I started my company at exactly this time of year, several years ago. The Holidays were winding down, I was starting to think about having to pay Christmas credit card bills for the next 8 months or so until I had to start shopping for the next Christmas, and I realized I was getting older, but not wiser. I'd heard that phrase before; "A little older, a little wiser". I was getting the 'older' part whether I wanted it or not! However, I didn't seem to be getting any wiser over the years. I was still 'punching a time clock'. I was still struggling to pay bills, even though I made a decent living. (Like most people, the more money I got in my paycheck, the more I spent, and still ended up struggling!) It seemed that with every New Year's Eve, I was making a Resolution that this year, I was going to do something about it. This year, I'd start something of my own. This year, I'd make something work for my family, beyond my weekly paycheck. Well, this year turned into next year, and then the year after that and the year after that. Sound familiar? I never seemed to follow through. I never actually got started. It's easy to get stuck in that rut and let the excitement of that dream always stay just a bit farther into the future. Just a little farther down the road. "I'll do it some day", I always thought. I think we do things like that because it makes us feel safe, in a way. If we procrastinate, if we put it off and continue to dream, then the dream is always safe. It's always out there, in the future somewhere and it can continue to give us hope. It'll never go away. Perhaps we're afraid that if we try, and we fail, then the dream itself is gone and we won't even have that to comfort us anymore. So, we continue to dream and continue to let the years slip away, until it really is too late to do anything about it. It's a sad thing that something capable of giving us so much comfort will, for most people, never become a reality, because we become afraid to actually try. One December a few years ago, with New Year's Eve parties coming up, and yet another Resolution made, I finally took the plunge. I let go of the comfort of the dream and set out to make it a reality. It didn't go well, at first. My online business started out slowly. I found that I had a lot to learn. I couldn't let it go, though. I couldn't let the dream fade into nothing, after all those years of dreaming. So, I kept at it. Little by little, bit by bit, I built my fledgling business. I learned that it wasn't going to be a situation where I could start my business, and quit my job two weeks later. I learned that building a business the right way took time, and a willingness to learn. My first year was definitely a learning process. I got my Internet business set up and then I tried many different products and marketing strategies. I read materials from lots of different schools of thought on Internet Marketing. I went through a few different Web Site Hosting companies and a couple of Merchant Accounts. I kept at it and by the end of the year, I'd made a decent profit. It wasn't enough to quit my day job, but it was a good deal of extra Christmas money that year! My second year was much better. I knew what to expect from each month of the year. I was familiar with the trends in product sales and availability by then. I started exploring new product brands and new Marketing directions on the Internet. The business grew steadily. By the end of the second year, I followed a brand-new New Year's Resolution, and formed a new corporation, partnering with an old and trusted friend. The core business, Internet product sales, was still the same and still is to this day. Together with my new business partner, I explored the depth of that core business, and embarked on some new ventures. Today, we successfully market our own award-winning Product Sourcing informational Database, with an incredible Market Research function built into it. We have an excellent team of employees, and we're just getting better all the time. Where did it all start? Internet product sales, that very first year. I strongly believe that selling products at retail on the Internet is absolutely the best way to get started in online business. Product sales is the basis for all online Commerce. It's what ECommerce is, and why ECommerce exists. Learning Internet product sales gave me the knowledge and experience I needed to go wherever I wanted to go in online business. For a great number of people, online product sales is the success they dream of. For me, it was the first part of a badly needed learning curve that took me from success there, to success in other areas of the Internet as well. Why did it all start? Because I finally took the chance and went after the dream. I worked at it constantly, and never gave up. It was nothing more than that. There were no Magic Bullets. No "Eureka!" moments. No Secret Formulas. All I did was use common sense. I ignored all the hucksters out there who were trying to sell me the Dream In A Box and listened to those who really had something intelligent to say. If you're interested in some free help, check out our website at www.WorldwideBrands.com. Take a look at the Learning Center and read some articles, watch some videos and download my free eBooks. You'll find those things you need to know to make the dream work, the RIGHT way. Why do we do that? Because there's plenty of room here in the American Dream for you too, and we would honestly like to help you get here. We're looking forward to an incredible New Year. I hope you are, too. While you're celebrating the New Year, think about turning all the incredible potential of a brand new year into the start of something that will change your life forever. Just get started. Happy New Year!