You might be aghast at the headline, but I'm dead serious.

"Try" is a garbage word.  "Try" is a word with the excuse for 
failure already built in.  

"But I triiiiiied!" That means "I half-assed it, I put up a show
of getting the writing done, of sending it out, but having 
assuaged my conscience by doing a little work, so I can quit, 
knowing that I didn't throw my heart and soul into it... I didn't
hurt myself.  So I didn't REALLY fail.  I just ... tried."

Screw that.

If you want to be a writer, you don't "try" to be a writer. You 
just write.  You write like your life depended on it.  You write
with everything you have in you, understanding that only the 
very best you have in you even has a chance of giving you the 
life and the dreams you want.  

You become your own candle, lighting your own way through the
darkness of your effort, burning the fuel that dreams and hunger
and passion and desire and will give you in inexhaustible supply
if you actually USE THEM.  You push yourself, you learn everything 
you can, you eat, sleep, and breathe writing.

And you fail, because failure---big, loud, embarrassing, messy
failure---is the price of admission for eventual success.  When 
you fail, you get up, and you write some more.

You learn from every skinned knee, from every chipped tooth, from 
every bump on your head and bruise on your butt, just like you
did when you were a kid.

You get the crap beat out of you by life, and you keep going.

You get tougher, you get smarter, you get BETTER.  Eventually,
you get good enough, you earn your success, and you fly.

Nobody flies by trying to fly.  You can't "try" to jump off
that cliff.  You either stand there shivering and let your 
life and your dreams pass you by, or you commit.  You jump.

It is only in the jumping that you make your little dreams into
big truths.

Agh!

I'm not even going to include the e-mail that prompted that 
outburst.  But...DAMN!

If you just want to TRY to write, quit now.  Either have the
guts to do it, or admit to yourself that you don't want it 
enough, and spend you passion on something that you DO want
enough.

Onward.

I know a lot of people right now are in real financial trouble.
A lot have lost jobs, a lot are on the verge of losing homes.

If you're fine right now and know you're going to stay fine,
skip the rest of this e-mail.  If you have a job you could lose,
keep reading.

I get being scared, and I get being broke.  

I lost a home in my past.  One year while supporting two kids, I 
GROSSED $20,000 bucks.  My net was way lower.

That was the year we lived on pasta with olive oil and salt,
and a lot of canned beans, and I held my breath every time the
phone rang because I couldn't afford to pay anybody, and 
everybody had my number.

So as I've built my various little writing businesses, I've worked
to offer folks who wanted to make the effort a way to make 
money from my work. People who buy my online stuff have made it 
possible for me to NOT fear the ringing of the phone.  

I want to share that feeling. 

I have two affiliate programs---the HollyShop program:
http://shop.hollylisle.com/jamaffiliates/index.php?req=desc&pid=1

And the How To Think Sideways affiliate program:
http://howtothinksideways.com/members/signup.php

I pay you 50% of everything you sell (after PayPal takes their 
commission, which is small) for both programs.  Think Sideways
will create a monthly income for you for either six or twelve 
months from each student who joins via your link, while the 
HollyShop pays per sale.  Links for both are perpetuale (They don't
die after a month or two, because I think that's a crummy way to 
treat people.)  If you do this, you'll be helping me, and I'll
be delighted to return the favor.

I've already created all the ads, and my affiliate manager,
Craig Campbell, will help you get started with all sorts of 
resources and training.

And I've added a course called "The Complete Guide to Freelancing 
Riches," by Steve Wagenheim, to the HollyShop.  I've used 
Steve's products to help me figure out how to run my own 
businesses, and this one is very good.  I highly recommend it
and am offering a six-month guarantee on it to back that up.

http://shop.hollylisle.com/index.php?crn=220&rn=418&action=show_detail

This is how to go about creating your own business without 
investing in websites, mailing list software, or anything else.

If you're having a hard time right now...or think you could end
up that way, I hope these will help you out.


Don't TRY your life.  Live it.
And never give up on your dreams.


Holly