Just a dream?

You are lying on the beach with your favourite drink close to your hand, soaking up the warm rays. The ocean lazily rumbling just beyond your toes, palm trees swaying in the light breeze, sheltering your eyes from the sun.

Idyllic? Yes, but it can happen when you have a successful business, especially an Internet business that runs on autopilot.

But if dreams like these are why you want to be in business, forget it. Keep your day job.

Why you will fail

Why? Because the beach is the reward. And to earn that reward you typically work almost beyond endurance at times, and for less than minimum wage. There will often be moments when you will think it's not worth the effort, and you will often be tempted to quit. If the ultimate reward is what drives you, it will seem so far away and, at times, totally out of reach. All you need is to be a little too tired one day, and that will be it. There goes another dream.

Being successful in business is about determination. It's not about things falling into your lap with little or no effort. Sure, it happens sometimes. Those are the stories we hear about; no one wants to talk about their failures; they are kept quiet.

The 95% of Internet entrepreneurs who fail, don't fail because they necessarily have poor ideas, or because they're lazy, or because they lack experience - although this leads some to fail. They fail because they get worn down and give up, because it's too hard, because the sacrifice is too great, because they get tired of the constant unrelieved grind.

But it doesn't have to be so. One of the secrets to success is to choose a business that you love, that you would do for nothing if it was necessary, that you wouldn't mind doing as a hobby. Forget the money, although good prospects are always a worthwhile thing for any business to have if you hope to go beyond the hobby stage.

Loving what you do

Your love of what you do will pull you through the tough times. It will keep you going, make you look for better ways to achieve improvement, help you to concentrate more on your customer than on your bank account.

Don't get me wrong: business is business, and we're in it to make money. But if you are constantly checking to see if you have made some predetermined target in the early days, you will drive yourself mad. You will get discouraged and quit. But if it is truly something you love to do, you will find the determination to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep improving what you do.

And you will succeed.

Instead of looking at the money side of things, look instead at productivity. If you produced five widgets yesterday, can you produce six today? Or can you produce five improved widgets today? Or can you mechanize part of the process without lessening quality, and maybe produce 10? Or instead market the machine that doubles your production? What can you add to your knowledge that will improve what you do? How can you give your customers greater satisfaction?

Sam Walton did something beyond giving low prices: he had someone greet shoppers at Wal-Mart as they came in the door. Customers felt more welcome. Just a little thing, but people remembered and appreciated the gesture.

Resolve to do your best

Don't set time limits. Just resolve to do the very best you can, and to constantly attempt to improve, and to give better service or better quality to your customers. Resolve to do this for as long as it takes.

Maybe it will take months, maybe it will take years, but with this determined attitude, you cannot fail. And in the unlikely event you don't make money, you will have fun because you chose to do something you like doing anyway.