I’ve compiled a few pictures here for a real quick survey. Look at the pictures below and tell me which view you would prefer while working.

Which workspace suits you best?

Workspace #1

Workspace View #2 – Supervisor of Workspace #1

Workspace View #3

Workspace #4 – Getting Better!

Workspace #5 – Very Nice!

Workspace #6 – Priceless! Working from Home!

So which of these work spaces looks the most appealing to you and which of these spaces are you somewhat currently in? Man, if everyone could just get this one concept: You have just as much of a choice to not work where you want as you do in working exactly where you want! So I chose work spaces #5 and #6 nearly 5 years ago. I used to work in something similar to work space #3. I think I definitely upgraded!

So you might ask the question: Is a home based business all it’s chalked up to be? The answer for me: YES! The answer for you: (Fill in the blank)!

One of the beauties of being self employed is your ability to literally dictate your schedule as the day goes. This weekend is going to be a busy weekend for all of us parents. Today happens to be my oldest daughters birthday and this morning, my second daughter received her very first award in her school today. It’s nice to have the freedom to just go. No approval from the boss, no worry over losing paid work hours….just the freedom to go and do.

Now as you all know, it is Halloween today and if you have a family, with children, your weekend is going to be busy. Get out with your kids. Be young again and dress up. Have a blast! But as I have always said, be your business. With what I do, I am able to integrate my business into my lifestyle. So just because I am off during the holidays doesn’t mean I’m not generating revenue. That’s the whole point of a home business. It integrates itself with your lifestyle. Some of my best days, weeks and months in my business have come when out having fun.

You become your business. You can’t really sell it to anyone. The only value given to it is what you give to it. Live your life and throw your business around it. If you are open and alert, marketing opportunities will be available to you almost anywhere you go and with nearly anything you do. Should you choose to jump on Facebook to see what your friends are up to, if you are your business, people will start asking questions. Should you choose to go to the store, if you are your business, conversations will start and people will ask what you do.

With a pocket full of business cards and drop cards, an open mind and a smile, opportunities to grow your home business are abundant. But you have to be looking. Once and entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. In my opinion, if you are looking to get away from your business completely, the only option is to quit, sell it or get a job. The ones who are paid a wage can truly say, that when 6pm rolls around, they are OFF of work and don’t even have to think about it until the next morning the moment their alarm clock rings. With a business, it’s different. If it doesn’t consume you, within reason, you are probably getting mediocre results. The moment you allow yourself and your business mold together is the moment things start happening. That’s called passion.

So Happy Halloween everyone. As you are out tomorrow with your kids, look for opportunities. They will be everywhere!

Yes, if you are currently in a home based business, you are a business owner. You own and operate your own successful or unsuccessful business right out of your home office. For some, that home office can be where ever their feet take them, just as long as they have their phone. For others, it’s right at home in their office.

So what do business owners do? Well, they do business, and doing business means that they make money! Now, in a home business, it is just as easy to make money as it is to “not” make money. It takes the same amount of effort to succeed as it does to fail. The difference between success and failure is smaller than you think. Very small actions taken during the day, every single day, will move you closer to or farther from success.

Here are ten mistakes home business owners make that will obviously move them closer to failure:

1. They give themselves a back door, a quit date, an ultimatum or an excuse.
2. They treat it like a hobby instead of a business. When I think of a successful business owner, I think of someone who is his business. He is always thinking and looking for ways to increase his business. When I think of someone with a hobby, they tend to get to it when they have a little extra time. I can tell you this much, unless your home business is a priority, it will fail and produce “hobby” income.
3. They play small. They place a little tiny ad, they market a little bit, they call a few people, they don’t think big enough. Their decisions are most likely being driven by fear, instead of ambition.
4. Half invest themselves. In most network marketing opportunities, there are income levels. If you are not playing at the highest level you can, you are playing small. You can’t catch the BIG fish by fishing in the two foot wide aquarium.
5. Don’t use the products. This is huge! I know in my business, I suggest to everyone I choose to mentor, to purchase the products. Purchase whatever products you would like to be paid for. Know your product! A Nike shoe salesman better have owned and used a pair of the shoes he is selling. Otherwise, he is going to look a little foolish when someone asks about the product.
6. Inconsistency. It takes more than a few drops in a storm to soak a driveway. Instead of working their business, doing income producing activities every single day, they choose to skip it here or there. Skip your business, skip your goals!
7. Play the blame game. It’s their mentors fault, the companies fault, the compensation plans fault or their teams fault that they haven’t had the success they came here for. Personal responsibility is a myth.
8. Don’t follow the system. This is called “re-inventing the wheel.” In other words, thinking that their way is better. The system is in place because it works. Why re-invent something that isn’t broken.
9. They are dishonest. You have all heard of the term, “fake it til you make it.” In my eyes, that’s a lie. Standing in front of that Mercedes and that huge home, all of which belongs to someone else, is dishonest. If it’s not yours, don’t claim that it is.
10. Failure to mastermind. There is no other industry in the world that operates like Network Marketing. You don’t see McDonalds willing to share their marketing techniques with Burger King. Home business owners, yes that’s you, are willing to share with others the things they are doing to create success. Believe it or not, this part of the system.

Do you see? It takes just as much effort to not do things as it does to do things. Yes, you may miss a few of your favorite TV shows on your trip to success, but what would you rather have….an evening with House or an American Idol or a successful home business? One provides you with time freedom, financial freedom and a lifestyle of your design. The other is just a pastime.

Don’t fall short of the goal by making these simple, yet devastating mistakes. You are a business owner. Act like one!

If I told you that your life was to be without discouragement, I would be flat out lying to you. Discouragement is a simple part of life. It can creep in when you least expect it to and if allowed to take over, will destroy whatever it is you are trying to do.

Discouragement is an enemy to success

So what do we know about discouragement? Let’s break down the actual word: Dis-Courage-Ment. So we see the word “Courage” in the middle there. Is it safe to say that the meaning of the word is to be without courage? I read a quote the other day that said: “Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.” Meaning, it’s not that a discouraged person is unable to complete the task at hand, it’s just a brief moment of having the lack of courage to move forward. Now I used the word “Brief” for a reason. As I look back in my career as a Home Business Entrepreneur, even my most discouraging times were very short. Why? Because I quickly regain my whits, or courage, and move forward.

Ponder on this a bit. How close do you think discouragement and failure is to success? Obviously they are very different, but what is the connection there? Do they have anything to do with each other? The answer is YES! They do! Discouragement, if allowed to take control, can result in failure. But, both failure and discouragement are stepping stones on the path to success. Without expecting yourself to get discouraged or to fail, you must also realize that it’s all part of the process. Don’t ever think that you are the only one that has ever felt like things just weren’t going to happen for you. Everybody has had those feelings sometime or the other and it’s simply because they lost their courage for a brief moment. Once that courage is found, you feel even more powerful and more energized than before. I sometimes think that everyone should experience it, so that they know how powerful they really are.

Here’s a quote that fits perfectly:

“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” -Thomas Carlyle

Hint: The way to overcome discouragement, is by planning to, before it comes. In other words, development such a strong work habit, which will build an external toughness, that will get you through any temporary, internal discouragement. Set yourself up to win when the rough times come, but never expect them to. If you set yourself up to win, you will!

For those of you who have children, how many of their events at school have you missed out on this year due to your job or your timely business? Now it doesn’t matter how big or how small these school events are. So whether you go just to see them sing a few songs, eat a popsicle or walk across the stage for a graduation, all are equally important to your child. If your child brings home a paper with something happening at school, most likely, parents are invited and you should go!

What I have noticed, if my daughter tells me about something coming up at her school, or asks me to go, she really wants me to go. She not just inviting me or telling me because her teacher told her to. If I can’t go, they feel left out when the actual event happens. Even if just one other parent shows up with their child and nobody else does, your child will still feel left out wondering why her Mom and Dad couldn’t be there. It means a lot to them, and it means a ton to me as a parent as well. I know it does to you also!

Tell me, is an hour of pay worth more to you than an hour with your child at school?

Today my daughter is having her end of school field day. I will be there. Earlier this week my daughter had a presentation at school. I was there. They sang four songs and then we ate cookies and punch with them for the rest of the time. It was something so simple, yet, I could see her beaming the entire time we were there. I loved every bit of it. Every event she has had at school this year, I was there.

If your job or your business is keeping you from “being there” for your kids, it isn’t worth your time! Let me say that again, if your job or business is taking precedence over your children, drop it like a rock. It isn’t worth your time.

Now, I realize that you must have an income to feed and clothe your children. There are better ways to create an income than what most people are doing right now. You can work from your own home in a home based business and have the time freedom to always “Be there!” You just have to do it. It is a choice!

And regardless of whether this offends you or not, by having a job that requires you to miss your kids events, you have directly chosen to miss those events. You can’t blame it on your job, your business or whatever. You have directly chosen not to “Be there!” You always have a choice and I want you all to realize that. Don’t spend the rest of your childrens childhood absent. Be present. Don’t ever miss out on your kids.

A man was walking down a street. It was a very nice street with all kinds of shops, restaurants and people. It was the most prosperous street in town and this certain man was having a fantastic time. He was headed to a restaurant he had heard about and lunch time was approaching. Well, before eating the best meal he would ever have, he looked at a wall down an alley, and read something someone wrote. It said, “This is the worst street in the world. Don’t eat the food, it’s the worst food you will ever have and it costs way too much!” Well, naturally, the guy decided not to eat at the restaurant, which is also the choice that most people would make. Only very few actually go into the restaurant after reading the writing on the wall. These very few are the people that enjoy the best food and will continue to return to the restaurant regardless of what someone else says, because they know first hand and create their own opinions. It turns out, the guy who wrote that comment on the wall, which is graffiti, lives just below it in a cardboard box.

The Graffiti Restaurant

The internet is a wall full of graffiti from people who have been offended, found fault, found what they thought were greener pastures or just plainly quit. That’s why it is there. They can’t blame themselves for their own failure. That would be crazy right?! So they make their blame public by using the internet.

I mean, someone could walk into paradise and still find something wrong with it if they were looking for it. Right!? Thus is life. As an example, I live near Phoenix Arizona. I’m not saying that Phoenix is paradise okay, but when it rains, it cools off the entire town, and for a brief moment, can be paradisical. It only rains a few times a year there and people were actually complaining about the rain, wishing it would stop. This is proof that people will complain about anything, regardless of what a blessing it is.

Ten times out of ten, the guy to listen to is definitely not the guy who moves from one opportunity to the next, hoping that it will be better than the last. And ten times out of ten, the ones to listen to are not the bums writing graffiti in forums. The ones to listen to are the people who have created success. It just makes sense! You just have to ask yourself the questions, “Who do want to become like?” If you want to be a graffiti bum, take advice from the graffiti bum. If you want to be outrageously successful, take advice from the outrageously successful. Simple!

I eagerly await the day when the majority of the people take the advice of someone successful over the opinion of 30 people who are not. Following the majority has never been the way to create success in life. Otherwise, everyone would be outrageously successful. If you are following the majority, chances are, your results are just like the majority, average! Ask Albert Einstein if he followed the majority, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan. There a leaders and there are followers. A follower, is not a leader.

It turns out, the restaurant owner in the story decides to leave the statement on the wall that deters so many people and is glad it is there. Why? It’s because he now gets the perfect customer. The customer who is loyal and returns often and tells all his other loyal friends about this great restaurant. The statement on the wall keeps out the ones who would have found fault, even in paradise! It keeps the ones out that are “wishy-washy” in their decisions and jump from one thing to the next. It keeps out the ones who are terrified to experience change. It keeps out the followers of the majority. The graffiti bum has actually done the restaurant owner a huge favor!

You, the one reading this, might be the one who bases decisions on what the graffiti says. If it is you, I hope you are enjoying “average!”

Choose to be the one out of 30 who can see past the graffiti and the bum living below it, who was the author of it.