I sit here right now in a rather reflective mood, thinking of what the future may hold and what I’ve done to get here I may as well share my thoughts.

Of course this is subjective so apologies if what I say you disagree with. I only speak using my own ideology of success, and what I think the “price” has been or could yet be.

For the past 5 or 6 years I have worked extremely hard - harder than anyone I know in fact. I won’t say I’ve worked better than anyone I know, just harder and longer hours than them! I’ve had some catastrophic failures, and I’ve had some minor successes. But in my own eyes I am still a long way off from what I would be able to call a huge success… apart from my daughter Phoebe who is without question something to be for ever proud of, and it was so easy too!!

If I don’t see myself as a success now, how can I talk about the costs of achieving it!? I can’t in all honesty! But at this moment in time I am close to earning more than I ever have done, my outgoings are the highest they’ve ever been too but this is a personal choice so I won’t complain, it is also something which is necessary for me to achieve what I want.

I am also on the brink of what I hope I will be able to say in the near future was a success, I am certainly not baking on it just yet, but I do know of the sacrifices made to even make it this far:

1) Long hours. Without question one of the most obvious to point out, but with that also comes seeing less of your family. It is they in reality who have to make the sacrifices, having to put blind faith that you are doing the right thing in putting work before them. Never easy, and often very upsetting.
2) Stress. I traded in the mundane 9-5 long ago, and with it I traded the security of a steady income. The freedom of empty evenings and weekends. The ability to look at cash purely as disposable income rather than always measuring it against what it might be used for in business. Making this trade means you inevetabley can become stressed, especially when times are tight. And again, it’s usually others around you that suffer most.
3) Sanity. Not to be confused for stress! I fear now that my mind set is so locked in to this that even after I begin achieving the ambitious goals I have set myself I will be unable to stop. If this is the case I may continue working insanely until the day I drop - lets hope I know when to quit!

So, think long and hard about whether or not you want to be successful! Or at least think long and hard about wanting to gauge your success on the same scale I do. Granted most won’t, but for those who do you’ve got to be prepared to work longer than anyone you know, harder than anyone you know, continue even when everyone else doubts you are doing the right thing, and painfully you may have to force others to make sacrifices in order that YOU can continue on your quest.

All sounds a bit bleak doesn’t it! I guarantee there are people out there who would disagree entirely with me, they might have achieved everything they ever wanted without encountering any of these issues. Some people are gifted with extreme talent, but even then most will work hard to focus those skills. In business there are very successful people who have a talent in finding the talent in others, having them do all the work and making some of the sacrifices… but again even these moguls will have bust their arses in their early days before they became more efficient in running their businesses.

So, to end on a bright note… I am happy with the life I have chosen and the path that I follow, I am more confident than ever that there are big things around the corner. I know that those around me who have had to make sacrifices with me will finally get to enjoy the rewards with me.

Based on this kind of sensible and logical thinking Raef should be doing much more than… well, whatever it is that he actually does now!

I had the great privilege of being in halls with Raef while at Uni and am so pleased to see him do so well, and that he has not changed at all.

He is now so well known as “Raef”, but funnily enough while we were at Uni he always insisted to us that his name was “Ray”, like we were not clever enough to get “Raef” round our tiny minds! Hopefully this won’t be my only claim to fame in the future, but at the moment Raef is my best shout - keep up the good work.

Am sure to most people it will seem ridiculous that I, someone claiming to be some sort of entrepreneur would have spent 18 months devoting all my hard work to someone else. They’d be right, in hindsight I would not have done it, and I would not recommend any one else to sell out as quickly as I did (I didn’t actually get rid of any of my previous ventures but I did prevent myself from working on them)! I had my reasons which sadly don’t seem to have been worthwhile. However, I did for the most of it enjoy myself, I learned a little, and met a number of good people. So I am sure some good will come of it.

I’ve just come back from my week off, fully revitalized and ready to throw myself 100% in to all my business ideas.

So now its onwards and upwards. I have a few things on the go which I hope will all be ready soon, and will certainly be keeping me very busy for the next few months…. exciting stuff!!

I hope.

Sadly sometimes it’s just required to work through the night. However much you are able to work smarter and not harder, there are always times you have to knuckle down and work through, tonight was one of those nights.

Part of the reason for the updates is that the purpose of the site has been re-focused a little. It is now purely about my journey to £1 million, and my miscellaneous thoughts and adventures on this path I have laid before me. The site is not in anyway linked specifically to any sites or other projects.

I genuinely hope some people will be able to make a few extra pennies using my wisdom, or at least save themselves a lot of hard work in discovering something I have already spent time doing.
It might also help if a few people lose a bit of money along the way to balance things out! My influence is such that global economies could become hugely in balanced if this were not the case.

Besides its important to make few mistakes along the way. I make them every day (all deliberate as part of my self improvement program of course)

I am not worried about being tired. I always find it good to deprive myself of sleep before flying west, backwards through the time zones, this way I can adjust very quickly to their hours. As I am off to Miami on tuesday, just over 24 hours away I could almost claim that this was perfectly planned! 5am = midnight, a very reasonable time to be going to sleep!

now, back to the matter in hand, sleep, or no sleep…. almost perfectly I have a USA quarter on my desk….

heads = sleep
tails = no sleep

………….
………
…..
..

Heads.

The coin has spoken. “In God we trust”

Good night.

I hope not - because you know you’re going to fail!

The theory is simple, you shouldn’t need an excuse like New Years to do something about anything you are unhappy or unsatisfied with. If you were unprepared to make a sacrifice at any other time of the year then now is no different.

If you have made some and are still sticking to them give yourself a little patt on the back. Now give up. The Earths completion of another orbit around the sun will not change anyones abilty to motivate themselves where they could not before.

I hope you all enjoyed my motivational speech, I shall end it with telling you what my resolutions are!

• My resolutions
• Become a more efficient* - failed
• Be a nicer person - failed

In all seriousness, I did have a notion of clearing a bit of work over Christmas so that come the New Year I would have a slightly smaller or even non existant pile of work. I only partly managed this, but I will work some long hours over the next week or two to achieve it.

I have no specific resolutions other than setting myself a few very basic goals, these are silly things like: Buy a house, launch 1 or 2 new businesses etc….
These are things which I may well have been doing anyway, and do not actually require me to change anything in particular. But I do want to be constantly aware of these goals to keep me on track and so come the end of the year I can see just how many I have ticked off.

Off you lot trot then!, my rant is done.

* work shorter hours but get more done, sleep less but be more awake, eat less but have more energy.