One of the few positive things about having a brick-and-mortar 9-to-5 job is that, for the most part, your weekends are reserved for your family. Unless you are a high-flying senior executive who has to work around the clock to secure that business deal or go on a business trip to meet your counterpart, weekends are your opportunity to relax, enjoy life and spend some of that money 9-5 money on something other than transportation to your office.
For Internet Marketers, however, the reality is also difference. Our office is what we got to sleep in and wake up to every day. Our desk is the same desk at which we write love letters and have breakfast. Our company computer is the same computer that we use for gaming, watching YouTube and checking e-mail.
In short, as an Internet Marketer, the distinction between your personal and private life is blurred at best. As a result, we often end up pulling in more hours than 9-5 people - weekends included.
Personally, I have no objections to working during weekends. In fact, ever since I got involved in site flipping, I always treated them as an opportunity to get more work done. As they said in Wall Street, money never sleeps - regardless what time of the week it is.
What about you? Do you work on weekends? If so, do you generally do more or less IM-related work? Share your thoughts and let us know!
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This post is dedicated, first and foremost, to my World of Warcraft guild on the Bloodhoof server. While, for the most part, they are a great bunch of people whom I thoroughly enjoy killing pixels and polygons with, there are some unfortunate exceptions who, I regret to say, have been less than enthusiastic about my online success. Certainly, my jovial announcements in guild chat on how I successfully sold a site for $597 have been greeted with rather mixed response, ranging from dissatisfaction on even mentioning the subject to accusations of spending way too much time talking about myself.
Since I actively link to this blog on my guild’s forums, I thought I should take this as an opportunity to present my side of the story. I have been accused of being an elitist, arrogant, condescending show-off who can only ever think and talk about himself and the money he makes.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is my official explanation - yes, I am an elitist, arrogant, condescending bastard who lives and dies by the mantra that greed is good and who measures his success and that of others solely by earning power. I don’t care what kind of person you are, whether you help orphaned children or live your life in the likelihood of Mother Theresa. All that matters to me is your ability to make money - regardless of how you do it.
I don’t care if you are a drug dealer or an arms smuggler, if you spend your weekends at the office working towards the next promotion or run your own business from the basement of your mother’s house. If you are making any amount of money, you are successful - and the more money you make, the more successful you are.
Now, I know what you’re thinking right now - that this is an extremely shallow and materialistic outlook on life. But you know what? There’s nothing wrong with being shallow and materialistic, so long as you are able to afford both of these qualities not by the virtue of inheriting money from your rich parents, but by working day and night around the clock to be successful.
Bottom line is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with showing off your success and rubbing it into the faces of others, so long as you - and you alone - are responsible for it. If you were born into an affluent family and are now prancing around blinging your way to popularity, then you are rubbish, pure and simple. You deserve neither the money nor the bling - your parents earned it, not you. In terms of personal success, you are nothing.
Conversely, if you earned each and every penny of your fortune yourself, then, in doing so, you have earned the right to show off and otherwise flaunt your success! Believe me, there is nothing more satisfying than standing up in front of all those have-nots and saying “Yes, I am successful. Yes, where you spent your time whining and complaining about the unfairnesss of life, I pulled myself together and forced my way to success, no matter the personal cost. Yes, I have the guts and the courage to get out there and stake my claim in this world. And, because of this, yes, I am better than you.”
What do you think? It goes without saying that this is a very cruel, harsh and materialist philosophy - but, to me, it reflects the truth of life and focuses one on professional success by doing away with superfluous values such as social justice, equality and charity. All that matters is the unending, unrelenting pursuit of cash - because, ever since the beginning of time, cash has been - and remains - king.
]]>Is this design permanent? Not likely – as my income improves, so will the design of the blog. My next step is to order custom blog design for this – but that’ll have to wait for a bit.
In the meantime, enjoy the new look of “George Blogs” – you will notice that it is much more readable than the previous iteration and is generally much cleaner as well. There will be ads coming up shortly (as soon as I’ve found the right 125×125 widget), but, other than that, the current look is here to stay, at least for a while.
]]>Unfortunately, it’s not working entirely as intended for the time being (as you can see, the graphics of the “About Me” section of the sidebar are completely off, and there are some compatibility issues with IE 7 to boot), so I will be tweaking it over the next few days.
In short, if you are a first-time visitor to my blog, don’t hit that big red X button just yet – the design is still a work in progress.
]]>Allow me to begin this post by quoting my favorite movie character of all time - Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. Michael Douglas got an Oscar for his portrayal of the brilliant corporate raider, and with a good reason.
Put simply, Gordon Gekko is the man we can all aspire to be. Supreme intelligence, perfectly ruthless and utterly unscrupulous, Gordon’s monologue is an example to us all:
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
But that was almost 30 years ago - are the eloquence and brilliance of this speech still relevant to the 21st century, with collapsing financial institutions, white collar crimes and and a world economy that’s heading right to Hell in a hand-basket?
Let’s explore that, shall we?
First of all, let us consider the power of individual greed. To me, there are only two powerful, reliable motivators of personal success - greed is hatred. Some would try to allocate love to the same category, but let’s be realistic: love is a passing feeling, a fleeting moment of emotional ecstasy that all too soon gives way to grim reality. In contrast, hatred and greed are eternal.
How, then, does greed motivate us? Put simply - it drives us to succeed. It makes us take phone calls at 10PM and send e-mails at 2AM. It forces us overcome all obstacles - whether physical or emotional - and push through, no matter what. It compels to achieve success no matter the cost - and no matter who or what stands in the way.
Greed is the ultimate motivator. There is nothing more intoxicating that the smell of crispy dollars fresh off the printing press. And there is nothing more rewarding that standing up in front of a crowd of people, dressed in expensive clothing and surrounded by trophy blondes and, quite frankly, saying “I’m rich and I earned it - so fuck you.”
Henry Kissinger one said that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Although he was a brilliant politician and, like me, a believer in realist geopolitics, I would still like to take the unthinkable liberty of disagreeing with Mr. Kissinger. Power is not the ultimate aphrodisiac - personal success is.
And, how, then do we measure individual success, if not through one’s accumulation of wealth, if not through one’s persistence and resilience, if not through one’s ability to pull through and force their way to wealth no matter the cost or obstacles? And, for such, people, what motivator drove them?
Greed. Greed can come in a variety of forms - greed for love, money, power, knowledge - but, in all cases, it is that overwhelming, unquenchable lust of acquisition, dominance and control that drives successful people. There is no point in striving to be successful for others, only for yourself.
Greed, then, is not just good. Greed is great. Greed is the way to success.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
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It was only a few months ago that I was an unproductive, emotionally-unstable (well, ok, that part hasn’t changed one bit), depressed waste of biomass that thought there’s no better way to spend a day than to wake up every morning, log in to World of Warcraft and log off 14 hours later, drained, exhausted, weary and dizzy.
Long story short, I was a mess in every sense of the word. I had gym membership that was costing me $165/month and that I didn’t use once since August, a computer that I wouldn’t use for anything other than gaming and e-mailing, and a part-time job that I didn’t care about one bit.
Fast forward a few months later, and I am a completely different person. I barely log into WoW anymore, except when there are raids that I just have to attend. I spent my entire day at the computer – but working on websites or e-books instead of wasting hours on YouTube and The Daily Show. I exercise at least 3 times a week, and, in general, feel better than I ever have before (although those haunting thoughts about my ex still visit me occasionally).
What changed? Simple – I finally got serious about making money online (again).
I’m no success story by any stretch of imagination. I am not rolling in cash, driving expensive cars or dating supermodels. And yet every day I wake up with the feeling that what I do in the next 24 hours will take me one step further towards my goal of financial independence.
Every day I wake up, I know I am going to spend it productively – whether by finishing my latest site or e-book, updating this blog or building my image on Tweeter.
Internet Marketing has, without doubt, changed my life. It gave me purpose where I had none – and the means to pursue my dreams.
And that, my friends, is the biggest motivator of them all.
]]>Now, I’ve never worked with the guy before, so his samples will turn out to be either a miracle of art and creativity or the worst thing since Salvador Dali said “Hey, I wonder what people would look like if you drew holes in them?”
His samples are pretty solid, though, so if he can get it right the first time, I could have the layout finished by Friday evening (although I’m not sure if posting an auction on SitePoint on a weekend is such a bright idea).
Be that as it may, tonight we’ll find out if spending that $97 was a good idea or not.
]]>My graphics designer still hasn’t gotten back to me with the draft, so I’m expecting to hear from him any day now. I’m really looking forward to what he can come up with – in this market, looks are just as important as the substance, and I want to make sure that my site is good-looking enough to attract some serious bidders.
In other news, I am having a blast sending Facebook messages to people even though I know they haven’t got the slightest intention of replying. I suppose that makes me slightly retarded.
Oh, and to top it all off, I just got cigarette smoke in my right eye… Ouch!
Honestly, it’s days like these that make me wish I had enough cash to spend my way out of depression – a sort of personal stimulus package, if you will, complete with expensive clothing, wine and women.
Oh well, that day will come as well – and then… Well, then we’ll have some fun.
]]>Stay tuned!
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