Today, I had lunch with former coworkers and it’s quite likely I’ll get some work coming my way as a result. I consider that pretty good work. I also finished up the details on another contract that begins next Wed, and looked at the details of another job I need to bid out. All work that contributes to those billable hours.

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
–Vincent Van Gogh

For those of you who haven’t seen it, the story takes place in a Chinese village. The panda’s father runs a local restaurant that’s famous for its “secret ingredient” noodle soup. The soup is wildly popular and the main reason the restaurant is so successful.

Throughout the movie, Panda begs his dad for the secret recipe. Finally, at the end of the movie, panda discovers that there is NO secret ingredient: “The secret ingredient to the ’secret ingredient soup’ is that there is no secret ingredient,” his father tells him.

Panda suddenly realizes that he doesn’t need years of kung fu training to defeat the deadly Tai Lung. He only needs to believe in himself and leverage his unsatiable appetite for food (you have to see the movie to understand that part).

Sure, it sounds a bit corny. But don’t underestimate the wisdom in that line: “There is no secret ingredient.”

Maybe watching Kung Fu Panda will help – “There’s no secret ingredient – all you have to do is to believe there is”

I know where you’re coming from. I recognize that it’s a very tough place to be in. It’s demoralizing and disheartening. I can also tell that you’re looking for honest advice, not a bunch of fluff, so let me be frank in my response…

Above all, you need is to truly believe that you can crawl out of your situation and emerge victorious. Without that belief — without an undying faith and can-do attitude, success will always be elusive.

I know a lot of very successful people (financial or otherwise), and none of them got to where they are without first believing that success would eventually be theirs. Sure, some went beyond where they ever imagined they would go. But they all knew they would be successful, even if that belief didn’t come until they were on their way there.

To nurture this belief, you should read as many legitimate rags-to-riches stories as you can find. I’m talking Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Warren Buffett, Mother Teresa, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Spielberg, J.K. Rowling. Folks who came from nothing. People who overcame tremendous (almost unbelievable) obstacles to achieve what others though was impossible.

Immerse yourselves in these books. Read them and re-read them. Buy them used if money is an issue. Check them out from the library if you have to. But whatever you do, don’t dismiss this as an overly simplistic solution.

I know you’re looking for very specific answers, but those answers won’t mean a thing if you don’t first believe that you can be a true success, even in a small town in the middle of nowhere…and even though you now face some incredible obstacles.

It will happen for you, Lee. But you have to believe first.

Here it is: 1) I have no money. Really. I don’t mean I don’t have an “extra” money; I mean, I don’t have Internet hook up at home (I’m at the local library); I can’t for the same reasons have my own blog or website to promote my services or even offer samples of my writing;
2) I live in a strange, small town with almost no businesses larger than mom-and-pops; I can’t move–no money, nowhere to go;
3) I have no family. None. No one to move in with, borrow from, etc. After 4 years living here I can say with confidence that there is NO professional writer around here, just a load of not-quite-average wannabees.

How I got into this situation is a long story and unnecessary. The fact is, I’m in it. I can’t move; I can’t borrow; I can’t fix it except to earn a pile of money. Although I’ve been a writer for 30 years, I never before tried to make a living at it, just wrote novels I never sent anywhere, academic pieces for my useless 22 years of education, and, for a few years, worked as a journalist outside of Chicago.
That’s my only income now: writing feature pieces for absurdly little money for a local weekly newspaper that Defines the term “quirky.”
Meanwhile, I can write business promotional pieces better than most people; my grammar is impeccable; and I have a sense of style that allows me to write for anything from dry-legal to convoluted academic, to quality-magazine informative to breezy-basic mag/newspaper.
Do I scrape together a few bucks and mail out promotional letters to an assortment of local businesses gleaned from the phone book? Do I continue to scoure craigslist and guru and sologig in hopes that–contrary to all the evidence of the past 4 years–I will GET one of the jobs I apply for?
Or do I rob a local bank? (My 14 year old car won’t provide me much of a getaway, though.)
Any ideas?

I have bookmarked this site, Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences.

Regards,