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How I Turned An Interest Into An Internet Product I Could Sell

© Georgie Farmer,

Do you get excited when you solve a problem by yourself or learn a new skill? I do. I even got excited when I figured out how to change the batteries in my smoke alarms! I also love sharing anything I learn with others. At the tender age of 14, I taught children how to swim at the local life saving club. I can still remember the thrill I got when my first pupil struck out on his own for the first time. Back then, I never dreamt that, one day, my interest in learning a new skill and, then, passing it on to others would turn into a product I would sell on the Internet

It all started when I walked out on a well-paid job after 11 years. I was quite confident I would get another job fairly quickly. In fact, I had to. My bank insists that I pay mortgage repayments every month. Something I hadn't thought about during my dramatic exit.

I eagerly poured over the temporary job columns in the newspaper and got the shock of my life! Every job required W4W! Yikes! What's that? Whatever it was, I had to learn it . . . and fast! I soon found out that W4W stood for "Word for Windows" and it was a computer program. OK, to get another job, I needed to learn a new computer skill. So what? There are loads of other people "in the same boat" in this ever-changing world. If they can do it, so can I.

First, I had to decide how I would learn W4W! I had attended group classes in the past and found that they didn't work for me. At one, I got left behind - simply because I didn't grasp one little point and wasn't brave enough to admit that I, apparently, was the only one who hadn't "got it". At another, I actually knew more than others and felt frustrated listening to stuff I already knew. I felt one-on-one training would be better, but it would be more expensive and I didn't want to spend a lot of money, not knowing how long it would take me to find another job.

My computer-whiz niece offered to help. But young people pick up computer skills so quickly, I think she expected me to do the same. She sat in my computer chair, took control of my mouse and went zap, zap, zap, zap, zap, zap. All kinds of things appeared and disappeared on the screen at a fast rate. During all this activity, I stood behind her chair feeling quite dazed. Finally, she said with a smile "That's how you do . . . whatever it was she was trying to teach me (I still don't know)". Her smile was replaced by an incredulous look when I said that she had lost me after the second zap. Needless to say, I didn't pursue her kind offer any further and, as a result, we are still the best of friends.

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