How I Found My Freedom...

...and created a website to help others

My name is Lauren and I live just outside of Boston in a little suburb. Like most people, I attended high school, continued on through college and got my degree (Archaeology and Biology) and then got a job working 9 to 5 for a pharmaceutical company.

I was making good money but soon found like everyone else that things started to pile up. The house needed cleaning no matter how much I cleaned it, the dog needed to be walked, groceries needed buying, bills needed to be paid. With a 40 hour work and another 10 hours in commuting, finding time to eat a decent meal is hard enough, nevermind trying to enjoy something you love to do or relaxing. Your weekends seem to fly by with no hope for free time on the horizon, waiting for those 2-3 weeks of vacation we covet so much.

That was until I found my solution.

Now, any day I choose can be part of my weekend and my schedule was mine to control. The hours I worked, the hours I cleaned, or the hours I spent doing whatever it is a feel like doing.

I found many people were envious of my new lifestyle. I know so many people who have said, I wish I could do what you are doing, but I never have any free time and I don't have the money.

I was able to overcome these setbacks and take control of my life and live it how I wanted, and so can you. How? Read my story....

A Setback for Most, a Blessing for Me

I was always active and healthy. I grew up playing sports as a kid. I ate right, loved to travel, love music and anything else that allowed me to express myself.

My life was no different than any other child's or teenager's until one day my world got turned upsite down.

At the beginning of my sophomore year in high school, I came down with a rather severe flu. As a result, I developed a high fever and some swollen lymphs nodes. The fever subsided but the lymphnodes in my neck never did.

The doctor prescribed me medication, but the lymphnodes still would not reduce in size. After lots of tests and a almost a whole year of figuring out what was really wrong with me, I was sent in for surgery to have the lymphnodes removed and to have a biopsy taken.

That's when the phone call came.

We're sorry but you have been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

How Having Cancer Saved My Life...

Lucky for me, hodgkin's lymphoma is a very common cancer among young adults and very curable. After undergoing 6 months of chemotherapy and radiation, my cancer has been in remission for over a decade.

I strived to live my life to the fullest, stay healthy and live every moment as if it were my last.

Cancer was probably the best thing that ever happened to me and would become the salvation of my existence.

I was never the same after my experience with cancer. Yes, I was healthy, yes I was eating well, working out again, being a normal person, but you always have that fear in the back of your mind. For those of you that have survived cancer or know someone that has sufferred through it, you may know that there are many consquences to chemotherapy and radiation. They include developing a secondary cancer or long term side effects such as heart and lung complications.

I always felt a sense of unease. That I was not living my life to its full potential working and commutting 50 hours a week. I hated waking up every morning because I had to. I hated dragging myself to a job that was keeping me from doing the things I really wanted to do in life.

At the age of 24, I decided I was going to start taking my life back.

A Second Tragedy Strikes Urgency...

I became obsessive about investing and ways to make money online. I searched early retirement forums for answers, and read many books on finance. I decided I was going start finding ways to earn money for myself outside of the workforce.

That's whenlife threw it's second curve ball.

In April 2008, my aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was given one year to live. She passed away the following April at the age of 51.

At the age of 51!

I had just turned 26 at the time and realized that I could have already lived half of my life. The greatest sense of urgency had set in. I was wasting my life away not doing the things that I love to do. Not doing the things I wanted to do.

I watched my aunt slowly pass on to her next life. I watched as she cried about all the things she would never get to see in life. All the things she would have changed, and the things she would have done if she had known.

The Pursuit of Happiness

My biggest passion in life is music. I love writing songs and performing. I wrote a song for my aunt before she passed away called Guardian Angel and decided to record an album. Pulling 16 hour days, 8 hours at work, 8 hours in the studio (not including commuting), I was able to finish my album.

By the end, I was completely exhausted and it wasn't even the end. I now had to promote, schedule shows, and perform. When did I have the time to do that?

I was stuck, like so many others, in a 9 to 5 job.

Do not get me wrong, my job paid the bills with plenty left over, but it did not drive me the way music did. I found myself bored with most jobs within the first year. Being able to stick with music for well over 10 years was inspiring.

I set a goal for myself:

I will find a job that makes me happily jump out of bed in the morning, that pays the bills, that allows me to persue my music, and that I would be happy doing 20 years from now.

Sound unrealistic? Well, I have learned that nothing is impossible once you put your mind to it. Think about your life. What is it that you really want from it? And turn off the little voice that keeps saying, "It can't be done." It can.

The Solution....

...was easy, that I wondered why it took me so long to find it: Make a living doing what you love! How? I'll show you how I'm doing it.

Along with music, inspiring others is my passion, yours may be travel, writing, or any other of a number of hobbies or skills....whatever it is that makes you happy. And now you can do it in your spare time.

In my pursuit to figure out how to retire early and get out of my slave life, I stumbled across SBI in a thread of one of the early retirement forums. SBI stands for Site Build It! and helps you to turn any hobby or skill into a viable online business. You probably don't even realize that almost any topic can make money with a website.

Build a website?! I know you think I'm crazy, but I'm not a computer guru or a graphic designer, but this website was built with SBI, so you see...anyone can do it.

You need no programming skills or web design knowledge, no business and no products to sell. Just bring your brain and motivation. SBI has all the tools you need, and they take you by the hand and teach you step by step how to use everything.

They help you find the perfect topic for your site, to build it, to get traffic to it, and then they even teach you how to make money with it, no matter what it is about!

Have a look at the Video Tour to get an idea of how it works (or the Quick Tour if you're on dial up).

And have a look at this: hundreds of successful SBI websites, built by normal people like you and me. All these sites are in the top 1% of the most successful sites on the web.

You can also see that there is a staggering variety of topics that people have turned into profitable websites with SBI.

I started working on the very website you are on right now in Sept. 2009, but my SBI journey started with another website in June of 2008. By 2009 the next year, I started to make money. By in April 2010, I was so encouraged by the results I saw from my websites, I decided to take the plunge and told my boss I was quitting my job. And all the time I'm just writing about something I love and I am genuinely helping people. How much better can it get?

(Actually, it can. Because I have this website all my office supplies, internet connections, and finance books that I research are tax deductible...)

Yes, in the beginning this is a lot of work. But keep in mind that doing something you love never feels like work. And you can do it in your spare time. YOU set the pace.

The main thing is, it's totally risk free. SBI has a full money back guarantee. They're happy for you to try it out to see how you like it.

How do I make money? At the moment mostly with advertising. You probably saw the links throughout the site that say "Ads by Goooogle". Every time someone is interested and clicks on one I make money.

There are countless other ways to make money with a website: create your own egoods to sell, sell other people's products for a commission, get paid for leads and referrals and more. SBI shows you how to do all that.

You can get some more ideas from what other SBIers are doing. Just have a look at the case studies.

People always email me to tell me how inspired they are by my story, and how they wish they could do something like that: escape the 9 to 5 drudgery, travel to Oz or see the world, do what they have always been dreaming of...

Well, you can, so what are you waiting for?

You only have one life. Make the most of it.

Try SBI - because if I can do this, you can!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

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