This is a guest submission from Adrienne from AdrienneSmith.net

I have to begin by thanking Steve for inviting me to write a guest post for his blog. I’m truly touched and honored to be sharing my story with you.

I am much older than most people online today, I am a baby boomer. My career in corporate America started when I was about 22 years old. Every member of my family attended college except me. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up and was living with a learning disability, so I didn’t have a lot of faith that I would do well.

Not only did I not want to disappoint my parents, I also didn’t want to embarrass myself!

So after a few menial jobs in the work force I finally was offered a position as a secretary. I really excelled in that area mainly because I’m annoyingly organized and a real go getter. That opened up a lot of doors for me, where I continued to move up the corporate ladder for the next 31 years.

I was an executive assistant working for presidents and owners of companies and I was very good at what I did! I was in the top 5% of income earners in my field.

Change Of Events

I’ve always been a happy person and I believe that stems from having learned early on how precious life truly is. You see, my Dad fought cancer for 42 of the 45 years he was in my life. He passed away on February 23, 2003 and I didn’t handle it well. It wasn’t his passing that hit me the hardest, but actually the way he passed.

I went into a deep depression, had to go through therapy, and was on anti-depressants for almost two years. I honestly knew that my Dad wouldn’t want me to feel this way, but knowing that and being able to handle that are two totally different things. When I finally climbed out of that deep fog I had been in, I knew my life was changed forever.

Over the course of a 25 year span, I worked in several different fields but the job was basically the same. Oh sure, I was challenged at times but they became fewer and fewer. I was also becoming quite discouraged with the types of people our company was hiring.

I also had a higher work ethic than most of the younger generation and due to my position, I was responsible for taking up the slack of the work that wasn’t getting done. This meant I was doing the work of several people.

That got old really fast.

I always told myself that when I wake up in the morning and hate going to work, it’s time for a change. But change to what? I had been doing the same type of work for over 30 years and I had no others skills.

I know that’s why a lot of people stay where they are because they don’t know how to do anything else.

We are afraid to take that leap of faith because we have to support ourselves. We have responsibilities…

At the beginning of 2006, my boss told me he was retiring and was giving me a year to search for another position. By October of that same year I had found another J.O.B., where I remained until January of 2007.

Little did I know that I had actually been hired by the devil himself. Yep that’s right, the man was pure evil. I woke up every single morning for two months straight hoping that they would find a reason to let me go.

My wish finally came true; they decided to downsize the company.

I made a decision that very day that corporate America had seen the last of me. I am a very structured person, a planner, an organizer, someone everyone counts on, dependable.

I’m NOT a risk taker, but I knew that I would rather be poor and happy than comfortable and miserable.

Jumping Into The Online World

I was very familiar with the Internet and even updated our company website. I wasn’t ignorant of the online world so I thought I would get online, start making some money and life would be good. Sound familiar!  What a rude awakening for me.

I was immediately in information overload. I didn’t know what I was looking for, I didn’t know who to believe, I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing, I didn’t know how to do any of this stuff and I was so lost.

I eventually joined a network marketing company, did what they told me to do and never made a dime. It took me a year and a half from the time I got online before I finally started learning that if you want to have success, you have to introduce people to who you are, not what you do.

I just knew that this was the place for me; I knew that I could do this; I knew I was smart enough to eventually figure this all out. I just didn’t understand how much your mindset actually plays into all of this. I later learned that I had been attracting the wrong types of people.

I attracted the types of people who wanted something for nothing, who didn’t want to invest in their future or do the work required. That is why I failed in network marketing.

An Intro To Affiliate Marketing

While working there there, I was introduced to affiliate marketing. We all know if you’re looking to make money online then there will be certain products and services that you’ll need. I soon started making money with affiliate marketing. So I decided that was the direction I was going to go in.

In network marketing you are encouraged to build a team and then you are responsible for helping your team learn how to make money.  If your team isn’t willing to do the work required, you don’t reap the rewards from their efforts. It’s different with affiliate marketing because it’s all up to you to make the sales and no one else.

I purchased my first course and that very same week I made three sales. I was so ecstatic that I was finally starting to understand how this all works. I did really well, I kept building different sites, promoting different niches and finally got to the point where I was making some steady income.

In November 2010 I decided to join a training community created by one of the top income earners in affiliate marketing to learn how to create my own successful business. I had been able to support myself but was not really building a business.

So I started from scratch and am sharing my experience in my blog. I believe I’m having success because of my honest approach to this. I know with hard work, dedication, and the drive to be who and what you want to be, this is achievable.

I’m now going into my fourth year online and I love working from home. Although I’m always on the computer working my business, I can now honestly say that I love what I do. I have several sites plus a free training community I created in 2010.

I’m finally living for me and doing what I want to do. I continue to learn and grow and I am so thankful that everything happened the way it did.

[author gravatar=”adrienne@adriennesmith.net”]Adrienne is a self proclaimed social media, blogging, and affiliate marketing fanatic. Her passion is to live life to its fullest and empower others to do the same. Her blog AdrienneSmith.net is all about helping others achieve success online.

You can find her engaging with others on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.[/author]

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