From Ant Farm To Success
Tom Harpointner, a founder of AIS Media, told us a story one day
that struck me as containing qualities that have been a huge
part of Tom's success in Internet business. Our story begins
with 10 year old Tom's ant farm. He'd always had ant farms in
buckets and boxes and so forth. One day his neighbor tossed out
an aquarium in excellent shape, except for a cracked bottom.
While clearly not the appropriate receptacle for fish, Tom, even
at that early age, had a vision.
Where others saw merely a flawed vessel, a used, discarded, aged
box, Thomas Harpointner saw past all that to the essence: this
item would be perfect as a state of the art ant condominium.
Yes, his ants would live in comfort and luxury for the rest of
their antly lives. And not only did he provide a wonderful
community for ants, he spread the word and marketed those ants
to everyone who would hear him. Sure, the other kids laughed-
what kind of doofus geek keeps an ant farm? Tom invited the
nay-sayers and non-believers to witness the great wonder. It
didn't take long for the word to spread that Tom had something
cool going on in a glass tank outside his house. Tom would
explain to his audience how the ants, once introduced to their
new environment, worked together to create their own
communication and travel system. By depositing foreign objects
like orange peels and other bugs into the tank, he demonstrated
how his favorite insects worked together to achieve a goal.
Successful Internet entrepreneurs share these characteristics-
the "I have a dream" vision, the persistence to work through any
obstacles blocking making the dream a reality, and the passion
to communicate this vision to everyone in a manner that instills
passion in those who hear about it.
If you are excited about the product or service you are
providing on your website, you are already sharing a quality of
entrepreneurship. Your excitement will inspire those working
with you on your website, or those customers and prospective
customers you talk with. Business owners who are constantly
thinking about their business, and the next thing to do or to
add or to accomplish are going to be successful because they
have a vision and are working to become successful through
everything having to do with their business. Just keeping an
open mind will open doors for you. You never know when you'll
stumble across your own cracked aquarium.
Keep working on your website. A bunch of ants in a glass box is
not a big attraction, but when you add the ants and make the
whole thing an interactive experience by throwing in a few
orange peels and educating people on how things work in the ant
world, now that's big fun! A great idea alone will not allow you
to be successful, you must also persist in making your dream,
your vision, a reality. You've got to be able to teach people
about your product or service, and that will take some trial and
error and every effort will turn up more obstacles. Keep your
goal firmly in mind and keep moving forward.
Communication and passion are your knockout punches. Talking and
sharing your thoughts and goals for your business accomplishes
two things. First, you will continue to keep your business
foremost in your thoughts, which helps you maintain your vision
for your business. Second, your enthusiasm is one of the best
promotion tools you have. According to "The World Wide Internet
Opinion Survey," a joint project of @d:tech and Talk City,
respondents said that after using search engines, word of mouth
was the vehicle that most drives them to new web sites. If you
talk about your website to people you're in touch with, and
include your website address in your signature information at
the end of your email messages, you are going to generate
traffic to your site. People are curious and will want to see
what is fueling your excitement. It's your passion that will
inspire other people to come see your cool new ant condo.
There are many skills and characteristics that will contribute
to your success on the Internet, but vision, persistence, and
passion are indispensable to your success.