Okay. I'm just going to put my thoughts out for you to read Ron.
1) I've had a very small PC business running for a little over a year. In the tax world, "officially" since March of '09. The town I live in is about 3,500 and it's where 90% of my customer base is. I serve the surrounding 50 mile radius and only a fraction of my customers come from there.
2) In a little over a year, I'm lucky to have 5 or 6 customers a month, on average.
3) I'm not pushing hard right now. I want to get college out of the way, so the above statistics do not bother me in the least. This has gotten me by the last year without having to get another job. But I don't have anything in the bank (I mean, I do...but)...figuratively speaking; I'm even right now....not in the red, not in the black, for the most part. I'd be in the red if I owned my home and paid the bills, but I luckily don't.
4) When I'm done riding out my 4 year "1/2 scholarship" at the college I'm going to, I'm getting my master's degree in business. I'm going to try and find a good job somewhere (hope to be a professor in college somewhere) and bank some money. Not a lot, but a enough.
5) I'm going to get married/start a family. This may carry over from item 4 depending on the time frame. I figure by the time I'm done with what's looking at potentially 6 years of schooling, the market will have rebounded.
6) I'm going to research THEN about owning my own business again. To me, things are too shady 6 years into the future. I'm playing it as is right now. I'm a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan for us all, and I--for the most part--am along for the ride with most of the big stuff that he has planned along the way. What happens, happens for a reason.
7) With all of that said, if I find a teaching job I love, I'm keeping it...who knows...maybe till I retire. If I don't like it, well, I'll try a few other things. And, if it's in the works, then I'll give the PC business another go.
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Our differences:
1) I do NOT want a big company. I think that the big companies now are pathetic...I don't want to relate to them at all. I want to focus on quality and customer service (my strong point, being that I'm very good with people). I've had so much fun so far running my little podunk shop out of my home.
2) I do not have $500,000 being handed to me, nor will I ever. I prefer it that way. Don't take this the wrong way at all (seriously), but I don't ever want to be handed something like that in my life. It wouldn't feel right to me, as I wouldn'tve been the one to work for it.
All in all, I want to live an honest, humble life. I want a good degree, decent job that pays the bills and leaves some extra money for security and fun, I want to find the love of my life, have kids, watch them grow up, get old with my wife, get closer to God, watch my kids have kids...watch them grow up...and eventually, return to my Maker when He calls me up to Him. I think that I'd be very satisfied with that life if I touch people along the way. And I think that it's only possible to truly touch people if you stay humble at heart, and if you make time for it. With me, if I went big time with my computer stuff (or tried, for that matter), I think I would forget the true meaning of my life (which, I might add, I have yet to figure out).
That's just my 2 cents, Ron. I hope nothing offended you, because it wasn't supposed to.
I wish you the best of luck in all of your endeavors. There was a time when I was very ambitious just like you; then I sat down and thought about what I truly wanted in life and came up with what I wrote above and was more than satisfied with it. And I can honestly say, I don't think I'd have any regrets with that life...maybe a few "what-ifs", but no regrets.
Let the peaces fall where they may.