My Life After Retail

As an Internet entrepreneur I truly see the value of time.  Each and every day of my life I have to make decisions as to what I will do with my precious time.  Owning my own company allows me to do whatever I want.  If I want to take a day off and hang out with friends I can.  If I want to research for 16 hours a day I can.  If I want to get in my car and drive five hours to go fly fishing I can.  With that in mind I realize that the more valuable time I put into my business the more I will get out of it.

Living in Raleigh, NC, near three major universities, I have access to the ultimate group of individuals who know how to waste time – college students.  We all loved college because we went to class for 15 hours a week and the rest of the time we found entertainment.  I continue to have many friends in college and I could easily waste my days away much as they do; playing Wii or PS3, checking every profile known to man on Facebook and Twitter, drinking the nights and weekends away, or playing the dating scene with every college girl.

I am not going to lie, it greatly frustrates me to see my friends waste away the time that they do, especially my college friends.  I know I am wired a little bit differently but how can you spend hour upon hour without doing anything productive.  I guess we all define being productive in different ways but I refuse to believe that checking Facebook for five hours a day is being productive.  I have always made the statement, “if you would spend as much time monetizing something as you do wasting time you could be a millionaire.”

I truly believe this to be the case and I will continue to believe it as I am living proof.  I am, by no means, a millionaire but I assure you that I am very successful and that will continue because I make very good use of my time.  Some people might call me obsessive/compulsive but I would call myself an entrepreneur.  Colin Cowherd, ESPN radio host, makes reference to those who have created wealth for themselves and how their minds are always going 100 mph.  I think my mind is not only going 100 mph, it is going that fast in four different directions.

This is a blessing and a curse all wrapped up in one.  I will be the first to admit that very few females in my life can handle my entrepreneurial spirit.  No matter where I go or what I do I always see the value in the things around me.  I truly believe that I could find a way to monetize shower curtains (let females put their favorite company’s symbols on it and sell it for $25; a Coach, Target, Juicy Couture and Dulce & Gabanna shower curtain, tell me that wouldn’t sell?!?).  These are the ideas I think of each and every minute of the day. For some reason most females want attention rather than me pointing out that advertising on umbrellas could make a killing.

I have learned that I am who I am and no matter what that is not going to change.  I will always believe that time wasted is money lost.  When you are sitting around on a weeknight watching television couldn’t you be thinking of the next great business model?  Do not get me wrong, I believe there is a time and place to spend with friends and family.  This does not mean that I will take every single week night to watch reruns of Friends and Sex and the City.  In all reality, the only show I consistently watch is one that makes me think the whole time (Lost), go figure!

I am not suggesting that you should take every minute of your day to figure out the next Ipod but I would suggest that you consider how much time you truly waste.  Was it worth it to check Facebook for two hours?  Was it worth it to watch the same Sopranos episode you have seen three times?  The next time you are sitting around thinking of something to do, think about what you absolutely love to do and consider ways to monetize it.  You never know, you might be able to make that your living.

Please return to My Life After Retail to get daily inspirational stories as well as historical accounts of the success of Subprime Blogger.

Being the smartest guy, or girl, in the room does not mean that you have the highest level of education or you get paid the most.  Statistics show that education and compensation have a strong correlation with intelligence but as with any statistical study there are outliers.  From my experience in retail, I found many outliers in this industry.  The industry rewards being a “puppet” and doing what you’re told rather than using your brain and challenging the system.

There is little doubt that almost all retailers have created and perfected a system over time.  There is solid proof, in financials,  that if things are done a specific way there will be specific results.  The problem is that the same actions get the same results and there is very little room for upside growth.  Albert Einstein is quoted as saying that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I can honestly say that for two and a half years I was forced to do the same things over and over again.  I would not consider myself a maverick by any stretch of the imagination but I do have a brain that functions.  Unfortunately, those above me had brains that functioned a little differently or possibly at a much slower pace .  Any time an idea was passed down from the corporate or district level my superiors made sure it was done.  The question “why?” was not allowed.  This is absolutely fine for anyone who has ZERO entrepreneurial spirit but not me.

Each and every time I was told to do a specific task I asked why and proposed a different path.  Even if my ideas made sense and provided more profit they were always shot down because that was “questioning the way it has always been done.”  Well, for all of the retail geniuses out there I present to you Google and Apple.; two companies that have made it a point to encourage their employees to think outside the box and try new things.  The last I heard those two companies were doing quite well unlike most retailers.

All of that aside, one of the main reasons that I finally decided to pursue Subprime Blogger and become an Internet entrepreunuer is because no matter who I talked to from my company I felt as if were faceless body.  Any time there was a corportate, district or store level meeting I consistently found faults in their ideas and the way they expressed those ideas.  No matter how inaccurate their data they refused to listen to reason.  As an entreprenur I always ask the three letter word that every boss hates……why?

After too many unanswered questions I decided to pursue a personal business.  I was working on Subprime Blogger for several months before I decided to leave my retail establishment.  Every day I worked on Subprime Blogger I got a little bit smarter and learned something new about the financial field or Internet marketing.  Every day I worked in a retail environment I felt like I was losing not only knowledge but time.  Very few people can say that their occupation challenges them every single day.  With Subprime Blogger I am challenged every day!  This is when I knew I had found my life’s dream.

There are countless reasons that blogging is an amazing occupation:

1. No Boss
2. No Schedule
3. No Dress Code
4. You can express your opinion at any time
5. It can be done anywhere with Internet acccess
6. Unlimited growth potential
7. You get compensated for the amount of work you do rather than a flat rate

This is just the beginning when it comes to the benefits of being a full time blogger; I will go over each of these perks in the coming months and explain how much of a luxury professional blogging is.  I know many of you out there are very unhappy with your job for many reasons.  My suggestion is to find something you absolutely love to do; something you love to do it so much that when you are laying in bed to go to sleep you want to get up and work even more.  When you find this activity, find a way to monetize it and you will live your life’s dream.

Please return to My Life After Retail to get daily inspirational stories as well as historical accounts of the success of Subprime Blogger.