In college, I decided to study Marketing. It seemed to be the logical choice. As graduation grew closer, I became more and more frustrated with what little I had learned. I was a bit fearful of the job market ahead.

After growing up in an entrepreneurial family, I chose to turn down the job offers that I received and jump right into starting a new business. What an adventure that was! I felt like the schooling had just started.

As we were growing our new business, I learned that what I really loved was technology. I enjoyed the parts that would terrify other people. I quickly realized that a key component of any business was understanding databases. That’s where I turned my attention.

To my surprise, I discovered companies were willing to pay me to do stuff that I thought was fun. What a shock! I started consulting as a source of side income, while I was growing my own business. More about that later…

Back to the business. We were growing quickly and so were my headaches. I remember one week in particular that just about sent me over the edge. I was 26 years old and had 35 employees. I didn’t know how much more I could handle. An opportunity to sell the company presented itself and I jumped on it. I stuck around to fulfill my commitments and a little more, then I was off on my own.

Once I was completely on my own, it was a logical step to get into consulting full time, helping businesses build their databases.

Once I got started, I stumbled on something that seemed to be a killer combination. It was a very simple 1-2-3 approach that included the following:

1. Treat people with respect.
2. Know what you’re talking about.
3. Always be willing to share your information.

It seemed so simple, yet not many people followed the concept. That concept kept me so busy I couldn’t keep up with the demand.

While consulting was better than running a business with 35 employees, I soon grew tired of trading my time for money. I knew that something had to change. To get out of the hours-for-dollars rat race, I needed to capitalize on my knowledge.

That’s when I made the shift to focus all of my efforts on “information” products. Now I try to spend most of my working time creating information products. My training CDs and DVDs are specifically designed to take technical information that may seem difficult to some and present it in very simple terms. I believe technology is useless unless it can be understood and used by anyone.

Focusing on creating information products has been a huge change in my life. It allows me to work at home and spend time with my wife, son, and twin daughters. What a joy they are.

At times it’s definitely challenging to work at home, but it’s worth every minute. I’ve been blessed beyond my wildest dreams.