By Jackie Ulmer

It's 3:00AM and instead of sleeping, I'm trying to figure out how to get listed near the top of the search engines. Am I normal?

Am I normal? I pondered that question this morning while I quickly checked email one last time before shuffling the kids in the car and off to school.

Am I normal? It crossed my mind again as I raced back toward my home office after dropping the kids at school as I watched a group of moms head to the bagel shop for coffee and a chat.

Am I normal? This afternoon, as my neighbors talked intensely about the latest episode of ER, my mind kept wandering back to my web site, and I wondered if that was normal.

My mother tells me I should quit thinking about business so much and just enjoy my children, which I do, but I still wonder, am I normal?

Am I normal? My friends look at me as if they've seen an alien when I tell them that I'm never going back to my corporate marketing career. I'm building an Internet empire from my home, would they like one too?

Now, don't get me wrong. I love life and live it to the fullest, with lots of playtime. But, ambition and the challenge of "building the perfect beast" push me relentlessly sometimes. I figure you can relate if you are reading this article. You are looking to create something bigger than yourself, too!

But, it's a crazy world we live in. A world where people have learned to stifle their dreams, their desires, their creativity. We are taught to "settle" for what we are dealt in life. All too often, when we try to move beyond that, those closest to us try to hold us back, save us from ourselves.

"Consider yourself lucky for what you have."

"It's a good job and the benefits are great."

"The average American family has thousands of dollars in credit card debt."

"It's too risky."

I don't know how you feel, but I want to LIVE my dreams, have my heart's desires and allow my creativity to blossom. I want to be my own boss, work in my pj's if I choose, take a four hour lunch to go shopping and fire myself when I'm not measuring up. Of course, I'm eligible for rehire tomorrow!

Normal SHOULD be waking up when your body is rested, not when the alarm clock rings. Normal SHOULD be taking a vacation when it fits your family's schedule, not when your seniority allows. It SHOULD be having a parent at home when a child comes home from school.

To me, normal isn't sitting in rush hour traffic twice a day. It isn't working fifty weeks in exchange for two weeks off a year, or five days on for two days off a week. It isn't wearing my name and picture attached to my clothing.

Everyone must determine their own definition of what "normal" is and isn't. For those of us who have decided to step outside the box, take control of our lives and build our own businesses, normal is anything BUT normal!

Life is full of risks, it's true. But, everything great that has EVER happened has done so with some degree of risk. I don't want to get to the end and WISH I had taken just a few risks.

I'm urging you to take some risks with me! Step up to the plate! Decide what it is you want out of your life and your business and GO FOR IT! FORGET ABOUT NORMAL! Create your own "normal!"

We are at the very beginning of the new millennium! The Internet is overflowing with possibilities, as it breaks all growth records ever set by anything, and it is just not NORMAL!

As I lay in bed, building my business on my laptop, I realize just how much I love my other-than-normal life. I wouldn't trade it for anything! The clock says 10:07 PM. Ahhh, it's lunch break!

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