When you read a self-help book or a successful person's biography, it can seem that anyone who is at all successful has overcome incredible odds to get there. Top entrepreneurs or motivational speakers all seem to have once been bankrupt, penniless and poverty-stricken or on the brink of a life of crime. You could almost be forgiven for thinking that building financial freedom requires financial failure to start with!

It's certainly a common theme in the internet marketing world. "Yesterday I was washed-up, homeless loser; now here's a picture of me in my yacht..."

I'm not really being cynical here. These stories are often extremely moving and motivating. Matt Morris's story must be one of the most inspiring: brought up in a women's shelter after abuse from his alcoholic father, later homeless and likely to follow his brother's route to prison, he turned his life around and founded Success University.

This is, of course, both motivating and good marketing. Creating a life of success and riches when you have started at the bottom of the heap is motivating for those of us who live in relative comfort and ease. If he can do, then certainly I can!

Is it necessary to start at the bottom in order to get to the top? It does perhaps suggest that desperate backgrounds create more motivated people. The leverage: the desire to get out of that situation and into something better must be so much stronger than those of us who actually have a roof over our heads and eat three times a day.

So what is the answer? Do we have to go and live in a cardboard box first?

I don't think so. I think that the lesson we can learn from these people is to create a certain amount of "leverage" in order to motivate ourselves from our current position to the one we want.

In personal development we are often told not to focus on what we don't want, but what we do want. This is excellent advice because what we focus on we are more likely to create.

However, if we don't really feel badly enough about our current situation, how are we to create the impetus to make a change? Sometimes, getting in touch with how we feel about our current situation can be just the motivation that's needed.

If you need a few reminders to spur you into action, here's a little list of baddies.

Financial Stress: There's a recession on and you are feeling insecure. Even at the best of times you are only earning enough to keep the roof over your head and your family fed. Now, petrol/gas prices are rising, but your salary doesn't look like it will improve in the next century. At this rate you will be 150 before you can begin to consider retirement.

The Daily Grind: The commute to work means you are already stressed and exhausted before you even start work. There's a pile of work on your desk that will take you until midnight to complete and your boss is shouting for it by lunch time.

Feeling Trapped: You feel undervalued. The only person who seems to benefit from your hard work is the person at the top. You feel trapped in the day-to-day routine like a hamster in a wheel. The harder you work, the less time you have. What happened to your independence and drive?

OK, that's enough before I get depressed! I must say, I have experienced all three of the above, and I am glad I took the leap to self employment.

If any of this strikes a chord with you, it might be time for you to make a change. Decide what you don't want in your life any more, and then focus on what you DO want.

Someone once said that when we stop learning, we stop living, but you don't have to have a college degree to take the step towards future financial freedom. If you are teachable and trainable you can start right now on that journey. It might take a little while to learn the necessary skills, but with many businesses you can learn as you go along (affiliate marketing, for example, requires very little knowledge or experience to start up). On the other hand, you could use some of your leisure time learning a new skill that could set you on your way to a better future.

If having your own business is something that interests you, it's time to stop dreaming about it and get started! There is very little to lose and everything to gain.

Matt Morris did not sit around feeling sorry about his life and complaining. Not for long, anyway. The only reason he is where he is today is because he took action. He decided what he did not want any more, and then he decided what he did want.

Take a leaf from his book: the key to building financial freedom is in your hands.