Everyone thought I was nuts, lucky, or both...

“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”– Howard Stevenson

A few days ago one of the new guys in the DC stopped by to chat about business and life. As the evening wore on, we found ourselves discussing a familiar topic– entrepreneurial loneliness. His friends and family think he’s nuts!

I could relate to him. When I got started everyone thought I was nuts too.

He asked what my people thought of me now, 5 years later.

I guessed: Lucky?

“Yeah it was easy for you because…”

Way back in 2006, after doing a little web marketing and reading a bunch of blogs, a simple idea got stuck in my head: you can make a living from your laptop.

The more I learned about entrepreneurship, the less it seemed crazy, risky, or even weird. It was just an option.

The opportunity to make my way around the world as an expat was something I valued more than living like the others around me.

I was also at the point where I didn’t feel like I had much to lose. It would have been at least another 5 years until I made my way to the corner office– and nothing against the guys who made it there, but I didn’t really want to be like them anyway.

Why pick a script when you can write one?

Every time you want to make any important decision, there are two possible courses of action. You can look at the array of choices that present themselves, pick the best available option and try to make it fit. Or, you can do what the true entrepreneur does: Figure out the best conceivable option and then make it available. – From Breakthrough Entrepreneurship (ref) by Jon Burgstone

That has a hell of a ring to it. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could move around the planet when you wanted and take on projects that interest you?

I think so too.

Of course my friend and I have been on the winning end of a million lucky breaks. You gotta be. So does the doctor, the lawyer, and the new father with the corporate gig.

When we heard about the opportunity to make money from our laptops, we believed it. We made it a daily priority and, one way or another, we made it happen.

I can understand how these things look like luck when you don’t see them coming.

But like I said, there’s a couple blogs out there that made it clear:

You can make a living from your laptop.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, I micro-blog on Twitter.

PPS, you can hear about the products I’m creating for entrepreneurs (including residence for entrepreneurs in South East Asia) by putting your email into the form below: