I recently came across a video blog by Jon Wheatley where he talked a little about his online projects and responded to some comments on previous posts. Not to be rude but midway into his post I started to think ‘God, I feel really bad for Jon right now given his current lifestyle’. By ‘current lifestyle’ I mean hardly sleeping, combined with stress, periods of no social interaction etc… A very pretentious judgement by me I’m sure, as Jon’s achieved fantastic things and has been a great role model for me. I don’t want to insult him, but it got me thinking… could I really live my life like that?

This is something that applies to a lot of bloggers and entrepreneurs. The ‘online lifestyle’ is not the easiest by far, and is certainly not for just anyone. If you take away the huge number of ‘hobby’ bloggers (including those who make a little cash, but nothing substantial off of their blogs/projects) then you’re left with an elite who probably have workaholic tendencies. It take’s a LOT of really hard work to make it, and even then you might fail.

At the end of Jon’s post he gives a great quote that he discovered a while back:

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

This quote really hit home with me. After momentarily feeling like I didn’t want the risk of entrepreneurship, I felt reaffirmed that I did. I actually started to feel like this before he provided the quote, but it kind of sealed the deal. Jon is launching a really exciting project soon called Daily Booth (I suggest that you check out his blog if you want to learn more about it). My initial reaction to Jon’s post was ‘whoa what if this project fails?’ as a lot seems to be resting on it. However, my lasting reaction was ‘but what if it takes off?’. I realized that the idea of going for things and hoping that they pay off was far more appealing than the secure lifestyle that appeals to many. This mentality particularly applies to the part of the quote:

“so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.“

The word ‘can’t’ in this context actually scares me a little. Why? Well because it suggests that you may reach a point where you’ve lost control of your life. It suggests that you might look back and think ‘if only I’d acted differently I might be in a much better situation’. Sure, people can turn their lives around, but this is infinitely harder than setting a good foundation.

My point is really two fold:

• 1. REALLY think about if what you’re doing is truly right for you. It’s better to figure this out sooner rather than later, and just because you’re ultimately not the adventurous type it’s better to accept this and stop kidding yourself.
• 2. If you are adamant that you want to make something of yourself then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. It doesn’t make you a lazy person to not follow through with your ideas, it makes you normal. However, if you really want to succeed then you need to start DOING, rather than just THINKING.

I currently have an idea for a website that I’m really excited about. I was considering the other day how easy it would be to let it fall by the wayside and never follow it through. I could probably easily forget about it altogether and go on living my life. However, I don’t want to be that guy. I’m setting myself the goal of launching this site within a month, and believe me that is a big goal considering everything that I’ve got on. In a months time I could be in the exact same situation that I’m in now (and it’s not a terrible situation believe me), or I could be seriously excited about a great new project and have high hopes for the future. I think I know which appeals more to me…

So what kind of person are you, and what are you going to do about it?