I’ve been reading some short autobiographical stories written by people who have escaped corporate slavery to launch their own online businesses
The stories are hosted over on Internet Marketing supremo Frank Kern’s site. They’re by people who have either established themselves as Internet Marketers, or who are going through the process of breaking out and setting themselves up as Internet Marketers.
Many of them have achieved this in the face of considerable odds and setbacks.
One story in particular struck a chord with me. It’s by a young guy called Jon Morrow. He’s severely disabled through the result of an illness. It sounds like he’s already been through plenty of ups and downs, but nonetheless he’s been able to set himself up in business once again, despite his severe handicap.
More than that, he’s been able to support his able-bodied family as well through his own efforts.
Jon said something that I can really identify with – and I’m going to quote him here:
‘If you’re a normal person, you don’t have a chance in hell to be successful. The only way to break out is to NOT be normal.”
What he means is that everything and everyone conspires to keep you down, keep you average and keep you “in your place”. He’s experienced this first hand as a person with a disability.
The “Stay-put-in-your-jobs”
I too have heard this from umpteen people, at every stage of my life. Right from way way back in the days when I left school with no qualifications, was working in a dead end manual job in London, pondering whether to study for A-levels at evening college and maybe after that go to university and at that stage, go on further to who knows what future career afterwards.
I had people – family, friends and others all saying: “too risky, what’s the point of that, stay put in your job, stay where you are”. And I’ve also heard the same old litany of negative response at practically every single point in my life since then.
One thing I’ve come to realise is that this kind of response never ever stops. It matters not one jot how badly or well the economy is doing – and the economy – any economy, in practically any country, is pretty well always in some sort of crisis or is just about to hit a crisis. Yet the response has always been the same: “Stay put in your job”. “Be grateful that you have a job”.
It’s nonsense.
Don’t be a beggar-pauper!
Quite apart from anything else, this mentality reflects what I call the “beggar-pauper” attitude. It’s the idea that you should be “grateful”, thankful for small mercies. There’s always someone worse off than you.
Like when we were kids and our parents tried to motivate us to eat up our brussel sprouts by telling us to think of the starving millions in Africa who don’t even get to eat brussel sprouts (lucky them I always thought).
Don’t think big. Think small. Don’t think beyond your station – and certainly don’t ever attempt anything that might entail taking a risk.
If you have this attitude, you will always remain a beggar-pauper. This is something most of the population – I would estimate a good 70 percent or more, simply don’t understand. They form the crowd of worker-ants, the “stay-put-in-your-jobs”, the drones who just accept what they are given and never expect or ask for more.
Only 20 percent of people are entrepreneurial!
I would estimate that only about 20 to 30 percent at most of people can be described as entrepreneurial. The rest just stay “in their place”. You have to remember this, because it can have consequences for you if you want to break out and escape the corporate nine to five. The 70 percent-plus of worker-ants in the colony will conspire – whether deliberately or just effectively without realising it, to keep you down with them and work to stop you from leaving the nest.
You have two choices in life!
As Jon Morrow says, this means that in effect you have just two choices in life (only two? – if only everything was so simple!).
Choice number one: You can just do everything that everyone expects you to do and nothing else but. Live your life as a corporate drone. Let them praise you, let them pat you on the back and tell you what a good boy or girl you are. But you won’t get far because you’ll just be playing someone else’s game. And if you’re an entrepreneurial type, then the chances are you won’t be happy like this either. It’s beggar-paupery for you in this case.
Choice number two: You can do what YOU want and say to hell with everyone else. Quit the corporate cubicle. They’ll say you’re crazy, they may snipe and criticize, they may continually look for holes and seize on them straight away (I’ve experienced all of this). Even if you have successes, they may still look for holes.
They might even stop talking to you and shun you. I think the reason people do this is because they feel threatened. The fact that you are choosing a different route puts their own whole world view of life and the way they are living it into the spotlight and under question – and this makes them feel uneasy. It’s a defence mechanism that they throw up. But that’s their problem – not yours.
And above all, it means that from that point onwards you’ll actually start to achieve your goals. You’ll begin to build the life and lifestyle YOU really want. And what they or anyone else thinks won’t matter one jot.
No prizes for guessing that I’ve chosen number two. There’s no way I’m going to conform and mould my life to fit what other people want anymore. I’ve done far too much of that for far too long. Enough is enough!
If Jon Morrow can break out and do what he really wants in life, despite all the odds he’s faced, what about you? What’s your feeble excuse?
So thanks Jon, for your brilliant and inspiring little story – and for giving us some great insight as well.
By the way, you can read Jon Morrow’s full story as well as plenty of others over at frankkern.com/success
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Written by kevin
Topics: Kev's Diary