February has been a life changing month for me. So many thing have happened that I had to step back and think about what to do next.
In particular, I started my waking up at 5 am experiment and at the same time I started to work from home full time.
This resulted in a lot more free time, while still maintaining my day job. Suffice to say I now have 3 full hours every day to work on what I want. I’ll talk more about this in a future post, but for now let’s just say that when you have all that free time available, you start to think about what you can do with it.
Not that I didn’t know what to do. Indeed 1 week ago I posted a tweet where I announced that I was working on a big affiliate website. Hard work but big potential. Except one small detail.. I didn’t care!
You know, I could spend 1 hour every day working on that, and maybe make some big money in just 2-3 months, but what’s the point?
Lesson learned: don’t work on something you don’t really love.
I learned this the hard way but now it’s time to look ahead. What’s ahead? The stuff I love to do of course, which happens to be creating stuff that people care. For example this blog is something I really love. Other things I really love is creating software and web applications.
And you know what? When I work on something I love, it works. So from now on my focus will be exclusively on creating stuff for people, and this update will become a place to share what I’ve done in that sense. The good news is that this means these updates will be all about you, not about me (you’ll see how soon).
I will still share my numbers here, but my primary goal is no longer making a specific amount of money, but instead to create value doing what I love. Money will follow.
A present for you
Update: All two spots are now gone. If you are still interested in this, stay tuned because I will open another two spots soon. I will also share everything here.
Update 2: In reality I will have 3 or 4 people following this program right now. You guys rock!
If you want to start building something online, here’s a good news for you. I’m going to offer to two of you a free 1-2 hours per month consultation.
I will give you step by step instructions to create something that will make you kick ass, based on what you love (I’ll help you to figure it out). Of course if what you want is to make money, that’s perfectly fine, indeed most of the times is what you’ll end up with anyway.
The only thing you need is 1 free hour per day to work on this, for at least 3 months. Oh, and you also have to do what I tell you to do.
Please note that this will be completely free. The only cost will be $9 to buy a domain name if necessary, but except for that I’m not going to sell you anything.
The only thing I ask in return is the permission to share the process here. You’ll always remain anonymous of course, but I do want to share the experience with others, so that I can help as many people as possible.
To apply, simply send me an email to oscar [at] thisdomain [dot] com with subject “I rock!”.
If you want to be part of this, send me an email now. We’ll figure out together what you can do, so don’t worry if you don’t know that already.
Conclusion
In the last six months I made nearly $400 by working less than 4 hours. I know it’s nothing, but I wanted to concentrate on the blog and a few other projects instead.
Now that I finally have the time, I could easily make a high monthly figure if I wanted to, but instead I want to focus on building stuff. I still want to make those money, the difference is that I am abandoning the easy and secure way to make money through article marketing in order to try something new.
What do you think? If you had three free hours per day to work on anything you want, would you use that time to work on a secure way to make money, or would you rather take the chance to explore a new path by doing what you really love? I’d love to hear your opinion.
Posted on March 03 2010
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Ok, I am new here, so excuse me for asking silly questions. So, if I got it right you have had a goal of earning 10,000 EUR a month, and now you are dropping this fixed monetary target?
Secure way of making money or explore new and more interesting and risker way? Well, that depends on your current situation, if you are earning 500 EUR a month the secure way of making money sounds pretty darn good. If you are earning 7,000 EUR a month, doing what you love would be quite appealing.
Basically, not caring about money is a luxury for the rich. So, congrats for reaching a stage where you can care a bit less about money! I’ll get there too I hope! I have set up the more modest goal of reaching 1,000 EUR passive income per month beside my day job before the end of the year – I’ll see how it goes.
First time by the way I see an Italian lifestyle blogger – so that’s cool because sono un po’ italiano anch’io. Are there any more out there I have missed?
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Hey Martin, sorry for the conclusion. I’m not quitting what I’m doing in my day job, I just want build some other things in my free time. I’m definitely not rich and it’s hard for me to pay all bills, but I don’t care about that.
My goal is and will always be to do something I love. What I was doing with internet marketing was not something I loved, so even tough I had figured out how to make it work, I decided to stop doing it and move to something I love.
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Oscar,
Glad to hear it’s going well. I think you’re moving in a similar direction to me. I’m looking for passive income streams for skool of life at this point, but I’m making money off a few active income streams as well.
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Hey Srinivas, right now what I’m looking at is doing things I love. I’ve never thought of this blog at a source of income tough.
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I have a personal goal of hitting $4.8k p/mth—-only publicly revealed to a small group of friends (here’s like the first time revealing online).
There was once (last year) where I tried desperately hard to make money online, till the point where I added a pitch to a very popular blogger at the last page of a work done, asking (till the point of blatant begging) for some “donations”. Kinda disgusted when looking back on it. :(
One mantra that I had (it was an “ah-ha!” of a moment) and starting 2010 with was to: “Build good stuff. Grow.”
Worked pretty well ever since this mindset shift. ;)
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Hey Daniel, cool that you are revealing your goal here :D I too believe that is by building stuff we care that we get results, that’s why I’m making this shift.
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Oscar,
Definitely interesting and I love the message. However, at this point, my goal is to make money passively, somehow, so I don’t have to look for a job when I move soon.
What I’d like to do is have short term and long term goals. I definitely have ideas about what I would like to do; I will more juggle projects between what makes me money and what I love to do.
If you’re previous ventures have been successful, why not build more (but make sure to also work on your more passionate projects)?
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Hey Moon, I don’t think internet marketing is bad, just that I wasn’t doing it a niche that I loved. What I love is creating stuff so I’ll go with that from now on.
On a related note I’m still using article marketing for other things which I care.
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Hey Oscar,
Nice to read about your update and see the progress in the amount of readers on your RSS! :)
It is indeed good to focus on what you love. I also found that I didn’t care about my affiliate sites and pretty much disliked working on them. I really love working on my two blogs too, and although my results are far less than some other people I know, I’m going to keep on doing my thing, tweaking and improving and putting out good content.
I have some additional ideas that I’m starting on this month, and I am not worried if my blog does not bring in money for another 9 months or so. I enjoy writing and connecting with others, and for now I just want to provide valuu and impact on as many people as possible.
Keep up the good work:)
Diggy
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Hey Diggy, I think I’ve missed what your second blog is?
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Create value doing what you love. That’s the goal. Never chase dollars. Follow your passions. You’ll always be led in the right direction doing what you love to do.
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Hey Ryan, that’s what I’m trying, thanks for the encouragement.
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Hey great decision to work full time for yourself and also to do what you love! I had to make that hard decision several times also, and each time I did I was very happy because of it.
Just recently I quit my big 50K++/year Flash business and even my old blog because I wasn’t happy with the life. I truly enjoy writing articles, coaching people, and creating products and even though I am not making a ton of money right now I know that if I build enough value it will come in time.
I look forward to seeing how everything turns out for you Oscar!
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Hey Colby, I still have my consulting going. I like my work and it’s not a problem for me, but I have 3-4 hours pr day to work on my personal projects now.
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Hey Oscar.
Solid material here presenting updates. Transparency is where good things comes from. Those who are not as transparent usually think they are sneaking their way through the system, but that doesn’t work.
You are right about not working on something you don’t care for. While there is much that can be said about the ability to do this, you are right that that is where the value lies, and where there is value, there is huge opportunity that trumps any argument against it.
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Hey Armen, thanks for the encouragement. I learned the hars way that if you are not interested in something, then it’s hard to build something great, but hopefully I have learned the lesson now :D
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Hey Oscar,
There’s a lot to be said for “doing what works” and following in the footsteps of those that are already where you want to be in life.
There’s also something to be said for having the courage to do what you love.
I say if you’re not desperate for money (like me), then go ahead and follow your heart and take a chance and blaze a trail.
If you succeed then you’ll enjoy a great sense of accomplishment, and if for whatever reason things don’t work out, article marketing will still be here waiting for you.
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Hey Clayton, actually I do need the money. It’s only that the website I had were crap and something I didn’t really like. If I find something where I think I can provide something of value I will use article marketing for sure, maybe by posting everything publicly here. This is just to say that I don’t think article marketing is bad pe se. Thanks for your comment Clayton.
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Hi Oscar,
Working on things we love is the theme of today’s culture. I work on my blog countless hours, and I don’t even know where the hours go. It’s strange how much we love what we create with our own hands, rather than working on something that belongs to a bigger corporation. With extra hours in the day, I would read more and more of my classics and other books, I would write more and optimize my blog more, and I would seriously not care if it brings in income so long as it has readership, impact, influence and inspires people. Best of luck in your endeavors!!!
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