Sharing entrepreneur stories is one of the best ways possible for all of us  to  both sharpen our skills and be encouraged by the experiences of others on the same journey.  Once more Scott Allen, in his entrepreneur blog, has unearthed some jewels among entrepreneur insights and guideposts in Startup Stories #2.

Taken together, the following tales might well form a path for a determined entrepreneur.

Let’s start with Denise Hall who, in My Entrepreneurial Mother Story , “tells how, at the “ripe old age of 36″, she went from “unemployed, homeless and pregnant” to a director of a consulting firm focused on performance improvement for corporations.”

“What I have learned” she says ” is that being opportunistic and bold will get you so much further ahead, and will point you in directions where you can work out the rest! …One of the main responsibilities of my life is to set sail, strive to ‘do it my way’ and, in essence, enjoy the ride!”

The important point here is to set sail.  As someone once said, there is magic in beginnings.  Don’t wait for that perfect moment or perfect opportunity.  Start from where you are with what you’ve got.  So you don’t get discouraged on the journey, it may also help to remember you can’t start from where you want to be, you have to start from where you are.

When Hall was asked: Where do you see yourself in 20 years’ time? She responded: “Swanning around the world as I please, playing grandmother, receiving bucket loads of passive income, and being healthy, wealthy and wise! “”

I want to emphasize that passive income goal.  One of my entrepreneur father’s mantras was “Always create passive income.”  That stood right along side, ” Always have a least 3 businesses ( which we might now call revenue streams) because there will never be a time when one of them isn’t doing badly.”  And “You have to be around money to make money (  ie.  you have to be engaged with a market that ( wants and ) can afford what you’re selling. Don’t go to a down and out burg that industry has by passed long ago, with a dwindling and aging population, to try to sell those hot Lamborghini sports cars or the latest and coolest tech toys.  Your odds aren’t good.)

The clear point of the passive income goal is that someday you might be too sick or too old or, for some other reason, unable to get out there and toil at least 8 hours a day, so it’s a good idea to have a way to support yourself under those circumstance.

So how do you start creating a passive income?

Working At Home To Build Passive Blog Income And Giving Up Full Time Job Pay -

A young “recovering attorney” talks about: Looking To the Future – Sacrificing Some Income Now To Build Up My Online Blog Businesses and Incubate My Other Real World Ventures

He says: I’ve come to realize that the key to building wealth and reaching financial prosperity is to build up multiple streams of alternative and passive income, apart from your primary full time employment. Otherwise, you simply run the risk of living your entire life trading hours for dollars. Passive income generation through methods such as blog income or stock market investing help to get around the finite time problem by allowing you to generate income even when you are not actively sitting and working at your office desk.” ( Ed. Ok, we get it: this is not a good time to mention the stock market.  But, long term, it offers value. Think bonds. Or think CDs or savings accounts. Think cash.)

We vote for that – building up passive income and multiple revenue streams.  Although it’s not an easy assignment and can take quite a while.  The addendum to that is that if you build a business and develop an exit strategy, you can sell your company and the money you make can be converted into your passive income

The Dragons – Tim Berry explains the metaphor, “no dragons yet.” He tells a story of a software developer working for him on a new product. When asked him how the project was going he answered:

“Well enough, no dragons yet.”  When pressed he explained:

“Well you see, it’s like when Columbus set out sailing west towards what he hoped was India. All the time he was sailing west he had his plan and his calculations and what he thought would happen, but, in the back of his mind, most people thought that he was going to drop off the earth and fall into the mouths of dragons.”

“Software development is like that. You think you’re going to reach land, but it’s possible you’ll just fall off the end of the earth, into the mouths of dragons.”

Actually, AdvancingWomen.com thinks all business is like that.

There are dragons everywhere and, if you haven’t run into one yet, you will. The trick is to be on the look out for them, to spot them early when they crack open their shell and jump out onto your desk. Stare them down and tackle them then. Wrestle them to the ground while they’re small before they grow up to be Jurassic Park sized monsters blowing fire in your face.

So in a nutshell, be bold, set sail in your business, strive for 3 or 4 passive income streams and keep fighting off those dragons while they’re hatchlings.

For more, see the following, or send us your story and we’ll share it with others. The more we share, the more we learn:

My Father, My Mentor : The Entrepreneur Seed

Start Your Own Small Business Using More Ingenuity, Less Cash

Match Your Entrepreneur Story

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