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Entrepreneur: The Last Free American

Entrepreneur: The Last Free American

Along the highway in San Diego there is a billboard that simply asks in big black letters -- Had Enough? I have no idea whether the person or company that owns the advertisement sells cruise vacations or a better brand of Vodka, but you have to admit it gets you thinking on a long trip.

The older we get the more we hate change. The thought of leaving something familiar through repetition to start over again can be intimidating. There is safety in routine. Still, no one is locked into a relationship or a job. Free will dictates that your life is yours to live. You can walk away from either situation if it isn't working anymore, or better still drive away and watch it disappear in your rear view mirror.

Why is throwing in the towel so painfully resisted by human nature? Are we too embarrassed to admit another mistake? Are past screw-ups mounting? Is it easier to put off quitting until we're fired? In my working career I only got the boot once. But he did it with such gentleness that no blood was left on the carpet. He was wise enough to see my lack of enthusiasm; my readiness to fly. I thanked him as we parted.

Not all ideas are good ones. I-changed-my-mind is perfectly acceptable. Use it for heavens sake! Humans are natural learning machines. It's inevitable that we turn down dead-end roads. In time you begin to recognize the outcome before it even happens.

Failures and moving on are all part of the path of maturity. It's like trees in the Amazon designed to reach towards the sun's rays and soak up every bit of sunlight they can get. Not all acorns grow to mighty Oaks. The tree that captures the most sunlight, wins. It will be the tallest and the widest. No one said it would be easy.

The entrepreneur faces an equal struggle. If it was a snap there'd be no dilbert-cubes. Yet these free-thinkers hold a deeper understanding of 'going to happen' vs 'hope to happen'. They are high energy people with long term goals. And they aren't afraid to take a risk.

No better time in history offers the entrepreneur a fighting chance thanks to the Internet. So close your eyes, hug your computer's monitor and make a wish. It's almost that easy. If you're going to leave the herd and seek your freedom, you have to put one foot in front of another and start walking.

Currently 125,000 people a week go online in search of a Home-Based Business. This alone is an amazing statistic. As an entrepreneur you can now literally work from anywhere while seamlessly running your business. Not any of your clients need to know you are not in some downtown high-rise.

With the bare bones of a mobile office in place you can spend a month in Mexico or on an island in the Pacific. How about working today from a bench in the Park, or under an umbrella at Ocean Beach or a booth in Starbuck's coffee shop? Your office-bound clients and prospects will travel with you.

With smaller, more powerful laptops, improved Internet connectivity worldwide, and variety of cellular and web services to choose from -- we're no longer confined to the home office either.

Having brought a smile to your face just putting yourself in this picture, I must add that this freedom comes with the personal responsibility for your own taxes, social security contributions, and medical insurance.

However, when you can earn in one month what you have been earning all year as an employee, this will not be a hardship. Calculating your business-use-of-home income tax deductions should offset most of this anyway. Uncle Sam loves a business owner.

For most employees, losing their job is a fearsome and ever-present possibility. As your own CEO, you'll never again feel like you're walking a tightrope without a net. Entrepreneurs are -- the last free Americans.

© 2005 Esther Smith





Entrepreneur The Last Free American - To learn more about this author, visit Esther Smith's Website.

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Stephanie Robey
Stephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals.

She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com   Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences.  Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

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- Visit Stephanie Robey's Website

John Power
John Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website

Casey Gollan
Casey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website

Dianne Crampton
Dianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website

Cheryl Matthynssens

Cheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur.  Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well.  A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles.  She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide-  to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being.  Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com

- Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website

Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

Jay Kubassek
(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek)  In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.

 

As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)

 

Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. 

 

Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper.  Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website


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Esther Smith
(Visit Esther's Website) Smith is an accomplished artist with her online galleries, an author/publisher and believer in residual or leveraged income. Her eBook, Invitation to Internet Success, is free to all who would like to generate leveraged income. http://thepermanentventure.com/Inte rnetsuccess.pdf

Esther Smith is a Gold author on EvanCarmichael.com
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