Over the few days between Xmas and New Year, I had an opportunity to join the ‘non-Internet’ world again as my parents-in-law live on a farm without broadband and wifi.

Whilst enjoying the views of the ocean and rainforest around me, I happened to read an article in the Australian Financial Review titled “The Prince Charles Syndrome”.

The basic premise of the piece was that whilst the Baby Boomer generation are starting to reach retirement age and leave the corporate environment, Gen X (born 65-79) are starting to be overtaken by the current tech-savvy upstarts, Gen Y. This phenomenon has been compared to a similar situation (dubbed the Prince Charles Syndrome) with the current heir to the English throne as speculation rises that Charles could possibly either die or get overtaken to the throne by Prince William and thus never fulfil his ambition to being crowned King of England.

It got me thinking – with the speed at which technology changes, is there a danger that normal people will be left behind? And to be more specific, will entrepreneurs need to embrace technology or will they survive without it?

Seeing we’ve just started a new decade, I did some research and came up with some interesting facts based on how technology has progressed in the last 10 years since 2000.

At the start of 2000:

* There were NO major social networks (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace)
* There was no online video sharing to speak of (YouTube was founded in 2005!)
* Only .03% of US households had broadband (current penetration is 67%)
* Only 15% of US households had a mobile phone (current figure around 90%)
* MP3 players were almost unknown (today around 75% ownership)
* There was no paypal or similar 3rd party payment system

And my favourite statistic – No-one really used Google (it was founded in 1999).

There is an ever-increasing Digital Divide between people who have the skills and knowledge to use the Internet in their daily lives and those that don’t. The developments of the last 10 years will also pale into comparison when compared with the advancements in techology predicted over the next 10 years. If the effects of the Internet over the past decade have been so amazing now, what sort of effects will the Internet have on our lives in this new decade!

The Digital Divide between those empowered with Internet knowledge, skills and availability and those that don’t will be immense.

I feel relieved that I have the last 20 years of IT industry experience to help me ease into whatever technologies may arise, and I take great comfort in the fact that my children have access to my knowledge on a one-to-one level.

But my overriding concern is for those people not only in the Western world, but those less fortunate who don’t have the opportunity to experience and participate in the online world. Only a very small percentage of people actually actively participate on forums, blogs and other social networks. These people, this miniscule minority, will become the future leaders and visionaries as they will have the knowledge to utilise these new Internet technologies that will pervade every aspect of our lives.

The famous saying by Sir Francis Bacon “Knowledge is Power” is going to be the ultimate truth in the years to come, and I for one will make sure that I’m on the side that has the power.

You are one of the lucky ones; you have been blessed with the myriad of opportunities that eventually allowed you to get access to the Internet and read blog posts like this one. You are aware of the unlimited potential benefits and opportunities that are afforded you simply because you now how to harness the ‘Net.

But don’t be complacent – keep up with the latest technologies as they arise and learn how to implement and incorporate them into everything possible, for it is the knowledge of how to use these technologies that will effect your future in more ways than you ever thought possible.

I’ve leave you with one last statistic for you. At the moment, only 25% of the world has access to the Internet in some form or another. What sort of effect do you think another several billion people in the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will have on your potential market base when they come online? Are you going to be there to welcome them?

I’ve just spent a very relaxing several days down at my parents-in-law farm just north of Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia.

We stayed in a small 3-bedroom house on the property and the combination of looking out over the trees and over to the next valley coupled with the warm weather, blue sky and sounds of nature really brought stress levels down to a minimum.

I had a lot of time to think about things – being away from the Internet for a few days tends to clear the head! I’ve never really truly let go of the Internet for quite a number of years now, and having the time away allowed me to refocus my thoughts and evaluate where I had gone wrong in the past, where I want to be and what I want to achieve in the future.

Where did it all go wrong?

I had a lot of time to think back to where I had gone wrong in the past and what lessons I had learnt from my mistakes.

I’d spent the last several years working long hours away from my family doing my IT consulting work and got heavily involved in property investing. All I ever wanted was to build up some equity that would enable me to take the pressure off having to go to work everyday and allow me to spend more time with the family.

For a number of years, my entire focus was ensuring that my credit file was spotless so I could continue buying property and build my ‘empire’. Little did I realise what I was getting myself into.

Ok, so I managed to build a multimillion-pound portfolio in the space of 2 years, but little did I realise the enormous cost that this would bring to my family life, my health and my sanity!

What started off as an exciting adventure into the world of ‘big business’ with constant phone calls to letting agents, mortgage brokers, property developers and dodgy solicitors soon turned into a living nightmare.

Even though I was earning a 6-figure income in London, all I was really doing was working all the hours of the day to earn enough money to feed an ever-increasingly hungry leviathan of a monster. Not only was it consuming all my money, but it was sucking dry every last vestige of humanity away from me in the form of stress, sleepless nights and unhealthy lifestyle.

It all started going wrong in late 2007 ( and it seems like it was only yesterday). We had planned on going back to Australia in 2008, so put our house on the market. We couldn’t have chosen a worse possible time. It was like someone was waiting for us to sell our house as a signal to unleash the dogs of war!!

The Global Financial Crisis (or GFC as I like to call it as it sounds like KFC – so much less menacing) kicked in at almost the same time. During the next 12 months, each offer we accepted became lower as time went on. And each buyer pulled out of the deal because they were either made redundant or got cold feet. Unfortunately, property law in the England is decades behind the rest of the world, and buyers can pull out at any time before exchange of contracts leaving the owner high and dry.

One by one, I had to sell off all of my properties until eventually practically everything I had worked for all those past few years was gone.

My once pristine credit file was a mess (although you only need 1 missed payment to render it useless) so my ability to  borrow again was greatly reduced.

I was depressed, heart-broken and completely disillusioned with the world. My honest efforts to get ahead and provide some sort of nest-egg for my family was completely destroyed. I had been shafted time and time again by what I thought were reputable property developers and solicitors. My trust and faith in people in general had been wiped out.

My darkest hour

I was in my darkest hour in November 2008. Our plans for returning to Australia couldn’t be put on hold forever, so my wife and I made the decision that her and my 2 daughters should return back to Australia whilst I stayed behind to try and sort out the financial mess.

We spent the next few weeks organising for all our belongings to be shipped back to Australia. The only things we left behind was stuff I needed to survive in the house alone – a few plates, cutlery for one, a bed, my filing cabinet, computers, TV and DVD player – and of course my broadband connection.

A few days after all the household stuff had been packed and taken away, I drove my girls to the airport. I waved them off at Heathrow on a cold, dark November afternoon not knowing when I would see them again. Driving back to an empty house in London was the most soul-wrenching experience and to this day I still get a spine-chilling feeling when I remember it.

Soon after, just before Christmas, I was told my contract at the bank would not be renewed…I was now truly on my own, with no-one to talk to, and with nothing but a bleak Christmas and an even bleaker 2009 ahead of me.

A glimmer of hope

So there I was on New Years Day…biggest snow fall in London in years, and me stuck in an empty house with no job, no wife, no kids, no family. What the #@!* was I going to do?

What else could I do except surf the Internet and try to keep myself occupied.

I don’t know how or why, but something I typed into Google, probably ‘how to make money’,  came up with a particular webpage that caught my eye. I think it was a Liberty League International website or something, but for the first time in my life, I held back my scepticism and entered in my name and email address into the webform. So I sat back and waited.

Soon after, a guy called me from the US and we started talking. We got into the conversation for awhile and when I asked “Is this network marketing” I said thanks, and that I wasn’t interested.

You see, being a classic Generation X’er, I had been brought up to believe that if people were making lots of money in a seemingly effortless fashion, that there must be something illegal or dishonest going on. It had been drummed into me that I should be working a 9-5  job, and be thankful for my bonus and holidays.

But ever since I started working in the early 90’s, I had eschewed the advice from my parents and others to get a permanent, secure job. I chose the life of a contractor, and whilst not as secure as a permanent job, it allowed me to pick and choose where and when I worked. For most of the past 20 years that had worked for me. After all, I had been able to build a multi-million pound property portfolio!

But, the recent events had shattered my confidence in the world – I had been forced into a horribly desperate situation by unfortunate circumstances that I had never dreamed possible. And the realisation that I was now in completely unfamiliar territory forced me to repress the mindset and opinions forged into my brain throughout the course of my life by the ’system’. I literally had no choice but to search outside my comfort zone; outside my belief system, if I was to survive.

I had the feeling that there was something more to this ‘network marketing’ stuff – after all, if some people were making money online, then with my experience, surely I would have a chance at making some sort of income as well.

I kept researching, reading reviews and subscribing to other network marketers, and soon realised that there was an overabundance of information out there – how the heck would I ever be able to push ahead and start making money online? Where would I start?

MyInternetBusiness (now known as YourNetBiz) was probably the first business opportunity I came across that made sense to me. I had seen so much rubbish out there from obvious idiots promising quick riches overnight.

I was lucky enough to join up with my former property investment business partner and we pooled our money into buying into the opportunity. In hindsight, the mentor we had was a typical show-off flash git – the only thing of real value he gave was videos of his sports car. But the thing he did do well was show what could be achieved with the right mindset and attitude.

But we perservered and it’s now been over 12 months since I started with network marketing. In that relatively short space of time I have learnt an extraordinary amount; not only about network marketing and making money online, but about myself.

So what have I learnt about myself and my past mistakes?

Well, one of things I have learnt is that there is more to life to making money and trying to get ahead. It sounds ridiculous when you first hear it, but being successful is not about money, but helping others be successful. You have to learn to forget about the money and just immerse yourself into providing good value and content for your fellow internet marketers and anyone else who is interested in you. And having an online business gives you the ideal platform to achieve that.

Time and time again, that same message has been espoused by all the network marketers, mentors, gurus and anyone else who has been successful online.

Having experienced the full ramifications of the financial disaster I found myself in forced me to rethink and re-evaluate what was really important and what exactly I want to achieve in my life. I have a sneaking suspicion that had the GFC not happened, I may have been destined to a life less ordinary.

In the short amount of time that I having been exposed and involved in the network marketing industry, I have met more interesting people, read about and experienced more interesting things, dreamt of and brought into reality more things like articles, websites and blog posts than I have ever done in the years before – it’s truly a remarkable experience and I am filled with excitement about what the future holds for me.

I know I have only really scratched the surface of the latent abilities and talents that lie beneath the surface of my GenX brainwashed mind and I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can drag out from that brain of mine.

But probably the most important thing I have learnt is that before one can achieve greatness and reach their full potential, any baggage in the form of opinions, misconceptions and beliefs need to be left behind. Purging your previously ingrained mindset may not be possible until you are forced into it by what at first glance seems like a tragedy or an imminent event that you’re desperately trying to avoid. But take heart, for as I was reluctantly to learn, every cloud has a silver lining.

Don’t stress about a future result that hasn’t eventuated yet as it more than likely won’t happen exactly as you think it will. Just ‘go with the flow’ and let things play out their course.

I know it may be difficult for a lot of people to shift their mindset into the sort of mindset that you will need to succeed in an online business, but at least try to keep an open mind and allow yourself to explore the possibilities that exist outside of your reality.

In other words, try to purge yourself of the baggage that you’ve been clinging onto for whatever reason and look forward to 2010 as not just another year, but as the start of a new year, or indeed a new DECADE, where you can achieve what you want in this life just with the power of your creative and open mind.

And what do I hope to achieve in this new decade?

As for what I want to achieve in the next few years – for me it’s all about finding the perfect balance between the work required to generate an income and having a good family life. Having wealth and security is nothing if you don’t have a family to share it with. I want to achieve a level of expertise and knowledge that will give me the ability to share what I have and will learn with others and experience the satisfaction of knowing that I have made a difference to someone else’s life.

Well, that about wraps it up for this blog…I’m now back in Brisbane plugging away at this laptop and I feel like I’ve had an injection of motivation. Feels bloody brilliant!

As always, let me know what you think of this post and feel free to contact me and ask me any questions.

Have a great 2010 and catch you all later!

Well, what a day!!! It’s almost midnight, Friday night and I’m completely exhausted.

Arrived yesterday at the Glorietta Bay Inn, San Diego after almost 24 hours of travelling all the way from Australia. What a beautiful place! It’s a big old mansion right on the bay that has been renovated into a majestic hotel. Just gorgeous.

Met with all the other 19 San Diego Summit attendees, and of course our hosts, Mark Hoverson, Jonathan Budd, Katie Freiling and Aaron Fortner. It was totally awesome to finally meet with everyone face-to-face. Had a few drinks and chatted about all things ‘network markety’ until the early morning.

This morning was an early start, so got up and had breakfast and got straight into a marathon brain dump with Mark Hoverson. We covered a whole bunch of extremely indepth, cutting-edge marketing strategies, copywriting techniques, confidence building with our video making, website and business critiques and analyses.

Jonathan Budd spent short one-on-one time with each of us to establish where we were with our business and to work out what improvements we could make to take things to the next level.

Katie Freiling did the same with our blogs and social networking strategies to ensure that everything was in order.

It’s been fascinating and inspiring meeting with such experienced and successful network marketers, but I really didn’t expect to have such an equally transformational experience meeting my fellow classmates.

Everyone is so committed and dedicated to becoming a success and it’s been pure gold listening to their stories and how they got to where they are today. Without doubt, these contacts will become lifelong friends and I have truly enjoyed the experience thus far.

Tomorrow we are spending some intense time going into the finer points of our respective businesses, such as our back end systems, capture pages and autoresponders. We’re also going on a coast cruise for about an hour which should be brilliant (assuming the weather clears up).

Catch you all later…

I’ve been busy planning for what I truly believe will be a life changing event for me. I only just got back from almost 10 years in the UK when I was selected to be one of the 20 lucky people to join some of the top Network Marketers in the world for an intensive 2-day one-on-one mentoring and networking seminar.

I haven’t been able to sleep for the past few days, thinking about everything I need to do.