Giving Back...If This Doesn't Inspire You...NOTHING WILL

I know there are a lot of people out there who look at the successful ones
online and say to themselves, "I can't do that. I don't have what it takes."
Or something like that.

You think the successful people were born that way, that they just are
who they are and if you're not successful, it's how you'll always be.

Believe me, I more than can understand the feeling.

See, I was one of those unsuccessful people at one time.

And I'm not just talking about IM. I'm talking about my whole life.

When I graduated college in 1981 (2 years later than I should have because
I was so stupid) I looked for a job for one full year.

I couldn't find a thing. This was during the Jimmy Carter administration
when interest rates were like 18%.

Finally after a year, I went back to school again for something else.

When I got out, the only way I was able to get a job was to lie on my
resume. Yes, I admit it...I was desperate. So I told them I had experience
with a certain computer that I had never even seen before. I was able to
pull it off because the computers I had worked on were similar. So I got
away with it.

But even at that, my first job was a temp job for a lousy $7 a hour.

After a year there, and getting nowhere, I left and took a job teaching
computers that didn't pay much more.

After 2 1/2 years there, the place went belly up and I was out of work again.

I was out of work for almost 2 years before I found another crappy job
for like $17,000 a year.

Mind you, I was a college graduate.

I stayed with this miserable company for almost 10 years until finally, after
working 16 hour days and not even getting a freaking 2 weeks off a year,
I couldn't take it anymore. I had a nervous breakdown and had to quit.

I then went looking for another job.

Nobody would hire me.

I finally went into sales selling environmentally safe products.

I made all of $600.

I finally went back to school again.

I got lucky and got a consulting job looking over a network. It paid well
but it was only a 6 month assignment.

I was back on the street again.

I couldn't find a thing.

Finally I took a job placing labels on law briefs for $7 an hour at some
label place. It was a job that I had to work till midnight.

It was the lowest point of my life.

I finally went back to school, yet again, and FINALLY got a great job
as a QA Tester and eventually manager.

This was 14 years after I had graduated college.

But it only lasted for 6 years.

The company relocated to Pittsburgh and I couldn't go.

I was out of work again...at age 45.

I finally gave up looking for work.

I turned to the computer and the Internet.

My first "job" doing web design, the company I worked for never paid me
for my work.

I then went into marketing.

My first 5 months I made $28.

Do you think maybe I was ready to just put a gun to my head?

46 years of utter failure in my life, as far as my professional life went.

Today, I am 51 years old and earn over 6 figures a year...these days, doing
almost nothing.

I spend most of my time in the recording studio writing songs or playing
video games.

Yes, you absolutely can succeed no matter how much of a miserable
failure you are.

If my life doesn't prove that to you...nothing will.