Demotivation: Facing the Temptation to Quit. Finding Inspirational Direction

There are tons of good advice one could give but the practice of self motivation is one of the hardest things a person can achieve. If  someone were to ask me what one vital factor it takes to succeed in business and entrepreneurship, I would say self motivation. But self motivation isn’t enough. You need something to keep driving on during the times you feel like giving up.

I like helping others stay inspired and motivated. This post is for the entrepreneurs who are always working on projects hoping to make the ‘next eBay’. This is for the people who feel their family and friends never understand what they do. And last but not least, those who feel their efforts will never pay off. There are two parts to this post: success stories and living advice.

Success Stories

Consider the following internet success stories. These stories started out from simple ideas; with project coordinators uncertain of their achievements. People just like you and me who started with an idea, ran with it and discovered a niche market only they strived to fulfill. These people have went through self doubt, misunderstanding and the common struggles you and I face everyday.

MySpace

March 10th, Alexa published an article to announce that MySpace is now in the top global 10 on Alexa.

“If you go to MySpace, you will probably walk away with the impression that it is a joke… some kind of junkyard of personal pictures, blogs and random stuff clumsily plopped onto the Web. And, unless you are a studious observer of the Alexa Traffic Rankings, you would almost certainly walk away with the impression that it is no big shakes. But you would be dead-wrong.”

http://awis.blogspot.com/2006/03/myspace-taking-over-world.html

Bob Parsons

Bob started Parsons Technology in his basement. He programmed and sold accounting software to businesses for over 2 years. He invested a lot of money into his venture. However, his products couldn’t make a return.

“I was so desperate that I offered a friend half the company for only $5,000…..Just a few months after Dave declined to purchase half of Parsons Technology, I got the call from Computer Bargain line with the opportunity to purchase a full page magazine advertisement at fire sale prices. I took the chance and purchased the ad (on trade credit). The ad worked and Parsons Technology not only took off, but became viable. Parsons Technology was eventually sold to Intuit for $64 million dollars. “

In 1997, he started another company and called it “Jomax Technologies.”

“That was back in early 1999 and the noise from the dot com boom was loud. Business in the tech arena was nuts. Every pinheaded idea in the world was getting lots of money, was getting lots of advertising, and everybody was giving everything away to get customers. It was just crazy.

When we started to sell Website Complete we realized that the “Jomax Technologies’ name just wasn’t going to get it for us. We needed something easier to remember and more fun. We worked on coming up with a new name for a week or more. It seemed that every turn was a dead end, names were either taken or not what we wanted.

Then one day, someone joking around said, “How about Big Daddy?” and then “bang” the name “Go Daddy” fell out of the sky. The name has no meaning other than we thought it was kind of cool, and it was available. So we renamed the company Go Daddy.”

Frank Schilling

Frank built his empire just five years ago from scratch by doing old fashioned hard work. His family didn’t have much in Canada and neither did he in his adult years. However, through his hard work and determination, Frank is now one of the biggest individual domain holders in the domain industry.

“What impressed me most about Frank was his unwavering thirst for knowledge on acquiring domain names. He was nothing less than a man possessed. He quietly contacted the guys who were getting all the domains on the drops and carefully pried bits of information from each of us until he had completed the first page of his road map to success in the domain biz.”

Sahar Sarid

If anyone knows hardship, it’s Sahar Sarid. DNJournal’s intro about Sahar decribes it best:

“Eight years ago Sahar Sarid was working on an ice cream truck and sharing a mobile home with his sister in Houston, Texas. He had moved from Israel  to the U.S. four years earlier  in search of a better life in America. He needed every dime he could get, but during those days as an ice cream vendor Sahar frequently handed out free treats to the kids who were too poor to pay. He knew exactly what that was like after watching constant arguments over financial woes cause his parent’s marriage to collapse when he was nine years old. Something like that leaves an impression you don’t forget. ”

These four examples are about normal, everyday people who took the time to look outside the box. They didn’t accept the circumstances of what I like to call “mental roadblocks” and they worked at it until they got where they wanted to go.

Living Advice

I call this living advice because it’s challenges I faced through up until this point. Feel free to add your own living advice in the comments section.

Ignore what other people think you like and listen to your heart, its your passions in life no one can rightfully criticize.

Your friends, family, sister, teacher, uncles cannot determine your life for you. People may never understand what you are trying to accomplish. However, the day you drive up in your brand new car that you paid for in cash by yourself will change their mind one day. Ignore people when they try to shoot down your dream.

My family has been supportive these past 8 years but they never quite understood what I did for a living. To them, I was on the computer a lot. I’ve heard just about every remark and negative comment you could think of from friends and family but I just nodded my head and kept pressing on.

Continue Your Education

Learn as much as you can. Subscribe to all the industry related magazines you can afford. Bookmark related blogs, forums, news, etc. Visit tons of online communities and help people brainstorm and answer questions. Use the library if you have to.

Let Others Guide You

Accept constructive criticism with a grain of salt, however consider others views before you brush it off your shoulder. They may notice something you don’t. In the end, follow your heart.

Inspire Yourself

Surround yourself with inspiration. Print pictures of things you want (such as a car, house, etc) and put them by your computer. I used to have pictures of luxury houses and cars on my desktop and surrounding my monitor. Make a song list of inspiring songs. Mine is labeled “Self Doubt”. It’s for when I struggle with believing in my efforts or when a friend/family member taunts or doubts me in some way.

Private or public: a diary also helps. It’s good to get things out.

Read, Read, Read

I start off every morning reading blogs, forums and tech news. Recently, I started getting up an hour and a half earlier to brush up on web development skills. Nowadays, there is almost no excuse to read something new about your industry everyday.

If It Doesn’t Work, Keep Trying….or Try Something Else

Your goals are not set in stone. They should be reevaluated every so often to keep you on track and working towards your ultimate goals.

Stay focused, keep motivated and don’t stop learning!

~ Tia Wood

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“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted” –  David Bly

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” –Mario Andretti

“Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.” –H. Ross Perot

“The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.” –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.”

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” –Hal Borland

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” –Napoleon Hill

“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” –Dennis Waitley

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.” –  Tom Krause

“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” –  Malcolm S. Forbes

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” –   Herman Cain

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”  — Mark Twain