Preview - The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle [eBook]

Preface

3
Introduction

5
About Me

9
Entrepreneurial Principles andValues

11
Education

11
Creativity

16
Communication Skills

19
Integrity

22
Efﬁciency

24
Thinking About Time

27
Thinking About Money

29
Starting My First Business

31
Start a Business and LiveYour Dream?

31
Getting Into The Daily Business

40
Overcoming Fears

48
Fears and Doubts

52
I Am No Expert

55
I Don‘t Know How to Start

58
I‘ve Got Nothing to Say

61
Nobody Will Listen To Me

63
What Will I Do if I Fail?

65
Will I Make Money?

68
Others Are Already Doing What I Want

70
My Passions And Skills Aren‘tValuable

72
What Will My Family Think?

74
How Much Will I Have To Work?

76
Interviews

78
Neil Patel

78
Jeremy Frandsen

80
Spencer Haws

85
Josh Taylor

88
Arslan Khan

91
Matthew Magain

94
Elena Korsakova

100
The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle - Proven Ways For Mastering Every Challenge
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Preface
Hi I’m Jan and I want to show you how I changed my life by adopting an
entrepreneurial lifestyle.
I started building my first business in April 2012 and since then I have
developed methods to overcome problems and to conquer challenges. This
eBook will elaborate on what the root causes of most problems are and how to
keep your confidence to go on and successfully master new challenges.
What makes internet businesses successful is the ability to overcome difficult
situations. When a problem arises, fears and doubts flood our minds.
This is human and nobody is immune to this.
This eBook will explain how you can handle problems, overcome doubts and avoid
being limited through worries and fears.
Obviously, I had no experience in running a business when I started my first
company. Learning by practice I came to understand which principles deliver
success and which methods cause trouble. When you run a business, you need
to consider numerous things. It happens pretty fast that you get overwhelmed,
especially when you‘re starting an internet business for the first time.
The successful entrepreneur is able to keep confidence in even the most difficult
situations, to get the necessary knowledge just when he needs it and to make
the right decisions. Desire and motivation is the key to success.
I want to show you, how the REALLY successful entrepreneurs handle their
businesses.
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For that purpose I‘ve interviewed the following entrepreneurs and integrate their
experience into this eBook:
• Neil Patel - founder of KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg
• Jeremy Frandsen - host of Internet Business Mastery and podcast expert
• Spencer Haws - host of NichePursuits and creator of LongTail Pro
• Josh Taylor - social entrepreneur and host of JoshingTalk
• Arslan Khan - co-founder of i-Intellect Inc.
• Matthew Magain - co-founder of UX Mastery
• Elena Korsakova - yoga teacher and certiﬁed public accountant
You may have heard about these people previously. They are already making
their living through internet business. Their success stories prove that it's
deﬁnitely possible to earn money online running an internet business and to quit
your day job.
I‘ve also integrated interviews from less well-known entrepreneurs, so you can
see that success isn‘t only tied to big names.
Whether you want to start your internet business or you are already a
passionate entrepreneur, you‘ll have to face challenging moments where doubts
and fears play on your mind.
• Will someone listen to me, even though I’m not an expert?
• Will I earn enough money to pay my bills?
• Will the new product sell or am I wasting my time?
• What will my family think, when I quit my 9-to-5 job?
• What will I do when no money comes in?
It all starts with overcoming fears and doubt.
4

Introduction
This book is about overcoming struggles and roadblocks in online business.
Every entrepreneur has to face his fears and doubts at some point. Mine
determined my life for several years until I finally took action and started to fight
them. Even though I‘m only 24 right now, I have a lot of experience with
overcoming fears and struggles.
As I wish to provide you with the best value, this eBook not only contains my
personal experiences, but it also combines the extensive knowledge of seven
internet entrepreneurs. Their interviews will reveal the methods they‘re using,
when they face a roadblock in business. You‘ll see how and why they started an
internet business and what they would change if they started right now.
Some of these entrepreneurs make millions every year from their online
businesses and they are providing their most useful tips on how to overcome
roadblocks in business.
I started engaging in internet business, because my daily work as an employee
never satisfied me. Perhaps you have a similar reason. I bet you experience
days when you wake up in the morning and just don‘t want to go to work.
Can you imagine waking up with pain in your stomach every morning because
of the aversion you have to your job? Do you know what it feels like coming
home after your job and complaining about your co-workers and your
employer?
That was my daily routine for almost 5 years! I realized quickly, that I had to
change something in my life, but I was afraid of taking action. Abrogating your
employment isn‘t easy when you have no alternative income is it?
I knew that didn’t want to work from 9-to-5 for the rest of my life. I wanted to
work on something that would satisfy me and that would help others. I wanted
to decide for myself on my working times and to have full control over my free
time. I was sick of the stomach aches every morning and the bad moods every
evening. Wouldn‘t you feel the same way?
Do you know the feeling when you look at your bank account every month and
you ask yourself why you are still working for your employer?
I compared myself to my fellow colleagues, who made much more money than I
did each year.
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Analyzing my options on what action I could take, I realized, that I was definitely
selling myself short. You might guess that my way out of this trouble would be
an internet business. As I had a degree in business informatics, it was clear that
I wanted to earn my money online.
The first thing I learned was that my degree was mostly useless to me.
I had to learn new things, that my degree didn’t cover and so I started with
close to zero knowledge.
Though I had some experience in web programming and website design, that’s
not the knowledge that decides on success in internet business.
There’s no reason for you to worry, if you have no experience with the technical
aspects. It’s even better to begin with no specific knowledge, because it helps
you to focus on the important things. You can outsource programming and
website design to experts. That‘s the way everybody does it and I‘m doing it as
well.
What’s important for your success is your strategy, the way you connect with
your audience and the help you provide for your audience. There’s no need to
have an MBA or any other degree. The universe doesn’t care about your
educational degrees (cite from The Millionaire Fastlane by
MJ deMarco1).
Life only cares about the actions you take to influence your future!
The great thing concerning internet business, is that is doesn’t require much
time, when it’s running. You can use it to generate some passive income while
working your daily job - if you like to. So you have no risk to take and can build
up your internet business slowly and consistently. Once you’re earning enough
money to pay your bills, you can easily quit your job and start concentrating on
your passion.
That’s exactly the way I’m going. I founded a web design company and after a
year of earning money, working hard and having little spare time, I’ve decided to
switch my business model to online business. Right now I‘m working part-time
to have secure income and I’m building up my internet business on the side. I
can’t wait to get to the point, when I can quit my job and can finally live the life
of my dreams. You don‘t need to quit your job to build your online business. You
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1 You can buy this book here: http://amzn.to/12Uu93Z

can make the first steps while being employed and only resign once your
internet business pays all of your bills.
It was a long and painful way until I finally made the decision to escape my 9-
to-5 job. I was really scared to take action and tell my boss, that I only wanted
to work part time.
On my way I learned, that those fears are human and it’s ok, to have them.
I just had to prevent myself from getting paralyzed with fear!
You‘ll see how I’ve conquered my fears and turned them into motivation. I’m not
scared anymore but curious and happy.
I don’t want you to go through the same fears and doubts as I did after
founding my company back in April 2012. It took me over a year to develop all
my methods and strategies that helped me to keep going.
Let this book inspire you to look at your situation in a different way. I bet you’ll
discover a lot of potential waiting to be unleashed. Although your potential may
not be obvious to you right now, almost everyone has a passion that pushes
him or her forward.
I’m not telling you to just follow your dreams, because that‘s not the way it
works.
Why should someone care about your dreams and pay you for dreaming?
Rather than blindly following your dreams, you need to help others and to
provide value to them.
This lesson took me several months to understand. Suddenly it hit me like a
hammer.
When I would be able to help others, I maybe could earn some money. I‘m sick
of the people that promise you pie in the sky and sell crappy products. In this
eBook you‘ll find only information and methods that work. I‘m revealing all the
big mistakes that I made with my company and every wrong decision related to
business.
You don’t need to make the same mistakes that I did!
Wise men learn by other men‘s mistakes, fools by their own - H.G. Bohn
7

Summary:
1. Being successful means taking action even when you‘re scared.
2. Others are proving the concept, so you can be successful as well.
3. You need to overcome your personal doubts and just take action.
4. Use my story as inspiration and an example for failing and
starting over.
5. Read the interviews and practice the methods practiced
by the millionaires.
8

About Me
Let me tell you more about me. I want to state, why I started with an internet
business and what values and principles I value most essential for
entrepreneurs.
Education is of course your foundation. This is where your values are defined
and the base for every single decision you’ll make is set. Your parents because
they nurtured you are probably your biggest influence. Family and friends also
play a very important role. I suppose you’ve heard sometimes, that your
environment forms you and this is totally correct!
I learned to always work hard, whether at school or later in my integrated
degree program. The fact that I was always attentive in class, conscientious
regarding my lessons and keen to learn a lot, led to me being one of the best
pupils in my class. I‘m not that brilliant, that everything fell into place for me. I
was ambitious to be one of the best and so I worked hard for it.
As a pupil I wanted to work in a normal 9-to-5 job and wasted no thought
regarding online business. Getting a good salary and ensuring my future in this
way seemed to be the only way to go. There was no thought about ever
becoming self-employed.
After I finished my A-levels I began an integrated degree program for Business
Informatics. This seemed to be a good way to ensure getting a job in the future.
Though I knew that the salaries are really low in East Frisia, I found employment
in an IT company in Norden. This was the first time I had some doubts whether I really
could reach my goal of earning lots of money being employed.
I hoped that my company would pay me well if I finished my integrated degree
program with good results. So the hard work for my education continued.
The integrated degree program included an apprenticeship to become an
information technology officer and a degree course for Business Informatics at
the same time. As you can imagine, I had almost no spare time for three years.
Hoping that this hard work would pay out, I was motivated to become one of
the best students in my class. Concentrating on my studies, I had a final degree
with an average of 1.9, which made me actually the third best student taking
the course.
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Unfortunately I learned the most important lesson right after ﬁnishing the
integrated degree program. The average salary for this degree throughout
Germany has been between 36,000 € and 42,000 € per year. This seemed a lot
of money to me and I was sure, that I could earn close to this in the company
that employed me. Since I was one of the best students, I reasoned that they
would pay me a fair salary.
Damn, I was young and naive. I got 24,000 € per year, in gross. Can you
imagine how I felt after being told what I would earn? I was shocked and I was
angry, that my boss obviously didn‘t recognize how hard I worked for my
degree or that he simply didn‘t care.
My principles collapsed. Why did my hard work not lead to a fair salary? Why
did my fellow students get 36,000 € per year when I got only
24,000 €?
This was when I made my commitment to become my own boss.
You can tell that I won‘t ever let this happen again. My ambition to learn and
work even harder increased. Giving up my goal of earning a large salary and
living a comfortable lifestyle was never an option. This was when I understood,
that employment could only be the wrong option for me. Please excuse the long
run back into my nurture, but I wanted you to understand, why long-term
employment did not work for me.
Summary:
1. You‘ll have to work hard for your success. There will be devastating
moments that you‘ll have to overcome.
2. Education starts right after graduating.
3. In employment you totally depend on your boss.
That‘s not for me.
10

Entrepreneurial Principles andValues
Education
Education is probably the most important aspect in an entrepreneur’s life. It
starts after graduating and it never stops. I‘m most likely a good example for
this statement. Right after finishing my integrated degree program, I made the
decision to work independently. I had to start learning and informing myself
about business formation, raising capital, developing products, targeting
markets, the newest webdesign trends and technologies and so on and so
forth.
After my first company didn‘t work out as expected, I did a 180. Dismissing
nearly all the services and products I offered previously, my company started to
get involved in internet business. I had to start with zero knowledge again and I
acquired the essential skills for internet business from scratch. Some of the
topics I covered were marketing strategies, developing information products,
branding, SEO, social media strategies, and also how to plan and write an
eBook.
You see, I‘ve started from scratch three times in my life! The first time was with
my integrated degree program for Business Informatics. Though I was one of
the best, I decided to work on something different, where I couldn‘t take
advantage of my knowledge. After I recognized that my enterprise was not in
alignment with my vision, I began engaging in internet business.
Starting from scratch was one of the best decisions I made in my entire life,
since it frees your mind from prejudices.
Internet business is in a steady state of change. There are many different actors
in this market like search engine providers, SEO agencies, countless bloggers
and of course your target audience. You need to keep up with those and be
one step ahead in your specific niche. This last point is essential! Don‘t be
worried about learning all this information. You just need to focus on your niche.
There are no technical issues, since the software you‘re using for internet
business is especially made for beginners. You won‘t need to program or to do
your own graphic design. What you need to do is to publish content online and
for that you can get help everywhere and most of the time it’s for free.
11

Webhosts provide you with a ready to use homepage, allowing you to start
directly with your content publishing2.
It‘s most important to gain knowledge in your niche. Ideally you already start
with knowledge that makes you an expert compared to other people. Don‘t
freak out to call yourself an expert. This doesn‘t mean that you know more than
anybody else. Simply put you are one single step ahead of the masses!
Summary:
1. Education starts after graduation.
2. Constantly educating yourself is fundamental in internet business.
3. Starting from scratch is the chance to gain an uninﬂuenced view on
a situation.
4. Being an experts means knowing only one thing more than most others.
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2 A good webhost is Bluehost.

Ambition
Ambition means the ability to focus on a new goal when you‘ve reached the
actual one. It also means, that you never surrender until you‘ve reached a goal!
Regardless what problem stands in front of you, your ambition drives you
forward.
Entrepreneurs like you and me are simply not satisfied with the status quo. We
want to live a different lifestyle than what mainstream dictates. I have been
ambitious in my past, I am ambitious in my present and I will be there in the
future. As you‘ve read, I was always one of the best pupils in school, simply
because I am ambitious.
This kept going on in my integrated degree exam and also in my favorite hobby
table tennis I wanted to win as much and as high as possible.
Ambition means staying hungry. Like Steve Jobs wanted - and achieved - to
make a dent in the universe, entrepreneurs keep always improving themselves.
It‘s totally natural to fail. In fact I‘ve failed many times with my first company and
I it‘s only a matter of time until I fail again. The difference between entrepreneurs
and non-entrepreneurs is, that they are willing to retry and do it better!
You have the ambition to reach your goals otherwise you wouldn‘t need to set
them, would you? You can‘t complain about the challenge you have to conquer,
you need to conquer it. Thinking that life is bad and you won‘t make it is
counterproductive and you need to get rid of those thoughts.
My motto for living is: Reach for the stars. Even if you miss them, you fall on top of
the world.
It may sound weird or maybe even arrogant to you, but think about the real
meaning of this saying. When you set your goals so high, that you reach for the
stars, you‘ll have to take massive action to finally reach the stars. Massive action
inevitably leads to success. Maybe not in the first try, nor in the second perhaps
only by the hundredth. You keep getting better and better with every try.
MJ de Marco said in The Millionaire Fastlane: The sweat of success is failure and I am
soaking wet.
Your passion makes you ambitious, so you will take action. It‘s the physical
action that will bring you the next step towards your goals. If you only dream of
your passion, you‘ll never accomplish your goals.
13

You need to work hard and take one step at a time. Don‘t dream of making
thousands of dollars every week. Focus on making the first dollar and then
increase your earnings step by step.
You won‘t ever reach your goals in one single step, but with a lot of small ones.
Concentrate only on the next most important thing that makes your vision come
clearer. And then do it!
Ambition is what keeps me trying again and again. Having my company besides
my employment, I was working at least 55 to 65 hours every week, for more
than a year. It was definitely not healthy and I won‘t let that happen ever again in
my life. My ambition got me through this.
Looking back at this time I can say, that I‘m proud of myself. I‘m proud that I did
not give up.
I didn‘t surrender even though the world was crushing down on me and that is
exactly the feeling you will have when you‘ve made your way.
Being ambitious has more benefits than just driving you into action as it makes
you confident. When was the last time, you were in doubt about an important
decision? Ask yourself, if that decision you made would lead you towards your
goals.
When you are passionate and ambitious, you will align your decisions with your
goals.
Don‘t say Yes when you mean Hell no!. Trust in your ambition and passion.
Ambitions also allows you to take cutbacks to reach your goals. Take my
personal example. I‘m writing this book on an 3,000 € MacBook Pro and a new
iPad. I invested in this tech stuff, because it improves my productivity for my
internet business. I didn‘t invest in a new car. I‘m still driving my first car, a 12-
year-old Volkswagen Golf 4 with only 75hp as putting my money into a new car,
would have limited my business.
My money helps me the most when I spend it to grow my business. I don‘t care
at all what other people think about my car. Let them win in little races from
traffic intersections, I‘m the one who wins in life! I‘m spending my money for
useful opportunities, not for short-term goals.
The ambition I have is to retire at 35, that‘s eleven years from now. Then I‘ll want
to have enough passive income or savings, that I am able to stop working. I
14

deﬁnitely won‘t do that, because working my internet business is my passion.
However retirement is a good goal to bear in mind, when I‘m actually working. I
align every decision that I make with this huge goal. Of course I will make wrong
decisions, but I just try to do it better the next time.
Aligning your decisions with your ambitions is a really tough process. Start with
the smaller ones and not directly with the really important decisions. Get used to
saying No, thank you!
It is ok to decline offers, because that divides the successful from the average.
You don‘t want to be average, so you can‘t act like the mainstream.
Follow your ambitions and let them push you into action. If you make a small
step every day, you‘ll accomplish your goals. You just need to consequently
focus on the next thing you can physically do, to come closer to your goals and
to satisfy your ambition.
That is what makes us entrepreneurs special. We ﬁght for our goals and we
reach them!
Summary:
1. Entrepreneurs never give up when working towards their goals.
2. Taking action lets you achieve your goals - dreaming and
complaining does not.
3. Have the courage to say No, when a decision isn’t aligned with your
vision.
4. Be willing to take some cutbacks, if they bring you closer to your goals.
15

Creativity
Entrepreneurs are usually creative people. Of course not everyone is a genius
actor, musician or artist. We are however all creative in seeing opportunities in
our daily routine. Are you as frustrated from following the same boring
procedures over and over again as I am? Do you also want to take control over
your daily life? Entrepreneurs start to search for their own ways to do things.
Regardless of what to renew, entrepreneurs love to change and improve
products, processes, designs or everything else that possibly can be improved.
Being creative means to express yourself with what you‘re able to do. That‘s
really a squishy statement so let me explain what I mean. Personally expressing
myself means to be myself with every action I take. It starts with such mundane
things like a haircut, styling or the car I‘m driving. I actually tuned my VW Golf
with new headlights to make it stand out the masses at least a little bit. It was a
horror to see other Golfs with the same headlights after I installed mine, but of
course the best way to make yourself unique is through your behavior.
• Which people do you remember best?
• People that behave like everyone else and try to maintain a low profile?
• Or the ones with rough edges?
• The ones that act differently than all the others?
I try to surprise one person everyday with my behavior. Sometimes I bring
variations in the daily routines, sometimes I interact with a person in an
extraordinary way.
I just try to vary their and my daily routines to bring some creativity in our lives.
Creativity grows out of focus. Nearly everyone tells entrepreneurs, that they will
get creative when the pressure is increasing but that doesn‘t work for me.
Maybe I‘m not the standard entrepreneur and that‘s the reason why I‘m not
more creative under pressure. When I must be creative NOW, I definitely am not.
Most likely you wouldn‘t be creative either. It‘s simply wrong, that pressure
increases creativity.
What‘s true is, that focus increases creativity. When you are totally in the flow of
working, the creativity is just coming right to you. Do you need a special idea?
Then turn off any possible distractions, get into a comfortable mood and start
working on one thing at a time.
16

Brainstorming is a great example for this process. It‘s all about getting into the
flow of generating ideas. You write down what comes into your mind and you
don‘t ignore a single thought, regardless of its relevancy. Usually that process
will lead you to the best ideas that you may ever have. Because your brain is
getting used to generating ideas and thinking the right way, you get focused
onto your specific topic.
When you are in this mode, your creativity explodes. Right now I‘m not even
recognizing what‘s happening around me. I wrote the last pages in one piece
and I didn‘t edit a single word. I‘m just in the flow of writing and I‘m writing
down whatever comes into my head. I know that this is another good example
for getting creative through working. Every writer will agree with me, when I say,
that distraction free writing is one of the most amazing experiences one can
have if you are interested and passionate about writing.
You can trust in your creativity. When you take the first or the next action, you
need to focus on the next important step. Don‘t try to maintain all the thoughts
and possibilities in your head, just do the ONE most important thing.
This focus will lead to high quality results. People get more creative, when they
do one task at a time. Perhaps some of you will disagree. Getting multiple
things done at a time only seems to be faster.
Imagine you need to make cards for your wedding. You need to follow several
steps to make each card. First you write the text and the names of the receiver
on the card.
Next you need to stamp the envelope and write the address of the receiver on
the envelope. The last step is to put the card into an envelope and seal it.
You can do this process for each card or you can do each step for all cards
before going on with the next one. The latter methods seems to be the faster
method, but it isn‘t. Imagine you put texts on all cards stamped all the
envelopes and wrote the addresses on each, but then you recognize that the
cards don‘t fit into the envelope. Another time consuming step would be having
a pile of written cards and sorting them to the correct envelope. Matching the
right envelope to the card you have in your hand can be time consuming. This
time is not lost when you process one card at a time. That‘s why processing
one card at a time will be more efficient3.
17
3 The original version of this example: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/most-powerful-
productivity-tip/

There was a professor who wrote on seven boards at once. When he stood at
the first board, ideas for the text on the third board came into his mind, he
would run to the third board and write those ideas down. This professor was in
the flow of working. He turned off every possible distraction and concentrated
completely. His creativity was that mind blowing, that he had to use seven
boards to keep up with it.
That is totally ok. Who tells you, how you need to work? Nobody but yourself.
Damn, you‘re an entrepreneur, so you can decide for yourself how to work and
how you focus best.
You can enlarge your creativity by getting in creative places. Maybe working in a
cafe like Starbucks is a good opportunity for you. There are shared workspaces
where you can meet new people and chat with them. Working at the beach with
the sun in your eyes may not be good for your creativity. It‘s up to you!
Modern technology enables you to work almost anywhere..
Even a power supply is beneficial but not necessary. If you don‘t have one, just
use an old-school pen and notebook. While doing website wireframes for my
company I was sketching them out on paper. It‘s crazy how paper sets your
mind free.
Have you ever worked at a flipchart? Then you‘ll most likely know what I mean.
Creativity brings entrepreneurs like us to new solutions. We have a sense for
existing problems in our community and we want to solve them. Using creativity
we can work in new ways.
Remember Henry Ford’s saying: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would
have said faster horses.
You have to show the people what they want!
Summary:
1. Everybody is creative if their own passion is involved.
2. Creativity grows under focus and not under pressure.
3. Don‘t disturb the flow of working to leverage creativity.
4. Never be satisfied with the status quo.
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Communication Skills
Entrepreneurs need to communicate a great deal. Whether it‘s through your
website, in Google Hangouts, on Skype, in chats or in face-to-face meetings.
You can‘t be afraid of contacting other people, when you want to become an
entrepreneur - unless you found a way to communicate and collaborate without
contacting others directly.
So what communication skills do you need to successfully interact with others?
At first you need to transport your vision. If you can‘t make your vision, goals
and plans clear to the person you‘re talking to, you won‘t succeed. It doesn’t
matter how you present your plans, the main point is that your audience gets
their desired content.
You need to ensure that you choose the right form of communication. Don‘t try
to discuss complex situations via text message or mail rather call the person.
On the other hand, you don‘t need to call someone for every little step that you
make.
Sending a short message is enough to notify someone about smaller
achievements or to confirm appointments.
Make use of clear arguments to point out your opinion. I find nothing to be more
annoying than persons who beat around the bush. Usually entrepreneurs have
limited time to convince their target. You need to persuade your audience with
few words regardless whether you‘re asking for an interview, pitching for
venture capital or managing a software development process.
The above was the process that I followed when I asked my well known
interview partners for their feedback. When I came up with the idea of
interviewing famous people for this eBook, I was really scared at first.
I was plagued with the following doubts:
• Why should these people talk to me?
• Would they even read my message?
• What could I deliver to them, that they would take the time and do the
interview with me?
I thought that the interviews would never work out. What made me ask for the
interviews was the will to provide massive value with this eBook. Without those
interviews I wouldn‘t have been able to show you how the successful online
business people overcame their struggles. Also I wanted to show that
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collaborating with the big people in internet business isn‘t as hard as you might
think.
The first one was Josh Taylor, a social entrepreneur from the UK. I read about
him in a German magazine and was really impressed by his courage. I knew
that he could contribute a lot of valuable input to this book. I also knew that his
Submersible Project4 was coming close to being finished, so he probably had a
lot to deal with. All it needed to get a Skype meeting with him was to drop him a
line through the contact form on his website.
This was exactly what I wrote:
Hi Josh,
I just read about your challenge from Sir Richard Branson in the German magazine
“Business Punk” and I really like your engagement and creativity. I'm writing an eBook
about conquering the fears before escaping 9-to-5 and start your own business to
fulfill your purpose. I wonder, if I can help you in any kind of way or if you would do an
interview with me about your motivation. I think you're a great idol for people
struggeling with their fears. And it would be my first interview, so I can learn something
I really want. It would be great, if you answer me. To get to know more about me, visit
http://mygreatonlinebusiness.com/about-me
or follow me on Twitter: @mygob.
Best regards, Jan
I didn‘t expect him to answer at all, but after a few days, I got this message
from him:
Dear Jan,
[....]
I would love to do an interview with you for your book! How would you like to chat?
Phone, Skype? You choose what's easiest and when and we can go from there.
I should be around next week at most times. :)
I'm on Twitter here too: @JoshingTalk
Many thanks,
Josh
The first contact was made and Josh was happy to help me with my eBook. I
was felt as if I had achieved something really big. I conquered my fear of getting
in touch with a relatively famous person, who has been interviewed in my
favourite magazine. How great was that? All it needed to get the interview with
20
4 The Challenge - http://www.joshingtalk.com/category/challenge-me-sir-richard-branson

Josh was to drop him a line on his homepage. What prevents you from doing
the same? If you want to speak to a mentor or ask a famous person for an
interview, just do it!
Even greater was my experience of getting in touch with Spencer Haws. He‘s
making his living online and I‘ve been following his blog for a long time (though I
never took action in niche sites). I had a similar experience to when I made
initial contact with Josh. I dropped him a few lines, where I introduced myself,
told him about my passions and asked for an interview. Though we made the
interview via mail and not on Skype, I got all the answers as detailed as I hoped
for.
What have I learned from this?
1. Online entrepreneurs LIKE to collaborate! They are not afraid of
competition, because they understand that usually collaborating is a win-
win situation for both sides.
2. You need to make clear that you‘re passionate about what you‘re doing
otherwise the addressed person won‘t take you seriously.
3. Always introduce yourself and show opportunities, where the recipient
can learn more about you.
4. Be kind, polite and encouraged. Acting arrogant or not putting it straight
will bring your message right into the trash bin.
Summary:
1. Every entrepreneur needs to be a good communicator.
2. Always be kind and polite, thus passionate about your goals.
3. Don‘t be afraid to contact the big names.
4. Brevity is the soul of wit.
21

Integrity
Personal integrity is the foundation for getting venture capital from business
angels. You won‘t get a cent if you‘re not committed and honest about what
you‘re doing. Make sure you never publish a fake business plan and you never
miss meeting your deadlines and appointments.
Entrepreneurs need to be credible otherwise they won‘t make any money. If you
publish information about yourself, it must be correct. If you claim that you‘ve
done something, you better have done it for real. Your audience wants to know,
if you‘re telling the truth. Would you buy from someone, whose expertise you
can‘t verify? Of course not.
So let me verify my statements so far:
• I‘ve co-founded my company Denksport IT in April 2012. The Commercial
Register Number is 202252, Commercial Register Aurich.
This is just basic information. By far more important is credible information in
business plans, revenue estimations and similar documents. There are some
key facts that every business angels want to know. I won‘t explain them all, but
here are some examples:
• How many visitors do you have on your site and what is their
conversion rate?
• How do you want to increase the overall visitors and their conversion?
• What is the cost for one new customer?
• How much revenue will you make in one year?
There are plenty of books out there, where you can get more detailed
information to venture capital and funding. One of the best books I can
recommend is Venture Deals: Be Smarter ThanYour Lawyer and Venture Capitalist5.
When you don‘t plan to raise any venture capital, you need to be trustworthy
and credible. Take my blog as an example. I don‘t claim that I know everything
about internet business, simply because it‘s true.
If I did this, my visitors wouldn‘t believe what I‘m writing in my blog posts. I
would just rewrite what someone else has written before rather than voicing my
22
5 Find it here: http://amzn.to/ZmRmwa

own opinion. This doesn‘t align with my goal to help other entrepreneurs.
Everything I write about is related to an experience I‘ve had myself.
Summary:
1. Don‘t lie. Just don‘t do it.
2. Verify your most important statements.
3. Use your integrity to gain trust.
23

Efficiency
Entrepreneurs need to work efficiently. We can‘t afford to work inefficiently,
because we have so many things to do for our business. Most of us don‘t even
know how and where to start.
One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs can make is to try to do
everything on their own. It is just impossible to write perfect blog posts, develop
the webdesign, and to create, develop, and design your next product all alone.
There are experts in the world for nearly everything. Outsourcing jobs to them
will leverage your business and give you more free time. They don‘t cost much.
I‘m working closely with a development company in Pakistan6, you‘ll read the
interview of the co-founder Arslan Khan later in this book. Arslan‘s company
developed some WordPress extensions for me, when I was working as a
webdesigner. Right now his team is responsible for designing this eBook. In the
future I‘ll definitely continue working with him, since Arslan and his team deliver
high quality products. For example when you plan to develop your own app,
you should consider taking a look into The App Shortcut7.
You can find great freelancers on platforms like oDesk.com or elance.com.
That‘s where I contacted Arslan initially. Interviewing people and checking their
previous work is a necessary step to decide which freelancer fits your needs
best. Maybe you have a community to ask whether they can recommend
people they‘ve worked with previously. Choosing the right contractor can be
difficult, since you usually get 50+ applications for one job.
Remember that the contractors are highly dependent on getting the next job, so
you need to be highly skeptical. The more the contractor tells about himself and
his previous jobs, the better it is for you. Contact their former employers and
ask what the quality of the work was like and what their communication was like
during the project.
You‘ll want to find a contractor who is as passionate about his or her job as you
are regarding yours.
Besides outsourcing you need to work without any distractions. If you are in a
home office like me, make sure everyone understands that you shouldn‘t be
24
6 He co-founded i-Intellect Inc. - http://iintellect.co.uk
7 http://theappshortcut.com/main/

disturbed while you‘re working. It‘s just like any other job, you need to be
focused on your work.
Working from home is even more challenging than being in an office. There are
many more distractions such as family, friends, the TV, and anything else in your
home.
When I wrote my exam, I tended to clean up my room instead of having to
work. I used the available excuses to procrastinate.
You need to overcome this. Arrange your home office in the way you would
arrange your office at work. Tell everyone that you don‘t want to be disturbed
while you‘re in working mode. It took a long time, but my family understands
this now and hey do not even tell me when the lunch is served.
When I‘m working I‘m only working. I don‘t want to eat, to talk with them or to
take a break. I just dive into my work and forget everything around me.
Do you know the feeling when everything just falls into place when you are
working? That‘s exactly the time when you‘re most productive. You only get into
this mode when you‘re able to cut off every single distraction and free your head
from unnecessary thoughts. Writers don‘t edit while they‘re writing. It would
break the flow. Characters just appear on the screen when writers are in this
most productive mode. You feel like you are a genius. You work and you can
literally see your product growing and growing. This feeling is why I became an
entrepreneur.
Managing necessary documents and tasks is a huge problem for some
entrepreneurs. I suggest taking a notebook with you whenever possible.
Regardless whether you are using a pen and paper or a smartphone app, you
want to clear your head of thoughts of your next tasks. If you keep them in your
head they will distract you from what you‘re doing right now. Remember the
deadline for the next blog post? You can‘t afford to forget the sending off your
next newsletter? Will you be able to publish your product in time? You can only
get rid of these thoughts if you write them down and organize them.
You could use the Getting things done8 principle. Let me show you, how I‘m
boosting my efficiency with this organizing method:
25
8 Getting Things Done. The Art of Stressfree Productivity http://amzn.to/11fG8XS

Every new action I need to make comes onto a list. From this list I organize my
actions in contexts where I can do them and to which product or person they
belong. Since I‘m a tech geek, I have my iPhone or iPad with me all the time.
The seamless synchronization between my devices allows me to take notes
everywhere and not to lose track of them. Once a week I check what I achieved
and plan the next week. I think that it doesn‘t make sense to plan more than
week ahead, because things change so quickly. Thanks to the internet, I‘m
interacting with people all over the world.
These conversations drive my business forward at a speed that I would never
have imagined. I try to take one step more every day than what I thought I could
do. So I need to write all the ideas, tasks and problems down to focus on the
move I‘m making next. The same goes for my documents. I‘m scanning them
into a document management system on my Mac. This again syncs to my
mobile devices so I have access to my documents every time I want.
I love this efﬁcient way of working. It allows me to create valuable products like
this eBook in a relatively short amount of time. Of course you don‘t need to
adapt this methodology exactly. You can adjust it for your needs or use
something completely different. The main point is that you work in an efﬁcient
manner and focus on one thing at a time.
Summary:
• Outsource whenever it‘s possible.
• Focus only at one thing at a time.
• Write down, organize and prioritize your tasks in to-do lists.
• Complete this to-do lists.
• Organize your documents, so you can have access to all the information
you need.
26

Thinking About Time
This content is originally created by the Internet Business Mastery Academy. I
want to thank Jeremy Frandsen and Jason van Ordon for allowing me to use his
content as foundation for this chapter.
A very important aspect of your mindset is your valuation of time. Time is a very
important resource, since it‘s the only resource you can‘t buy! There is no way
to extend the time you have on earth, so you should appreciate every single
moment.
You need to assign value to your time. When you value each hour of your time
at $100, it helps you to make decisions on how you spend your time. You will
start using your time for growing your business and spending time doing
activities you like instead of doing tasks you would love to delegate.
I assigned the amount of $100 to an hour of my time. Though I‘m not earning
this amount right now, this is my goal. So I make my decisions to reach that
goal and to do something that hopefully earns me $100. I don‘t maw my lawn,
wash my car or repaint my walls. Paying someone else to do those things for
me allows me to focus on my passions and my business. Of course I need to
pay someone to do things for me. But most likely those wages are below my
$100 per hour. I start doing things on my own if I would pay more than $100 per
hour unit. When I reach this border I‘m delegating tasks.
Every minute when you‘re doing something that takes you a step towards your
goal, is valuable. It‘s one hour, where you can have a genius idea that achieves
your vision of earning a passive income. What if you had been washing your car
instead of having this idea?
Instead of renovating your apartment, you could spent time with your family. You
could do things you enjoy and that make you happy. Remember, that you only
live once and you can‘t do anything to extend your time on earth. Wouldn‘t you
want to spend every moment with something you like?
When you set an amount of money as you’re per hour value, you start putting
things into action. Maybe you need to charge more for your services. Maybe
you need to delegate or outsource recurring duties. Maybe you start spending
more time with your family and hobbies instead of working.
The main point is that you can‘t do everything on your own. If you want to be
successful, you must delegate speciﬁc jobs to experts. Experts in the ﬁeld are
27

more efﬁcient and can deliver a higher quality than you would as you are a
novice.
Summary:
1. Charge a high hourly amount as your hourly value. You can‘t do every job
on your own, so delegate and outsource.
2. Spend as much time as possible doing the things that you love.
3. Don‘t let your business determine how you spend your time.
28

Thinking About Money
This is also based on content from the Internet Business Mastery Academy9.
Thanks again, Jeremy and Jason!
What does money mean to you? I see money as a tool to reach freedom.
One of my goals is to make more money than I earned in my 9-to-5 job. I want
to earn this money, because it makes me free. My dream is to live a lifestyle
without worrying about what I need to buy. Travelling the world and visiting my
friends would be awesome. And what do I need for this? It‘s the money that
buys me the food, pays my bills and allows me to fly to the US and forget about
my work for some days or maybe even weeks.
My perfect lifestyle does not include being a millionaire. It includes not having to
worry about money. I don‘t want to own three houses and 10 cars. A beautiful
apartment and two cars for me and my girlfriend is totally sufficient. What I need
is freedom which does not mean I have to have 20 million euros in my bank
account.
You need to understand what money really means to you. Do you want to be
rich because of being rich or because of being free?
Another interesting attitude to money is giving a part of the money you earn
back to poor people or charity organizations. It‘s like doing something for your
karma. I believe that if you give some money out in the world, it will come back
to you in the long term. For example every year I donate a specific amount of
money to Wikipedia, because I‘m convinced that Wikipedia is doing a great job
in sharing knowledge. Also my company is sponsoring the table tennis club I‘m
active in. Sports clubs are usually poor and my club fighting for every possible
sponsor. Since I‘m a member for over 17 years I know how important the
contribution is for the local children and adolescents.
Internet business is not about making money! Be sure that you get rid of the
thinking Time is money! Time is nothing but freedom, because it allows you to
do things you love. When you believe, that time is money you‘ll start to work
more and more. This causes you to spend the time working instead of having
fun with your family, going on a nice vacation, or following your hobbies. You‘ll
want to make more money in less time, so you increase your free time. The
mantra of trading hours for money, isn‘t working anymore in internet business,
29
9 This academy enabled me to quit my job and start my internet business.

because on the internet you sell products and information on your website. This
is going to be a fully automated process that works 24 hours per day, 7 days a
week, 365 days per year. You don‘t need to work actively to earn money since
your website is your selling machine. In the internet you can make money while
you‘re sleeping or on vacation with your family. The thing you have to do is to
create the value that you‘re going to sell. This is a onetime process, that only
get‘s reﬁned. It‘s not like you‘re trading your hours at the ofﬁce for your
paycheck.
The last mindset that you need to be aware of is the Survival Mode. Stop visiting
three stores to save a small amount of money when buying a product. And
understand that it simply doesn‘t make sense to drive to a far off gas station to
save $0.03. You‘re going to buy it anyway, so don‘t waste a thought about the
price. Driving to that gas station or store will most likely cost you more money
and time than you‘re saving. Think about the amount of money that you
associated for every hour of your lifetime. Is it worth waiting 30 minutes in a
queue for saving $10 for the product you want to buy?
The answer only can be YES, if you‘re hourly value is $20. If you priced your hour
higher, waiting would be the wrong decision, and only waste of your lifetime.
These habits are easy to say and hard to learn. You need integrate them into
your daily routine with some small exercises. Try to keep those thoughts in mind
every time you make the next decision whether you buy something or not.
Summary:
1. Understand that money is only a tool for gaining freedom.
2. Stop thinking that time is correlated to earning money.
3. Giving means caring. Consider donating a part of your income.
30

Starting My First Business
Start a Business and LiveYour Dream?
You may think, that building a business is just the right way to start living your
desired lifestyle. You are your own boss, no one tells you what to do and you
can do what you like to earn money. Unfortunately it‘s not that easy.
I made the decision to be self-employed right after ﬁnishing my integrated
degree exam. But I had absolutely no idea, how to found a company, how to
approach customers, or how to decide on the best business model. So I
started learning more about self employment. The imagination of a luxurious life
with a lot of money woke up a passion in me.
CreateYourVision
I made a clear image for myself, how I wanted my life to be. Knowing exactly
how you want to live is the best motivation you can ever get! This will wake a
passion in you and it will motivate you.
Think about your imagined perfect lifestyle.
• Where will you live?
• What people will surround you?
• How will you earn money and how much will you have to work?
• What will you do to earn money?
• How will you spend your money?
When you make this clear for yourself, you won’t be able to think of anything
else. This vision is, what will lead you through all the struggles. In combination
with the methods I'll show to you later that you will be able to conquer any fear
or doubt. It's likely that you won't be able to stop working for your goals.
Let me show you the process that I went through for deﬁning my vision. This will
give you an idea, what questions to answer to create your very personal desired
lifestyle. And you will get to me a little better.
For me the decision is clear. I want to stay in East Frisia in Germany, because I
really like the nature and I have my girlfriend and my family here, but I also want
to travel the world. My business must enable me to travel wherever I want. My
friends aren't only located in Germany, some of them are living in the US. Of
31

course I want to be able to visit them whenever I like. Additionally I’m building a
network of great people all over the world right now. They are living in Germany,
the United Kingdom, the USA and Pakistan and who knows who else I will get
to know through internet business? To answer the location question for my
perfect lifestyle: I want to live in East Frisia but I want to travel around the world
whenever I like and as long as I like. That doesn't mean, that
I want to travel the US for two months without maintaining my business (it
doesn't 'work' for me). That lifestyle would mean that I can take care of my
business from nearly everywhere. My business is going to be location
independent, as long as I have internet access and power supply. How does
that sound to you? Wouldn‘t it be a great lifestyle?
When I decided to stay in East Frisia I also decided, that I want a big house or
apartment as my home. Right now I’m going to move out of my parents house
(you see, you can start an online business from anywhere!) and to move in a
105 m2 apartment with my girlfriend. Though I know that this will probably be
too large for us, I’m doing it, because it follows my purpose.
I know that a large apartment will leave me enough room for my home ofﬁce,
also in a large apartment I will be able to create inspiring places for relaxation
and inspiration.
Right now I’m driving a 12 year old Volkswagen Golf, because I want to put all
my money into my business. The car is reliable and cheap to maintain.
You may call it focusing my efforts on my business instead of buying a new car. I
simply don't need it as much as I want my internet business to grow. My
passion is my business and I know that my internet business will lead me to
make my vision reality. In that vision of course a newer and better car exists. So
I trust in my business and wait for that new Audi A5, Mercedes E Class or my
absolute dream car - the Nissan Skyline GTR (yes, I'm a victim of dreaming of
myself driving a car like in the The Fast and The Furious).
You‘ll want to envision your desired lifestyle as detailed as possible. It‘s the
details that will make it come to life and that will drive you forward.
But how will you ﬁnance your lifestyle? Do you want to work all day like in a
normal daily job? I personally don't. Obviously everyone wants to spend time
with family, friends and hobbies. So do I. That’s why I’m building my internet
business to generate a passive income. This passive income will pay all my bills
and help me to afford my desired lifestyle.
32

Of course internet business is my passion and I WANT to spend time improving
it and to help other entrepreneurs starting with their businesses. I also want to
be in control of my time. I decide, when I’m taking time out and I want my
internet business to generate passive income even when I’m not working. Can
you imagine how great it would be to earn money while you‘re on vacation?
Now you have seen my full vision. You know how I‘m going to build up my
internet business and what my purpose is.
A great thing about generating online income is building up a relationship with
your followers. If you like, you can connect with people all over the world.
When you achieve their trust, you can really have an impact in their lives. If you
develop the products they desire, you have the full control over your income in
online business. It's even safer than your daily job income. When you are able to
release new products that help your customers, you’re doing a swap. Your
customers are able to resolve a problem with your products. If they want to
solve their problems, they can buy your products.
Summary:
• Visualize your goals and your desired lifestyle.
• Pay attention to the details of your vision.
• Let your vision motivate you and spur you into action.
• Make sure that your products help your customers.
33

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