). I like to have control.

For you it might be dancing(make a series of videos to sell) or fashion(find a drop shipper and reseller) or maybe you love politics but don't want to run for office yourself(political commentary blogs are HawTT*!). The point is that it doesn't matter what gets you fired up because anything can be sold. I can't stress that enough. If you have a skill, passion, hobby, or obsession, bank on it. Whatever it is that you do, I guarantee there is a way to monetize it. Just try and be creative.

If that's not enough, try looking at what you spend money on and go from there. What are you passionate enough about to give up your hard-earned cash? If you can figure that out, try turning the situation around and get others like you to give you the money. That's always fun. If you're still stumped, then I'm really not sure what I(or anyone for that matter) can do for you. If you have any specific questions, though, as usual, you're welcome to comment or drop me a line.

Live and Learn,
Josh