I’ve been struck down with a nasty cold this week, which has stopped me from doing much work.
Unfortunately, that means that I have not had enough time to write a second post this week for the blog, so instead, I have gone back through my newsletter archives and pulled out an email I sent to my list a couple of months ago. I hope you enjoy it!
I want to talk about a huge failure of mine. Something that I look back on in regret — not only for it specifically, but for what it represented.
Youthful Enthusiasm
My old About page here on the blog used to include the following paragraph:
I once set up and ran an information site called Florida Facts. You can probably guess what that was about. This was before the days of blogging, and I took great pride in my design and content. There were one hundred plus pages of original content. Unfortunately, I received very little traffic, and that little venture died…
I loved that site. I started work on it around 1999/2000, when I was just 15 years old. I put an astonishing amount of work into it. It was essentially a blog, before blogs really existed. I was getting barely any traffic (I distinctly remember being over the moon when I received a single message from a reader), but I loved it anyway, and I was sure that if I persisted, it would eventually come good.
Unfortunately, a few kids at school found out about the site, and apparently decided it was “totally gay”, or whatever the vernacular was at the time. Cue a torrent of email abuse, followed by a knee-jerk “Screw this, I don’t need this shit” deletion of the whole damn site.
10 Years Wasted
Florida Facts died, and for about 10 years following on from that, so did my entrepreneurial spirit.
I had tried all sorts of things as a kid – buying wholesale and selling retail on eBay, even starting a web design business — but that drive seemingly disappeared overnight (only to resurface last year).
So my huge regret is “What if?” What if I hadn’t shut down Florida Facts? What if my entrepreneurial spirit hadn’t sputtered and stalled for a decade? Where would I be now, and what would have I achieved? If I had consistently been on the blogging bandwagon from a time before such a bandwagon even existed, would I now be the owner of a huge conglomerate of A-list blogs?
I’ll never know. And some people will tell you that dwelling on such regrets is a pointless exercise. But I disagree. That regret fuels a fire in me now to achieve as much as possible. To make up for lost time.
The moral of the story, my friends, is this – you’re never to young, or too old, to make a start. There are no excuses. There is no “Well I could do it, but…” There is only accepting the circumstances in which you are operating, and doing.
Are you doing? (tweet this)
Creative Commons image courtesy of yeowatzup
Joe Cassandra says
Hey Tom,
It’s great you overcame what happened when you were younger, and it’s great you started at that age!
I just started my site and I can’t imagine how far along I could be if I had started as young as you did with your entrepreneurial skills/talents.
I’m sure you get some of those comments now (as all bloggers do) but you look like you can brush your shoulder off and show them your income reports!
Cheers!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Joe — appreciate the kind words! 🙂
Aaron Woodyear says
Nice post. As many people say, it’s not a failure, it’s a learning experience. Imagine if you never built that first site, you might never have made LWB.
Hope you feel better!
Tom Ewer says
Quite right Aaron. Thanks!
Cari Mostert says
Hey Tom, Spent the last hour catching up with you – four maybe 5 posts! Must just say “Thanks” for all the valuable insights and info. Specially needed to learn how to handle Twitter but this was awesome! We often decry time spent on a venture perceived to be
unsuccessful not realizing how each step is a building block in the current “whole”.
Thanks again and hope you’re soon over the cold!
Cari
Tom Ewer says
It’s my pleasure Cari, and thanks for the comment!
Victoria Rickert says
I hope your nasty cold is short and your feeling top notch very soon. I wanted to leave a comment on your email – What you can learn from Google 20% time – very nice to receive what comes as ‘permission’ to do what can be only pleasant and geared toward learning, without the need or pressure to produce. Love the concept and will certainly keep it in mind when my mind tends to wander or lose focus. Thanks
Tom Ewer says
No problem Victoria — best of luck!
Daryl says
Hey Tom,
Hope you are feeling better. I remember when I was a uni student, I set up a drop shipping business, selling items on ebay then getting the drop shipper to send the items direct to my customer. It was summer, everywhere was sold out of desk fans, so I decided my product would be desk fans. After a few weeks of research, selecting a supplier, putting up ads etc I made one sale! A grand total profit of less than £1. I got dispirited by the amount of work it took to get £1 and gave up. I wonder the same thing about that venture, what if I had just stuck it out, where would I be now. Life is full of so many what ifs that it boggles the mind!
Daryl
Tom Ewer says
Indeed — for me, the key is to keep the what ifs to a minimum!
Michelle Dale says
Hope you feel better soon Tom 🙂
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Michelle 🙂
Poonam Arora says
Hi Tom,
I am a new reader of this blog and I must say your blog posts are absolutely refreshing. I can so relate to this post. Way back in 2000, when I was still in high school, I had started a blog and really wanted to start an online business of my own. I spent hours reading everything I could but I could not follow my dream. I am from India, and my parents were typical Indian parents who with their best intentions in mind wanted me to study hard, get in a good college and land a good 9-5 job. Well I did all this but I always knew I was not meant for a typical 9-5 job. In 2010, I quit my job and started my Web Design business. I recently had a baby and I am so happy that I am my own boss. I have the freedom to follow my dreams as well as spend time with my family on my own terms.
I am catching up with your old blog posts. Keep up the good work!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Poonam, and congratulations on setting up your own business! 🙂