I was once given the advice to just write about Things That Angered Me whenever I get Writer’s Block.

On this lovely Jan 1st, 2016 evening of reflection and food coma, I’d thought I’d release a bit of this Anger (and the things I’ve learned from it) via my keyboard.

Will you join me?

Spring 2013 – I’m freshly graduated and working at my first $13/hour marketing gig at a tiny, 6 person startup and I cross paths with a world changing book called the 4 Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

The success stories and the model provided sounded too good.

But the dreamer in me was curious and determined to dig deeper into the possibilities of building businesses that generated money while I slept.

What I didn’t know at the time was how enveloped and eventually obsessed I would become in chasing and ultimately failing with this endeavor over the next 2.5 years.

Do you know someone who is just exceptionally talented at posting those beautifully drawn, Pinterest/Tumblr inspirational quotes on social media?

Or maybe you’re a sucker for those motivational movie moments when you want to just jump into the scene and high five the crap out of the character, screaming, “ALRIGHT! YEAHHHH!!!!!”

Well that was me.

The 4 Hour Work Week led me $100 Dollar Startup which led me to Click Millionaires which led me to Fastlane Millionaire which led me to…you get the point.

I was amped!

Summer 2013 – I get started with my first attempt at building a successful Passive Income business through blogging. I Google everything and slowly begin putting the pieces together with cautious excitement.

Score! My carpet cleaning and rug buying blog comes out and I am incredibly…bored.

Writing 5 blog posts a week about oriental rugs and steam cleaning is not fun nor is it sustainable.

I close it up and decided I can direct my time and energy to something more interesting.

Spring 2014 – I start listening to Pat Flynn, a guru on Passive Income through his podcast and am once again invigorated to start something new.

I think – I’m young, I’m entrepreneurial…let’s interview folks who are like me!

I hastily buy a microphone, hired a dude with a soulful voice to create a intro for me, and even created a fancy logo for the cover.

 

 

I pushed out 20 incredible interviews, gained over 1,000 Twitter followers, and had over 2,500 total plays. Firework stats? Definitely not. But my expectations were pretty low at that time so it was a victory in my eyes!

 

By month 5, I came across another crossroad.

I wasn’t making a single penny and I didn’t have an immediate way to do so either.

Passion got me started but what I realized was that I was pursuing a hobby, not a business. Businesses make you money, hobbies don’t.

So I closed it down.

0/2.

Winter 2014 – I’m distracted like crazy. I’m getting a little desperate and finding myself living in the shadows of comparison. My email subscriptions start to grow with daily posts about other people whose found success and I begin to question my own abilities and drive.

Then I come across the world of eCommerce. I poured my soul into Steve’s story about selling wedding linens online and was confident that this was my ticket to the passive income life that I had been so inspired by over a year ago.

So I began researching for a market.

 

I knew from my past mini ventures that projects takes patience and perseverance so I kept researching.

Then I kept researching some more.

To keep myself in check, I joined a weekly Google Hangout group with other eCommerce entrepreneurs where we shared our pain points and encouraged one another.

Months passed and I still had nothing that I was confident about.

Distractions started to seep back in.

Reddit.com/r/nba become almost a hourly addiction along with a healthy mix of Suits, Game of Thrones, and NFL Sunday marathons.

And as gradually as this 3rd project started, it faded off into the Abyss of Once Hopeful Dreams.

0/3.

3 projects. 100’s of hours and dollars. Nothing to show for. Maybe these were all signs that I wasn’t cut out to be entrepreneurial. After all, the ever popular stat of startups failing 90% of the time is popular for a reason right?

And to categorize my “projects” as a startup is incredibly laughable, especially here in the Silicon Valley where Moms and Dads (with kids!) are still finding ways to find success in their businesses.

So yea,  I’m kinda angry.

Angry with myself for chasing the flash and not the grind.

Angry with myself for choosing a weekend full of torrented movies and hours of Lakers basketball.

Angry with myself for letting these precious, golden years of my early 20’s fall into investments that ended prematurely.

But from the depths of failure comes whispers of freedom. Freedom in understanding the beauty of these defeated moments where I can learn and move on, renewed and re-equipped.

I’ll never have those hours back but the lessons I’ve experienced personally will always have a foothold over the lessons I ingest externally.

Here’s the main and simple truth I learned in all these failed side projects-

You’ve got to Hustle.

And what does Hustle look like? It comes down to 3 things which I will break down another time. (ping pong and dinner awaits!)

1. Habits
2. Focus
3. Sacrifice

I’ve never had a problem with my ambition and my drive. I’ve never had a problem finding ways to motivate myself.

But like a basketball player that’s decked out in the fanciest sweat resistant shooting sleeves and Kobe X’s on game day, he/she will always get punished on the court if they’ve never put the work and grind during the week in the gym.

January 2016 – It’s been over 3 months since I’ve outlined out the online course on job hunting I’m looking to launch this year. I’m putting together the slides now and will hopefully be awkwardly recording myself in these few next months.

Sure, I’m still struggling with the typical distractions but things are a little different this time.

I have someone keeping me accountable, I’ve got SelfControl 3 downloaded and secured on my dock, and I’ve got a problem I’m passionate about that I get to help solve.

It’s a still long road before I solidify my habits, to stay focused, and to understand what it means to sacrifice…but it’s a start.

I’m posting this publicly because another form of accountability sure doesn’t hurt!

So what are you looking to accomplish this year? What have you learned from past failures?

Will you join me on this journey?

-Al