To be successful working for yourself you need to be disciplined, motivated, and have a little bit of creativity.
When working for yourself you have a lot of freedom. Most of the people who don't make it working for themselves fail because they have a lack of discipline. They need to have set hours to show up for work or be fired, they need a boss to watch over their shoulder and knock them back in place when they start to slip. If they don't meet a deadline then they are held responsible for it. This is a lot different when you work for youself. People with no discipline will slack, say they will do it tomorrow, etc.. and never get the work done. When you work foryourself and you cut corners you cheat yourself and no one else. For the first time in their lives they will benefit 100% from their hard work but instead they cheat themselves, where as when they had the job they had to put in max effort to make someone else rich... doesn't make sense.
The other problem that occurs with a lack of discipline while working for yourself is the people who bust their ass and make really good money 1 week then basically take off the next week. The constant cycle of working hard, being satisfied, slacking, going back down to zero then busting ass again to make a lot to get at head. This could never happen in a regular job working for someone else, you think they would let you work twice as hard one week then take a week vacation every other week? The other problem is your wife, girl friend, family, friends. For some odd reason all of these people will pressure you to slack and work less. I am sure all of you have heard them say, " come on you work for yourself, take the day off lets go do..... ". These people would never ask you to call in sick at your job, but they EXPECT you to stop working when you work for yourself when ever they want to do something. It is hard enough for some people to keep themselves disciplined but when you have a hot girl friend, or a nagging wife, it is even harder to say no to them and keep working.
Motivation. Deals more with setting goals and trying to obtain them. You need to have high goals. Most people that don't have goals, by default they try to make enough to pay the bills. You need to have a reason why you are putting in the long hours and hard work. If you have a goal you are working towards it will not only help keep you focused but it will keep you working harder and harder and help you from falling for some of the pitfalls mentioned above. If you have no goals you might take the week off after you made enough to pay the bills. If you have a goal, such as buying a new house and you need a 50K down payment, then you are more likely to keep working more and more and not taking the rest of the week off after you made enough to cover your bills. When you have bad weeks, or you put the long hours in week after week, it is your goals that keep you going. If you are working long and hard and you either blowing the money, or working hard just to take extended days off, etc... you will eventually say the hell with all of this and just get a job.
If you are successful with motivation and discipline, then I believe in most cases you will make it. Naturally you need to have some skill and be educated in what you are doing. But even if you aren't, if you are motivated and disciplined then you will make the time to learn your trade or perfect what you are doing to the point that you should be successful.
IMO, what seperates the really successful people from the people who just do good, is creativity. Creative people are the ones who tend to come up with lots of ideas, out the box ways of doing things. People who take what someone else is doing and make it better. People who can combine two simple things to make 1 really profitable thing that no one else thought of.
Creativity can come in big and small ways. It could be a really innovative promo or way to convert trash traffic. Or if could be a whole new program or way to do something.
Those are the 3 keys to success IMO. The only forth thing I would add would be good business ethics and developing a good reputation. People can still be successful with good discipline, motivation, and creativity and scam people or never keep their word. The people who like to cheat and steal to get their way to the top usually don't last. It's ashame too because in most cases you know who these people are and you see they have the potential, they are creative with their scams, etc.. but they are too focused on the quick buck and go about things in the wrong way.
Anyway Let me know if you agree or disagree and hope this helps someone and all this typing wasn't for nothing
