On the one hand, yes, such mindsets do exist. Some people feel like everything ought to work perfectly for them, and if something goes wrong then it’s not their fault and they’re not going to fix it.

On the other hand, it’s classic nonsense that “normal” people accuse everyone else of having an “entitlement mindset”, as in “Get serious. You think you can make money online? You think you can escape 9-to-5? You think you’re better than the rest of us? You’re selfish. You just think you’re entitled to something.”

See how that works?

You said: “If you really want something, you shouldn’t expect to glide through life so easily and still be able to attain it.”

Yes, we shouldn’t underestimate the challenge. But neither should we overestimate the challenge. Some people have the former problem, where they figure that very little effort is necessary. Most people have the latter problem, figuring that doing-what-they-love is so gosh-darn hard that it’s not worth the effort. In both cases, people don’t work hard enough to make their dreams come true.

It’s interesting. .-= Sonicsuns´s last blog ..Use Firefox (or maybe Chrome) =-.

But what bugs the hell out of me is that obtaining success and money and fame without hard work doesn’t result in mastery of any kind. Something I’ve found out in the last few years is that I apparently value mastery above all else. If I was rich or famous without feeling like an expert in my field I’d be a failure in my own eyes. And I think that will always be true.

Mastery takes hard work and that’s why my generation is typically only good at claiming to be knowledgeable or inventing new fields for which they can claim mastery (like “social media expert” WTF is that?)

While I do this internet marketing/blogging thing, I have taken a few steps in the Animation direction, but it’s a pretty intimidating field. I feel like there is a huge learning curve, at least for me, so I’ve only been able to play around with it on a very amateurish level. Eventually (later this year I hope), I want to attend AnimationMentor.com and learn from the masters.

But while I’m doing internet marketing/blogging, I will say that it’s not a pain in my ass in any way. Most of the time it’s fun and there’s lots to be learned from it. I especially enjoy the blogging bit.

Excellent post and one I will be sharing. .-= Heather Villa´s last blog ..Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 3/12/10 =-.

It takes humility to start from the bottom. The amusing thing is that the people who have their paths paved for them by others never seem to rise very far.

It’s an honor to have to starve, sweat, and fight to get what you want.

As an aside, I hope you’re working on animation on the side, or perhaps figuring out how to implement it into your current work. You can certainly make use of it if you’re marketing anything.

I started growing the most as a writer when I began doing it for a living, even though the only work I could secure diverged wildly from my ideal career.

When I was a teenager, my ideal career wasn’t to write copy for Aerosmith memorabilia sales sites, promote crochet kits, hawk purses, sell custom sneakers, or advertise monster truck rally tickets, but I gleaned much from the experience.

It gave me a paid education, if that makes sense. .-= JC Hewitt´s last blog ..The Blogger About Town =-.

I’m working on a pretty big project now and once it’s finished in the next six months, I’m hoping to slow down a bit.