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Now for those of us here in adult online the obvious answer to that is basically a no-brainer. Most people who come into this industry measure their success by whether or not they can leave their day job and become their own boss and if that's currently your measure of success then that's fine.

But notice that I used the word 'current' just a moment ago and that's because I'm sure that most of us have different measures of success at different times in our lives. I mean, have we really succeeded when we become our own boss or is there so much more to achieve in the future?

Once we become our own boss should we then shift the goal posts to some other measure of success ... or should we just sit back and pat ourselves on the back because we've succeeded?

If your answer to that question was that it's fine just to sit back and feel good about yourself then it's been nice knowing you ... you won't be here much longer because your business will stagnate and then wither and die and you'll be gone.

Don't believe me? Just ask those who have been around the industry for a few years and I bet every one of them will be able to name five or six different people who they have seen drop out of the industry because their measure of success was set too low.

So perhaps while you're thinking about reaching that golden moment when you can quit your day job and become a webmaster fulltime you should also be thinking about what your next measure of success will be ... and the one after that ... and the one after that ... because if you seriously want to succeed you need to be looking that far ahead.

In fact you just don't need to be thinking about them, you need to set them down in concrete and if you can't do that, then at least write them down. Use a big bold font ... print out your measures of success ... pin them to the notice board ... stick them to the wall ... just put them somewhere that you can see them every time you look up from your keyboard and do it now while you're thinking about it.

Why do you need to put those goal posts ... those things that you will measure your success by ... somewhere obvious where you will see them every day?

There are four reasons you want to commit them to writing and put them somewhere you will constantly see them. The first reason is because they will be a spur that will drive you on till you have achieved them. When you're tired, when you're depressed, when the very last thing you want to do is build another site, another gallery or another page those measures of success will encourage you to keep on going.

The second reason that you want to have those measures of success somewhere that you will constantly see them is because you'll forget them. There will be times when you'll be distracted by something that will take you away from those goals. Most distractions will be a bit like a mirage on the horizon ... there will be no real achievement and no real movement towards success in those distractions.

The third reason is because there will be times when you will subconsciously settle for something a whole lot less than your original goals. Once again you'll get distracted by something that's worthless and your measures of success will slip away and you will never reach them.

A basic measure of success for most people would be a certain amount of money coming in each month and to achieve that you're going to have to work to a certain level but what happens if you begin to spend more time on webmaster boards doing nothing more productive than arguing with trolls?

If you have your measures of success there in front of you then you can be constantly measuring your activities against them and you will soon see what is productive and what isn't. When you can measure what you're doing against your target then you won't waste so much time.

The fourth reason to have your measures of success up where you can constantly see them is that when something new comes along you will be able to measure it against your goals. You will have a better idea of whether or not this new ‘thing' will help you achieve your goals faster ... or not.

There's no doubt that times are getting tougher and the adult online industry is changing ... just to make it even tougher. It's in tough times like these that you need to stay focused and never waiver from whatever it is that will help you achieve success.

So decide what your measures of success are and then work towards them ... and never give up!