From TyroneShum.com:

One of my favorite TV shows ever was HBO’s The Wire. The reasons why I like this show are too numerous to list but I highly recommend that if haven’t seen the show yet add it to your viewing list immediately (the show is off the air so Netflix or buying the DVDs will have to do).  One of the breakout performances on the show was that of Felicia"Snoop" Pearson. Check out sample of her work:

Obviously, the series is meant for mature audiences and may not appeal to many. But Snoop’s performance is fantastic in the series.  I did some research on Ms. Pearson and discovered that she would make an excellent subject of a Successful Failures feature.

Dead On Arrival….almost

According to her bio, Snoop was born premature weighing only 3 pounds at birth. Her chances of survival were low. Her parents were both drug addicts and were incarcerated at the time of her birth so she was raised in a foster home. If things weren’t bad enough, she was raised in one of the poorest parts Baltimore.  If you watch the Wire, which is set in Baltimore, you will understand how growing up in type of environment can impact your chances of having a successful life.  And Snoop was not immune to the affects of her environment. She worked as drug dealer at a very young age and at age 14 she was convicted of second degree murder for the shooting death of a young woman. Snoop served six years in a Maryland penitentiary for her crime. Given everything that she endured during the first twenty years of her life, it would be understandable if Snoop went the way so many people in similar circumstances have gone. It would have been easy for her to end up another statistic; doing more crimes, doing drugs, or simply another victim of streets.  But after prison Snoop decided to change things up and a chance meeting with one of the stars of the Wire led to an audition and eventually a part on the show. 

Sky’s the Limit

Snoop has expanded her success into other areas:

• She published her memoir in a book titled Grace After Midnight
• She has started a music career and has been featured on several hip hop songs and has starred in a few music videos.
• She reportedly has an album in the works.
• She runs a youth drama organization called Moving Mountains, which is aimed at stopping youth violence and keeping kids off the streets.
• She volunteers at prisons and works for anti violence as well as literacy campaigns.

5 Things You Can Learn from Felicia "Snoop" Pearson

• It’s not where you start out, its where you end up.  Life’s not fair.  For every person that’s born into a well adjusted, normal family there’s hundreds (probably thousands) that are born into similar circumstances that Snopp was.  The more able you are to let go of the past and focus on the future, the more likely you are to be successful. 
• Be open to what the Universe has in store for you.  I’m not sure if Ms. Pearson ever had any aspirations of becoming an actress or hip hop artist but when the opportunity presented itself she made the most of it. She didn’t let her past stop her. And she didn’t let the fact that she didn’t have any formal training stop her.  Seek out what you want in your life and chances are good that you will find it…if it doesn’t find you first!
• Stay true to yourself. Ms Pearson was successful in The Wire because she was essentially playing herself. She was able to take all of her experiences growing up in the streets and use them to her advantage. We are the sum total of our life’s experiences.  We can choose to use those experiences to our benefit or be victim to them and use them as an excuse for achieving our goals.  Successful people choose the former of the two. 
• Give back. It’s good karma!!
• Don’t mess with a Baltimore chick! I think this self explanatory! LOL!!
   

Historically October is usually a bad month for the stock market. Today is the anniversary of the crash in 1929 the led to the Great Depression. And back in 1987 the Dow took another nose dive in October. This year, the October crash happened to my motivation. Yes this month was a tough one. I still managed to produce quality blog posts, but it took alot to get them out. And I got concerned. This blog and it’s mission is my passion and I never want it to  feel like its a chore to do this work. Fortunately, I decided to write about difficulties and posted an article titled Staying Motivated is Bitch. I got some really positive feedback from that post and it has reignited my engines.I’m back to having fun trying to help people figure what’s the best best opportunity for them. I decided to make another post about being motivated because I’m sure I’m not the only one facing this battle. For this article I thought I would be good to give a boarder perspective on how people can stay motivate to achieve their goals. Here’s a few videos that I think offer solid advice:

How To Stay Motivated to Reach your Goals

How to Stay Motivated or Inspired to Reach any Goal

How to get Motivated and Stay Motivated

Jonathan Sprinkles-Getting and Staying Motivated Pt.1

First off, let me apologize upfront for my use of profanity. It’s not something that I make a habit of in my professional life. But there is a point where you just have to keep it real. It’s tough to stay motivated when you’re trying to build a business. I haven’t posted a business review in weeks. Posting unbiased business reviews was whole point of this blog. I wanted to help people find legitimate business opportunities. I’m still committed to that goal. So why haven’t I posted in weeks? Because of all the other crap that goes on in life that takes time and focus away from doing what I love to do. Just the back office stuff I do for the blog takes up so much time. Stuff like SEO and marketing work, looking for other blogs to build friendships with, and a host of other things that little to with researching top business opportunities.

And then there’s all the offline stuff that goes on around you. Family issues, job issues, personal issues—just issues, issues, issues! Who has the time work on your business and work out, or hang out with friends, or just relax and chill out?  And all of these ‘distractions’ serve to sap your motivation from your project because you may feel, like I do from time to time, that you’re not getting anything accomplished with respect to your business project. From time to time that quite voice of doubt that whispers in the back of your brain gets louder. And unlike other times you actually to start to wonder, “what am I doing this for? I’ll never make big doing this?” Or, “why am I wasting my time?” Sometimes the things you tell yourself to keep motivated just don’t work.

1. Realizing that this is only temporary.
2. Realizing that I can make through if I continue to believe in myself.
3. Finding a way to channel positive energy.

Interesting reading that you might have missed this week.  Read, digest, discuss.

1. Have you got the moxie? Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Forget startup capital, forget years of experience, forget having a huge network of contacts.  This article wants you to look deep inside of yourself and ask some pretty tough questions.
2. Finding Money For Your Business.  Not having enough money to fund your business is one of the biggest killer of the entrepreneurial dream.  This post outlines a couple of places to look for additional funding.
3. MLM Business- How to Make Money Online Selling Other Peoples’s Product. MLM’s are still very popular. And there are many legitimate MLM companies out there. The trick is knowing how to pick out the good ones. 
4. Books For Entrepreneurs. I read The Prince years ago. It might be a good time for a re-read. Never heard of the other 2. Can anyone share a few books that they think are good for entrepreneurs?
5. Your JOB (Just Over Broke) is Killing Your Spirit. This one is kind of wordy but I agree that nothing can kill your dreams of freedom and happiness quicker than a job.  That’s why its important to stay focused on your goals and take immediate and consistent ACTION towards acheiving your goals.

 Thousands of Home Businesses Are Started Every Year And Most Of Them Fail Within The First Two Years. Don’t Become Another Statistic.

After years of researching various ways to make money from home I have become convinced that the high rate of failure for home businesses has more to do with the types of busunesses people choose rather than the businesses themselves. What I mean by this is many people choose a home business for reasons like how much money they think that can make or how easy it might to run that business while maintaining their full time job. While these are valid considerations they have nothing to do with whether or not they will be successful in that business.  Every theory on being successful in life has at leadst one common theme: Build your business around your passions and success will come to you. Your passions are who you are. They help to make up your personality. So all of those people that fall for the marketing hype and go after whichever home businessses are popular for moment, are setting themselves up for failure. If you want to avoid making the same mistakes thousands of people make each year then you have to find businesses that match your passions and are suited to your personality. I can help you find those businesses. Let me you a little bit about myself.  

 Are There Any Legit Home Businesses?

A few years ago I decided that I wanted out of corporate life. It just wasn’t for me anymore.  I wanted to make a living doing something that I was passionate about, which was helping people.  But like many of the other ‘wage slaves’ I still needed a steady income to support my family. So I started looking for something that I could do part time to bring in additional income.  I’m sure you can image what I was confronted with; hundreds of sites promising to make help me GET RICH QUICK WITHOUT ANY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, OR MONEY TO INVEST. All of this while I sat back in a beach chair and waited for the mailman to bring me checks.  I knew these were scams and  I paid little attention to them. But I was amazed at how many sites were dedicated to these types of marketing scams. What was even more amazing was the number of "legitimate, unbiased" review sites that promised to give fair and balanced information and they turned out to be another marketing ploy.  

The AHA Moment

But even staying away from the scams I still found little success with the ‘legit’ part time ventures I tried.  Things like eBay, Network Marketing products, and one on one computer coaching. I even tried being a real estate investor at the height of the real estate boom. And although I had some successes (I made some money) I never felt like a success. It was frustrating because I saw other people not as talented as myself making money doing the same things I was struggling with and I couldn’t understand why.  And then I had my AHA moment! I was still trying to do things I was not passionate about  and I did not suit my personality.  I realized that in order to be successful I had to find something that felt right to me. Something that I was so passionate about that I would do it for free. Shortly after that realization I started my blog, the Home Business Private Eye. And I stated helping people to find and start their own home businesses.  And now I ready to take it a step further. 

I’ve This Heard It All Before

Right now I’m going to stop because I can image what you might be thinking. "Yeah, Dakim, remember those hundreds of Get Rich Quick sites you mentioned earlier? Well, I’ve visited them too. And I’ve heard all of the promises that they make. And right now, you’re starting to sound alot like them!" Let me tell you what I am NOT trying to do here:

• Make you rich overnight
• Give you a secret formula that only the richest of people know
• Sell you a product, real or electronic, that you have to then turn around and sell to other people.
• Get you to join my team and then have you go out and get others to join your team. And so on, and so on.

No, what I am offering is much more simple.  I’m offering to help you find the types of business opportunities that your personality is suited for. Why is it important to find a business opportunity that matches you personality? Think about your life. I’m sure there are things that you can do well but you have no real interest in them.  It could be a sport or an activity like cooking. It could even be the job that you hate but it pays the bills.  Now really think about these activities.  Do you excel at them? The answer may very well be yes.  But I bet that it takes effort to accomplish this.  Probably more effort than you really care to give. And I also bet that you get bored or frustrated with these activities quickly.  The reason this happens is simple, they don’t suit you personally. Now there are people you may know that can do the same activities from sun up to sun down and love every minute of it.  They make it look effortless. These people are not abnormal.  Everyone has some skill or interest that they possess that they are passionate about.  The ‘secret’ to being successful is to match these interests with the ability to make money doing them. And that’s where I can help you.

The Home Business Private Eye Business Matching Service.

Like I stated before the Home Business Private Eye site is about helping people find and start their own businesses.  The site gives truly unbiased reviews of business opportunities and a host of other resources to motivate and educate a would be entrepreneur.  The Business Matching service I am introducing takes it to the next level. I have developed a questionnaire that will help me to find the type of business opportunities that match YOUR  personality and interests. And when you are truly passionate about what you are doing you have a much better chance at excelling at it. Now, you may have come across other services that seem similar to what I am offering. Let me point few unique benefits of my service:

• This is not ‘feeder’ program for a particular service or product. I am not trying to steer you to one service or another. I do not benefit financially from any of the matches I provide to you.
• This is not a computer generated match service. Just don’t match you with whatever businesses are in your zip code. I handle all of the matches personally.  So it’s an organic match
• Each match is based on your unique responses.   

And probably the best feature of this service is that I’m introducing it at a very low price,  $49.95 $25.00 (Limited Introductory Offer for the 1st 100 customers) for 5 matches.  Why only $25? Because I am trying to gauge the market demand for this service. Believe it or not, there aren’t many services like the one I offering. In fact, I couldn’t find one the does it exactly like I am doing it. If you know of one please let me know about it. I want to offer the best service that I can so I would like see if there is something that someone is offering that I am not. So until I can get a better handle on the market, I’m offering to match you for a very nominal amount. To take advantage of this great offer all you have to do is click on this link to the Questionnaire Page and fill it out.  Once I receive your questionnaire I will analyze it and begin searching my database of businesses to find your matches.  You should receive your matches in your email inbox with in 3 business days. That’s it.  The rest will be up to you.

 From New York Daily News

Running a new business is hard- opening a dance studio during a recession may seem foolish. Food is a necessity;waltzing is not.  Bu the owners of a new ballroom studio in midtown, Elizabeth Chen and her son Steve decided to gamble.

The rest of the article details what motivated Mrs. Chen, 65 and her son, 38 to dump their clothing import business and open a dance studio in Manhattan. It also provides good pointers for anyone looking to transition to a new business venture:

• "We were losing money everyday". According to Mrs. Chen their clothing import business was hit hard by the recession. It’s important to keep an objective view of your current situation. Many times people can be blinded by emotional ties and fail to see the reality of their situation. 
• "..we didn’t jump inot this blindly. We did our homework".  It is equally as important to keep an open mind on the new venture. Things often look rosy on the other side. The Chen’s are attempting to capitalize on the popularity of ballroom dancing but they were smart enough not to assume that success was guarantee.  They looked into the viability of this business and created a plan to ensure success. 
• "He reached out to insturctors, students, and other dance studios". When doing due dillingence is key to seek input from all sides.  By seeking insight from instuctors, students, and dance studios the Chens will benefit from seeing the business from point of view of everyone involved in the business.  This will no doubt help them to make the business better for all stakeholders.
• "They could not find a bank willing to lend to them, so they relied on their savings as well as loans from relatives and friends."  Traditional sources of funding can be tough to come by during recessions. so you may have to go it alone. This is not bad thing. Having your own money on the line  wil force you to keep a closer eye on the bottom line. While it’s true that many small businesses die prematurely due to lack funding. This should not keep you from making the attempt.
• "The Chens are thinking of hiring a marketing manager". It’s a good practice to focus on your core strenghts and find experts to focus on other areas; people like CPA’s and lawyers. This may not be an option early into your venture. But it should be incorporated into your plans as soon as possible.  

 PHOTO CREDITS: NY Daily News.com

 Interesting reading that you might have missed this week.  Read, digest, discuss.

1) Where to be an Etntrepreneur: Entrepreneur.com posted this article profiling 10 start-up friendly cities and success stories from each city. Biggest suprises: Portland Oregon,  Chapel Hill North Carolina, and Madison Wisconsin.

2) Entrepreneur Thrives in Difficult Economy: Chris Hume combines his passion for design with his love for children into a growing company.

3) Entrepreneur Survival Guide: 10 Apps the every entrepreneur should use daily 

4) Mortgage Bake Sale Becomes a Runaway Success: New Jersery woman started selling cakes to raise money to stop foreclouse and it turns into a huge business opportunity.

5) 15 Ways to Take Action NOW!:   15 steps to world domination. If world domination isn’t your thing, then you could use them to help you get control of your life and move you closer to your obtaining your goals.

 Happy Friday!! Fridays are Fun Day around here, so enjoy the video and laugh out loud. It’s good for you.

BONUS VIDEO (It was a hard week, so I needed an extra laugh. You probably do too! Enjoy)

Happy Friday!! Fridays are Fun Day around here, so enjoy the video and laugh out loud. It’s good for you.