Perhaps it’s a sign of the times. In the past, people did everything they could to keep their personal and financial failures out of the public eye. Nowadays it’s the thing to shout about how you have you have overcome incredible odds to become successful.  People who were once bankrupt, penniless and poverty-stricken are talking about how they have built financial freedom from seemingly hopeless beginnings.

If you are at all familiar with the internet marketing world you will know it’s a common theme:  Stories pop up all over the place about how this chap or that single mom was only two years ago washed up and broke and is now living in luxury. 

 Probably one of the best known stories is that of Matt Morris, the founder of Success University, who was brought up in a women’s shelter after abuse from an alcoholic parent.  Before he turned his life around he was homeless, penniless and likely to follow his brother’s route to prison. 

Of course this is all good stuff, and makes great marketing material.  The ability to turn around a life of poverty and crime and create a life of success and riches is extremely motivating for the rest of us.  If he can do it, then surely I, living in relative comfort and ease, can do it too.

 Yet, perhaps such desperate backgrounds create more motivated people.  The leverage: the desire to get out of that situation and into something better must be so much stronger than those of us who actually have a roof over our heads and eat three times a day.

 Don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying that you can only achieve success if you first are living in a cardboard box.  What I am saying is that perhaps we need to find that leverage in order to get ourselves motivated. 

 Focusing on what you want is usually seen as more powerful than focusing on what you don’t want.  But sometimes we need to really get in touch with our feelings about our current situation to create the leverage to move us on to something better.

 Here are some of the feelings that you might want to move away from, to spur you forward into affiliate marketing success: 

Disgust – you are seriously fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck, making little or no progress while your boss is getting richer and richer.  When you look at your financial situation, you discover you will be 150 before you can afford to consider retirement.

Desperation – The daily commute is killing you and your annual sick leave is always used up by April. You are reduced to buying lottery tickets every week in the feeble hope of becoming a millionaire overnight, but you know it will never BE YOU.  Gambling is never the answer.  Choosing a secure future for yourself is. 

Fear – You struggle to hide the fear in your face when the plumbing starts leaking or the car begins to make knocking sounds.  Will you cover the mortgage repayments next month, and how are you going to afford the rising gas prices if your job is threatened?

Envy:  Your children tell you how their friends are going on a cruise for summer vacation with their parents.  You figure that nothing ever breaks down at their house either.

You don’t have to have a college degree to take the step towards future financial freedom.  If you are teachable and trainable you can start right now on that journey. 

Someone once said that when we stop learning, we stop living. OK, so it might take a little while to figure out HTML or learn marketing skills – but if you are willing to commit some of your leisure time to picking up some new skills you could be on your way to a better future. 

If having your own business is something that interests you, stop dreaming about it and get started!  There is very little to lose and everything to gain. 

Matt Morris did not sit around feeling sorry about his life and complaining.  Not for long, anyway.  The only reason he is where he is today is because he took action.  He decided what he did not want any more – and then he decided what he did want.

Take a leaf from his book: the key to building financial freedom is in your hands.

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