(This chapter is extracted from my book, the International Player, https://theinternationalplayer.com/, thus it’s a longer read than my usual post. I hope it’ll inspire you to international success in 2021.)
…………………….
I can still remember when I just got started, my Dad saying…
“??? ???’? ?? ???? ? ???? ????”
He was referring to me. It was 2003 and I was “self-employed” – doing my own stuff which my dad doesn’t have a clue about.
“Do you know what he’s doing?” Asked my dad to my mum. Mum doesn’t have a clue either, but she believed in me.
You see, I can’t blame Dad for thinking like that at all. Dad’s been driving taxi for over 10 years now. He’s a hard-working blue-collar worker – Wakes up in the morning, has a good breakfast (literally butter and bread) at home and off he goes driving to bring back the money for the family.
Every single day he works… 7 days a week.
There’s no such thing as a day off unless the family is having some sort of outing or, if he’s sick.
Driving taxi may look easy to most people.
I mean, how tough could it be to focus on the road with all of the God’s given senses?
But try driving for 8 hours a day… 365 days — and multiply that by 10 years? And you don’t get to meet nice passengers every day, my friend.
I respect my Dad. I just don’t know how to tell him that I love him.
Guess you can tell… Dad’s income is hard-earned money. For the sacrifices he has made for the family, I don’t think words alone can describe.
Each trip, he earns a few bucks. He’ll have to collect dozens of those each week to reach a few thousand a month so that he can provide a better life for his family. As they say, a shelter over our head, food on the table and clothings to keep us warm.
And Dad’s a frugal person too. Not because he is a cheapskate, but because money is hard to come by. I mean, if you earn a few dollars each time you complete a task, I’ll bet that you’ll see money differently. ? ???? ? ?????.
Like any parent, I think Dad’s ideal hope is that his children will get a good education and end up with a good job. I mean, career.
I got a good education at school, no doubt about that. But unfortunately, I wasn’t cut to be one of those smart kids.
Smart kids in school give a certain kind of look. You know, the look that says, “Look at that bummer. Wonder what he’s gonna end up doing after school.”
Yes, they predicted well – I flunked.
I was not accepted to any public University to further my education because of my low grades. Dreams shattered into pieces.
The next choice was private college. But if you were me… would you take your Dad’s hard-earned money gained from driving in the hot sun to pay for the darn college fee?
That’s tough. Mum wanted to give me her life savings if I need money to go for college. She’s a housewife and doesn’t have an income. Forget it. That’s even worse.
So I have to work – But the problem is, I can’t get a good job because I’m not qualified academically.
You see, in order for me to be qualified for most of the jobs that I want, I wasn’t even able to pass the first stage because most companies will look at the damn academic paper to evaluate and judge me. No diploma or degree. Not even a certificate. So, better luck next time, bucko.
Getting a job wasn’t easy.
Thus, I ended up as a salesperson. I get paid when I sell. That’s it. The harder I sell, the more money I’ll make. I ended up becoming a very HARDWORKING salesperson for money.
Well, that’s good and bad, depending on which angle you’re looking at. That was my JOB.
To cut the story short, I was in the sales line for almost two years before I stepped out to do my own things. The products I’ve sold ranged from door-to-door greeting cards to electronic components for corporate clients.
…
Then one fine day, I felt like quitting my job. I’d had it.
In a nutshell, I started out on my own entrepreneurial path, alone. The only thing backing me up that time was… me.
Don’t laugh when I say this — I had this strong desire to achieve more in life.
Imagine, being alone and running around like a madman to make money at that time. You know, when you’re over optimistic, it just ain’t ‘healthy’.
Don’t you feel that the environment and community ‘help’ you become normal like everybody else, instead of being the success you were destined to be?
I know it’s strange but try telling your friends that you want to make money from the Internet in 2003. Mum and Dad weren’t at all excited. I mean, how could they be?
My relationship with Dad was strained since the day I quitted my “good” job.
I think, he was disappointed and confused about how stupid I was.
And I can see his point of view NOW, but not at that time. Truth is, I was slightly disappointed with him for not standing on my side.
Most of my friends (except for the super close ones) started to avoid me because they didn’t see any benefit mixing with a ‘loser’. I didn’t have much support after that.
And they were RIGHT. I messed up.
Should have stuck with a good job.
And I hadn’t discovered the Internet businesses yet. I tried multi- level marketing, a printing business, marketing seminars, etc. Things were good in the beginning and then they started to fall apart without proper planning.
That is when I turned to the internet to sort out my financial disaster. Kiss goodbye to weekends. My new best pal for the weekends was none other than the computer. I’d even sneak to do my internet stuff when working in the daytime.
…
And do you think I made money after all of these sacrifices?
Nope. I didn’t. All of the courses that I was reading at that time told me that it was easy.
These marketers had probably never made a single red cent online before, other than selling courses to innocent people like me.
I can still remember buying a “Blaster”. The membership claimed that I’d be able to send my advertising message to 100,000 subscribers with a click of a button.
When I went to sleep that night after hitting the “Send” button, I closed my eyes with a pleasant smile on my face… expecting to make money by tomorrow morning. That was a nice feeling. The hope. Wow. Ha!
You know what happened, don’t you? NOT EVEN ONE VISITOR from that promotion. Dammit.
Why did they lie to me?????
I’d paid my $29.95 and the webpage said my promotion would be sent out to 100,000 people.
I then realized that I was not alone.
Thousands of people paid for a ‘hope’ that could never be achieved.
Until today, I still don’t get it why people still sell this kind of ’software’ when they know it’s not working?
Yes, they are still around, they have just been relabeled differently to adapt to today’s stuff. Today, the same blaster may be some tools to auto-post comments in social media and promise you “automated free traffic”.
I guess money is a good reason to do almost anything online for some marketers … but for everyone’s sake, sell something that works!
Failure after failure, but I would not give up.
I was so close that I could ‘taste’ it, but only in my dreams.
It took me at least 6 months to get my first sale. It was tiring but I just kept on striving.
Call it whatever you want — an ambition, a goal, etc.
During that time, no one knew the deep s#@t I was in except for my mum.
She was always there for me, morally or financially. Sometimes, she was worried about me because she was afraid that I didn’t know what to do with my life. I tried to explain to her but how in the world could I expect her to know what internet marketing is.
Until today, Dad still doesn’t know what I do but he’s cool* now because I’ve brought in results that he can see. House. Car. Watch. Holidays. You know. The struggle I’ve been through was not easy, but I can tell you this — it’s ????? ??.
* ?? ??? ℎ?? ?????? ???? ?ℎ?? ?ℎ? 2?? ??????? ?? ?ℎ?? ???? ℎ?? ???? ????????. ??? ?????? ℎ? ?????? ????, ?’? ???? ?? ?????? ?ℎ?? ℎ? ??? ???? ????? ???ℎ ℎ?? ???.
…
Am I successful?
Compared to more than 15 years ago when I first started, yeah.
Every day, I can go to sleep with my eyes close with a smile on my face for a better tomorrow. But other than that, I think I’m just scratching the surface.
There are many messages I want to pass to you in this chapter but one thing for sure is this – it’s going to require you to SACRIFICE to achieve your goal. What are the sacrifices?
I don’t know! It could be turning off your TV or playing less with your kids.
I hate it when I throw cold water on you like this.
It doesn’t make you to like me. But if I want to help you, I have no choice but to tell you the truth. I’m sorry, I don’t want to sell you a hope that cannot be achieved but a hope that can come true.
If a marketer tells you to buy his course and without doing anything, you’ll make money online, I think he’s likely a liar.
Lucky for him, he’ll probably get away with it because that’s what all people want to hear. Just like the “Blaster” I bought. So this leads me to the million-dollar question…
“?ℎ?? ???? ????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ?????????”
A purpose.
I’ve taught thousands of students to make money online and build online businesses.
A student attended my internet marketing workshop with a passion, his name is Soo Cheng Guan*.
So I asked him, “What’s your purpose in learning how to make money online?”
He told me that… His mum is getting older every day. He loves her a lot.
I could see this in his eyes when he was sharing it with me. But with his current job, there was no way he could be at home with her.
He wanted to build an internet business because of a very powerful purpose – To stay at home with his mum and have the ability to decide his own hours. With that drive, he has built his information product business and make money online full-time and he quitted his job. Is that strong enough? It’s MOVING.
* ??? ℎ?? ?????? ???? ?????????? ?? 2016 ??? ?? ?? ????????. ??????????? ??? ?? ℎ????://???.????????.???/?????. ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ?? ℎ???? ??????? ℎ? ??? ??? ?? ?? ????? ???????? ?’?? ???????. ?? ????????? ?? ?? ???????? ?ℎ?? ? ??? ℎ??? ??ℎ??? ???ℎ ?? ????????? ??? ℎ? ???????ℎ?? ?? ??????? ?ℎ?? ?’? ????? ?ℎ? ???ℎ? ?ℎ??? ?? ????ℎ???, ??????? ??? ?? ?ℎ? ???????? ?????? ??? ?ℎ???.
For me, I have a purpose too. A desire to go all out and create my own wealth.
I want to be rich, yada, yada, yada.
You know, the normal reasons why everyone in the world strives to achieve what they want. But I think, what really DROVE me was “revenge”.
Ok, perhaps revenge is too harsh a word.
It was a desire to prove to those who looked down on me and assumed that I wasn’t capable of becoming successfully. I know, it sounds ‘evil’. But I don’t think it was that, if you’re seeing it from my point of view.
You see, even during my schooling days, I just hated the feeling I can feel from the teachers and the other students that I’d be a loser when I grow up. It’s hurtful.
Heck, I can still remember one of the schoolteachers who didn’t want to answer my question. She thought it was useless, wasting her breath to answer me because I would never catch it anyway.
And all I wanted was to catch up with the smarter kids. Hey, I wanted to be smart too.
Then, I wanted to show my other friends who had rich parents that I could be as good as they were. Or should I say, that I would enjoy the same good life that they were experiencing. ?? ? ???’? ???? ???? ???????, ?’? ???? ?????? ?? ??? ??????. I’d go on vacation at places they went, with my own money.
How about Dad?
I want to prove to my Dad that I was doing the right thing all the while. There were so many other people that I want to prove…
But I think, the most important person that I want to prove to was… ME.
I want to prove to myself that despite my background, I CAN still do it. I think that purpose was strong enough to move me to quit my job and go for it.
“So, what’s your purpose?”
Ask yourself why you’re doing this – trying to start and build a highly profitable online business.
Trust me, without a good motivator like a purpose, you can’t go far. Each time you get dirt kicked in your face, just remember your purpose. Then, you’ll ‘fight’ back to overcome whatever obstacles come your way.
I think a stronger message I want to pass to you is this:
“YOU NEED TO HAVE A COMPELLING REASON TO BE SUCCESSFUL ONLINE.”
…
There. You have it.
Also, remember that the internet is not biased.
It doesn’t care how old you are, where you from, what’s your academic education level, who you mix with, what’s your race, etc. Anyone can make money online when they build their business well. ANYONE, which includes you.
Share with your friends who you think this will inspire them for 2021.
(Extracted from the International Player, https://theinternationalplayer.com/)
