The Key-Word in “Work At Home”: WORK

For the past about three and a half years I have been involved with a few work at home opportunities. None of them worked out for me. I was so mad at wasting my time (and in some instances my money) that, soon after each one “failed” I was calling them scams. I am not the only one who sees/saw things that way. Work at home forums are full of folks who bad mouth the WAH community (the one that deals with business opportunities). There’s even entire web sites dedicated to speaking against such opportunities (some of them only to offer their own opportunity - but this is a different beast I’ll talk about some other time). There’s AdWords ads which try to get your attention by warning you about scams.

While it’s the sad truth that the online work at home community is full of scams, there’s many other reasons why many of us fail with business opportunities. I mentioned one in my “How High Should I Set My Goals?” post (which actually can affect any entrepreneur - even a mom’n'pops shop) and now I’ll talk about another one: not understanding that working from home involves actual work.

When I first gained interest in this area I was picturing myself doing nothing all day long and yet, have money coming in, or - in my worst case scenarios - just doing a couple of hours’ work a day (typing a few things in my computer).

I was completely leaving out the work factor. The key ingredient to any kind of business. Why? Because I’m a lazy guy. Honestly now! I am! And since, hating to go to work was the first thing that drove me to look for an alternative, unconsciously I was actually looking for a quick way to get rich so I wouldn’t have to work my entire life.

Needless to say I found plenty of catchy headlines to feed my unrealistic dream. You know, the “Just a couple of hours a day will get you on your path to financial freedom” type of things. Some of them belonging to, I would say, honest business opportunities which I still keep an eye on and they’re still working out pretty good for those members who understood that working from home does involve work.

I’m so mad at myself when I look back at how much time (and even money) I wasted on trying different programs only to give up on them in a couple of weeks when I saw no results. And when I say I wasted time, I’m talking about three and a half years during which I jumped from one program to another without getting any results from any of them or completely giving up on my attempts of having a home business.

Many of us have heard of Amway. Many love it, even more hate it. I’ve personally been to a few of their meetings (long time ago). I even have a friend who found some success with it. From observing her I realized one thing: leaving out the fact that Amway requires you to be a good sales-person, there were 2 things that brought her the success she has: perseverance and work. She kept on going (although everyone made fun of her and tried to make her quit) and she did what the training material told her she needed to do).

I’ve learned my lesson. I’ve learned that nothing happens over night, that I need to sit down and work if I want to get something done. And the best proof (for myself, if you can believe I’m putting it that way) is this blog which I’ve managed to maintain active for two months now.

I admit this post might be a little confusing (it’s 1 A.M. and I’m tired). What I’m trying to say is that (unless you already are a succesful marketer, with a successful web site/blog which has tons of traffic, on which is enough to put a link to a new business you become part of and see results quite soon) you can join the best business opportunity there is and you will fail if you don’t do your share of work.

I wish you good luck, if you promise to wish me good luck.

Posted in Learn from Others, Motivational, Piece of Advice, Work at Home |