Entrepreneur characteristics used in a welding shop.

Once upon a time a fifth boy was born to an old man and his second wife, a woman younger than his first child from his first family. The old father was a rich, esteemed entrepreneur who owned lumber and gas wells. A falling beam soon damaged his brain irreparably. My father never saw his father until the funeral. Dad was thirteen.

An Entrepreneur Born and Bred

Right after the accident, the first son cast the second wife and her five preschool boys out on their ears. She moved to town near a glass plant, took in washing and made candy she sold to factory workers on their breaks. Her boys helped where they could as they grew.

Growing Boys Are Eating Machines

She hired herself out as housekeeper to a farmer who worked as a rural mailman. Five boys made good farm slaves. Five boys were taken out of school to go hunting, whether they liked it or not, whether it was hunting season or not. Dad made it to eighth grade before a teacher whipped one brother so bad, they all quit rather than murder the man.

World War II

Off they went. Dad was a truck driver. Instead of freezing in an unheated cab, he opened the firewall for access to the engine’s heat. It didn’t go unnoticed–nor reprimanded. Instead, army bigwigs hitched rides with him, much to his intense dislike. He’d rather have been reprimanded.

Home Again

One brother who became a welder taught Dad how to weld. They opened a shop for awhile. Dad married a young woman, barely legal. Hmm. And the kids started coming, me first, his family soon outgrowing the old shed he’d made over into a home. Off to a city for night-shift factory work, until someone rubbed him the wrong way. At job after job, someone always rubbed him the wrong way.

Back to the Sticks

Dad made over a tiny rural store into a home for us, did mechanic work and welding. Eventually he built his own welding shop. He was his own boss come what may. Mantra: Don’t tell me what to do. That went for wife and kids, too. I barely knew the man because he’d never learned how to be a father, worked hard, drank hard and sometimes woke screaming, until death.

Entrepreneur Characteristics

Entrepreneurship tends to run in families. Many can’t hold down a “normal” job. Many start work as kids. Many are geniuses at what they do, but it comes disguised as work in overalls, with red devil horn marks on the forehead from a welding helmet. Many don’t recognize the value of their skills and price themselves too low. Many are missed by an entire small town of customers and people they helped when their cars broke down along a road.

Are You an Entrepreneur?

I’m an entrepreneur, a little less extreme about being bossed, but I’ve worked for myself since age 21. I knew how to be a good mother, having been raised by one, and never experienced war. Otherwise the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Sometimes, although I’m female, I see Dad when I look in the mirror.

Best,

Karen

P.S.

This story of an entrepreneur is brought to you by Father’s Day. Have you hugged or kissed a father lately? Don’t worry if you just said, “Hey.” Some like that better.

To increase productivity, we’re often urged we must get up early. What fantastic advice! If I could do it consistently, I’m sure I’d be an early bird who gets a worm and quit being a ten o’clock scholar. But instead, I’ve decided I’ll embrace my inner night owl. Take my advice: stay up and work like a demon from dusk to dawn.

What if you’re not into vampire hours?

Suddenly such “timely” productivity advice seems nonsensical, doesn’t it? Telling an early riser he must go against his or her nature seems silly. Well, it’s just as silly the other way around. Perhaps early risers outnumber we wee-hours workers, but I will no longer tolerate their tyranny.

Once upon a time I was a great fan of Benjamin Franklin.

Now he can just stuff it. “Early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” he said. Well, Ben, I tried. Even though I’m not a man. I tried uncounted times to come on over to the light side. Now I’m done.

My personal clock is set on night owl.

My brain comes awake as the world nods off. The hours between 10 pm and 5 am fly by for me so fast I’m unaware of time passing as I work. I don’t know why.

Could it be because there’s no knocking on the door, ringing phone, post office, bank or grocery store runs? That likely helps, but makes no difference for early risers, right? They’d be face-down on their keyboards in unconscious bliss if they tried my schedule.

So, no, I don’t expect you’ll develop a whole new late-night inner biological time clock.

We night owls will keep our high-productivity times to ourselves, thank you very much. We won’t hound you to change. Please don’t hound us to change.

No, I’m not a vampire. Why do you ask?

Best,

Karen

P.S.

Creating an editorial calendar that includes wee-hour time  slots? Priceless.

Got a goal? Write it down!

“A goal without a deadline is nothing more than a wish,” says Rosalind Gardner, the multi-millionaire affiliate marketer who literally wrote the book on affiliate marketing, Super Affiliate Handbook. That line shook me like a thunderbolt. Why?

Time Sickness

In my years as a tailor, I often laughed inwardly at three customers with their last-minute crunch-time need for clothing alterations. They are sisters who show up the night before Easter or a dance or a wedding needing alterations on an outfit they just purchased. Their whole family suffers classic time sickness.

I laughed because I regarded myself as having recovered from time sickness. Some recovery!

Always Late

When my well-organized daughter calls and we plan our errands, I tell her when I can be ready to go. Turns out she knows she can expect me a half hour after that. The weird part is *I* didn’t know it! I’m eyeball deep in dreaming I get things done–but with poor results, I’m now realizing.

Affiliate Marketing vs Time Sickness

According to Rosalind, an affiliate marketer takes 7 big steps:

• market research
• build a site
• add content
• monetize the site
• market it
• manage the business
• grow the business

All seven involve many actions, right? If you’re like me, you feel overwhelmed almost from the get-go.

I either set a work goal unaware it would take FOUR people all day to do it, then fail and feel useless. Or I feel whatever little step I take is inadequate. Or I guess how long a job will take and I’m way off. Whether the “hour” job takes ten minutes or a week, I don’t even NOTICE so I never learn better!

Score: Time Sickness 1, Affiliate Marketing 0.

My Cure–And I Do Have One!

Today I woke up with an idea to log my time. Sure I’ve heard this idea before, probably in Getting Things Done by David Allen. Never mind. Rosalind’s line about goals, deadlines and wishes hit me where I live. I’m ready for real, measured action–the kind that makes her a multi-millionaire.

24 hours ready for affiliate marketing action.

Here’s my time log I created in Note Pad and printed out with FinePrint. I’m recording my actions in fifteen minute increments from today on until I KNOW how long it takes for me to do the simplest or most complex things. I included a place for the top six goals for the day. I never get six daily goals done, so maybe this is ridiculous. We’ll find out, eh?

Today's top 6 goals

The Rewards

First, no more impossible goals that I beat myself up for failing. Second, lay out do-able goals and track my progress so they get DONE and I build my affiliate marketing business. Third, reach my necessary income goals–no more just wishing! My daughter’s look of surprise when I show up on time? Priceless.

Best,

P.S.

Thank you, Rosalind Gardner, for sending me that thunderbolt. That’s a life-changing lesson for me. Did you mean to teach that in the Super Affiliate Handbook? I bet you did.

P.P.S.

While all the links in my post are meant to help you, some are affiliate links, which means if you click and buy, I could earn money.

What does it take to really succeed in your home business? Lean a little closer here a second and I’ll tell you.

It takes CONFIDENCE.

Yeah, I know you’re shaking in your shoes half the time. So was I.

Back when I started my first home business at the ripe old age of 23,  I had about 45 minutes of training. How did I dare hang out my shingle? Well, my mother-in-law pushed me a little. She was a tailor and wanted help, then booted me out on my own. Thank heaven.

How did I keep up my courage when handed tailoring jobs and repairs I’d never done before? I took a deep breath, reminded myself I was very good at sewing, and used this old joke as a mantra:

Q: What is an expert?

A: A drip under pressure.

Josh Spaulding

Here’s some of what Josh Spaulding (Making Money Through Ethical Marketing) has to say about his experience with confidence:

What I SHOULD have done and what you SHOULD do if you’re not Succeeding Online.

This is simple and you’ve heard it many times before. If you’re not 100% confident with something, JUST DO IT! Take action and learn from your mistakes. Find one or more person who you know are successful with it and copy their model!

Some people may not like that advice, but if you do it correctly there isn’t anything wrong with it and it can really help you find success much faster. I’m not telling you to literally copy and paste everything that person is saying, but watch them like a hawk and learn what they are doing, then do it for yourself!

You don’t have to be an expert to be confident!

If you want to start an authority site on a niche that you have an active interest in, but you’re not real knowledgeable (for instance) find others in that niche, watch what they’re doing and replicate it. Research relevant topics one at a time and write about it…

Why it Took me Almost 3 Years to REALLY Succeed Online

I agree completely. My home business tip:

Act AS IF you’re confident, then work your butt off.

With a smidgen of attitude and hard work, next thing you know, you’ll get the hang of this whole CONFIDENCE thing. Now watch out you don’t get big-headed, you Big Old Success you.

Best,

P.S.

By the way, did you know men are drawn to women who seem confident? They think it’s sexy.

P.P.S.

While all the links in my post are meant to help you, some are affiliate links, which means if you click and buy, I could earn money.

This Swiss timer means business.

Want a super idea to help you with your home business when faced with a big ugly job?

Maybe the task seems so onerous you’ve put it off for days, weeks or months and you suffer ever-worsening consequences. Well, here’s a method that will save you any more angst. In fact you’ll feel pride instead of anguish. It’s the method that cleaned out my cellar. Did I hire gnomes? Nothing so exotic.

I used a timer.

No, I’m not a race horse at the track, but like some race horses, I sometimes need blinders to keep my eyes focused on the track. How about you?

Pick a starting point.

When you’re faced with a big ugly job you hate, the chore can seem overwhelming. If it must be done and you can’t get someone else to do it, decide what baby step comes next on that bad boy.

Maybe it’s such a mess, it seems that nine things need done at the same time. If so, maybe your first job is to create a plan. If you can’t make headway with a plan, just pick one small task at random.

Now set your timer for fifteen minutes and work gangbusters on it.

You don’t have all day. You have fifteen minutes. If each minute feels like a year, remember it’s just fifteen minutes. Hyper-focus until that timer dings, rings or vibrates.

Now stop. Step back and see what you accomplished.

Is the job done? Are you astonished? Do a little jig in celebration.

Whether the job is or isn’t finished, it’s more finished than it was fifteen minutes ago. Pat yourself on the back. You took action, therefore you’re a hero or heroine.

You may be shocked that the job wasn’t as ugly as you feared.

Great. In fact, maybe it’s so near done that you feel like finishing the no-longer-so-big ugly job. Set your timer for another go-round, then work with the vigor of a three-year-old angling for a cookie.

When time’s up, quit.

I mean it. Don’t set that timer for another round of work.

Go do something else for the next fifteen minutes–something fun. You’ll come back refreshed with a better idea of what comes next. That’s like having a bigger baseball bat to slug the stitches off the next ugly job and sail it out of sight over the fence.

Maybe the job looks even worse now that you tore into it.

Often a work in progress appears that way. If you can’t face working on it for fifteen minutes again, set your timer for ten minutes, or even five.  I don’t care if it’s five minutes three times a day or five minutes a week.

Do something.

If at the end of the day you feel remorse or guilt that you’ve done nothing at all on your big ugly job, set your timer for one minute and take a stab at it. Feel better? I knew you would.

Now I must admit, I took my cellar in 45-minute chunks. And I did one chunk each Sunday morning for weeks on end, dressed in grub clothes, focused on filling ten trash bags in that time. Told you it was a big ugly job. I figure I offloaded 3,000 pounds of junk that accumulated over 30 years. Appalling, eh?

Now the place echoes. I still puff up with pride every time I think of it. I figure if I could do THAT, I can do anything–like start up and run my new successful home business using my timer for each task.

Now go you forth and do likewise.

Chip away at some big ugly job with your trusty timer sidekick. Set your timer, make a plan if you can, then focus step-by-timed-step. When you finish it once and for all, I bet you smile so big they can see it from the space station.

Can you smile for fifteen minutes?

Oh man, I can see it from here.  I wish you focus and great success in your home business.

Best,

P.S.

Want a good mood-lifter? Go stand in front of a mirror and smile at yourself for one solid minute. Stand eyeball to eyeball with that person in the mirror, wearing a nice big grin. For sixty seconds by the clock. I dare you.

P.P.S.

While all the links in my post are meant to help you, some are affiliate links, which means if you click and buy, I could earn money.