This brings me to my point. People will see you how you present yourself. We all have to manage our online personae, and with so much of our activity now online, we are finding ourselves with multiples. This is not some new Internet schizophrenia because it is in our “real” life too. You are a slightly more polished version of yourself at work than at play, are you not?

As you seek to build or grow your online business, you will join different communities at different stages of your development, and how you position yourself is going to impact what you get out of them. With a few exceptions, unlike in the “offline” world, the people with whom you interact online are not privy to you as a whole. As such, they don’t get to see much of your development and growth and you may be viewed like the “newbie” you were the day you first awkwardly asked what AdWords was for a long time. Go into any discussion forum, the less professional the better, and look how the “noobs” are spoken to. Gaming forums are the best for a good laugh. The number of their post are listed right under their names, looking like some bizarre numeric measure of their value to the world.

I have always found this amusing. You could have a wonderfully successful attorney looking to try something new being called down by a 16 year old basement dweller for asking what they considered a stupid question. Somehow the culture surrounding these forums supports it, and even I find myself deferring humbly to someone who just happens to have the time to spend 12 hours a day posting and responding to forum topics regardless of her knowledge of the subject.

I will give you a personal example. I joined a few online communities over the past year or so. Being relatively new at much of the “techie” parts of Internet business I was careful and somewhat self-deprecating in my communications. The people I deal with are great and helpful, and I didn’t get any of the guff I mentioned earlier, but I have noticed that I did myself no favors by tripping over myself to be humble. To my frustration, that persona remains among those who I don not speak with regularly despite considerable development. You run an even more severe risk by doing the opposite of course. No one likes dealing with a blow-hard.

So my suggestions are these:

• Respect what you have accomplished so far. Despite how you might feel undertaking something you are not flush with experience in, you have a history that does uniquely qualify you.
• Don’t get intimidated by the people who appear to be experts just because they know much more about a certain subject than you. Sure Bob might know PHP inside out, but he’s not likely to be, say, a chartered accountant too, and you are. Keep that in mind.
• Sell yourself. Because online interactions are decidedly myopic, it can be quite difficult to show you know enough about something to be taken seriously, and even if you have a Maserati in your driveway that got there because of your expertise in the very subject you are discussing, nobody can see it my friend! Don’t be shy.
• Relating to the above point, try to be diplomatic. Bear in mind that many of these people are successful in their own right as well. I do not fully subscribe to the popular belief du jour that you do not need to actually be an expert to be as good as an expert online. I think that is a slippery slope. But in any event, communicating with other passionate people in these online business forums should be conducted professionally, and beating someone over the head with how much you know is a great way to not be listened to any more.

Keep these thoughts in mind as you navigate around the plethora of resources available to the new Internet business person. Hopefully it will save you some frustration and foster some excellent fruitful relationships.

I remember back in grade 12, I enjoyed my Global Studies class.  I was one of the lucky students who found, at least that chapter of my education, to be fairly effortless.  We were often asked to write short essays about various current or historical issues, and I always completed my assignments proud of the job I had done.  Near the end of the semester, I was happy to hear that we could do our final essay on anything we wanted (within context, of course).   I took forever deciding on a topic, and when I finally limped to completion I was not pleased.  Nor was my teacher.  He took me aside and said, “Not your best work, is it?”  It wasn’t, but why not?  I chose the topic myself, I worked at my own pace, and I pretty much got to do it just the way I wanted.  That was the problem right there.  The freedom I was excited to exploit also came with the total lack of parameters and goals.

This isn’t a jaw dropping antic dote, I realize, but it’s a simple one and I know you folks like me have your own.  In the years since that little essay, I have repeatedly experienced the same thing, but with increasing consequence.  What was an irritant in a high school class is dangerous in a career.  Trust me on that one.

I hate structure.  I even balk at my own, self-imposed structures!  Take this blog for instance.  It is something I am truly excited about.  Before I started it I had the burning passion to write something EVERY DAY, but the very act of setting up a website that now demanded commitment somehow triggered my instinct to resist any form of scheduled, targeted output.  Ok, before I start sadly listing all of my commitment shortcomings, and crumple into a heap of pathetic self-loathing on my MacBook, I’ll get to my point!

People like us are common.  In fact, I would suggest (with absolutely no scientific evidence, of course) that this is especially common among people who are passionate about many things and want to embrace and act on them all.  We’re dreamers, and it is hard to rein ourselves in because it feels like we are not reaching our potential.  Trouble is, that is a perilous thing because without some form of measurement, we have no perception of what is great, or even adequate.  We resent those who put constraints around us, but ironically, we need them so we can gauge our production and ourselves.

Don’t worry; we might not always need them.  I’m sure there are many, many successful entrepreneurs who where plagued by the same self-discovery wanderlust before they found their stride.  Seasoned entrepreneurs have the experience to measure their efforts against past successes and failures, and have gained some sense of what to do, and how it’s working.

Draw a picture.  Was it a good job?  How do you know?   Now draw 100 more.  You will have a much better feel for what is fantastic and what is trash.  As important as learning what good work looks like is learning the process.  Process, and the discipline to create and follow it, is what will separate a wealthy, self-satisfied, adequately intelligent chap, from the tormented, unrealized genius.

So do this: accept that bloody imposition of structure in your life.  It goes against what you want, and it makes your skin crawl to have a measuring stick, a schedule, someone looking over your shoulder (even if it’s just yourself), or any sort of accountability, but if you’re like me, it will give you those parameters you need to work within.  I’m using broad strokes here, as you can tell, but each person needs a different structure, and again, if you’re like me, you know where you need it.