Recently I was reading an article on Josh James, to a colleague, in the March 2010 issue of Inc. magazine.  For those who may have been living under a rock for the past year, and don’t know who Josh James is, he started a web analytic and online marketing company in Orem Utah called Omniture.

On his 33^rd birthday he took the company public and in October 2009 sold it to Adobe for $1.6 billion with a ‘B’.

After reading the article, to my colleague, I was a little shocked by her response.  She basically said, “That kind of stuff just frustrates me”.

Here is what I read in Josh’s own words:

“On the first day of info systems class, this kid corrected the teacher three times.  I said, I have to get to know that kid.  His name was John Pestana, and we became friends.  One day, he said, ‘Why don’t you make webpages with me?’ I said, ‘Okay; sounds fun. Sure.’  We ended up charging $125 per hour.

About a year later, I remember sitting in Advance Finance, and the professor was saying, ‘This is the difference between an LLC and a C corporation.’  I’m like, ‘That class just cost me $125.  I’m out.’  That’s when I quit school.”

To my friends credit she has had some financial downturns…but who hasn’t had to pull back the belt a little in today’s economy?  In my eyes that story fuels me while others it may frustrate.  Why is that?

I know that Josh James is an anomaly; just like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or  Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google; but needless to say, they accomplished something that should inspire everyone.  In Mike Michalowicz book, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, he refers to these moguls as “Media Darlings”.

Ironically, we don’t hear about the obstacles that everyone of them had to go over, around or under as their ideas and vision went from a napkin in a coffee shop through the four phases of a business cycle.

How does all this relate to you, your idea and your burning desire for an entrepreneurial adventure?  When you are in the middle of complete despair and failure seems to be the only option, what can you do to pull through?  As Mike Michalowicz poetically put it:

“Have you ever been doing your business with your pants hugging your ankles and, when you are ready to wrap things up, notice that you are extremely low on toilet paper?  Don’t deny it!  You know exactly what I am talking about.  Three tattered sheets of TP hang off the edge of the cardboard roll, mocking you.”

Here are three simple truths that can take any entrepreneur from staring hopelessly at three mocking sheets of paper to a full blown, double papered embroidered roll.

Follow Your Passion

Far too many listen to their heads and not to their hearts.  They begin to view things logically and completely neglect their inner voice.  “People whose whole objective is making money, usually don’t,” says Jerry White, professor of entrepreneurial studies at the University of Toronto, Canada.  Jerry White should know.  He has made it his business to study successful entrepreneurs and then to share his findings.  Throughout his research one message has come through: Find a product or service that you believe in and are passionate about.  Without passion you will surely fail.  “In your haste to make a living don’t forget to make a life.”  “Your whole physical being knows that this”, Joseph Campbell said of passion, “is the way to be alive in this world and the way to give to the world the very best that you have to offer. There is a track just waiting there for each of us, and once on it, doors will open that were not open before and would not open for anyone else.”

Keep Your Eye on the Goal

It’s important to set weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual goals.  They need to cause you to stretch but at the same time be attainable.  When a goal is not achieved analyze why and what you could have done better.  Then get to work doing.   “Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness.” Said Sterling W. Sill “Think of the good jobs you have done. Think of the times when you rose above your average level of performance and carried out an idea or a dream or a desire for which you had deeply longed. Hang these pictures on the walls of your mind and look at them as you travel the roadway of life.”

Work, Work, Work

I love the quote by Gordon B Hinckley when he said, “…work, work, work is the key to getting things done, the key to success in life. There is no substitute for work, for getting up in the morning and getting at it and staying with it to get the job done. I don’t know of a greater asset for whatever lies ahead in life than the capacity to discipline oneself to work.”  If you are not thriving you are dying.  Nothing will extinguish a flame and kill a business faster then doing nothing.

That basically sums it up.  Nothing that was ever great, worthwhile or momentous was ever accomplished without passion, vision and sweat from the brow.

I would love to hear your thoughts and exactly what has gotten you through the refiners finer…and thanks in advance for sharing.