Hello Everybody,
Richard here. I would like to share a few things about myself so you can follow my journey and be inspired to make your own full or part-time income from digital publishing.
So here goes
First of all, I would like to say I am not over-intelligent, about average i would say, …..very average, but I do have quite a strong work ethic, which was instilled in me by my parents and other factors involved in my upbringing.
My parents were reasonably poor when I was a child, and neither I nor my brother or sister received any pocket money, although I don’t think we wanted for anything. I do remember that we were the last family in the street to get a car…..albeit the smallest in the street.
At eleven years of age, I started work in a garden centre to earn some money of my own.
The jobs there were varied from laying turf, to digging out ponds, cleaning ponds, cleaning toilets, cleaning floors, cleaning out fish sales tanks…cleaning anything and everything really. I also sold plants, fish, and garden implements.
Great days, ……formative days…… how I miss them.
At eighteen I went to university to study Zoology, and at 21 having achieved my degree, I went back to the garden centre in a managerial role, where I was involved in designing and building water recycling systems for fish, including the exotic…and expensive…Japanese Nishiki Koi Carp.
I progressed from cleaning out ponds to cleaning out small lakes, and designing filter systems and water quality systems for these.
At 30 years of age it was time to move on and I went to London to study to become an osteopath and qualified four years later. In the holiday periods I went to work for a builder, where I was involved in digging footings, drains, laying concrete, hod carrying, and other manual tasks.
This was perfect because after studying for most of the year, it was easy to,….. shall we say, get out of shape. (Well actually I was in shape, just not the right one!)
A bit of manual work soon sorted that out, and at the end of summer, I would return to college as lean as a whippet.
I left college with a certain amount of debt and back to square one, as I had sold my house to help fund my course.
Consequently, I worked for other osteopaths as an assistant and also set up my own practice. After several years, I bought an old building to operate my practice from. This turned out to be a bit of a money pit, as I am sure I could have demolished it and rebuilt it several times over, due to the amount I spent on repairs.
Whilst earning an income, I put some money aside into a private pension. What a joke that turned out to be. After 30 years, it was worth exactly what I had put into it. I would have been better off putting it into a bank.
As it was the financial advisor, and the pension firm did very well out of it….thank you very much, but I alas didn’t.
Due to the continuous manual therapy, my fingers and hands started aching…..a lot, and I had to cut back on the number of treatments I carried out each week.
Consequently I started to eat through any savings I had, and decided to try and earn an income online.
And after many false starts, ….expensive ones I should add,… I finally managed to achieve this, and started this web site so that anybody wanting to make a partial or primary income online could do so, WITHOUT the trials, tribulations, and expense that I endured.
Philosophy;
As a consequence of the many and varied jobs I have had, I have learned a few things over the years, and I base my outlook and philosophy on a few guiding principles.
First, I sincerely believe we are like sharks, in that if we stop moving…….we die!
In other words we all need a certain amount of physical, mental, and spiritual challenge throughout our lives. That doesn’t mean we have to push ourselves to the limit all the time.
What I mean is that, we should at times push our boundaries a little.
For example, mentally learn something new, physically exert ourselves more than normal and spiritually, help someone out now and again expecting nothing in return.
But it should all involve an increase in effort.
One of my favourite passages in a book I read years ago is about a boy talking to his father, and the boy says, ‘Wouldn’t it be easier if we got all our dreams and challenges out of the way when we are young,’ and the man replies;
‘No, …….a person should keep dreaming all of their lives. A person without dreams may look like a person, and walk and talk like a person, but inside they are empty and hollow.’
Amazing piece of writing, I wish I had thought of it.
My other guiding principle is ‘ I haven’t come this far………just to come this far’
In other words,
I will never stop, I will always move forward.
What do you think?
Principles and a philosophy to live by? Or not. What is your philosophy,…what are your principles?
That said, welcome to my blog. I hope you find it useful.
Best Wishes
Richard