The Entrepreneur's Advantage

I came up with the concept for this article while bubbling away in the jaccuzi at my gym this morning. So that the whole thing makes sense (I hope) I need to give you some background regarding my past, my use of the gym, and a certain domain name.

Part 1 - My past.

I managed to escape the 'rat race' about eight years ago when I started my own property maintenance firm. I haven't ever looked back and I'm not going back. I ran this business for about five years and achieved some success. Even though I was my own boss there were some differences between this business and my current trade (online entrepreneur). Sometimes with bigger jobs I would work at the same property for two weeks and it kept the customer happy if I turned up on time regularly. Unfortunately this also meant that I had to travel during rush hour and it meant less flexibility and spontaneity regarding the time that I started work.

I had to spend my work time on someone elses property which was sometimes a pain but I did get to work outdoors a lot which was a bonus. Another huge difference was customer contact. With my current career I only ever speak to customers via email (no ringing phone) whereas in the building trade my mobile was always ringing and there was obviously a lot of time spent in the company of the customer. Another negative aspect of this was the rise of the 'do it yourself' programmes on television. My customers seemed to have watched all of these programmes and were taken in by all the 'it's really easy' and 'anyone can do this' stuff. Almost every customer I worked for needed to be educated that my prices reflected -

* My skills

* Hard physical work

* Danger

These programmes coupled with the fact that elderly gentlemen find it hard to accept that they can't lift/climb ladders anymore led many customers to try and 'chip' the price down. Whatever the particular job was I had to continually justify the cost to the customer and it became a chore - everyone accusing you of ripping them off. They would say that all you had to do was 'this, this and this'. I would then have to explain that they had forgotten to include -

* The time it takes to collect the materials.

* The danger and skill involved with working on ladders/roofing or using large power tools.

* The reason they had called me which was because the job involved handling slabs or wheelbarrows full of concrete which would have put the customer in hospital if they had attempted to do it themselves.

Now I accept that tradesmen in general have a bit of a deserved reputation regarding pricing and reliability but it still became very nauseating trying to build a reputation when the starting point is nil trust and every customer wants to have a good old whinge at you - showing you just how badly they were ripped off with their last builder before you even get to know what work they require. Consequently I don't miss the building trade except for working outdoors and the physical exercise involved.

Part 2 - The gym.

I had already starting going regularly to the gym previously but once I started spending all day with my head inside my PC it was imperative that I kept it up. I see my gym routine as a two sided experience. The first part is hard physical cardio-vascular exercise and resistance training. There is a little in-between bit which is swimming and then there is the part where I reward myself for all of the sweat-work.

This is where I relax and pamper myself and replace the sweat by drinking lots of lovely cold water. I use the three different types of sauna - 100% humidity, 50% and 0%. I then visit the steam room and round it off with the jacuzzi. In my experience the second part (pampering) is just as important and rejuvenating as the first part (exercise).

Now I don't want to create a false picture - I'm not superman and I'm no angel. I also have my weaknesses. I like a drink (a bit too regularly) and I smoke like a chimney. Both of these vices I am continually working on eradicating but at present to no avail. Being aware of this is what makes me so driven with my exercise. I know that a visit to the gym is the one thing that for me which is most likely to stop me from wanting to smoke. When you do hard cardio-vascular work, such as boxing training then if you are a smoker this is when you are made aware of the damage that you have done. Your lungs hurt and you feel as if you will faint as your lungs struggle to rip the oxygen out of your breath.

The exercise also encourages you to eat well and helps you to get to sleep at night - which incidentally are two other things that I struggle with. Recently I had been so determined to get ahead with my online career that I was making all of the big mistakes.

I was finding it hard to sleep. I would get tired in the evening, then go past tiredness and end up working half the night. The quality of my work was lower and I was finding it hard to get up at a decent hour. This wouldn't matter so much if the rest of the world also went to bed late and got up late - but they don't. My diet was getting poor and I was eating less. I found it harder to get down to the gym.

Even though I was enjoying some aspects of this slightly eccentric lifestyle, I knew deep down that I was tired and stressed out. I started to find it harder to maintain a good mood and a cheerful positive attitude. Sometimes if I got up late it would seem that by the time I had really woken up and was ready for work it was midday and half of the day had gone. I knew from previous experience that it was much more advisable to get into a routine of going to bed early and then getting up early and going straight to the gym.

With a 6.30AM start I can get all of the gym stuff done including the highlight which is swimming outdoors as the sun is coming up and still be back at home with a hearty second breakfast inside me by the time most people are also starting work. I have found that the work I can do even just in the four hours up until lunchtime is better quality and greater quantity than a whole day in different circumstances. If I can just do this for the five working days of the week I should be well on the track to success and if nothing else - a healthy mind, body and attitude.

Part 3 - exrat.com

There was a time when I was (sort of) self employed when I was younger. When I left home at twenty one I went and rented a room with a guy and his girlfriend that I knew. He had previously gone out with my sister for eight years when I was growing up and due to circumstances he became a mentor for me and a bit of a big brother. After a few years in the 'rat race' he swore that he would leave the race and not go back to it - something that I admired in him and went on (later) to do myself.

I ended up working for myself and for him, along with many others on a 'contract' basis so I was (sort of) self employed. This was when I first tasted freedom from the rat race myself and I loved the feeling - I did go back to the race for quite a while afterwards before I left it for good. As I was still in my youth and had just left home we had some pretty wild times, often enjoying rebelling against the pressure that society applies to all of us to follow the herd.

During the summertime, if it was a really hot day we would take a day off and this would often include much merriment and a few drinks. The flat that we all lived in was quite economical to rent, not least because the front door opened onto a balcony area which was overlooked and about twenty metres away from the local train tracks as the station was a short walk away. We would often see our friends going to and returning from work on these trains.

One sunny morning (one of our designated days off work) I went out onto the balcony at about 9AM and my 'big brother' was sitting out there with his feet up and a glass of beer in his hand. As a train pulled out of the station to take people into the city to work my friend smiled, raised his glass at the passengers and said, "Cheers!"

"Look at all the rats," he said. That phrase struck a chord with me. I cracked open a beer too and joined him and also toasted the rats as they went off to work. I didn't feel that I was laughing at them, I felt that I was giving them another reason to question their decision to be a rat. I wanted to help them to leave the race.

Part 4 - Fast forward fourteen years.

In January 2005 my friend who was visiting Australia for a year asked me to go and visit him. He was leaving in a month to live in New Zealand so he suggested I buy the kind of ticket that he had previously used where you go right around the world. You can pick a route and then change it while you are on the move. You can add countries to your list and change all of the dates as you go - as long as you keep going in the same direction. He suggested I go to Australia for a month and then spend some time in New Zealand when he moved.

I had not done anything like this before but I was at a point in my life where it was more than necessary. So I went right around the world on my own - stopping in Singapore, Australia, NZ, Fiji and the USA. It took nine weeks and was one of the best things I have ever done. The main part of the trip was the five weeks I spent in Perth, Western Australia. For me it is one of the most fantastic places on earth - seemingly less troubled by the stresses of the rest of the world - well it is the most isolated city in the world. The locals say that WA doesn't stand for Western Australia, it stands for 'wait a-while.'

For me Australia also has some of the most wonderful and friendly people in the world. One of whom is 'Davo'. His name is Dave but as you may know it is law in Australia that all men's names end in 'o'. Anyway Davo is one hell of a friendly guy. To me and my friend he symbolizes all Australian men. He loves the ocean, barbecues, women and beer. He's not quite so keen on working hard all of the time - but does his bit when required and isn't scared of hard graft, just not all of the time. He has got himself in a position where he can choose - if he needs to, he works, if the sun is shining he hits the ocean and then the pub! He can't stand warm beer and goes to great length to keep it cold. He even goes surfing in an 'I love beer' T-shirt. Davo is Oz.

One day I was jogging with Davo at 9AM. We went North from Scarborough beach along the path that has the Indian ocean on one side and a main road on the other. As we jogged along I noticed this really strange contrast - on the left the beautiful ocean with a few beach bums surfing their life away. On the right four lanes of stationary vehicles. Davo turned to me and smiled and said, "look at all the rats."

When I came home to the UK, I bought the domain www.exrat.com I'm not sure what kind of website it will end up as but I wanted it to help people escape the race. We shall see.

Part 5 - Why I'm telling you all this stuff.

I was writing earlier that recently I had been struggling to maintain the routine at the gym. My diet was deteriorating and so was my sleep. This had not been helped by my new neighbours who unfortunately have a child who screams every five minutes. There is another child who joins in. They had builders who worked until 10.30PM for six weeks. They are generally very noisy and inconsiderate. Apart from the extra stress (I work from my home) it was not helping me to get my sleep cycle into order and get to bed early. Last night I went to bed at midnight (that's early for me) and listened to my new hypnotherapy CD. Throughout this relaxation CD I could hear screaming, banging and shouting. My rising anger was making me feel more awake.

I finished listening to the CD. The noise from next door continued. Normally I would get so angry that I would have to go and shut myself in the office, put the headphones on and have a drink to make me tired. This time I resisted because I was determined to get to sleep and get my routine in place and get to the gym the next morning. I eventually succeeded. I had about four and a half hours good sleep and got myself to the gym. Although, because I hadn't been there enough recently I was gentle on myself and did a little bit of lots of different things. It was lovely, including the outside swim with the sun low in the sky.

As I was lying in the jacuzzi my mind was wandering. I noticed how the crowd in the gym in the mornings seemed to consist of two types of people. I decided that they were either over 50s or younger successful business people. There weren't so many mirror loving body builders of my generation as there are in the daytime. The over 50s were there because they are wise. The successful business people were there because these are the habits of highly successful people. They get to experience the benefits of regular exercise along with pampering yourself with a little luxury.

I decided that these were the kind of people I wanted to mix and associate with. The wise and the successful. Not my usual crowd I have to say!

For me there is also one other benefit that means so much to me. I have tried going to the gym at various times - because I can. I have developed some of the typical problems of newbies who work online - working too hard, neglecting positive habits like eating and sleeping - because I can. If I want to I can take nine weeks off and travel the world - because I can. If I miss my old job and want to do some building work - I can.

There are many things that I can do nowadays - because I have so much more freedom. Not just freedom from the rat race, but freedom of spirit. Freedom of attitude. Freedom from anyone elses influence (as much as is possible.)

Freedom gives you confidence. It gives you health and satisfaction. These can be the ingredients needed to help create success and wealth.

As I sat in the jacuzzi I realised that this is the entrepreneur's advantage. You can totally shape your life to maximize your output. By putting yourself in a position to try and achieve personal success (for yourself, not someone else) you also create circumstances that encourage even greater success - as long as you apply the discipline required to exploit this freedom. If you don't have the discipline and don't fancy creating it, you can always follow the herd. If you rely on someone else to employ you they will happily give you good reasons (the sack) to get into work each day thus saving you from the hard task of developing self-discipline.

Part 6 - The end.

After I left the gym this morning I headed for the cafe to get my second breakfast. As I drove across the bridge over the motorway I looked down at the daily queue of stationary cars and thought to myself, 'look at all the rats.'

Find out more about Roger Davis at http://www.rogerdavis.name

Find out more about internet marketing at http://www.infogoldrush.com