Are you always chasing the next buck? Are you after that huge money? Are you waiting to get rich quick?

“If you enter a niche because you’re following the dollars, you wont keep it up. It’s too much work, and you will get tired and frustrated and you will eventually fold.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

There’s nothing wrong with hustle and working your butt off. There’s a problem with always trying to chase the next trend or big money opportunity. Trying to get rich quick is a pretty serious problem. There’s a cure though.

How you can avoid chasing the next buck and actually focus on what really matters (aka crush the fear of getting rich slowly):

Success only comes before work in the dictionary.

This isn’t just some corny line that you hear on the first day of grade 7. The average person (not including Jersey Shore characters) won’t have the ability to become successful if they don’t put the work in first. That’s just how it works. You can argue all that you want but you don’t want to risk missing out on life by trying to get rich quick.

You need to focus on one thing.

When your mind is all over the place you dilute your focus and don’t give the right amount of energy to important tasks. I’ve seen too many friends get lost in the idea of starting the next Facebook that they lose complete focus on what matters (their studies) and they end up failing where it hurts the most (dropping out of school). This is why I truly believe in focusing on one major goal. This could be a dream job, a solid business idea, a trade, a job where you can move up the ranks, or profitable hobby. When you keep on trying to chase the big dollars you can lose yourself easily.

You have to create your own luck in this world.

You’re not going to accomplish anything by complaining and blaming the world for your problems. Henry Hartman said it best with, “success always comes when preparation meets opportunity.” If you’re prepare and working hard, great things can come to YOU. When you’re looking for a shortcut you’re not going to find the response that you want.

Think of the negatives of going fast.

Our generation is pretty concerned about slow progress. This is likely why workout supplements are a 24 BILLION dollar industry on an annual basis. We all want quick results. We all want a shortcut. We just rarely take the time to look at the negatives of trying to go fast. What are some of setbacks of searching for a shortcut:

• Burn out.
• Wasting time.
• Spending more money than taking in.

Are you sure you want immediate results? Can you wait?

I’m not opposed to chasing the big bucks and going after the big wins. I just think the problem is that you can waste valuable skills by not focusing on consistent and daily goals. You’ll be surprised by what you can accomplish over an extended period of time with just a few hours a day.

I’ve often heard that there’s a big difference between where you are and where you want to be in life and in business. You may think and want to be successful in your field, but are you really? You could be on the other end of the spectrum. The challenge comes in being realistic about where you are and then moving towards where you want to be.

A few months back I saw a brief news story about Snooki (the short drunk girl) from the Jersey Shore. She was wearing Coach purses in public events likely because she could afford them and wanted the status. What happened was that Coach found out about this and decided to send her a a purse from a competitor. The company didn’t want her to represent the brand in the public. She though that she was classy. Coach thought otherwise.

Where am I going with this? I just wanted to touch upon some basic marketing that I learned in college and just through following successful people online.

How can you get to where you want to be with with your business?

Get rid of those that you don’t want.

One friend was planning on coming to my birthday party but he realized that he couldn’t make it because he was wearing some old pair of running shoes. The venue that we were attending had a strict dress code policy on dress shoes. The policy is simple, no dress shoes, no entry. You can complain all that you want, but it’s their property and their rules.

I also believe in being over-dressed instead of under-dressed. My friend was surprised he couldn’t get in with the running shoes. He just didn’t understand the policy.

The venue’s stance on the  policy is actually real simple: get rid of those that you don’t want. The venue clearly didn’t want its patrons to be walking around in old running shoes. You complain all you want. That’s just the way it is. The venue is getting rid of those that they don’t want.

You should try the same with your business. Get rid of those that you don’t see eye-to-eye with. Get rid of those that don’t share your views. Get rid of anyone that will only bring you down.

How can you get rid of those that you don’t want?

• Bash ideas that they believe in.
• Don’t give them any reactions.
• Ask them to leave.

Once you lose those that are bringing you down, you can move on and help those that you want apart of your cause.

Focus on helping those you want apart of your cause.

Who do you want apart of your cause? Once you figure this out you can focus on helping these people and having them help you. Chris  Guillebeau refers to this group of people as your small army. You will help your small army and in turn your small army will want to help you. I summarized his theory on building your small army with this quick image below:

When you work on helping those that you want to be with you and of your cause you’ll build yourself up towards being much closer to where you want to be. This is a simple formula that I’ve been doing my best to apply ever since I heard of it.

Fake it until you make it.

This is a classic quote and I believe in it totally. You’re not going to make it to where you want to be if you keep on feeling sorry for yourself and simply wishing you were there. You need to pretend that you are there. You don’t need permission from anyone to position yourself the way that you would like to. You just need to be willing to do the work and act as if you already are there.

I hope that you take this article seriously and begin working towards being where you really want to be. There’s usually a huge difference between where you are and where you want to be.

Where do you stand? Where do you want to be in the next few months?

When we first started our company back in 2008, we decided to name it M-35. To be honest, my friend wanted to name it M-30 at first…. But the  “M” stands for “millionaire” and the number stands for the age when we arrive. I thought that 3 years was a little too short . So this is why we decided to use M-35 as our official name: because we think we can reach $1M in net worth by the age of 35.

As of my last net worth statement, I’m standing at $203,500 and for the record, I’m 30. Therefore, I have to multiply my net worth by 5 in order to achieve my objective. Out of all my personal and blogging goals, this is by far the most aggressive! But hey! Sometimes, you have to set the bar very high if you want to accomplish awesome things, right?

But setting high goals doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a strong plan. On the other hand, growing your net worth by 800K in 5 years is a bit too much to swallow in one piece. So let’s take this elephant steak one bite at a time:

Employer stocks: + $43,000

I used to cash my employer’s stock once a year to pay off for different expenses. Starting this year, I’ll be keep them and hope to grow this part of my portfolio. Since I got a new job, I should be able to restrict my expenses. I invest $7,800 per year through my pay check in this stock and I only calculate a growth of 4% for the next 5 years. The growth is related to the DRIP plan where the dividend is around 4% at the moment.

RRSP: + $60,000

I intend to invest $10,000 in my RRSP every year for the next 5 years. Here again, my goal was to be conservative so I used a 4% investment return on my money. This should create another 60K. I will use my bonus to make my contributions.

Pension Plan: +37,000

This one is pretty hard to determine as I have no control over its value. I assume that the pension plan will grow by $6,000 per year with an investment return of 4%. This is how I got the + $37,000 number.

House: +75,000

I’m not counting on my house value to burst, but at 4% over the next 5 years, I would gain $75,000 on the value of my home. Since it is a fully equipped property in a nice area, I guess I should be able to expect to see it grow at this pace.

Debts: -$150,000

Here again, this is a fairly aggressive goal considering that I wasn’t able to pay down my debts efficiently over the past 3-4 years. On the other hand , controlling my finances is my goal for 2012. So if I want to make sense… I need to set my debt repayment plan in line with my goals. While my income will decrease in 2012 due to my job switch, this should only be temporary and I head back to 150K-175K starting in 2013. This is why I think I’ll be able to pay back about 30K per year in debts. It’s easier said than done, so we’ll see how it goes after a year .

And… this makes only $365,000 to add to my net worth

Can you see how difficult it is to create a net worth of 1M$ in 5 years when you start from 203K??? Ouch! According to this plan, my net worth would be 568K at the age of 35. I can say that if I reach this level, I’ll be happy but I won’t be “proud”. However, I have one last Ace in my pocket: my online company! Still… I need the valuation of my shares to rise from $98,000 (as of today) to $432,000. Since I have a partner, I need to be able to claim that my company is worth 864K…. hmm.. is this possible?

Let’s take a closer look and we will see!

Our valuation model is quite simple for the moment: 3 times our annual income minus existing debts + cash. So if I need a value of $864K, I need annual income of $288,000 per year with no debts and no cash. If you divide this number by 12 to reach a monthly income target, we get the round number of… $24,000 per month! In 2011, we made a total of $114,158 or $9,513/month. So this represents a 152% increase over 5 years or an annualized growth of 20% over the same period.

I don’t know if it’s just me but if I break down the number as previously mentioned, it doesn’t seem that difficult. If I consider that my plan this year is to go from 9,5K/month to 15K, I’m already aiming at a 57% increase this year! The worst part is that I think it is quite feasible (not to make 180K this year but to get to 3 months in a row of 15K in 2012).

You can argue that my plan to become a millionaire by 35 is directly related to the valuation I give my online company. And I couldn’t argue with you. However, I will only smile thinking that while I have my day job paying me over 100K per year, I’m doubling my pay check through my online company.

So the race is now on… let’s see if I can make it!!

If we all have so much in common, why is it that some of us make it big while others are stuck working some crappy job? The truth is a bit harsh here. Are you ready for it?

Some of us just don’t have the balls to make it.

I’m not trying to throw anyone under the bus here or trying to get you to feel bad about yourself. I’m in the same boat as you. I’m brave, but I’m not as brave as some serial entrepreneurs. We don’t just wake up with the guys to risk everything and take a huge chance.

Why do you need to have balls to make it?

You need to take on risks.

You’re going to have to take on many risks. Sure some of the risks will be “calculated” risks while others will be just plain reckless. The problem with taking risks is that most of us have high anxiety and just don’t have what it takes to be willing to take on those huge risks. You know how it goes, “the bigger the risk, the bigger the potential reward, or failure.” This is what usually scares me off. Do I want to take a huge risk with time and money? Would I rather take the steady job and not worry about the other side?

“The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds. I can’t tell you how to do this; I think the answer is different for everyone.” — Seth Godin

What are you going to do to overcome your fear and take on more risks?

Others will tell you it’s not worth trying.

You’ll encounter many people that will tell you that the journey is not worth taking. You’ll interact with those that have already failed and have long given up hope in starting a business, getting in shape, or becoming better at dating.

Should you ignore these people? Not totally. You can acknowledge and respect what they say. You don’t have to live by it.

The reason that you need balls to deal with those that are telling you it’s not worth trying is because it’s really easy to give in and make excuses. Why bother trying when someone tells you it’s not possible?

The truth is that those saying something is impossible should shut up and stop bothering those that are doing it.

You’re going to fail a few times.

Failing sucks. Most of us just don’t have the guts to fail over and over again. We would rather be safe and happy. Failure is embarrassing. Who can handle all of that humiliation? Those with balls are not afraid of failing many times and dealing with it. There’s too many people taking the path of least resistance and too few taking the big risks. This is why I feel that not everyone will be as successful as they would like to be. We’re just too afraid of failure.

What are some examples of people with balls?

Mike (owner of this blog). The thing that I respect about Mike is that he’s not afraid of leverage and taking chances. Too many new bloggers are trying to start a new blog from scratch in hopes of building it up to be the next Get Rich Slowly. Mike’s smart (and brave enough) to buy established blogs and leverage their existing platform. Spending money to buy blogs is risky and requires balls because it’s a fairly new strategy. More and more buyers are getting into the game now, but Mike was one of the first ones.

Oh and he has the balls to let me write content on here without editing it!

Adam Baker. I enjoyed his story when he first hit the online world because he sold all of his crap and went to the other side of the world (New Zealand at first, I think?) with his family, while building an online empire. Baker traveled the world for a long time with his wife and daughter, in a world where most people with kids are afraid to even leave home.

There are many more examples of people with balls. These were just the best examples that came to my mind.

Long story short, do I have the balls? Since I’m writing this piece I should probably answer the question. I need to work on this. I’ve been nervous in the past. I’ve always held down some sort of a part-time job. I’ve never gone all in. I’ve never thrown it all on the line to try to reach a goal.

At the end of the day. the thing holding you back could be something as simple as not having the balls to go all out and show fear the middle finger.

Am I making sense or being delusional to you?

Thx to this bonus, I was able to achieve one of my 2011 personal goals which was to finish with a 200K + net worth. So I’m very happy to tell you that my net worth jumped by 14.62% and reached $203,500 this year!

Stay Conservative

Since my goal for 2012 is to take control of my personal finances, I’ve decided to not be aggressive on the value of my assets with this first net worth statement of the year. I usually increase the value of my house by the rate of inflation (which should have been 2.7% for 2011) but I didn’t do it. I’ve already increased it by 7K last summer which is the cost of the central AC I added.

I also depreciated the value of my cars on a monthly basis. The Tribute drops as fast as my loan payment ($434/month) so my car loan is always evened out with the value of my car. For my RX-8, I drop the value by $400/month as well. So technically, my sports car will be worth nothing in 2013 . I do that because a car is definitely not an asset and should not artificially boost your net worth. As for my company shares, I won’t reassess them until our annual meeting that happens in spring. I should be seeing a great increase in value as the company is probably worth around $300K right now (so my shares should be valued at $150K instead of $98K). But then again, my goal this year is to pay down debts, not to look at my growing assets .

Speaking of debts, it’s payback time baby!

Wow! As much as I am bored to see a huge deposit in my account and to make it disappear in 5 minutes through online payments, I am darn proud of paying down those debts! The feeling of being “liberated” from this burden is awesome! I can now start the year fresh with less expenses and a cleaner balance sheet.

With my bonus, I’ve paid off my RRSP loan in total (and my RRSPs are maxed btw ) and I paid back a huge chunk on my credit card. It sucks that I couldn’t enjoy anything out of my bonus but on the other side, I’m living an awesome life on a daily basis so I guess it’s okay.

Since my car broke down right before Xmas and the gifts I bought cost a little bit more than expected, my 2012 of going down under $300,000 in debt is now equal to paying off $17K this year. This is slightly over what I was expecting (13K) but I still think it’s feasible. I already have monthly payments towards the car loan and another personal loan that will drop my debts by 7K by the end of the year. Therefore, I just have to drop down my HELOC by 10K this year and I’m all set for my goal. I’ll definitely work it out!

So here are the details of my net worth as of January:

Assets: $521,336 (+0.01%)

ASSETS	PREVIOUS MONTH ($)	CURRENT MONTH ($)	CHANGE (%)
CHECKING ACCOUNT	$1,000	$1,000	0.0%
EMPLOYER STOCK ACCOUNT	$1,113	$2,381	113.9%
RRSP ACCOUNT	$29,581	$29,869	1.0%
PENSION PLAN	$20,218	$20,218	0.0%
HOME	$345,640	$345,640	0.0%
COMPANY SHARES	$98,000	$98,000	0.0%
MAZDA TRIBUTE	$18,662	$18,228	-2.3%
MAZDA RX-8	$6,400	$6,000	-6.3%
TOTAL	$520,614	$521,336	0.1%

.

Liabilities: $317,836 (-7%)

DEBTS	PREVIOUS MONTH ($)	CURRENT MONTH ($)	CHANGE (%)
CREDIT CARD	$19,597	$6,975	-64.4%
LINE OF CREDIT	$19,828	$19,804	-0.1%
HELOC	$263,734	$261,996	-0.7%
CAR LOAN	$18,662	$18,228	-2.3%
Personal Loan	$11,249	$10,833	-3.7%
RRSP loan	$10,000	$-	-100.0%
TOTAL	$343,070	$317,836	-7.4%

.

Total Net Worth: $203,500 +14.62%

The thing is that every single person reading this needs help. We all need help with something. There’s always someone out there that’s better than us at something. This doesn’t mean that we should give up. This just means that we need to learn from those that are better than us at something.

How can you save money by paying for help on a one-on-one basis?

Cut your losses.

You can always cut your losses early. The best strategy that I believe for new ideas is to bash them and get as much feedback as possible in the earlier stages. This is why paying for some sort of consulting is ideal in the beginning stages so that you can figure out if it’s worth going ahead with your new idea or if you should scrap it before it affects your pocket

What’s the point of feedback when you’re about to launch your product or new service? Imagine you’re about to launch your new blog product for frugality parents on buying luxury cars and the day before someone finally tells you that this is a crappy idea. Think of all of those supporters that let Paris Hilton release a music cd (and another one coming soon).

If you get quality help early on, you don’t have to stress about getting bad news at the last minute.

Avoid poor business ideas.

An idea might sound brilliant at first. Getting a second opinion from your girlfriend will only make it sound better. Your girlfriend and parents will tell you that your ides is good so that they don’t hurt your feelings. When you pay for help, you get quality advice that’s not sugar-coated to boost your ego.

The truth is that there are many poor business ideas out there that need to be avoided.

See what you’re doing wrong.

Do you know what you’re doing wrong? Chances are that you don’t or else you wouldn’t be doing things wrong. When you finally figure out what you’re doing wrong, you can then work on improving things to get the best results, instead of the same old lame results. Are you ready to see what you’re doing wrong?

Change gears.

Maybe you can change gears? You could have the correct general idea and all you need is some tweaking. Maybe you’re in the wrong field? Maybe you’re vision is wrong. Paying for help can show you that changing gears is what you need to do instead of giving up. Too many new entrepreneurs give up before they bother with tweaking things a bit.

That’s how paying for help can help you save thousands of dollars and make thousands of dollars in the long run. Now I know that there’s going to be some of you that can’t afford consulting or paying for help. What if you can’t afford to pay for consulting?

The solution is simple. Find as much free help as possible.

How can you find as much free help as possible online?

1. Check out forums. There are many forums on the Internet for every single niche.
2. Send emails. If you’re lucky, a successful blogger or person in your field might be in the helping mood when you shoot them an email.
3. Read blogs. There are so many blogs out there that give out ridiculous amounts of free information on a consistent basis. Are you taking advantage of this?
4. Use Twitter. Twitter can be a complete waste of time. You can also use it to engage with others and learn from the thought-provoking discussions that are going on.

There you have it. There’s plenty of free help out there. If you have the extra cash to splurge, you can pay for help. Whatever you do depends on how quickly you want to grow.

Paying for help can help you grow exponentially. The payment for help is just a simple barrier that will force you to take the advice seriously.

Ask the readers: have you guys ever paid for help with something? How did it turn out?

Today, I’ll reach the summit of controversy.

I’m going to climb to the top of the highest mountain and yell to the world:

“I’M STAYING IN THE RAT RACE!!!”

Oh boy. By writing this line I almost feel ashamed. It’s like saying: “I’m stupid, I’m well aware of it and even darn proud to be a rat!”. That’s it! After so much effort to tell you that it sucks to be stuck in the Rat Race, I’m taking a big jump into the race…dumb!

Did I change my mind? Not really.

Did I lose my mind? Don’t think so.

I still want to quit my job eventually and become a dot com mogul. However, this won’t happen next year… as my previous plan was designed for… Let me tell you a story:

Back in April of this year, I saw an opening at work to get one of the highest jobs for a financial planner: working in wealth management. This department is like playing for the NHL: you only deal with multimillionaire clients. I got the interview and everything went pretty well. In fact, I know I’m made for this job and it looks that the guy interviewing me was thinking the same… until he asked me the fatal question: What would you do if a similar position opens up in a year closer to home? Mind you, I live 85km (that’s 52.8 miles) from work. That causes some serious lack of sleep.

I thought I was able to deal with it but it’s all BS… it’s been almost 2 years and I’m dead tired now (and maybe that’s because I’m running my online company at the same time ). I was able to do it for a while but waking up at 4:30 every morning has become too much for my brain to support. So this is why I had answered that I would jump on the job and quit this one. Ugh… yeah I knew that I had just shot myself in the foot but I believe in honesty (so naïve! But that’s me!).

So instead of getting the job, the guy arranged for a meeting with the manager in my area. It looked like they were planning on opening a similar position… 5 minutes away from where I live. Can this be? Really? It was like a dream coming true. But the budget hasn’t been approved yet. In fact, the business case was supposed to be presented back in August.

So a few weeks passed and fast forward to October. I just got back from the FINCON11 and I’m more motivated than ever to crush it and make a killing with my online company. At the same time, I speak with the guy who tells me that he didn’t get the okay yet to add the position.

I’m not the kind of dude who waits in line.

I don’t wait until someone calls my ticket number.

I just go directly to the counter and ask to be served.

This is exactly what I did: I told everybody that if nothing happens before my wife is due (we are expecting our 3^rd child in February 2012), I would take a 7 month paternity leave (I told you that sometimes paying taxes is a good thing). I will work on my online business during that time. It wasn’t a threat by all means. It was just the blunt truth. I decided to create 2 “A” plans instead of having a plan B!

Plan A: I score a dream job 5 minutes away from where I live while I continue to grow my company on the side.

Plan A (2^nd version): I get paid 75% of my base income for 7 months while I work my ass off on my blog to make a killing.

After a few weeks, I was starting to make some serious plans about my decision. I started to think about some projects I would start if I could work full time for my online company. I was tired of waiting and was looking at a golden opportunity to jump out of the rat race while being paid to do it. A risk free ticket to financial freedom. How cool is that???

And then, last week, I got a call from “the guy”. He now has his budget to make my 1^st plan A happen. I’ll be meeting with him in a few days for my official interview. I don’t know if I’ll get the job but I know one thing: if I get an offer, I’ll jump on it. I’ll be jumping in with both feet.  Directly into the rat race hole as if I didn’t know that there was a trap beside the piece of cheese!

So did I change my mind? Wasn’t the rat race the worst thing anyone could get stuck in? I still believe it. But let’s face it; I’m a small, little coward and I can’t live with the idea that I am putting my family on the line with my online business.

I would rather make more sacrifices and stay on the path inside the rat race for a few more years… so my kids can go to private school, so my wife can continue to stay at home and take care of them, so I can pay off my debts… so I can live my cowardly life quietly…

The real problem is that I currently make too much to stop (see all the details about my income here). Another problem is that I’m used to this lifestyle inflation. I just can’t quit in a heartbeat. I need to devise a more evil plan to make it happen. At least, I have a plan. But I won’t tell you yet… I’ll wait until I know that I have the job or not .

It hurts, but this sounds like the right choice at the moment. I don’t have blind faith in everything (far from it!) but I believe in destiny. I actually believe that you are the sole designer of your life and the only person responsible for what is happening to you (death is just an overrated myth in my opinion). However, I also believe that we are all given choices or opportunities at different points in time. And sometimes you can push on Destiny’s back to make some opportunities happen. And this is what I did by making up 2 A plans. If you push in all directions, set the rules and then you just have to wait for Destiny’s sign to make your final move. I believe you better listen to it when it happens! So this is why I’m taking a shot at this golden job. My resume has been sent, I’m just waiting…

What do you think? I’m just a coward or am I taking the right path?

When I wrote this post, I was sitting quietly at the municipal pool while my daughter was playing Ratatouille on her Leapster and my son was swimming back and forth in the pool. I was taking notes to eventually write how much I will make in 2011. Now that our financial year is over, I know approximately how much I’ll be making in bonus. So, I thought of calculating the magic number for 2011. I wanted to know if I was going to hit my financial goal.

I’ve taken the habit of being wide open about my personal finances on this blog. I sometimes tell you how I suck at not paying my debts but most of the time, I’m pretty proud of what I do. But this time is different… I’m kind of shy.

I somewhat feel bad about how much I made.

I don’t know why.

I guess it’s my judeo-christian roots…

Oh well… here we go….

I’ll make slightly over $176,400 in 2011.

I can’t believe it myself! And this is not counting my online income. Only the part that is being redistributed to me. Whatever is made in the company is not counted in this income.

Here’s my income distribution for this year :

As you can see, I’ll be getting a fat bonus this year. The bonus will be paid in January 2012… so technically, I’m just shy of roughly 60K right now . This is why my income is not reflected in my net worth. But It will have a nice jump early in 2012 as I will pay off my debts!

This bonus is the result of 4 years of hard labor. I’ve built my portfolio of clients one by one (I started with a shitty book, took off most of the existing clients and prospects for 4 years). I guess that doing your job right and treating clients for what they really are (human beings!) pays off in the end!

The other important thing to consider is my online company benefits. My company pays for a few things that I use such as my laptop, desktop, Blackberry and internet connection. In addition to that, I’m getting paid for the day I spend working on the company. So while I don’t derive a direct salary from my online company, it is still providing me with financial support.

I’ve increased my income by 30% and I didn’t work a single hour more

The thing I’m most proud about my income is not the income itself, but the number of hours required to achieve it. I’m currently working 30 hours a week at my day job and 10 hours a week on my online company. Therefore, I never worked more than 40 hours a week. Add 5 weeks of vacation and leaving at 3pm on Fridays to that and you have an awesome lifestyle. I can share a lot of quality time with my friends and family. Most importantly, I have all the time in the world to watch my kids grow and share the little joys of the moment with them.

What’s my secret?

A regional director once asked me how I was bringing in so much money in so little time. I replied that I work hard. He smiled back and told me that everybody says that they are working hard. So what was I doing differently? What is my secret?

« 80-20 rule ».

That’s it.

It’s not more complicated than that. That’s my secret : focus on the 20% generating 80% of your results and you will achieve awesome things in minimal time.

So today, take a moment and write down everything you do that takes more than 5 minutes in your day. You’ll notice plenty of « holes » that don’t generate anything. They are either a pure waste of time or repetitive routine that doesn’t lead anywhere.

The first thing to do is to cut the crap. Once that’s done, you must replace it by activities that create value. Being efficient is not as much being fast than it is creating value when you work.

So stop being your own « cost center » and transform yourself into a « value creation center ». Life is much easier when you can afford it .

Last week I shared the disastrous results from my eBook launch and I gave you guys a reality check on full-time blogging. I ended off the post by talking about how much I love to help people. The post then went on to receive an insane amount of helpful comments. I even found out how to get my eBook published on Amazon for Kindle. I’m excited about that.

On to part two the reality check for those that want to be full-time bloggers…

I love to help people.

Why can’t I just help people? I want to give real advice. I have a real education. I don’t want to write about blindly following your passions.

It kind of frustrates me that these same people that I respond to all of their emails and help them for free couldn’t fork over a few dollars. I’m not trying to get rich off my premium guide. I just wanted to see if my readers understood the idea of paying for value. I guess not.

[Here's a tip cheapass, if you want to save money and are to cheap to pay $17 for it: stop buying girls drinks at bars. It's not going to help you get laid. She's going to use you for your free drinks and go home with someone that has more game.]

A few more lessons learned through blogging…

I learned so much from this experience and from blogging. I feel that it’s my obligation to share it with you.

I love blogging and helping others.

I guess I already mentioned it above. For any of you that have ever emailed me you know that I will respond within minutes. If you ever asked me a question you know that I did my best to answer it. If not I helped you get the answer. Why isn’t there any compensation model on the internet that pays you for all the people that you help make real progress instead of promoted credit cards to?

Success in the blogging world should NOT be a slow process.

I officially started blogging about 3 years ago. The exact date is November 7th, 2008.

To put things into perspective. Pat Flynn was just getting started. Adam Baker still didn’t have a blog. Crystal of BITFS was over a year away from starting a blog. That’s when I started. Now Pat earns more in a month than I do in a year from blogging.

Where am I going with this? If you’re going to fail, you better fail fast. Don’t wait around thinking that success is a slow progress. It’s not.

Did I mention that I hate to lose?

Are these people smarter than me? Possibly. Do they work harder than me? I’m not sure. Pat once mentioned in a podcast that he works four hours a day. I work four hours everyday before lunch. If I counted how much time I work online vs income generated I would have J. Money and the Love Drop team showing up at my door steps.

I hate bothering people.

I don’t like to ask people for links or for help constantly. I don’t like to bother people at all. I feel bad for bothering my affiliates. They signed up and they get their payout of ZERO from me.

I’m sorry to Frugal Dad, Bible Money Matters, Daily Money Shot, PT Money, Good Financial Cents, Lazy Man and Money, Budgeting In The Fun Stuff for wasting your time.

I do my best to help others. I just hate to ask for help. Do you know what I mean?

I spend all of my time online.

I seriously love this work. I spent all of my available time online. I’m glued to my Blackberry/MacBook. My friends usually figure I’m texting girls to come by to the party so they don’t mind. Others know that I’m responding to reader emails or chatting on Twitter.

What can You take away from this?

At the end of the day you can follow your passions to the unemployment line or you can get a life. There are many more ways to make money and help people. Stop signing up for programs.

What can you as a reader of this article take away from my experience?

You readers don’t care about you.

This is really tough to accept. Personal finance blog readers will come by, check out your free content, and move on.

You can’t always write epic content.

Uh-oh I’m going against blogging gospel now. Writing epic content is cool, but you need to throw in some SEO-heavy posts and promote some credit cards if you want to make real money. I’ve spent over 10 hours and went to bed at 7am many times while writing “epic content.” What will getting epic content get you? How do these articles make any money?

You can start a consulting business. The best way to make money online is to tell other people how to do it.

I’ll help you out by giving you the framework for your new consulting business.

1. Tell them to be more epic.

2. Tell them to follow their passions.

3. When they fail tell them that they weren’t epic or passionate enough.

4. Promote your eBook on the topic.

There you have it. The winning formula. I might have missed a step, but you get the point.

You need to get a life and do something real.

I just want you to open your eyes. Close this window and go do something real.

What are some examples of bloggers doing something real and making real money?

Crystal of BITFS makes a killing from her advertising business.

Mike of this site works a full-time job where he makes amazing money, outsources his online work, and collects money.

Pete of Bible Money Matters creates amazing logos.

Khaleef of KNS Financial helps others figure out their finances and he does taxes.

What if you want to make a difference?

If you want to make a difference you need to do something real. Get a full-time job that helps people.

If you hate your job then you have nobody to blame but yourself. Nobody told you to drop out of college to “find yourself” or to get a History degree.

If you want to do good in this world, why not volunteer your time? Go volunteer at a soup kitchen or become a Big Brother. Don’t start a blog. You won’t make a difference. People will come to your blog, consume your free content, send you emails, and then get offended when you want to make a dollar.

What’s next for me?

I hope you don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’m in too deep. I’m addicted to all of this. I love my art. I just wish it loved me back.

I really do need to get a life. It’s impossible to justify spending every single moment thinking about my blog. I probably need to polish up my resume. I’m pretty sure I have a resume somewhere on my blog.

The good news is that when I finished college in December 0f 2010 I gave myself a year to work on my own projects. I still have about two months left to make shit happen.

I need to thank Mike for letting me be on his team. M-35 has done amazing things and the company is only going to expand further. I do my best to provide quality work on a constant basis.

Blogging is a good part-time income. It allows you to travel while not going broke. I love to travel. I have many more trips lined up. Through blogging, I’m able to party all night and write all day while I travel (sight seeing is for old people).

Don’t expect to be “making money while you sleep.” Get a job and blog in your spare time. Stop being delusional.

That’s it for today. Bookmark this article. Read it over a few times. Stop lying to yourself. Don’t attack me. I’m just telling you what nobody else wants to tell you.

Good luck!

P.S I plan on joining in on the action. I now offer coaching and plan on releasing an eBook that touches on following your passions. Hey, I might as well.

“IF YOU’RE PUTTING IN 200% EFFORT AND SEEING A 10% RETURN, IT ISN’T A BUSINESS YOU’RE RUNNING. YOU’RE RUNNING THE TITANIC.” - Everett Bogue

Mike (TFB) Editorial not on this post:

“Before Martin wrote this 2 part articles, we had a great discussion. I didn’t change anything from his 2 articles but I don’t necessarily agree with him on everything he wrote. This is why I have decided to publish his 2 articles and reply later on this month with my own perception of the perspective of making money online. I’m looking forward to read your thoughts!”

Do you want to become a full-time Blogger? If you do then you NEED to read this article from top to bottom. It’s time to give everyone a reality check.I’ve never written a post upset before because I’m always in a good mood. I love to blog and to help others. Today I’m in an unusual mood. Let’s see how this goes.

Alright so if you’re a blogger you likely want to blog full-time. I know how it works. Pro Bloggers sell the dream. You can work from home and do whatever you want. You can work any hours that you want. [Correction: Working from home means you can work any 18 hours of the day that you choose.]

Did you go to FINCON11 this year? If you did, how motivated were you? How excited were you to be more EPIC? How much more PASSIONATE did you feel? Likely very. What have you done since then? It has been a month. You probably did a roundup of the event and bragged about how many people you met. Good for you. Do you think your readers care? Nope. Are you any closer to becoming a full-time blogger? I can tell you what you want to hear or I can be honest with you. The answer is NO.

Let’s get started with my story…

“I hate losing even more than I like winning.” – Moneyball, a great movie.

My first hardcore product launch.

I finally launched my first premium product over at Studenomics. I had a soft launch over at Passive Income Now with my real estate guide in the summer. I sold a few copies and it was a cool learning experience. From there I decided to consume every piece of literature on the internet on how to launch an eBook. I paid $97 for the, “How to Launch The **** Out of Your eBook” guide.

I worked on this product all summer. I spent all of my free time on research (because real guides need real research), and learning to improve my writing style.

How much did I invest in creating my own product? Let’s look at the costs.

• $97 in eBook.
• $400 in the design.
• Time to write the book (many months).
• Time to write the sales page (3,000 words took many hours).
• Time to write 8 guest posts.
• Ridiculous amount of time to promote the eBook via email, forums, and Twitter.

What did I earn? How much money did I generate from this super helpful guide?

I was conservative with my estimates. I couldn’t sleep the week before the launch. The night before I went to bed an hour before the launch. As I was settling in for the night I wrote on my planner a conservative figure of 20 book sales. I figured that between 8 guest posts on popular blogs, Twitter followers, and my 1,400 RSS subscribers, I would EASILY sell 20. I woke up and realized that I had like 15 emails in my inbox. I was excited because I thought this was e-junkie notifying me of all of my sales. Whooooo! Nope just the usual crap from guest posters offering me a 300 word post. Get a life!

How many sales did I get? ZERO. Well to be specific it’s in the negatives as you can tell from my start up costs.

You see the problem is that bloggers love to write a transparency report when they succeed at something. When we were in grade two this was known as BRAGGING. Nobody ever sees the other side. I’m here to give it to you.

My friend I do NOT like to lose. Nor do I like to fail. Do you know what I hate the most? I hate to let my supporters down. This project was the first time that I got my girlfriend, friends, and family involved. I had friends proof read the guide. I had my girlfriend read it over, help me out with the sales page, and give me support. To be more specific, I don’t know how she put up with me all month. I spent every single moment jotting down notes or busting out my laptop to get some work done. Let’s just say that sometimes great ideas hit me at the WORST time.

All week after the launch my friends have been excited calling me to ask me how many copies I sold. They wanted to know if it was 20 or 30? It was ZERO. Do you know how embarrassing that is? One friend asked if I was a millionaire yet because he knows how hard I worked on this project. I’m sort of avoiding him because I don’t like the disappointed look that’s followed by a “better luck next time” bullshit line. Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m 23 and on top of the world.

Before you give me your expert advice…

I bough the $97 eBook on “How to Launch The **** Out of Your eBook” and I downloaded like 20 workshops that the author made available. I went over everything with such great detail.

I consumed every piece of information on the topic from CopyBlogger, I went through all of Ramit Sethi’s psychology links he has bookmarked, and my girlfriend gave me her psychology tips from years of studies.

My product was based on extensive research. I went through every reader email and comment to see what common questions were. I didn’t just launch some random project that I thought was cool.

Long story short, I did my research.

A little about myself…

I don’t play for second place. I don’t feel sorry for myself.

I’m not some person that got in debt $30,000 because I couldn’t resist buying stupid shit on my credit card. I finished college. I got my degree. I didn’t drop out to “follow my passions” or to “channel my creative energy.” I hustled. Worked full-time hours, blogged all of the time, and studied my ass off to get strong grades. I didn’t get poor grades and then turn around to blame the system.

I bought a condo when I was in college when it was still in pre-construction. It was in an up and coming area. I saw potential and more importantly, I saw dollar signs.

Well it has gone up over $100,000! Now I bought a second condo. I rent out my first unit for $1,400 a month. I get to travel and do cool shit.

I also worked full-time hours every year of college. I was able to earn over $40,000 while I studied and went down south a few times a year to party hard while other people complained about the economy and sat around on Facebook stalking girls that they had no chance with.

I don’t like to lose and I don’t want to be apart of something that sucks.

I consumed everything..

I swear to you I have consumed every piece of material on working for yourself and following your passions.

What books did I read on the topic of entrepreneurship?

• Never Eat Alone.
• Art of Non-Conformity.
• 4-Hour Workweek.
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
• Career Renegade.
• Escape From Cubicle Nation.
• Crush it!

I didn’t stop with books. I took all of these online courses. I paid for:

1. Earn1k with Ramit Sethi
2. The Hustle Project with Adam Baker and Corbett Barr.

I’ve read everything out there on working for yourself because I’m very excited with the idea of working on my own projects and helping people. I now realize that it’s more realistic to get a real fucking job.

Selling the dream..

Everybody wants to follow their passions and read the next guide on how you can follow your passions. We all want to be “our own boss” and work on our own terms.

There’s a reason that Pat Flynn makes more in one month than most of us will make in a year from blogging. He sells the dream. We sign up for his affiliate links and he continues to live the dream while we work full-time jobs and walk around like zombies because we were up all night blogging.

Why won’t anyone else give you this reality check? Because then they wouldn’t be able to sell their consulting services to you or to push affiliates on you.

Pat Flynn made $12,600 from Bluehost on readers in September. The dream is being sold and we are all buying it.

[FYI, this is not an attack. I love Smart Passive Income and continue to read it on a daily basis. Actually it's my favorite blog. Whenever Pat releases a premium product I will be the FIRST person to buy it. It can be ANYTHING. I would purchase sand on the beach from Pat because he deserves every penny. I'm just saying that we need to take action instead of chasing dreams that are unrealistic.]

 Making money online.

I tried every strategy for making money with blogging. In three years you can really test everything out. Three years is a lot of time to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Google Adsense.

It’s sort of tough to rank high for any decent keywords. Plus I want to help my real readers instead of worrying on some random keywords. I usually make the monthly payout for Adsense. My record month was close to $400, nothing compared to others.

Affiliates.

How many credit cards or bank accounts can you promote? I’ve had good results with affiliates and plan on pushing more credit card offers because it seems that my readers would rather sign up for credit cards than learn how to conquer their credit. More credit card offers it is!

Creating products.

Well you know how that went…

Funny story, one day a reader emailed me to tell me that he loves my blog. Then he asked me why I even bothered with it. We got on the phone and he told me how he makes thousands per month from promoting credit cards and creating niche sites. He said he loves the idea of writing for readers but doesn’t get it. I didn’t want to get blinded by the dollars since you know, “follow your passions and the money will follow.”

I told him that I love to help people. I guess people don’t love my help.

Stay tuned…

Thanks for reading this far. Please do NOT leave any motivational quotes or anything like that. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me.

I’m nowhere close be to being done my friends. I got a lot left to say. I hope you join me next week. What can you expect next week?

• Tips on what you can do to make money online.
• Lessons learned.
• A few more lethal doses of reality.
• Another 2,000 words or so that you need to read.

In the mean time you can BUY A COPY of my premium guide on how you can Completely Conquer Credit. It doesn’t show you how to follow your passions or how to set epic goals. It WILL save you thousands of dollars in your 20s. This is money that you can spend on following your passions eCourses.