Curious about what the life of an internet entrepreneur looks like? Today Dean Holland looks back to when he first started online, comparing that to the life he leads today as an online entrepreneur. There are some important lessons to be learnt from this story…
“Good morning my friend! Dean here of course. On the way to Internet Profits on this fine, warm morning here in England. Welcome to today’s episode of The Drive.
Hang on. What day is it? Is it Friday? No, what day is it? Oh it IS Friday!!
Okay, normally this would be ‘recap of the week’. But I have something to speak about, and then I’ll do recap of the week. What the heck! Who cares. Let’s just roll with this.
So just before I come to the recap, a few big things, exciting things happened this week, that I will tell you about in a second. But I want to address something, okay?
You see, something was said on social media the other day. And I do like to see as much as I can, even if I can’t always respond to everybody. So please know your comments are read, even if I don’t always get the time to reply.
An Unavoidable Question That Needs A Full Answer
Because across all of our platforms like Facebook and… Well I say ‘all of our platforms’. I don’t even bother with most. I should, but I don’t. Facebook and YouTube mainly.
But somebody said the other day, “You know what Dean, it looks like things are going amazingly well in your business. But why is it you still get up so early?”
I think this stemmed from over the last couple of weeks. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I’ve been getting into the office and starting my work online pretty early, right? Much earlier than I needed to.
I’m pretty much always the first there. I’ve literally been going in some days at like 6 am. And some of these days as well, I’ve been there to like 9 pm, 10 pm, even midnight on one day.
And somebody said like, “Why?…
“It Doesn’t Look Like You’re Living The Life Of An Internet Entrepreneur”
There’s this whole thing of like y’know, working on the beach or being able to do whatever you want. And believe me I can, to a degree, live the life of an internet entrepreneur like that.
If you think about it, over the last four or five months I have been on a Eastern Caribbean cruise. I have spent five days at the Disney parks. Been in Orlando, Florida and done some awesome stuff there. Spoke on stage with Tony Robbins. I have spent seven or eight days in Greece, in the Mediterranean. Cruised around the Med in a boat. Some amazing experiences, y’know.
But here’s the thing. Here’s the big crux of this whole thing, right? You might look at me and see like, “Oh, your business is amazing. You’ve got everything you want. A nice house. Drive nice cars. You got all this kind of stuff.” And yeah, I’m truly blessed. Like my life today is unrecognizable to how it was ten years ago in the life of an internet entrepreneur.
Ten Years Ago In The Life Of An Internet Entrepreneur
Like, ten years ago I was in over sixty thousand dollars of debt, driving a crappy little car. I was working at a construction company in a job I hated, with a boss who was just a complete dick! (Sorry about that, but it’s true.)
I had like five maxed out credit cards. I was paying off two sizeable bank loans. I had a minus $3,000 plus bank account overdraft. And I was in a hellhole. Like, literally living a ‘hell’ of a life.
Today very different, clearly very different. But I don’t see that. You know what I see? I see somebody that’s just getting started.
Because I have aspirations that are bigger than I could even possibly put into words. The vision that I have, the big vision for my company and the impact that we can make in this world for our industry, is far beyond what you see today. Like this is child’s play to where we’re gonna be.
The Hustle Mentality
So, why do I still get up? Why do I work? Well let me just be clear on something. Because there’s this whole hustle, 24/7 hustle, hustle, hustle mentality, right? I hustle five days a week. Monday to Friday, I give to the world. Meaning what I put in Monday to Friday is to make an impact.
What I do on the two other days of the week is for me and my family, right? What I mean by that is, when Friday ends I’m out of here! I don’t even have a computer at home. Robyn my fiancée does, but I don’t even have my computer at home anymore.
So I don’t do anything on a weekend, right? Yeah, sometimes I’ve got my phone. If I’m bored I’ll look at Facebook, But generally speaking I don’t do anything until Monday comes back around.
So I will grind when the time is there to grind, and when the time is right. But you better believe that I have a great work/life balance. And yeah, so I wanted to just kind of answer that, in that sense.
Do You ‘Deserve’ The Weekend Off?
If you’re not where you want to be, don’t be lazy. Get up earlier, put some work in before you go to your job. Come home, work. If you’re if you’re stuck in a job you hate, like I used to be. Then you don’t deserve yet to have that weekend off. And I don’t mean that disrespectfully. But if you truly do not like your situation, change it!
I remember when I was in my full-time job. I would get up at 5-6 am, walk my dog, drive to work which was an hour’s drive. Work from 7:30 am through until 5 pm. I wouldn’t get home until gone six. I’d walk my dog, eat, and I’d get back on that computer. And I’d be there all night, sometimes until early hours of the morning. That was Monday through Friday.
Weekends, I’d get up first thing in the morning, walk my dog, and I’d work on the computer. I’m not saying I didn’t do any fun things. I’d still spend time with my partner who I was with at the time. But my main priority was to change my situation which I did not like.
And so should yours be. Especially if you’ve got family or people that are depending on you, it’s so important that you take this seriously and do what it takes. Because they may not understand what you want to do right now.
A Scam, A Fad, Some Nonsense?
A lot of people don’t ‘get’ internet marketing. They think it’s a scam, a fad, some nonsense. They think you’re being tricked and duped. But that’s because they don’t see you progressing. They don’t see you getting the results.
What they see is somebody they love sacrificing at the computer and not being around them, giving them their attention. When what you see is you are sacrificing so that you can give them more of what they deserve. More of your time, more of your attention, and have more freedom and security in their life, right? That’s the difference with the life of an internet entrepreneur.
If you’re in that situation, sometimes you see two different things. So you need to get results, so they can see the fruits of your labour. Which means stopping all the crap. Stopping all the excuses. Taking things seriously. Stopping buying all the shiny objects. Invest properly in yourself and your success, to get what you need to do things properly.
My Results Changed Their Tune
Because I tell you, people change their tune when you start getting results. The people that used to laugh at me, do not laugh anymore. There was a time (I mean, I don’t even associate with them anymore). But there was a time where I’d have work colleagues at my last job who would laugh at me, and talk about me behind my back, and would smile when they say, “How’s that internet thing going Dean, Haha?” Almost like it was a joke and it was stupid.
Those same people, when I handed my notice in, then it was more like, “You’re leaving to do your internet thing? Oh that’s interesting. Is it going well then?” Like, the tune changed. And now those same people are no doubt probably either still in the same job, or jumping from jobs they don’t like, or y’know even in a worse situation.
Me, ten years on? My life is completely different…
Finish reading > The Life Of An Internet Entrepreneur
