“Hey, Pete – if you’re so successful, why do you need to do this?”
We do a number of surveys as a way to get important feedback from clients and from prospects. It’s an important tactic and I highly recommend it for your online business.
One of the questions that comes up now and then is some variation on the theme of; ‘If you know how to make lots of money online, why do you need to have this business?’
Sometimes it seems like a friendly, curious question. Sometimes it comes off as being skeptical to the point of distrust.
That’s fine.
It’s a very good thing to be a curious person, and it’s also wise to be circumspect about whom to do business with.
But this question comes up enough that I thought I should make an explanation available.
My Other Business
I have an existing business that has been online since 1996, and generating all the income I need since 2001.
You can see it here.
That website makes me money literally every day, and has for almost 20 years now.
I operate it because I’m interested in the subject and I developed a smart way for people to build muscle. I have a very loyal following of people who appreciate my way of thinking about that type of exercise.
That business can be ramped up as high as I want – almost overnight – by buying targeted traffic of guys who really, really like lifting weights and want to have more muscle.
I know for a fact that I can make $50K/month from that site because I did it for years when we lived in Idaho.
The thing is, there’s no real challenge in it now. I’ve done it. No new personal growth opportunity for me over there.
And – most importantly – that business doesn’t utilize my best talents.
Over Here, I’m Doing What I’m Really Good At
I come from a long line of teachers. My dad was a teacher. His mother and sister were a teachers.
My whole family tree is basically festooned with teachers.
I love finding effective ways to explain things. I like to listen. I like to solve problems. My impulse is to be helpfully didactic.
Over here at Safely Leave the Rat Race I get to use everything I’ve learned from operating online businesses for twenty years in a way that plays to my personal strengths and to my professional competencies.
And I know we’re all living at a time when it’s no exaggeration to say that millions of people would like to learn what I have to teach.
The Real Payoff
When we can make our living doing things we enjoy and are good at, it pays in a way nothing else really can.
I’ve mentioned this theme before.
In his book, The Happiness Advantage, author Shawn Achor, a Harvard researcher, reports:
“When 577 volunteers were encouraged to pick one of their signature strengths and use it in a new way each day for a week, they became significantly happier and less depressed than control groups. And these benefits lasted: Even after the experiment was over, their levels of happiness remained heightened a full month later. Studies have shown that the more you use your signature strengths in daily life, the happier you become.”
So you see, I have deliberately engineered this particular business so that I get to use my “signature strengths” every day.
To me, that’s what true success is.
I spend my days under the exact circumstances that permit me to live where I want, how I want, and doing what I want.
And, at 60, I’ve never felt more alive.
That’s something no amount of money can buy.
This is a lesson I try to impart to my clients.
And I know every step to getting here.
Would you like to talk to me about what – you – really want?
