Everything starts with an idea. It was the same in my case.
During my 3rd year in MLM, a very unusual thought came to mind. It said: “I’m destined for something else. MLM is not for me.” It wasn’t because of my failure but because of my feelings. I hated contacting people. I’m an introvert – I like silence and being by myself. In MLM, I had to constantly push myself to contact people. I wasn’t enjoying the process. I was only thinking about the end result.
I don’t believe you can succeed if you hate what you do. The only things I loved about MLM were the live training events and all the personal development staff that helped us sustain a positive mood and achieve our goals. Whenever I attended live events, I imagined myself speaking to the audience on stage.
I was sure I could do better on stage than the other speakers.
Around the same time, I started reading Steve Pavlina’s website, “personal development for smart people.” In one of his articles, he wrote that he was making $1000 a day on Google Ads. WOW! $1000 a day? That was awesome. Unbelievable! I made $1000 per month working full-time at the IT company I worked for.
I imagined making $1000 a day in personal development… It was the life I dreamt about. I would be free! I would live where I wanted. I would work from home and watch the sea through my windows, and I would have money to date girls.
But I couldn’t believe it was possible. A $1000/month salary was higher than the Ukrainian average. Everybody told me, “be grateful,” “stick to your job – you’re very lucky.” But I was unsatisfied because my job was not connected with personal development.
One day, an astounding idea came to my mind – type into Google: “How to earn money on the internet.” I worked for 1.5 years in an IT company that built e-stores for Canadian customers, helping them to earn money online. However, I never thought about earning money online for myself.
I opened google, typed “how to earn money on the internet,” and Google showed me 10 results. I intuitively clicked the 4th one and found myself on a very long page. The author was selling an e-course on how to make money online. The text on the page was very motivating.
The silent voice inside me whispered, “You need it. Buy it!”. But my mind cried, “It’s a scam!” “You will send money and get nothing!” “Don’t you see he is earning money himself by teaching idiots like you how to earn money!?”. My mind told me so much bullshit. But the inner voice continued to whisper – “go ahead and buy it.” So, I registered for the course.
The next day, I was pretty sure I would buy it, but I didn’t know how to pay for it. I didn’t have a credit card. In Ukraine, credit cards weren’t popular in those days. I decided to pay via bank transfer, so I had to go straight to the bank, give the cash to a cashier and pay that way.
I remember standing before the cashier and handing her the money. My arm with the money in it was shaking. I was so scared. My mind told me – “that’s all, you’ve lost your money. Say bye-bye”.
I completed the transaction, signed the transfer order, and went home. I was very happy, despite my mind running through all these scary thoughts.
I replied to the author, telling him I had paid for the order. No reply. “Ha! I told you this was a scam, and you didn’t believe me!” I was so nervous.
The next day, I woke up and checked my email – and VOILA! I got the course.
I tried to open it – please enter the password?! What the hell!? What’s the password?
I replied to the email, stating I did not get a password.
I waited another day and received instructions on how to get the password. I needed to download another software, input the code in my course and receive the password—totally weird thing.
I did it, and finally, I opened the course and started learning.
The idea was to build a website, promote it by SEO, put Google ads all over the website, and start earning money.
This course taught me how to design and build my website. I was not a designer, but the author suggested a very easy and simple method. I managed to do it, and it worked.
So I had a website design done by myself. Pretty good!
But the main question was: what content should I publish on my website?
Immediately, I got the idea: “You love personal development and psychology – start from here, publish your thoughts on personal development.”
Great idea, I loved it. But I was afraid because I had never written any articles by myself. Being a reader, I should transform myself into the author!
“Start with a small and easy task,” whispered the voice inside me.
So I took my favorite article and added some personal thoughts to it. I explained some ideas more thoroughly and removed something I did not quite agree with. And there it was – my personalized article was ready.
It wasn’t very difficult, so I continued that way. I could not believe that I was a writer.
I liked the writing process, and after rewriting 10 articles, I decided to create my own article from scratch.
I was, sitting in front of the white page in Microsoft Word. It was a very strange and scary feeling. I started to write.
For 15-20 minutes, I wrote nonsense. I was very disappointed. No idea, no value, just random sentences. But, suddenly, I felt an energy flow coming in, and I started to type much faster. Words appeared from nowhere. I didn’t think about what I was typing; everything was so fast. It seems like I had caught the “writer’s flow.” In the next 20 minutes, the article was ready. My first article on personal development!
“I’m a writer!” I exclaimed.
I had a new goal – to write one article every day!
Again, I sat in front of a blank document. I felt anxious. “What if I fail? What if the previous article was just luck? What if I don’t like it? What if I spend an hour or more and don’t write anything?”
The first 15-20 minutes were awful – I did not write anything worthwhile. But, again, the “energy flow” came, and my fingers effortlessly typed the complete article.
I noticed that same pattern again and again. It was like magic. Finally, I understood the process: for the first 15-20 minutes, the words would come from my “logical mind,” and for the next 20-30 minutes, they flowed from my heart.
I wrote 20 articles. Then I was ready to publish them on the website.
I made some minor changes to the design and published the website live!
My website! I created it by myself. I did the design myself, the programming, the content – everything!
Later, I was heavily criticized for my design because of the violet background and white font. But the main critics were designers. The readers liked it. The website was filled with my passion and enthusiasm and was part of me. Readers felt it and loved the website. They returned again and again.
So I continued to write and publish new articles on the website.
