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... then these are some of the personality traits you're going to need.

Steve and I tentatively stepped onto our first adult webmaster board back in 1998 and were surprised at just how many people there were on the board who were just like us.

We made friends with some of the people there ... we argued with a few ... we helped some and we did business with some others. As the years went on some stayed with us ... some moved on to other things in the industry and a hell of a lot just fell by the wayside for a whole variety of reasons and now there are very few of those original people we knew still in the industry.

If you're new to this industry then I can guarantee that you will have the same sort of experience. If you can last ten years then you too will be able to look around and find that very few of those who were here when you started are still around making money. There's no doubt that this is a tough business and the attrition rate is extremely high so what can you do to survive?

Well recently the Focus website published an article entitled '12 Characteristics of Successful Internet Entrepreneurs' and here are a few of the characteristics that I think are important for you if you really do want to last the distance and not end up as one of those that people think of when they ask 'Whatever happened to ....?'

Determination
You need to be determined to succeed. Oh I'm sure that you are determined ... or at least you think you are ... but how determined will you be when the checks aren't coming, the bills are mounting and the guy flipping burgers down the road is making twice as much money as you are?

Or how determined will you be when your server crashes and you suddenly find that you have no backups so all the work you've done since you started has gone and you have to start all over again? Add to that the blackness that's 3am when all your friends are out partying or sleeping and you're still writing code ... that's when you'll know how determined you really are.

Innovation
Are you going to be one of those who believe that there is only one way to market the products we sell or are you always going to be looking for new ways to make money? If you're not innovating then you're stagnating ... and if you're stagnating then you're starting to smell.

Frugality
Are you prepared to live cheap while you build your empire or do you want to spend every check three times over even before it arrives in the mail? Unlike most entrepreneurs there's no outside investment here ... you've got to make it on your own so can you live cheaply while you're friends are blowing money at nightclubs and having a good time?

Focus
Can you stay focused on your business day after day, week after week, month after month and even year after year till you succeed or are you here looking for a quick buck and lots of party time? There are no weekly pay checks or monthly salary in the bank with this job ... you work for yourself and if your boss loses his or her focus then you're screwed.

So you need to stay focused and that may mean sitting in front of the computer working your nuts off for weeks at a time ... are you that focused? Do you really want to be that focused?

Ambition
What do you want out of life? Do you want to sit there building galleries and free sites for the rest of your life or is this just a stepping stone to something else? Frankly if you don't have the ambition to build an empire then you're going to end up going nowhere and that means you won't be here long at all.

Flexible
Are you flexible enough survive in an ever-changing environment or are you so set in your ways that even a block of concrete is more flexible than you are?

So do you have those traits in your personality? If you genuinely want to last more than a few months in this business then you're going to need them and you're going to have to dig deep into your store of them to survive.

But if you do have them then you're going to have fun here as you build your business. You're going to face some tough challenges but you'll overcome them and grow and sometime in the future you'll look back at the road you've traveled and be very happy you did. You'll be a heck of a lot tougher than when you started out and you will have discovered more about yourself than you could ever imagine.