When I was four years old, my mother bought an old bicycle at a thrift shop. Her intention was to donate it to a family that had a few older kids. At that age, I didn’t have much of a philanthropic bent. All I remember is being enraged that there was a shiny blue bike in the garage, and it was for another kid. I begged my mother relentlessly to have the bike for my own, but she always told me that I was too young to ride a bike. Finally, I said, “So what if I learn how to ride it? Are you going to give it away then?”

Feeling safe in the knowledge that her timid four-year-old was not going to learn how to ride the bike in the next week or so, she said yes. After all, it didn’t even have training wheels.

As soon as I got her answer, I considered the bike mine. I didn’t think for a moment that I wouldn’t learn. Four year olds can have lots more confidence than ability, as those of you with children probably already know. They think they can fly, for crying out loud. This is why you have to supervise them around trees, ladders and accessible roofs.

For about two hours, I got on the bike and fell off the bike. On. Off. This repeated itself probably fifty times. Finally, I stayed upright for a few seconds. After that, it was only a few minutes before I was cruising around the block on my new bike. I kept that bike for years—it had been too big for me—and it always reminded me that with enough determination I could get what I wanted.

Sometimes as an adult, I’ve left that determination sitting somewhere in a dusty garage with the bike. Something happened to that confidence that I had when I was four years old, and I’ve worked hard to get it back. How can you get the confidence of a four-year-old?

1. Remember what it was like to be four. Or three. Or five. However far back your long-term memory happens to take you. Think about all of the chances you took, and then think about it—that was YOU!

2. Make a list of things that you have accomplished so far. Read it over. See? You rock!

3. Take risks. When you were four, you were ready to show your mom how you could fly like a bird from the top of the car. I’m not suggesting that you jump off of a high building, but investing more than 20 bucks in your latest venture might be a positive start. (Don’t be a victim of tiny thinking!

4. Don’t worry about what other people think. When you were four, you didn’t worry whether or not the neighbor down the street would think you were a loser if you fell off your bike. Everyone had visible signs of failure—skinned knees. You just picked yourself up and went on. Being afraid to take risks because of other people’s evaluations of you means that you have forgotten that they have their own failures. At least if they’re trying.

5. Keep on keeping on. Another thing I did when I was a kid was make some wings and try to fly. Over and over again I would run down the hill, flapping. Alas, after a couple of hours of this, I got nowhere. At least I tried. I proved to myself that I couldn’t fly. If I had only tried two or three times, I might not have known for another couple of years, right? You never know when you’re going to hit it. Try to fly. Try to ride a bike. Try to start a company.

6. Don’t be afraid to demand what you want. While this is not appropriate all of the time, there are times in life where people will plant themselves very firmly between you and your goals. When this happens, step up to the plate and don’t budge. Channel that inner four-year-old, and most people will give in.

Four year olds have big dreams. Just ask one of them what they want to do when they grow up sometime. I guarantee that the answer will not be, “Be a person who types all day and worries about money”. No worries. Make it happen.

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At this point, I make almost the same amount of money working online as I do teaching. So why don’t I quit my day job? Well, this strange thing happened. Before I started making money online, I loathed my job and couldn’t wait to earn enough to make my exit. But as soon as started making enough for it to be a feasible option to walk out the door, I started enjoying my day job more. Why is this?

Imagine that you have a house that you like very much. It is decorated in just your style, and is very comfortable and cozy. Then imagine that someone put some bolts on the outside entrances and locked you in. Would you still enjoy your home as much?

It’s the same way with work. If you are trapped in a job, with no other options besides perhaps taking another, equally crappy job, then the feeling you have associated with that job won’t be good. Here is how having options has changed my outlook on my day job:

I am much more willing to do things the way I want to do them. This entails taking risks, which is a much more comfortable process now that I know that if my boss is displeased, it isn’t the end of my financial world.

Mentally, I am able to take a step back from my work. Since my day job no longer defines me to the extent that it once did, minor skirmishs with coworkers are not something I bother to get involved in. People ask me how I can keep my cool. Since a huge part of my identity isn’t tied in to my day job anymore, I don’t get insulted very easily. I simply don’t care about the office politics.

I’ve found that I’ve become much more creative. It is pretty difficult to work for yourself if you don’t have a dash of creativity. Coming up with ideas on my own, as opposed to primarily implementing the ideas of others, has opened the creativity floodgates. This makes the day job a heck of a lot more fun.

I appreciate the interactivity I have at work more. It’s easy to take something for granted until you don’t have it anymore. I spent the majority of the Christmas break (I’m a teacher) working online. When I returned to work, I really took a lot of pleasure in the social interaction that accompanies working with others. If I ever go freelance full-time, I will have to make sure that I integrate daily interaction with various people into my life.

The lesson in all of this for me is that it’s important to have options in every area of life, except, perhaps for your marriage. That might cause some problems. Although, isn’t one of the reasons that people cite for being unhappy in marriages “being stuck”? It tells you something.

Develop as many streams of income as you can without spreading yourself too thin. The more options you have, the more satisfying each one becomes.

Photo by ViaMoi

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There’s a statement that I’ve read far too many times on blogs.

I’m making enough money to pay for my hosting costs, and that’s a good thing.

Or something to that effect. Who the heck goes online to make money with a goal of making $10 a month?!? I mean, if that is all you want, come to my house and I’ll pay you $20 to clean my house! There is simply no way you are going to make money online or off if your goal is to make $10 a month.

Here are some examples of tiny thinking:

Surveys

The companies that “pay” you to take surveys know this. Sometimes they don’t even bother to pay you with real money! This summer, I played around with the survey scams and found exactly one reputable company, Pinecone. I signed up with them, and six months later, my inbox is still full of questionaires, most of which are unpaid ones. The paid ones pay…are you ready for this…$3.00! Is your time really worth that little? Yes, it may only take you ten minutes to fill out a survey, and that’s $15 an hour. But not really. Try adding up the time you spend doing the unpaid ones. It gets sad real fast.

Personal Items on eBay

I see tiny thinking a lot on eBay. Selling your kid’s old jeans will net you five dollars, yes. But, you had to…have the product, clean the product, take the photos, upload the photos, set up the eBay page, write a description, take measurements, find packaging, deal with emails and inane questions, drive to the post office, wait in line and finally mail the dang thing. For five dollars. If you have done this, you are a victim of small thinking.

Adsense on small sites

By small sites, I mean any site that gets less than 10,000 hits per week. Even with 10,000 hits a week, you are going to be doing good if you make $5.00 a day. Wait, did I say good?!? Eeek. That’s not good. Not unless you have multiple sites with that kind of traffic, which is highly unlikely. I’m not knocking it, because it will buy you your daily Starbucks. But it’s not something to crow about.

Selling Crafts

I look on Etsy and I can tell who has a business plan and who doesn’t. Most people don’t. Most people are selling items that cost $5.00 to produce for $8.00. These same items took them about two hours to make. Not counting all of the picture taking, shipping, etc. that’s $1.50 an hour. That’s really small. Of course, no one is selling enough to actually make $1.50 an hour, so it is more like $1.50 a week. Switch to Folgers. There are ways to make money with crafts, but you have to be smart about it, and you have to think big.

Underpricing Services

I’ve found that there are some really talented people out there who will charge five dollars for a Photoshop banner. This is good for people who can’t design, but bad for the designers! There is no reason for this. If someone wants a Photoshop banner in the style that you produce, they’ll pay $50 as soon as they’ll pay $5, except in rare instances. And the rare instances don’t count, because since you are now charging $50, you can definitely afford to lose those $5 customers.

I could go on and on. You see so much small thinking out there. If you are willing to accept only five dollars for your time, then that is what you’ll get. Period. If you see yourself in any of these examples, stop.

You can change tiny thinking. Here’s what you do:

Decide what you are going to focus on. This is your niche. It applies to both online and offline businesses. Research it like crazy. If you discover that it pays very little, then ditch that idea unless you can do it differently and make more cash.


Find out how the big boys are doing it. Ask yourself why you aren’t doing the same. There are really no excuses. Using the “make money online” industry as an example, if you can’t program, hire a programmer to implement your idea. There are plenty of programmers who are small thinkers, so you’ll be able to afford it!

Set a goal. For crying out loud, please set a goal. It should not be something like “quit my job and stay at home”. That is very vague, and it doesn’t specify whether or not you will be eating oatmeal three times a day while you are at home or whether your personal masseuse will be arriving at 10:00 each morning. Instead, decide how much money you want to make and give yourself a realistic time frame in which to make it. Then, when you’re exploring opportunities, if what you’re looking into doesn’t fit that model, then you can ditch it right away and not waste your time dithering away.

Tell people you are what you are. Even if you are currently making a few cents a day writing, if that is how you have decided you are going to make money, then tell people you are a writer. You don’t have to tell them how much you make. Or perhaps you are a marketer. Or a quilter. The idea is to convince yourself that your endeavor is a career, not a hobby, and careers make money. Your expectations of yourself will change.

My purpose here on this blog is to point out as many money-making opportunities as possible that will make you independent from a bricks and mortar workplace. Opportunities can be approached in a big way or a tiny way. It all depends on you. So think huge!

Photo by fofurasfelinas

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