Just Go With the Flow
Posted On: 2009-07-09
Man what a crappy day this is going to be. I already know that this is probably going to be the only real piece of work I'll get done today ... it's not that I haven't got a lot to do, it's just that there are so many family issues crowding in on both Steve and me that there isn't time to do much in the way of real work today.
Now I could get rather frustrated by all that and jump up and down, curse, swear and generally be a total bitch but what's the use in doing that? It achieves nothing positive and just makes the day even harder to handle.
If I were at home I would probably channel all that energy into cleaning the house ... aggressively ... but I'm here at the office and this place is already clean. So instead I'm just going to do some deep breathing and try and stay focused on positive things.
That's not to say that I'll always take that rather meek line when I get frustrated. If whatever it is that's holding me up is something that I can overcome by getting a little angry then I will but in today's situation I really can't change anything so I just have to work through it.
If I go with the flow the family issues will be dealt with one by one and at the end of the day I won't be a frazzled mess and so angry that Steve will want to go and hide in the garage till I've calmed down. And right there is a lesson for new webmasters in this industry.
When you're first starting out in this industry you are going to find plenty of things that are going to frustrate you. Some of them you will be able to overcome by confronting them - maybe even getting a little angry with them - and working through them. Most of these frustrations will come from within and often have something to do with your lack of experience or lack of knowledge.
Channel that frustration you feel and you can overcome those types of problems. Lack of experience and lack of knowledge can be overcome simply by working at gaining the experience and knowledge you lack. That frustration that you were feeling can go a long way towards motivating you to achieve that experience and knowledge.
However there will also be frustrations caused by things that are totally beyond your control. Newcomers to this industry often get frustrated by the rules and conditions placed on them by the link list and TGP owners.
The rules that govern how many images you must use, the minimum image size, the number of ads that you can include on a site or gallery and the way that you can and can't link to your sponsors can seem very unfair to newcomers. They even seemed unfair to Steve and me back when we first started here ... but newcomers are never going to change those rules no matter how frustrated they become and how much they complain.
The list and TGP owners know that they control one vital commodity that every free site and gallery builder relies on and that's traffic. Without traffic to your sites you are just never going to make any sales so you need the traffic that the link list and TGP owners have and the only way to get it is to comply with their rules.
Of course there are many frustrated newcomers who think that they can fool ... con ... cheat the traffic sources into giving them traffic even though they don't comply with the rules ... but that doesn't work. Those people who think they can cheat are soon banned and without traffic their business simply fails.
So when you're faced with a situation like that it's no use stamping your feet, whining on message boards or trying to cheat your way past all those frustrating rules. You simply have to go with the flow and work within the rules to achieve your goals. It's certainly not easy but it's not impossible and while you're working within those rules you can be developing your very own traffic sources so that one day you won't have to comply with those rules.
I'm in no doubt that some newcomers are going to read what I've just said and laugh. They'll be thinking that there must be some way they can work around those rules and bypass those frustrations and if you're one of them then I would invite you to try.
I know that you won't succeed and you will end up with even more frustration than when you first started but if you're wise then you really will listen because this is one industry where newcomers really do just have to go with the flow.