Zen Zoomie’s Place: Chronicles of a (Wannabe) Pro Blogger

Out of all the blogs there are to choose from, why should you read this one? My guess is that if you are reading this, you more than likely will identify with my situation. I’m at a point in my life where I’m trying to decide if I want to continue on the current career path I’m on, or if I’m willing to throw away a guaranteed retirement (you’ll see why momentarily) in order to gain more flexibility and control over my life today. I feel dissatisfied with some aspects of my job—particularly the lack of control I have over what I do and when and where I do it. Ever since I can remember I have wanted to start a business of my own. But I’m unsure of whether I want to take the dive and go out on my own full-time, or if I just want to take it slow at first and see how things go. Can I really build and maintain a profitable business on my own? What if I fail? Does any of this sound familiar to you?

Well, I’m going to take you through the process with me—step by step, day by day, through the hard times (my website doesn’t even show up on Google or Microsoft at the time I’m writing this), to the day when this blog is earning $10,000 a month with the big dogs (set high but achievable goals ZZ!).

Zen Zoomie’s Split Personality

A little background on me is in order. I’m currently a military officer with over 10 years of service. Make that 14 if you count my time at a Service Academy, and trust me—it sure as hell should count–but for retirement it doesn’t. I like serving in the military for the most part. It’s been a fantastic experience, and the sense of accomplishment and service to country is something very few other jobs can provide. I’ve received two tremendous educations at no cost (at least no financial cost…more about that another day perhaps), met my wonderful wife, and seen and done things I never would have dreamed of if it hadn’t been for the military. Since I’ve already served 10 years, I’m already over half-way to a great retirement. And then there’s the virtual guarantee of a six figure salary in my second career as a military contractor once I do retire.

But lately, I’ve thought a lot about whether or not staying in the military is the right decision for me.

The thing is, I’m currently deployed. It’s not a bad deployment—I’m not in Iraq or Afghanistan (at least not yet..there’s still a chance I could go there soon)—but I miss my family a great deal. When compared to the tens of thousands of our troops who sacrifice far more, I am fortunate indeed. I should feel lucky..many of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are not so fortunate..but I’m selfish. My wife gave birth to our second son two weeks ago. And although I got to see him for a week before I was deployed (a blessing), to me that’s not enough. Our other boy is 2 years old, and it’s hard to describe how tough it has been not to see him just for a short time. My wife at least understands, but a 2-year old just knows that “Daddy go bye-bye??”. It breaks my heart every time I hear him on the phone. These next few months away from him are time I’ll never get back. I don’t want to have to be separated from my family ever again. I haven’t made up my mind about what I’m going to do, but you can bet that if this blog is as successful as I plan on it being, it will make my decision a lot easier.

Time to Stop Thinking and Start Doing

There’s only one way to find out if you’ve got what it takes to be a successful business owner. As I said earlier, I’ve been thinking about starting a blogging business for some time—and dreamed of being a business owner all my life, but for me this deployment gave me the final kick in the pants I needed to stop thinking and start doing. On the way to my deployed location, I had the chance to listen to an audio book I bought through Audible.com called The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferris, which I highly recommend. It has a goofy title, but a lot of good content. Although there are a lot of points I disagree with Tim on, overall, the book resonated with me deeply. (I’ve listened to the audio version twice and bought the hard copy). I’ll take a detailed look at his book in another post and how I plan to apply the concepts he talks about.

Until next time,