Okay, this is going to be long..

[DBallerz]

This is my first post at the forums, but I’ve been a long time Steve Pavlina reader (over a year now, on and off). You guys have a great thing going here.
It all started when I was around the age of 13-14. I wanted money and I knew that I wanted to own a business and it is still my dream. At 13, I self taught how to program in PHP and mysql and created a RPG game that earned a significant amount of money for my age. I spent countless sleepless nights making my vision a reality. A month in, and I was VERY overwhelmed by everything I had to do (bugs, costumer service, accounting, server upkeep), and school (being a freshman in HS). I broke down and quit after a month and half. To this day, it remains my only regret in life. I went on, thinking that success on the internet was very easy and created a bunch of different websites on various ideas I had, none with even a fraction of the success I had on my first website. This went on for 2 years and I developed a kind of ehhh blockage. I just expected my next idea to fail. I saw no results and I went onto the next idea. The RPG gave me a false sense of how easy it is to be successful on the internet. After I started to fail, I got VERY discouraged. I missed the blind faith I had on my first project and now I’m always surrendered by doubt and discouragement. I’m slowly moving past that while I am still working on a new project, but keeping at it. I still get much unmotivated. When I was 13 years old, I envisioned myself to be already money independent at 18 (where I am now). But this isn’t the case and I’m slowly realizing that it takes hard work, dedication and perseverance. I lack perseverance and, IMO that is what makes any successful person, a success. I was under the impression from a very young age that you can mold yourself to be whatever you want, that you can learn everything (even charisma, which I still believe to this day).


Today, I can’t stay patient. In the back of my mind, I’m always thinking of new ideas and how to utilize my time better. I always think that there is something better I can be doing. Now I just run in circles. From idea to idea, not focused, very easily distracted, unorganized. I am missing that blind faith I had when I was 13 years old and had no doubt in my mind that the RPG would succeed. After multiple failed ventures, I am filled with doubt. I lose motivation once I don’t see instant results and it is hard as hell to overcome. What can I do to fix this? What can I keep on repeating in my mind, how can I get that blind faith back? How do I develop perseverance? I KNOW that I will be very successful at a young age, but I can’t get a solid foundation on HOW. I know it will be through the internet. Help me find my perseverance.

Daniel

[Parthon]

Find your passion. You said blind fath kept you going, but I would say it was blind passion. You wanted to work on the game to your fullest, and you were worried about success or viability.

Figure out what you love doing, and what resonates with your passions and go from there. When you are creating, don't worry about how you will make it successful, that can come later. You will eventually have to work out how you can make money from it if you want to do it as a career, but first you need to create something of value people want to pay for.

Try How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes and this series: The Meaning of Life: Intro for good advice from The Steve.

[DBallerz]

Originally Posted by Parthon

Find your passion. You said blind fath kept you going, but I would say it was blind passion. You wanted to work on the game to your fullest, and you were worried about success or viability.

Figure out what you love doing, and what resonates with your passions and go from there. When you are creating, don't worry about how you will make it successful, that can come later. You will eventually have to work out how you can make money from it if you want to do it as a career, but first you need to create something of value people want to pay for.

Try How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes and this series: The Meaning of Life: Intro for good advice from The Steve.

Thanks for your input. I did that excercise a while ago but I still cannot find passion. My passion is business. The goal of a business is to make profit. My only drive is money and I know this, alone will not keep me going. I've tried searching for it. I tried to stem my passion for money into other ideas such as how to make money, build websites on the subject etc etc, but in the end it just ends up on how much I can make from it. Entrepreneurship is my passion. I love the idea of having a business and being able to build it up from nothing to something. I love strategy, different ways to outsmart others. Is this passion? Or just plain greed?

[Parthon]

Originally Posted by DBallerz

Entrepreneurship is my passion. I love the idea of having a business and being able to build it up from nothing to something. I love strategy, different ways to outsmart others. Is this passion? Or just plain greed?

That's not greed, that's passion, but it's probably not your purpose.

What is it about businesses that gets you excited. Why is building something from nothing and creating various strategies so awesome for you?

I think that your drive to create businesses is an expression of your purpose.

[DBallerz]

Originally Posted by Parthon

That's not greed, that's passion, but it's probably not your purpose.

What is it about businesses that gets you excited. Why is building something from nothing and creating various strategies so awesome for you?

I think that your drive to create businesses is an expression of your purpose.

Doing the books, hiring help, creating and marketing in products, planning everything, writing business plans. I LOVE that. Thinking of getting different ways to reach different people. I love finding new ways to cut expenses. What I love about having a business is the freedom as well. After working full time for past 8 months, I appreciate my free time more then ever. I think I just need to find a product to sell that I truly believe in.

[Gaz]

Why do you need to sell a product. why not make one. the RPG you came up with was clearly something you believed in. Is there not something like that.

Sounds to me like you'd make a great consultant/advisor to business start ups. It might be worth looking into. After all, advice is a product you can sell.

[DBallerz]

Originally Posted by Gaz

Why do you need to sell a product. why not make one. the RPG you came up with was clearly something you believed in. Is there not something like that.

Sounds to me like you'd make a great consultant/advisor to business start ups. It might be worth looking into. After all, advice is a product you can sell.

Making a product is a much longer process...especially if you are short on ideas just as I am. Since I am currently in college, I was thinking of something that targets that audience. I was thinking of selling small keychain BAC measures for all the drinking. It'll make me feel good because I'm actually helping these kids while making a profit. As for the RPG, it would be very difficult to make one right now. There is much more competition and the programming languages have gone a long way since 4-5 years ago. Back then, a little knowledge in PHP, HTML and java would be sufficient. These days it's AJAX, Flash and countless others. Thanks for the input!

[allen080105]

You could be trying to put too much pressure on yourself. Shoot at 13 it would be totally reasonable to be overwhelmed with all of that stuff. I know you're 18 now, but have you tried asking for help? (lol besides here) I'm sure if the products/services you provide are quality services that help people you can find people to help you out. I know a guy that owns a pretty successful forum and he said he would have been completely overwhelmed if he tried to do it all by himself.

Also you can take in input on where you're having problems. If you're having problems with organization read some blogs or books on getting organized. Listen to some audio. Do some journaling to help you look at the whole picture and try to solve problems. I found Steve's post about developing a toolkit of problem solving techniques to be really helpful.