John is a 45-year old man.

He dreams of having enough income for a big house in the country, a BMW and a villa in Spain.

But his income doesn’t cut it.

Not even close.

So he hunts around for a business idea that will get him out of the rat race. Maybe an invention. A website. Or a food business.

He’s obsessed with the ‘big one’ – the business idea that will generate £100K a year – and so he keeps going through option after option, buying the books and manuals, but leaving them on the shelf.

None are quite right.

None will make enough money.

None will give him that fast release from the treadmill.

John turns 50, then 55 and then 60… and he’s still making plans… then rejecting them…. waiting for that right time… that perfect opportunity…

John is like the characters Vladimir and Estragon in the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot, who sit and endlessly talk, waiting for someone – or something – who will never arrive.

Like those characters, John is a fictional person I made up, though he’s based on many real people I have met.

They have dreams of a different life, but they don’t take action for whatever reason.

Some of the most common are;

• Fear of failure
• Self-doubt
• Lack of self-confidence
• Fear
• More fear

Though what ‘John’ will usually tell you is that the reason he hasn’t yet managed to succeed in generating his own income yet is because of one of the following:

• Lack of money
• Lack of time
• Lack of education
• Lack of a ‘proper’ opportunity
• Poor advice
• Personal problems
• Bad luck
• All of the above

And that’s because we all prefer to blame circumstances or outside forces rather than ourselves.

These obstacles might exist, but they’re rarely the real reason why someone remains stuck ‘Waiting for Godot’.

Now let’s look at another character.

Susannah is not a fictional person, she’s real…

How this traumatised woman ‘stumbled’ upon a life-changing business

Susannah Conway studied photography after school then became a journalist, but felt lost and adrift, unable to do anything great with what she knew.

You could say she had some advantages with her education, but things in her life took a tragic turn at a young age.

In 2005, her partner died from a sudden heart attack, something that almost destroyed her life. It took her a while to get over her bereavement but she worked hard to find something positive in it.

She writes: “I know for a fact that we don’t just ‘get over’ our loss, but rather we learn how to integrate their absence into our life as we bravely continue on.”

To share her experiences, she started a blog with people who’d gone through grief.

Then she was invited to teach a photography class at a local adult education centre. She decided to use her experiences of blogging about how she pulled her life together to make the class about more than simply photos, and more about using creativity to improve your wellbeing.

There were only 10 people in that class. Aside from a bit of payment, it was hardly what you’d call a big profit-making project. Many people would leave it at that.

But Susanna saw potential in it…

The attendees really loved it, and the connection between photography and emotional healing clearly worked.

So she turned the class into an online course, which got 100 customers within the very first week.

That was even more encouraging because now she was potentially earning more money than as a journalist while doing something she truly loved, and which made other people happy.

So rather than rest on her laurels, she kept developing this side project into something bigger.

She now has her own range of creating courses with “thousands of people from over 50 countries around the world” following them.

The secret of Susannah’s success?

She made her money by sharing what she already knew with other people – getting over bereavement, finding purpose in life and photographic skills.

It wasn’t as if she was an award-winning photographer or top of her profession. She wasn’t a trained counselor or someone with vast amounts of experience in life.

But what she did know, she was willing to share.

And unlike our friend “John”, she had an extra quality…

Rather than waiting for some big opportunity to fix her life and give her a huge income, she was willing to set up a side-project and see how it went first….

And instead of crunching the numbers and worrying about how much money it would make, she based this project on something she had a bit of passion and enthusiasm for, and which helped other people solve a problem or achieve a goal.

In other words, it was about doing something for the customers, more than it was about her, which is one of the key factors people forget when trying to succeed in a start-up.

Finally, when her course started working on a small scale, she had the boldness to leap on the opportunity and scale it into something much bigger.

As a result, she has a business with multiple income streams, over which she has control.

Whatever your doubts, this could happen to you too

Of course, there are many obstacles that you might face in life – hardships, stresses, commitments, financial pressures and psychological demons.

These might feel like forces that are preventing you doing something great in your life.

But Susannah was not only stuck in a job she didn’t particularly like, she was experiencing a severe life trauma, yet she turned it around.

You could argue that Susannah was lucky to have a good education and some photography skills, which is how she got started with her class, then with her course.

However, I bet there is something deep down in your life, which you know, and could share with others.

A life experience… a piece of knowledge you’ve learned through hardship… or a personal achievement. Maybe you’ve cared for a sick relative, brought up children, got over an illness or addiction.

Or maybe it’s something more every day, like the extension you built, your back garden full of vegetables or your knowledge of spreadsheets.

These could become the foundation of courses and membership sites, just like Susannah.

It could be worth thinking about seriously.

As you may know I provide full training on how to create your own online course so if you are thinking of giving it a try check out my (free) online workshop to get started: http://heloiselaight.com/freecourseworkshop