My Internet Success Story - Part 1

As I have traveled around the world to Internet Marketing seminars, the number of people who come up and tell me what an inspiration I have been to them constantly amazes me.

I guess when you do something long enough, it becomes a part of you and doesn’t seem like that much of a big deal. It is really easy to forget the magnitude of what you can accomplish on the Internet.

I’d like to begin this book by telling my story. I do this for several reasons. One, I hope that it will be an inspiration to you to get going and make something happen on the ‘net. Secondly, I hope that you can learn from some of my mistakes and triumphs as you begin your Internet journey.

Computer Nut from Birth

I’ve been a computer junkie since I was a small child. It seems like we always had computers hanging around the house. My Dad is an electronics buff just like me and always made sure we had the latest hardware to play with.

When I was young, I received a Tandy Color computer for Christmas. It had a built in keyboard and you used a cassette tape to save data. I never could get that to work worth a darn, but it was mine. I spent hour and hours just messing around with it before the keyboard got so gummed up with Orange Juice and pizza crumbs that it finally died.

I remember well our first portable computer, the Osborne. It weighed about 50 pounds, had two floppy drives and a keyboard that attached to the front like a lid. When you opened it up, you had this tiny 6-inch screen to work on. Orange text on a black background…ugly!!

It wasn’t the most amazing piece of hardware that I’ve ever seen, but it got the job done. I remember playing around with BASIC programs and using WordStar to write papers. This really introduced me to the usefulness of computers.

During high school I began to get involved with my Dad’s Engineering Firm and there began to work as a computer drafter. Little did I know that this was going to be my launching point into the Internet.

I am a Sports Junkie!

Let me digress a bit and talk about what a sports fan I am. I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, which is the home of the University of Florida Gators. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been watching Gator football religiously. I played sports in high school and played sports video games every other minute that I had free.

Besides computers, sports were my passion. Whether it be playing, watching or just keeping stats, I lived and breathed sports.

Every morning I raced down to the street to pick up the morning paper. For in the morning paper was the thing I most desired…the scores from the previous night. I was a big Lakers fan and unfortunately most west coast games did not make it into the morning edition.

This was where my love for sports and computers started to collide. My Dad’s firm was moving into the digital age. We began to receive drawing files from other architects via email. To go get them, I had to login to our one office dial-up Internet connection.