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.