Bill and Shona (real names changed for privacy) were up to their ears in financial problems when they decided on an unusual strategy. They would give each other $100 to find a solution to their situation.



Bill immediately went online and set to work. He found a gambling casino and started to invest.

Shona retreated to the kitchen, took out the pad and pencil she used for making her shopping lists and started in on some serious thinking.

First she asked herself: “How much do I need to make?”

She calculated repayments on their mortgage, loans and credit cards and then added living expenses, a bit for treats and some for savings and wrote the figure down.

Then her questions went something like this:

“How am I going to get that money?”

She answered: “By selling something?”

“What?”

She thought for some time and couldn't find a quick answser, so she wrote down a question mark and moved on.

“Who would buy anything from me?”

Again she had to think hard, but then she had a moment of inspiration: “How about, people like me? If I can find a solution to one of the problems we all share, they'll buy it from me.”

Then she went back to her: “What am I going to sell?” question and wrote: “a way to get out of debt.”

Bill wouldn't give up time on the computer until he'd lost all of his $100. Then he went out one night for a drink with the boys and Shone got her chance on the computer.

Using Google she found a lady who sold a book on ‘how to get out of debt'. She could earn twenty dollars commission for every book she sold.

She bought the book and read it from cover to cover. Then she set out to do everything that the book recommended. In no time at all she'd lost the feeling of helplessness which had been her constant companion and replaced it with the feeling that she was in charge of her situation. She began to feel really happy.

Now she had to start selling the book and earning her $20 commissions.

Once again she did a search on the Internet and found a free course which would teach her how to build a simple web site and attract visitors.

She enrolled for the course and immediately set to work. The way each step was explained was so clear that it made it easy to do the things she'd always feared would be difficult. In less than a week she'd built her first web site and got it ‘on air'.

Eleven days after that she received an e-mail saying: “SALE NOTIFICATION on (date) you made $19.90.” She stared at the screen in disbelief for several moments before letting out a whoop of excitement and joy.

The next day another “SALE NOTIFICATION” e-mail arrived. She shouted for Bill to come and see.

“Look, I've made another sale,” she exclaimed excitedly. “And, do you know what, I've only spent a third of my budget and I've got all that money back already.