This is the more abbreviated version.
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I have had an interest in becoming self-employed for around 20 years. My initial foray into the world of marketing was long before there were computers and the Internet and at that time this was called Direct Marketing. A home study course I purchased gave me my initial education on this. The one problem that I had after finishing this course was finding the right product, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. As a result of trying to find the right product I ended up on numerous lists selling me the same kind of crap that you find online these days and have become very accustomed to the type of jargon used to convince you to buy the product. Over the years I have become something of an armchair Marketer and enjoy the various ways that products are marketed…most of the time.

After numerous attempts to purchase the right product I gave up and eventually fell off of these lists. Approximately six years ago I stumbled upon a similar home study course geared to the Internet. Not only did it walk me through the various things I needed to do to set up my business it also gave me a method to discover what my product would be. Basically, what are you an expert at? Can you turn that into a product that you can sell? My initial answer to that was to create a book on a guitar instruction method that I had developed during my 10 years of teaching guitar. The funny thing about this stuff is that you can find a hundred reasons to not do it today and there’s always tomorrow, especially when you have a consistent paycheck. I did begin to write this book and had a good start until my hard drive crashed and I lost all the work I had done.

I have used the same techniques to determine other products that I can create some of which have nothing to do with being an expert but more so with understanding the need for a resolution to a problem. One of the things you need to do is to always be on the lookout for the potentiality of products whether that is a physical product or an information product or perhaps even a service. As long as there is a potential customer for it you can sell it.

What finally motivated me enough to truly do this was my final experience in Corporate America. After working at United Airlines for around 8 yrs, I spent my final 1.5 yrs in Corporate America at Allstate Insurance. I started at Allstate in August of 2006 and somewhere in the first part of 2007 things began to slowly change, namely a reorganization. I never expected for things to end up the way they did. My original senior manager and director were very open and easy to work for but one got moved to a new area and the other left the company due to being unhappy with the choices he was given because my area was being dissolved and merged into other areas.

When my area finally merged with another area I ended up with a new manager, senior manager, and director. My new manager was someone in my current group who was promoted to this position. The new senior manager and director came from an entirely different area and their management styles were completely different as in no where near as open and easy to work for. At the beginning of this change everything seem to be pretty much status quo until my end of year review when I was notified that my position was changing which at first seemed like a good thing.

In hindsight I now realize that the fact that there was no real explanation of my new position and its required responsibilities should have been a major warning sign for me. I was first informed that I had to transfer all of my responsibilities by the end of the month and at the same time sit with a contractor and learn to take over his responsibilities, which were numerous but his contract had ended. I very rapidly realized that I needed to get my work transferred ASAP because I knew that the work I was going to be taking on was going to be very challenging and voluminous not to mention just barely within my current skill sets. As a result I ended up working seven days in a row for a total of 90 hours to get my current work documented and shaped up for it’s transference but per time sheet timing only 70 hours showed up in one week with the other 20 going to other time sheets. When I mentioned this to my director, who I now report directly to, the response was “OK” and nothing more. What I did not know was that this was just the beginning, because over the course of the next several weeks I did not put in any less than 50 to 60 hours per week.

To add insult to injury everything I was being trained to do was just barely within my skill sets. So not only was I consistently working excessive hours every week but my new function had nothing to do with what I truly enjoyed doing and every time I turned around I was given yet another responsibility which further compounded my frustrations. The workload continued to pile up. I was already planning on leaving the company some time that year but did not have an actual time frame in mind. This situation was rapidly changing that.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I said to the senior manager who I was working with to finalize the user acceptance testing for a new data base and reporting system that this testing was going to run into a course I was being required to take eight hours a day for five days and that perhaps because this testing was more important I should cancel the class. I was later informed that I was being required to do both!!! The problem with that was this testing was taking no less than 8 hours and up to 12 hours PER DAY. What I saw this meaning was somewhere around 14 to 18 hour days and with the number of hours I was putting in prior to that there seemed to be no end in sight to the number of hours this director was going to require me to work.

It was beginning to appear that ALL of the rumors that I had heard about this person were true and there was no way that this was acceptable to me. I don’t care who you are, what company you are, you do not have the right to steal my personal life away from me for the “glory” of working for the company and the steady paycheck that results. I have more self-respect for myself than this. I have the right to have a life!!! I will not allow absolutely anyone to rob me of my personal life and time. This is not only exhausting but seriously deflates your overall attitude about everything.

I evaluated my financial situation and realized that I had about six months of income at my disposal and with diligent effort I felt I could make this work. I did want to make a statement by my actions so what I decided to do was to walk in on Monday morning, make a quick comment, give the director my resignation letter, my laptop, and badge and then walk out with no opportunity for discussing it. This officially ended my corporate career and I now have on my wall the image you see below as a  vigilant reminder that I never intend to return to Corporate America ever again. This is my daily motivation to ensure that I will be successful in my endeavors of becoming an Internet Marketer.

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