Ever Have a Dream?Have You Ever Had a Dream? We’ve all had our dreams, our inspirations our hopes, but how many of us have ever attained them? Unfortunately, not many of us, me more or less included.
I had visions of playing professional baseball as a young man, eating, sleeping, playing baseball. I wasn’t bad … I just wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t a complete waste of time though, I loved what I did and met many fantastic people along the way.
However, there comes a time you must face reality and no matter how hard I tried, how much I practiced, I just wasn’t good enough. My visions and hopes slowly deflated, I always wondered if a big pop would have better. Like blowing your knee out or something similar, which I could have blamed for my failure, but no, just not good enough.
Another Dream Dashed I dreamed of being a writer. I’d burn the midnight oil, in spite of my wife’s protest, typing my little fingers to the bone. I daydreamed while at work creating tangled mazes of intrigue and mystery, then switch gears and try to scare the hell out of myself. If I scared myself, it had to scare other people.
God has always granted me the ability to be a scrapper, maybe because he knew I wasn’t any good at anything else, so even in bad times I was always able to somehow make a buck to support my family. 
It may sound like an Abraham Lincoln story, but I swear it’s the truth. I was laid off from Chrysler, I worked on the assembly line at the time, and to make money I used to cut, hand split and haul home two cords of firewood every day to sell.It was hardwoods, oak and hickory, so for the most part easy to split, but two cords of firewood, a 4’X4’X8’ neatly stacked was a lot of firewood even for a young man, but I did it. Life Trickling Away Some people say their 40th birthday was the worse, others their 50th but mine was definitely my 30th birthday. Why? Age 30 had been my symbolic magic number where I’d be well on my way to being wealthy and successful.
The turning of 30 with no indication I was going anywhere really took a toll on me, which keeping it a secret buried deep inside of me probably didn’t help. Hey, I was bumming enough without adding embarrassment to the mix. I suppose it depends on where you’re standing whether you consider not giving up being ambitious and persistent or being stubborn and bull headed, but I saw an another opportunity to make my dreams become a reality by investing in real estate. 
I’ll never forget the lump in my throat when I ordered the $300 Del Gotto real estate investment packet, which would show me the path to financial success with No Money Down deals which anybody could do if you just followed his advise.$300 at that time was a lot of money, especially when you didn’t have a lot of money to begin with, but the axiom of “It Takes Money to Make Money“kept echoing inside my head. Besides, I’d make that $300 back, and $1000s more, on my first real estate deal. I should have realized I was just trying to convince myself that I wasn’t a fool for shelling out that kind of money for a dream built on sand. When I received the packet of books and cassette tapes in the mail I was ecstatic. I spent every available waking hour listening to the cassettes and reading the books.
I entertained a few other Get Rich Quick Schemes like making lawn furniture out of PVC pipe, starting a residential painting company and selling Amway. All complete failures. As I approached the age of considering retirement I knew I’d have to get into something in which to supplement my income. My ex-spouse had laid claim to a future part of my retirement and I hadn’t been able to save enough to live off the interest or dividends. I was starting to feel panic. 
While thumbing through a Franchise magazine, I saw a franchise offer to own a Candy Vending Machine Business. The company would do all the hard work in setting up and procuring the sites to install my three stall vending machines. They were experienced in locating the most profitable sites and getting the business owner’s permission to place a machine there. All I had to do was make sure to refill the machines and Collect Fabulous Profits from each and every machine monthly. This opportunity was finally an answer to my prayers, an answer to my dream. A low maintenance business with big time profits. I couldn’t believe my luck. I’m actually so embarrassed as to the nightmare I got myself in to I’m not even going to go into it, except to say I lost my shirt. I guess the only good thing to come out of it was I had 5,000 bouncy balls, 10,000 bubble gum balls and three cases of M&Ms in my garage. Something I’d always dreamed about and wanted. Yeah, Right.
I finally gave up on All of my Dreams and like a little ground squirrel hurriedly stashed away as much money as I could. I wasn’t really doing too bad after I stopped chasing dreams and throwing money at them. The Last Straw Then the Unthinkable Happened. Chrysler was going out of business. The place I’d worked for 34 years and was my Last Hope of having a decent retirement was evaporating like a puff of smoke right before my eyes. I was devastated ! I felt like my whole life had been a waste and I was too old to change it or start over. It was with a very heavy heart and a lot of Fear I was forced to take an early retirement. 
Don’t get me wrong at 56 I wasn’t a pauper and I did receive a small pension from Chrysler, but the medical insurance I was supposedly guaranteed was for all practical purposes, gutted.Just as I reached the age where things on your body start breaking, I lost my dental coverage, eyeglass coverage, co-pay went through the roof and my prescriptions, which had cost $30 a month, ballooned to over $350 and was climbing. Another dream crumbling. Probably worse than anything was I was unable to financially help my two sons. I couldn’t afford to take my Grandchildren on vacations or buy them expensive gifts.
Playing on my computer became my favorite past time. The poker sites occupied quite a bit of my time, but I wasn’t very good at poker so that didn’t last more than six months. After playing for real money, playing for fun just didn’t hold any interest for me. The Jazz wasn’t there. I began surfing the net and checking out “How to Make Money on the Internet” sites. All you have to do is look up one site and your email in box is stuffed with offers the next day. My past experiences with money making schemes had made me some what gun shy of the Too Good to be True claims, but they did sound good. It was then I stumbled upon EBay and the hundreds of Turn Key internet business sites you could buy for literally $.99. I know that sounded too good to be true, but this was EBAY…it had to be legit. 
I scoured the businesses offered and did my due diligence investigating which business may be the best. I narrowed it down to Weight Loss or Going Green. Figuring everybody was Going Green conscious anymore I bought Green Environ a site selling environment friendly energy saving devises for the home. Maybe my dream was about to happen.The site looked great. Very colorful and already had items on it to sell. I had finally made a good business decision… or so I thought. I knew nothing of hosting fees, search engines or ad sense. It wasn’t long before my $.99 investment had turned into several hundred dollars. Six months later and $500 lighter in the wallet, I had not made one penny of the guaranteed $1000’s a month I was suppose to make beginning the first month. I Gave UP !!! Again.
I went a year without any thoughts of trying anything again. I was content with just surviving … it was what I deserved. Then the day came which nearly broke me as a man. My Son needed to borrow $300 to fix his car and I didn’t have it. A measly $300 and I didn’t have it. I was crushed. I was embarrassed. I was Mad…. mad as hell at myself ! Venturing back onto the internet, still convinced there was money to be made, I stumbled across a site names SiteSell. Never heard of it in my life, but I guess what caught my attention was they didn’t hype a Get Rich Quick scheme. Actually just the opposite. They kept going on and on about quality content and pre-selling, things I’d never heard of, but by this time I was accustomed to not knowing what anything meant on the internet. 
Call it desperation, foolishness, craziness or blind luck, but it turned out to be the Best decision I’d made since retiring when I joined their organization. I was amazed at the quality and quantity of the content, information and assistance which was available. The more I learned …the More amazed I became. They hand walked me through the entire process of building my own web site. Their templates are professional and very User Friendly even for an old fart like me. Have I made a million dollars from my site? No, and I really don’t plan on it, although it’d be nice. What I do have is a renewed hope about life and the financial possibilities now available to me. I have a partner in helping me try and reach my dreams, instead of one with their hand in my pocket. 
Listen very carefully to this please …” I really don’t care if you check SiteSell out or not.” I don’t say that with sarcasm … I’m just saying these people turned my life around and I honestly believe they can do the same for you.If you ever thought of trying to make money off the internet, or just having the feeling of accomplishment which creating a professional looking website or blog can give you. You Owe It To Yourself To Check SiteSell out. My best wishes for you and your family. I wish to thank you for visiting my site and hope you’ll return over and over. Sincerely, Coach B Click on the Link Retirement Below for Great Information:
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I guess in the big picture publishing companies and agents probably can’t take time out for a quick “Thank you for your manuscript, but it stuck,” letter, but it is depressing, not to mention expensive, sending out hundreds of query letters and sample chapters, to never hear anything back in reply.Another failure, another dream evaporated, I just wasn’t good enough to be a writer.
I don’t mean for this to sound arrogant at all, but I always that although maybe not being the sharpest tack in the box, I was in the top 5% and success would follow me. 
I spent hours combing through and trying to understand the County Legal Newspaper, which listed foreclosures. I spent hours on the telephone using their easy to use questionnaire guide, making a fool out of myself. I didn’t see it then, but I do now, why some people I called cussed me out and hung up on me. I was only adding salt to their wound of bankruptcy and financial hardship. I truly regret that.
I felt I was a complete Failure and had Wasted my Life!