Real Work From Home

Online bookselling is like any other business undertaking; unless nepotism, favoritism, equal employment opportunity, or some other "inside influence" plays a part, there is no elevator to success; you have to take the stairs. However, there are only three steps and they are named dedication, time, and patience. It is also a big help to have a tool belt with some tools in it that make things easier to accomplish as well as a map of where you are going and how you plan to get there.

As a kid I helped build all kinds of furniture, shelving, and other woodworking projects with my dad. I think he had something against nails and drills because everything we built was put together with screws. We never pre-drilled the holes, we just put the screw on the screwdriver and pushed as we turned. I never finished a project without blisters from pushing the screwdriver or cuts in my other hand from the screwdriver when it slipped off the screw. Now I am an engineer and know it is better to pre-drill the holes for the screws because the wood is less likely to split from the stress of the screw displacing wood, and because it is better for your other hand. So, when I build something from wood now I pre-drill the hole for the screw and use a cordless electric screwdriver so I don't get so many blisters. I still get the occasional splinter, but this cannot be avoided if you work with wood. I am sure that most of you can relate to this in one way or another, but if you start cutting all the wood and assembling your project without a plan, you know you are going to make a bunch of costly mistakes along the way. Everything may work out fine in the end, but experience has taught all of us that the mistakes we make along the way, not having the right tools, or even not knowing what the finished project is going to look like is going to cost us more than the proper plans.