Are you going to be aware when this moment comes? Ready to allow it to charge your very soul and lift you up where you feel like a giant.

We have been so busy building our business that there are times where we couldn’t see the wood from the trees. The concentration and focus to do what we’re doing is immense, and day by day we are slowly but surely putting the pieces together. We are excited in that we know we are building something to be very proud of that will deliver all our dreams and make us a very good standard of living. We are also driven on by the fact that we know we are doing something that a majority of people just couldn’t do and those that could we will be different and unique to them.

I am the type of person that will always be driven by my inner fire. The opportunity to go back into the health and fitness industry which has recently been given to me has stepped up my excitement by a notch or two. The sports shop we are building being the central point of everything we are doing is like my childhood dreams coming together, making money from sport.

When I look ahead I can only see success. I can finally see the end of a long road where I have turned failure around to success. There now can be no doubts that our ecommerce shops are going to thrive, so I should be walking around in a state of pure bliss.

But I knew, deep down inside, something was missing. Everything is going unbelievably well for us right now and has done since the beginning of March 2013. It’s as though things we think about are suddenly handed to us on a plate. How then could I have this feeling of there being something not quite right.

Well as I wrote the other day, it took a visit to the graveside of my sister to realise what was missing and what I needed to do. This adventure all started when I was introduced to blogging. The reason I began was because due to an eye operation I was unable to work out in the gym or in particular take classes or give instruction. I needed something to keep me busy, and sharing my passion for personal growth and all things healthy lifestyle seemed a great idea. Once though I began I very soon realised I wanted to do this forever. Yet I now see what blogging really offered to me back then. It was my way to relaunch myself back into the world after the personal battering my life had taken in the previous 18 months. Through blogging as strange as these words may be, I found a place to rekindle my spirits, lift my confidence, demonstrate my passions and basically get myself back off my knees.

I owe blogging a lot. It also pointed me to eCommerce the place from which I now make a descent income. I wanted that income, I enjoy that income and I would never deny to fulfil all my dreams I want a lot more, and I know I will succeed by doing exactly what I’m doing now. But it’s not enough.

Now before you say I’m greedy you’d better read on.

So Friday night I visited my sister’s grave, and came away realising the glue around everything I’d ever been and everything I’d ever done was provided by the words ‘never give up’. I had the frightening memory of me from the age of 2 years to 7 going backwards and forwards to Spinal Consultants and being told a wheelchair was my destiny by about 13. The older I got the more dreadful a vision this created for one particular reason, I was completely sport mad. If I wasn’t at school I’d be kicking a football around, holding a cricket bat, or playing hour after hour games of table tennis. I remember the words my Dad said to me:

‘No son of mine will give up on the belief that he can stand on his own two feet for ever more.’

I’m sure at the time he didn’t realise how poignant this would be for my entire life.

It succeeded in demonstrating to the consultants they were wrong, and to this day I am still able to walk, jog, run on my own two feet, admittedly right now slower than I was a few years back.

Equally as important no matter what obstacles have come my way I have never given up believing in myself or what I am capable of doing.

Everything I have learned, well it is my responsibility to pass this on. This is the message I know I have received, and it’s the missing link in my life. How many ‘Never Give Up’ articles have I previously written, yet I never realised the message I was being given each time.

I lost a sister far too early in life because she gave up, I have kept my sanity and strength despite many losses and hardships by never giving up, and I want to make the difference, and the way for me to do that is continue building my business but build a resource to teach and support others in their journey.

Loddy in a conversation inspired me today while we were discussing the initial success of our page in Facebook (link) and he helped me for the first time put into words exactly what needs to be done by me and my brilliant team.

We are becoming true passion entrepreneurs  where we are providing our passions (coaching and mentoring) on personal development) for free and making money from selling our passions of fitness and sport through our ecommerce shops.

I know we’ll be doing much more as well, because we love creating new things, but whatever we do, I know where my heart lies and being driven by my inner fire I want to help others never give up.

I would welcome anyone to contact me who has the same passion. I am sincere and genuine here, the goal is to change people’s lives.

Thank you for reading

This is Larry Lewis

Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic engineering. Wikipedia

What about looking at a few famous quotes to get more of an understanding of this word ‘failure’:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  Thomas A. Edison

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  Winston Churchill

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”  Paulo Coelho

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”  Truman Capote

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”  Winston Churchill

Despite the fact that universally Failure is a negative term that as Wikipedia states is the opposite of success, my personal opinion which I know is supported by many, is that failure is a point on the path to success. When you look back through history many of the most famous success stories have come across failure before their final successful outcome.

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the number of times Thomas Edison failed to create the light bulb, but what about Sir James Dyson the bestselling vacuum machine entrepreneur who had  5,126  failures before he finally created the Dyson.

“I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure.” Sir James Dyson

The most important thing about failing is what it teaches you. By analysing your own failures you will learn from them. Failure can establish feedback regarding what you’re doing wrong, so you can adjust your actions until you get them right. By effectively learning from failure you will begin to see it as a step towards success. That’s going to ensure you can “do it better” the next time around.

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” – Benjamin Franklin

So in order to get yourself onto the road of success accept failure, embrace it and learn from it. Just know nothing can ever stop you bouncing back, well apart from you.

As long as you still have a breath in your body, don’t give up. Always keep going with the belief that one day you will succeed.

Be inspired by one thing:

If I can do it, why can’t you?

I have had the pleasure this week of working with a remarkable man. The strangest thing of all is I doubt whether he himself sees this. For now I am going to give him anonymity, because he is not somebody who has ever set out to get himself into the spotlight.

His mission was never to make himself famous, rather a personal transformation which inspired him to share his passion and knowledge with others.

He has created a phenomenally successful business, running a brand that many in the health and fitness market will have heard of. He has a wealth of knowledge and is happy to share it. At one point of our conversation, there was a complete shift in atmosphere; it was as though the room had been filled with an invisible energy. I’d asked a very simple question, ‘What got you started in this business.’

I didn’t get the expected of tap response that would be the norm from a Managing Director of an Industry Leading company. Instead I got an inspired and motivating story that was simply evidence to me, that here was I sitting with a man that was proof of what I say, when you are passionate about what you do, magic happens.

He tells this story of a young man who through his entire childhood and teenage years struggled with his weight and the problems this brings. That young man was him. He reached a point in his life where he knew he had to become a different person and began a body transformation to strip down and build up. A big part of this was done through an exercise and fitness regime, as well as by establishing a healthy nutritious eating plan. He learned as much as he could. He also understood the importance of supplementation. But at the time of his transformation he couldn’t find the quality of product that was right for what he required. So what was he to do … create them himself. Once successful he then brought these to the market, and the rest is history.
What I don’t believe many know is the passion this man carries to help others achieve life changing results like he did. Every success story he finds out about is like a gift.

Listening to him talk about this, watching his body language, and seeing his eyes told me that there was no doubt, I had found the secret to this business’ longevity and success. It came from the passion held deep within its Managing Director. Everything about him and his products reflects the meaning and purpose he carries within.

It is this passion that has ensured his company has create d a product range that has grown and developed over the years.

He supported his passion by giving his time , resources and talents to growing something meaningful that would in his eyes make the difference.

His example should teach you the following:

BE AN EXPERT: – Take the time to pursue your passion, develop your skills and gifts to become an expert.

MAKE OPPORTUNITIES: By becoming an expert in your area of passion, the world opens up for you with people and new opportunities.

CREATE A LEGACY: You want to be able to look back one day at the legacy you’ve created and feel good about what you’ve done, and nothing can be better than helping others .

BE EMPOWERED: Your passions bring you energy, excitement and motivation which makes those long hours you spend at work feel like you’re spending life playing your favourite game. A person who is passionate loves what they are doing so much, that they eat, drink and sleep it.

So how about you? What is your passion? Do you know? Are you following it?

I think what was different for me was I didn’t just follow a route that I’d learned about from some so called guru. I didn’t immediately determine a specific model that I was going to follow, instead I went on a journey of discovery acquiring a lot of knowledge through trial and error.

What I have discovered is incredibly obvious when you’ve actually done it. It’s such a pity that most people don’t get the opportunity to see the answers for themselves.

If you look at the way people used to do business. They found a market they had an interest and knowledge in. They would then find suppliers who could provide them with products that suited their niche. They would then open a retail shop and try to get people through their door. To do this last part they’d use a variety of marketing methods.

The centre of my financial earnings comes from ecommerce. In a nutshell I have a few online stores that sell specific products within my particular niche.  These are my own websites. Building an online shop can be a time consuming task, at times it is frustrating and yes requires hard work, but once done it can be incredibly rewarding. To build a truly successful online business and particularly through an ecommerce shop you have to offer great products so building relationships with suppliers or manufacturers is an absolute priority.   Build key partner relationships where you have your skills and talents to offer and they have their products, together you can  exploit online opportunities.

We supplement our income using an existing online marketplace namely Amazon. To build a successful business here you have to show your professionalism and not resort to a ‘we’ll be the cheapest’ philosophy. Again there is a lot of work entailed if you want to make thousands, not hundreds, but again hard work here does pay off.

Then the power house in my mind of our entire online business is our blogs. I would say that because I assure you I still see myself as a blogger, and certainly not a shopkeeper. I love writing, and am passionate about the subjects which I write about.  To me this is the heart of our entire business. Free quality content, providing solutions to problems is at the the heart of what a business needs to offer.

I see there being nothing better than building a successful online business where I share my passions and try to make the difference.

It certainly took time, patience and hard work to build my blog, and generate the type of traffic I receive nowadays, but the effort has certainly been worth it.

We frequently have people offering to buy advertising banner ads and text link ads, but this isn’t something we would do unless the company was somebody that we would personally recommend to a best friend. We avoid affiliate adverts like the plaque, its simply not our thing. As my business partner Neil would say, while do we work so hard to bring traffic to our site, and then allow someone to offer us a few pennies to take them away to their site.

Together with my blog and ecommerce shop I am fortunate to also being able to offer both coaching and consulting so helping other people achieve the success they so desire.

Keep the basics in mind when building an online business, you’ll have a far better chance of success than most who have tried before.

Although they have to this point shown persistence and determination in pursuit of these dreams, they are starting to question the sensibility of doing this and are considering giving up once and for all.

How many of you are at the same point?

I certainly can relate to the difficulties one faces when trying to achieve their dreams.  Often the chances of success are so overwhelmingly against you that you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning on a sunny day. So why pursue your dreams when the odds are never in your favour?

Let me ask you a question about the dreams you have.  Would you rather pursue them and fail or never try at all?  For me, I’d rather try and fail.  I don’t want to ever get to the point where I think to myself about what might have been. I just don’t want to look back on my life when I’m 80 and realize I never even tried.  I don’t want to live in regret.  I don’t want to look back and wonder what might have been.

Don’t see failure ever as the end of the road. If I had, my life would never have progressed in the wonderful way it has.  I’m happy with my place in life and the direction I’m heading despite the many obstacles and the few disasters I’ve faced along the way.

It takes a lot of courage to pursue your dream once failure hits you hard. Don’t I know it. I can think back to a time in my life when I can remember myself looking into the bathroom mirror and seeing before me, a defeated old man staring back at me, where his whole world had be torn apart.

What would have happened if from there I made no effort to rebuild my life? I certainly wouldn’t be enjoying the things that are happening right now. Instead I’d probably have lived a life in misery worse still purgatory. Instead I’m now building a lasting legacy. I made the decision to stand tall and show everyone what I was made of. When the world beats you down, find a reason to get back up again. Never give up on your dreams.

So never give up on your dreams because I assure you giving up on your dreams is stupid. And if you’re making no effort to achieve your dreams, the time to start is now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Do it now!

I’m telling you to follow your dreams and that you can accomplish anything, so long as you put your mind to it. When you look back on your life, don’t look back with regrets. Believe in yourself, believe in your possibilities. Find your opportunities. You will find your way.

If you enjoyed this article, inspire your friends to follow their dreams by taking a second to Like it on Facebook, Tweet it, or Stumble it: Thank you.

Designing your life around doing what you enjoy, now doesn’t that sound a preposterous idea to you? Working at a 9 to 5 job particularly one that you hate, now that’s how life is meant to be. No it isn’t, that’s just how we’ve all been brainwashed to think.

Instead start imagining activities that place your interests, needs, talents, and motivations at the heart of your business. By doing so you’re creating a stimulating, secure future for yourself.

I’m now an entrepreneur – this involves networking which I enjoy and is one of my crucial roles, dealing with suppliers and partners, but I’m not a shop keeper that part I leave to my business partner who loves all that involves. We have websites that make us money, I write the content, do the networking, while my partner is the IT professional and web designer. We both have complementary skills, and get to do what we love.

We are creating a rewarding and exciting business doing what we love.  We are happy and confident because we’re doing what we love, making good money and owning our future.

If we succeed it’s down to us, if we fail it’s because of us. Mind you, at times it seems we have a fairy godmother looking down over us.

As we spend almost half our waking hours at work-you can’t be a sane person if you are prepared to be unhappy with this part of your life.

The way you feel on a Sunday evening tells you whether you’re loving your work or not. To many of you are toiling in an unfulfilling job with just retirement to look forward to

Don’t defer your life’s happiness.

Start to explore all possibilities that await you. That’s what we did. Just like us you may be amazed what not only you discover, but what comes your way.

So do yourself a favour and think about your

Instead start imagining activities that place your interests, needs, talents, and motivations. I’m going to talk about them more next time.

Here is a man that loves to teach, working with others, organising youth groups, developing young talent, sharing his knowledge. He is a badminton coach.

His name is Peter Walton, and he has been developing promising badminton players for more than three decades, unearthing a series of county junior and senior champions, including England international Holly Smith to name just one of his amazing successes. He has been recognised for his contribution to the sport by winning Coach of the Year a few years back.

Badminton is his true Passion. But helping nurture this passion and develop talent through others is his true driving force.

“I’ve been in badminton all my life as player, coach and umpire. I’ve been privileged enough to work with young people who have become county junior champions and lucky enough to find players to go on to represent England.”

He has had a very poignant thought that has led to us meeting. He said to me that Badminton is a sport that I have loved for so long and I don’t want my knowledge to just slip away and finally disappear, I want to pass it on’.

This has brought a complete meaning to his life and now he wants to bring a focus to doing it each day. For him he will be doing what he loves doing, sharing his passion and knowledge with people so that they to can enjoy his ‘beautiful’ game.

He wants to help raise the popularity of Badminton, share his passion and help others learn to play the game.

He now will be working with me towards sharing his passion, knowledge & skills on line so make a lasting impression on those he reaches.

When he has completed this, he plans to then get back to playing the game on a more regular basis, ramp up his fitness and get back to playing high level Masters Competitive Badminton.

You would think with all his enthusiasm he was still 21. Well the site he will build will make sure he goes on teaching others to learn the game for many years more to come, carring on the work he has done over many years as a top class coach.

To me this is why the internet is so fantastic.

Everyone has knowledge to give, and all of us can benefit from receiving more of each other’s knowledge! We each have a gift to share. Whether it be our knowledge and experiences, know-how, skills or lessons learned.

Peter Walton is a man that is willing to go that extra mile to help others become better at what he knows and loves the best. Now he is thinking about the legacy he wants to leave behind, and the internet will give a home to all that knowledge he has gathered over the years and has passed on to many top players, now future generations will be able to benefit. So this is an online business i am going to be excited to be part of.

So, do you share your knowledge? What drives you every morning out of bed to do what you do and do you make the difference with it?

I was explaining to someone the other day how refreshing and rewarding  it was once you could express yourself genuinely and freely through your blog writing.  Sometimes, I am my person to whom my blog post writings are directed at. Believe me it is one powerful way to get through to yourself. I am also my worse critic, and I hate those blogs where it’s obvious I haven’t put my all in, where the real Larry isn’t standing on his soap box.

I’m passionate about personal growth and am always looking for ways to improve my own life and that of others. Through blogging I have been given the chance to influence, inspire and educate many people, and I feel a responsibility to what it has given me. I love it when I write from the heart, and know that it’s where I make my best contribution.

At times it can really be challenging writing from the heart. When you start taking your blog from just a hobby to a business you realize you must create consistent, strong, original content and so the pressure mounts greatly.  Yet sometimes you are asked to write about lets say a product and you are trying to be sales orientated rather than writing from the heart. I hate that. Our blogs are meant to be our voice so we must have room to let it speak, and speak genuinely.

When I am not writing blog posts on my main blog Healthy Lifestyles Living  hoping to inspire others, I spend time building my ecommerce stores. Here I continue with my desire with making the difference by only selling products I truly believe in.

I guess i have been on an extraordinary journey. Blogging has been the catalyst for it all. That is why I try to convince those starting up a blog to be honest in what they write and to allow their voice to be the real them.

When I started blogging I knew nothing about Google Analytics, monetization of blogs, ecommerce, or SEO. It was nothing to do with making money. It was just a wonderful way to write as much as I wanted on a subject I was passionate about that I believed could help other people.

Just because blogging is now part of my business I have not lost my love for blogging and believe that its even more important now for the real Larry to stand up, inspire, motivate and educate by writing his very best about something he genuinely cares about.

Never be  tempted to follow the pack and decide to start writing about some network marketing product, or even trying to promote some affiliate program where you even pretend to know and interview the so called celebrity you are promoting and do lots of other nonsensical things. You’re selling out, you’re worth more than that. I know some that have tried, failed, and then gone on to try and teach others to blog. Shaking my head now. No one should compromise their authenticity.

Find your unique voice and write and write and influence the world.

The best way to start, write about what you’re thinking about. Share your thoughts! Let blogging be a mirror of your thoughts.

As a blogger you learn early on that if you want people to come back to revisit your blog, you need to provide them with something of value. There needs to be a benefit for these readers, something they get out of reading your posts in particular.

YOU can add value in your business!

Is it worth it? Most definitely, at the end of the day, success in business is measured by how much value you bring to the market. When I look at businesses, I can differentiate the truly successful ones by the fact that they are really creating value for their customers.

By “adding value,” I’m not talking about getting a customer to buy more, this is called upselling, and is definitely not adding value. I’m talking about showing the client how they can get more out of your product, without necessarily buying more from you.

If you believe in what you do, and the potential your product has for achieving what it says, so to speak on the label, that’s great, but what more can you do to ensure your customer gets the best results from the purchase of your product or ultimately how can you help them even more to achieve the solution they seek.

Can you see any untapped opportunities that would sit perfectly alongside one of your products?
Simply put value is something that helps create a positive effect on others. It positively help someone achieve something.

One key element in the creation of successful brands is the ability to augment a core product or service with additional and distinctive values that distinguish it from the competition, but more importantly add value to your customer that truly helps them deliver positive results.

Let me give you a simple example of how this would work. Let’s say your core product happened to be Badminton Rackets. There are undoubtedly a lot of other brands of badminton rackets as well as many sports shops online that will be selling similar rackets. So what can make you stand apart, give you the edge. Of course nothing will help if your product isn’t quality, so this is of foremost importance. As long as your product can stand up to the test of quality, what can you add to your offer to make your value stand out.

Solving problems is the best way to provide value. Figure out a pain point and offer a solution for it. If you can offer them a solution that solves their problems you can easily deliver value.

I sold a Badminton racket from my online amazon sports shop. A client was kind enough to send me a 5 star review. They said how great the racket was, but unfortunately it hadn’t helped him win his games. So the add on solution he would jump at, is of course improve your game, learn to win etc.

You could add to the sale:

All of these could create extra value. Just like when I write a blog post, I hope my readers will go ahead and implement the ideas I offer and see positive results. That then mean indeed I’ve created added value.

So start thinking about it, how can you add more value to your customers no matter what you sell.

The most important thing I’ve learnt on my career journey is that your creativity supported by your passions is the quickest and most enjoyable route to establishing a successful business.

What I am about to write goes against what I’ve been taught and the way I believed business had to be structured. I come from a marketing background so planning, having a strategy is supposedly key to our success.

So if you want to start a business, common business practice says you need to plan. Well our business has proved this is not true.

Instead a business can be created and grow by simply connecting it to your Heart.

We would have been restricted if we had a plan. So much of what we have done and achieved has been brought to us though an insight, “Ah-Ha! Moments”! You know, those life-changing flashes of clarity. It is these that have provided us with the wisdom of each step we need to take. Does this sound strange to you? Well in truth it does to us even now although we know how far it has allowed us to go.

It is these moments of insight that have created our business.

Most of us have been taught to play by the rules, build our plan, do what everybody else is doing, don’t be different and it will all work out.

I’m a lifestyle entrepreneur who is lucky enough to be building my business around my passions. I cringed the other day when talking to an old friend, who happen to be The Sales Director for an Outdoor Clothing and Equipment Company. He was telling me about this brilliant online business man he was talking to that had created a brilliant, world class business plan. I couldn’t tell him we had done the same because we never did, the best maybe I could have claimed was a one page mind map.

I see the problem with business plans is that they get you focused on the detail rather than the vision.

It was Gary Vaynerchuk, the man who built a phenomenal online businesss from his passions who said:

“I just jumped in with no game plan, but lived it every day,”

Let your business be driven by your passion not a plan. Allow your hard work and persistence to lead you to those wonderful ah ha moments and the endless opportunities that will open up in front of you.

Start with a vision. Then develop a model to make that vision a reality. Work determinedly towards its fruition, and be prepared for those magic moments that truly set your business into over drive.

Quit planning and start being passionate.

I ended up doing something that I was really enjoying and that was blogging. From the very beginning I determined this was how I wanted to spend my time and therefore I decided to establish a business around my blogs but in truth didn’t really know how to do it. I have gone a long way since those early days learning as i went along. It may only be three years but I have learnt so much and come such a long way. Let your passions drive you!