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Time goes by fast. Real fast. It has been just about a year since moving out to Huntington Beach, California and boy have I learned a lot–personally and professionally. Overcoming adversity has been something I’ve been used to growing up. Challenges motivate me and push me to go the extra mile…when I set my mind to it. Failures disappoint me, but I’ve learned to pick myself back up. I absolutely hate failing and will not accept failure as an option.

When times get tough it’s easier to give up and throw in the towel. Trust me, I’ve been there multiple times this past year (2010). Sometimes it seems like you just can’t catch a break. You will. Sometimes it seems like the world is against you. It’s not. Sometimes it seems like you’re by yourself in a small dimly lit or dark room struggling to find your way out. You aren’t. Life can get pretty discouraging at times. Maybe a lot of time to make it sound more realistic! Trust me, I’ve been to the bottom of the barrel mentally and physically. My will has been tested time and time again. At times it seems like no matter how much effort you give or how hard you try nothing goes as you expected them to or planned them out to be.

I’ve felt discouraged on multiple occasions throughout the year. Just until recently, I’ve felt like no matter how hard I tried things wouldn’t get better. Negativity found it’s way and dug itself deeper into my mind. Thoughts ran through my head that used to never exist. I was constantly asking myself and to a higher being (God if he exists), why me? People closest to me may have not noticed, but I was miserable. I’m pretty good at putting up a front and acting like everything is normal. Especially to those around me. I’ve always known that friendships were priceless. In times like mentioned above friends and family are your backbone, your support.

Throughout this year, I’ve always known, but learned first hand that quality friendships and the time spent with those friends is priceless. And though it’s hard especially in these economic times, don’t grow old, look back, and regret the things you didn’t do with the people who meant the most to you. Be free and let loose every once in a while. Make the time to be around and surround yourself with the ones you care about most. I’m guilty of this one and haven’t made enough time to build upon existing relationships. To that I’m sorry.

Here are a few things I’ve learned during my first year as a struggling unemployed graduate, door-to-door salesman, and corporate puppet:

Creating balance is essential
Balance is essential to living a less stressful lifestyle. People work way too much these days. It’s not a bad thing, but sometimes we forget to make time for ourselves. It takes a lot out of you. What’s it worth going through the daily grind and letting life pass you by? I was working way too much at one point. I forgot to make time for myself because it felt like I didn’t have enough time in the day. Making the time to go out with friends or just do some personal reflection is quite refreshing. Don’t let yourself get caught up in a daily routine, that’s…well…boring!

The ‘Real World’ is all about experience
The school you graduated from and the degree you have mean absolutely nothing. It does mean something, but not everything. In this day and age with the technology that surrounds us we have access to unlimited resources of information. If you set your mind to it, apply yourself, and put forth the effort you can learn anything you want to learn. Your degree can get you into the door somewhere, but your experience is the deal breaker.

Suggested Reading: Will Paypal Billionaire Peter Thiel’s Team of College Dropouts Change Learning

At my current job I manage a book of over 80 accounts, optimize new and existing campaigns, responsible for the initial set-up of a new campaign, and the landing page copy writing. Guess what…there weren’t any classes that I took or was even offered on the subject of ‘Pay-Per-Click advertising’ and ‘search engine marketing’. Much of your success in this world (in my opinion) will be based on what you do with the hours after your normal work hours. What are you going to do to better your life? That’s why I carry the mentality and philosophy to always be learning. Apply myself at my job and when I’m at home. Eventually, this will hopefully assist me on reaching my goal and working for myself on my own terms!

Don’t let money dictate the way you live YOUR life
This one is kind of hard to follow. Trust me, I’ve been here as well. Not having money can be quite depressing because you just can’t go and do many of the things you want to do. Especially when your friends are always asking you to go out as well! Don’t get down on yourself and crawl into a cave because you don’t have any money. There are plenty of things to do that don’t require money and it’s much better than sitting at home complaining about the fact that you don’t have money! I do want to say though, make wholesome decisions and don’t be careless with the little bit of money you do have.

Look out for yourself, ’cause no one else will
No one has really screwed me over “royally” I guess you could say, but… When conversation arises and good advice is flowing I’m all ears. I’ve heard this many times from [older] successful people that I’ve had conversation with. The business world is a nasty world. The business world is where you separate the men from the boys.

Just the other day my brother and I were talking to a man by the name of Scott. He started a successful business and sold it back in 1999 for lots of money. Despite being screwed over on big deals a few times his advice was to watch out for the pricks. He said, “there are people out there who will take a carrot and stick it up your ass. They’ll act like your friend and fuck you over in the blink of an eye.” His message was clear as day and I definitely won’t forget it. He also advised us to be aggressive. We’re young, ambitious, have energy, and no obligations…to basically take the world by storm. Go after our wildest dreams and make something of them.

You must LEARN to make sacrifices
We’re all young (most of us) and love to go out and spend our money on who knows what. What I’ve learned is that making sacrifices in the business world (career and growth opportunity) and in our personal lives is essential. Think of it like this. You’re chilling with some friends drinking some beers or just shootin’ the shit. What you’re doing at that point in time is what you’re doing and nothing else. You’re obviously not going to be getting anything productive done. Tomorrow is a new day though, and what you do with your time is up to you!

In the business/corporate world you must make unwilling sacrifices that may not seem too glamorous at times, but will pay off if you stick with it. It’s crazy when you look at the breadcrumbs of the many coincidences that occur in life. Here’s my past year in a nutshell. Work door to door sales commission only for 5 months, apply for inside sales position at Internet Brands but get interviewed for the marketing support analyst position and get the job, work at Internet Brands for 6 months, apply to Deluxe Corporation and because of my experience in the non-corporate world as well as at Internet Brands get a job offer. As the year progressed things gradually got better. It didn’t seem like they would at times, but they did. It may seem like hell right now…your hard work and perseverance will pay off. Trust me, it will. I lost faith in myself many times and when you do that it makes things so much harder. Don’t lose faith in yourself and believe in your capabilities! Each job was a stepping stone and without each job preceding the other I wouldn’t be where I a today.

Making more time in the day isn’t impossible
Do you find yourself occasionally saying “there’s not enough time in the day“! Referring back to the creating balance is essential topic, it never seems like you have enough time in the day. There’s always so much to do and just not enough time. I’ve figured out the secret to making more time in the day. Some say it’s impossible, but it’s not. You can literally slow down time… just kidding! Sorry, I had to. Anyways, the only way to gain more time in your day to accomplish more is by going to bed later and waking up earlier. Don’t push yourself to exhaustion doing this. Get your rest, but put the hours you’re awake towards being productive and getting the things done you want to get done. You need to get done. This way, you will have extra time for yourself to do what you want, when you want, and with who you want.

This post is getting a little lengthy. I know there’s more advice that has crossed my mind. When I remember those topics I’ll make another post. For now, this will suffice. Hope you enjoyed this read and feel free to share your thoughts if you so please.

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1. Don’t Live Life in the Shadows

Photo by DeviantArt user Darkness-in-the-lens

“The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.”

-Joan Borysenko

This will be short and sweet.

My view and philosophy on life goes as follows. We only live once. We have one life to make the most of everything, literally everything. I don’t want to live my life and look back when I’m older asking myself “what if” saying I could have done that or I should have done that. I want to look back on my life and tell my friends, family, and my kids, “look at all the shit I did growing up”.

Work hard. Play hard. Don’t let anyone or anything hold you back from doing what you want to do. If you want to do something, do it. If it’s something you think you’ll regret later, who cares. You live and you learn. Make your life worthwhile and worth sharing.

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1. Life is Too Short to Wake Up With Regrets

Photo by DeviantArt user karwahe

There’s a part of me that wants to drop everything I’m doing on a daily basis, give it up, and do something that truly makes me happy (or that I think will make me happy). I want to forget about the past and everything that has happened and start a clean slate. As much as I want to do that today; start fresh and pretend like it’s a whole new life, I won’t. Why? Because there’s doubt running through my head. Then I start thinking about how this doubt is able to spawn within my own thoughts. Where is this all coming from? Me. I’m slowly letting it happen to myself.

I believe that self-doubt presents itself within our thoughts, minds, and through our emotions because we let society influence our lives. The inevitable will occur whether or not it’s through your family, friends, government, etc. So let me repeat myself again…OUR LIVES. Something of which we have complete control over, but for some odd reason let society and other people dictate what we do with this thing so called life. One of the few things we only have one of. Now, please explain to me why we’re letting society set expectations for ourselves when we should be setting our own expectations and defying the conventional way to do things? Why do we let others control what we do and how we do it (influenced decisions because of a fear or doubt that the way you want to do something may not be acceptable)? By this I mean, we may believe in something but get told that that something is not possible or it’s stupid. This leads into the why do we ultimately base our decisions from these critics? We live once. Ignore them and pursue your dreams. Our most valuable asset in this life is time. It’s this intangible concept that we can’t put a price on or say to someone “hey, I’m going to the bank to withdraw more time!” It just doesn’t happen like that.

Forgetting about the past and starting fresh may be scary for some. It’s hard, but the truth is it’s the past. Let go and move on. Great people have come into my life and for that I am grateful. Whether or not some of these people will be a factor in my life in the future, only God knows. What I have learned, however, is to surround yourself by like-minded individuals who will constantly and consistently challenge you by pushing you to your limits in regards to all aspects of life (you interpret that how you’d like). Ultimately, the qualities of trust and character are two key ingredients (and variables?) that you must find and learn about with another individual.

I decided to include this into the post as well because it’s what’s going through my head right now. I know if I put it off I’ll forget about it and won’t write about it either. Along the lines of being “happy” and in constant search for this other concept, which is also intangible like life, that I hope to experience and pump my veins with one day. And I would also like to share happiness with those I care about. The ones who have been there for me through thick and thin. The ones who have shun a positive light when I may have been sitting in a dimly lit or dark room. You know who you are.

In recent posts you’ve seen me write about how I’m going to start a business and this and that. Blah blah blah, right? This is, I guess in some way, my journey to hopefully hop on the right path in the pursuit of happyness and to find a passion that I truly care about.

As you’ve read in previous posts I thought happiness was getting rich and living the lifestyle of a celebrity or athlete. I also thought that getting rich was going to happen quickly. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works and it’s hard for me to accept, but these last few years have put things into perspective and I’ve accepted the fact that I’m not going to be a millionaire by the end of this year. Damn. What I’ve learned is that it takes commitment, hard work, dedication, and passion to make something into a reality. You want to build a business? Great! Well, ask yourself what you’re going to need to do in order to start that business. For most of us, myself included, we haven’t started a business or gone through the trials and tribulations that our predecessors have. I truly believe that you can’t understand something to the fullest extent until you’ve actually experienced it yourself. You’ve experienced something, learned from it, and now you have the knowledge and a new acquired skill set for the future. You’ll have a new found understanding that you didn’t have before. You’ll probably be thinking, “Wow, my parents were actually right!” Getting rich isn’t just about money either. You can be rich with the right people in your life (wow that was corny..sorry)!

It’s almost been a year since I graduated. No, not high school (since people still say I look 18)…yes…college! This is my experience that I’ve gone through. I know some of you probably haven’t experienced “real life” yet, and I don’t expect you to understand what I’m saying here. I’m not all that wise yet, either. Maybe one day I’ll be able to grow a long grey berard and look wise I probably sound like your parents or professors right now, whatever I’m saying right now is probably going in one ear out the other. Then you have that ah hah! moment where you realize, “HOLY SH*T thaaaaaat’s what they were talking about.” So here it goes…

What I learned and applied in the classroom taught me absolutely nothing about the real world. Books with case studies that we read gave me the knowledge how to do the basics in accounting, finance, conducting research, and writing marketing plans and strategies…sometimes for made up businesses and the list goes on. It was a matter of who could memorize the most amount of information in the least amount of time before the exam! I sometimes think why I wasted, let me rephrase that, spent 4 years of my life attending a university! We could go back and forth about the benefits of attending college, this and that, but I don’t want to go there. Don’t take me as a fool who thinks there was absolutely no benefit to college. There was.

This is my experience. After graduating and sending in / applying to jobs left and right I realized one thing. College didn’t prepare me for this. Sure, the career center offered workshops on how to “fix up” your resume, write a cover letter, and how to go into an interview but it wasn’t the nitty gritty stuff. I showed up to a few interviews (never having done formal interviews in the past) and just like any newbie I was caught off guard with a few questions. My nerves were tense, my pits were sweaty, and I had no clue if the bullsh*t coming out of my mouth was even making sense. I was later asked back for a few second and third round interviews. Let me tell you, my classes didn’t at all prepare me what it was going to be like working a 5 hour day and analyzing data to the core with some of these companies. Especially since most of this stuff was internet related (pay-per-click advertising data, analytical data, eCommerce data, trends, etc.). None of which most schools don’t offer courses in, but need to adapt to our generation’s evolving technology and offer these freaking courses! Fortunately, I’ve taught myself most of this stuff and understand the surface of it all, but never really had any formal training or guidance on how to interpret some of the analytical data. I understand that we’re all human and should have our own level of competencies and creativeness. That these interviews are designed to see who can think on top of their feet and all that nonsense. I just wish I was more prepared [for the unknown].

Then we get to the part of my life where I started a sales job. I learned more at that job in four months than I learned in any of my classes. I learned basic sales techniques, how to be an effective leader, and time/territory management. We didn’t have classes in college that were geared solely on leadership, which is an essential quality for anyone to have in this thing referred to as life. This is knowledge I can take with me anywhere in the future and apply. And I paid how much for a college degree? I’ve moved on and am now working full-time as a marketing analyst. What I’ve learned in my first three weeks at this J.O.B. cannot be compared to what little I learned in the classroom or from reading a book. The pay may suck, but I’m learning and that’s all that matters to me. If I’m not learning (about something I’m genuinely interested in), I get bored. Fact.

I completely lost where I was going with this. But the point I want to get across is that you must build the necessary fundamentals to go on and do great things. Build a solid foundation to grow from. Once you’ve built a solid foundation then start building another on top of that. It’s like a…pyramid? Except your foundation shouldn’t get smaller as you build upon it! You can’t skip a level either, that’s just impossible (there can’t be an invisible foundation in the middle of two solid foundations!). It’s all about your experiences and how you utilize those experiences to keep building and growing as a person. Some experiences may be negative. Don’t ignore them, take something away from it so the next time you run into that situation you can avoid it or approach it differently.

This was a long rambling by me…I hope it made sense to whoever may be reading this. I have a difficult time expressing how I feel and putting them to words, but need to let my fingers flow and get it out occasionally. Thanks for reading this 1,805 word post. Until next time my friends and silent readers…!

On another note, this is one of my favorite songs right now. Surprisingly inspirational. It’s titled Breathe & Shine a mashup of John Legend’s Shine and Sia’s Breathe Me by LeeDM101. Don’t forget to Download this great song!

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What the heck am I going to do? I always thought that I would be making millions by now (it’s great to dream big!), but that didn’t quite happen. It will, I promise you that. Anyways, as I mentioned earlier a lot has been going through my mind. Should I apply to jobs? If so, which company would I be most happy at? Which company offers the best working environment? Which company would best fit my character, personality, and determination to become successful? In the company as well as from a personal standpoint. Which company will I be able to learn and grow as a person–professionally and as an individual? I’ve been thinking about my interests, hobbies, work ethic, experience, and knowledge and I’ve somewhat arrived at an answer to what I will pursue.

Everyone says that you need to experience an industry before you go into business in that industry. To learn the ropes so to speak. I’ve been interested in Pay-Per-Click advertising for a while now. Have I been successful? Yes and no. I’ve made money doing affiliate marketing, but I’ve also put in more time for such little returns. There seems to be this hump that I just can’t quite get over. I’m also interested in eCommerce. Basically, any way you can make money online I want to be apart of.

I’d like to say that my knowledge of the internet and it’s components is more than the average person. I know the very basics of coding, how to register a domain, change nameservers, manage my way through cpanel, installing stuff such as a content management systems (i.e. WordPress, which is the backbone to GreggHawkins.com), how affiliate marketing works, how to track visitors and the importance of analytics, how to create PPC campaigns from scratch; creating ad copies, keyword lists, ad groups and implementing them into Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM!) and Google Adwords, how to track affiliate conversions, how to utilize and import data feeds (just learning these), and much more. Even though I’ve had some success online (explain later) it hasn’t panned out the way I thought it would. But I never give up and will keep trying until one day it pays off!

So I mentioned that I’ve had some success. Here’s one example. About three years ago my brother and I were lying in bed, just about to go to bed, one summer away from college and flipped on the TV to watch some MTV before dozing off. There was this show, Newport Harbor, that was airing and was on the third episode. As I was lying in bed I mumbled something to my brother, who was on top of me (don’t get the wrong picture) because we have bunk beds at home, about creating a fansite for this show. The entrepreneur in me saw an opportunity that we could capitalize on and make some money, hopefully. Keep in mind this is the summer my brother and I taught ourselves everything we know about the internet. We were newbies. So what was my reasoning behind the idea? The cast members in Newport Harbor weren’t celebrities and this was season one of the show. Cool! We could probably rank pretty high in search engines for the cast member names and the show’s title. The next morning we purchased www.NewportHarborFans.com. I just recently let this domain expire because the promised second season never occurred and it was an unnecessary expense since type in traffic essentially came to a halt and our two expenses, renewing the domain registration and monthly hosting expense, weren’t being covered by our fansite’s earnings anymore.

Long story short, we threw up everything about the show. This included cast member pictures, biographies, episode summaries, video, and featured songs. It took about three weeks before we ranked in Google and saw our traffic jump from under a 100 visitors to over 1,000 in one night. Gradually, traffic increased to a steady 1,000 visitors a day and when new episodes aired we saw 3,000+ unique visitors reach our site. We were ranking #1 in Google for many of the cast member’s names, rank #3 for the term “Newport Harbor,” getting traffic from image searches, and other various sources. In about two and a half months we made over $3,000 dollars from Google Adsense alone. The only other income source we had for that site was our LinkShare affiliate links to download the featured songs featured in the show. If only there was a second season and my brother and I knew how to optimize, promote, and advertise a site like we do now. It was a great ride and experience nonetheless.

Anyways, back to the point. I’ve decided that, since I’m going to be graduating with a Marketing Management degree, I want to either work for a marketing and advertising firm/agency or work for an affiliate network as an account manager/executive. I’d be happy with any position with a reputable marketing and/or advertising firm or an affiliate network. I don’t mind working from the bottom up–you appreciate your job more in the future by doing so. Having done affiliate marketing I think I know what affiliates are looking for and can relate to many of their struggles. At the same time I want to start a business with a friend my brother and I are currently talking/planning things out with.

Though I don’t plan on working for someone my whole life I have finally realized that I will benefit greatly by starting out. I’m an entrepreneur by heart. I sit in classes not paying attention to my professors because I’m thinking of business ideas that I want to pursue. I visualize my life in the future, ALL THE FREAKIN TIME, living in my dream home with my family, having a successful business with my brother and friends, and driving my Lamborghini Murcielago.

I want to have the financial freedom to do as I please. I want to live free and be free.

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