They are in our work places. They are in our churches. They are in our schools. They are in our government. And some times they are even in our families. There are naysayers everywhere. From this point on you have a choice, buy in to their garbage, or continue to play ball. Either way the choice is yours.

Let me start off today’s COJ with a little disclaimer: A lot of what you read in today’s column might be wrong. Because today I am talking about football! And the truth is, I know crap about football. I mean I understand the basics, but beyond that I am kind of useless. For example, today I learned what a onside kick is, thanks to, Coach Kevin Kelley, from Pulaski Academy in Little Rock Arkansas.

That’s because Coach Kelley used the onside kick as part of an odd strategy to score 29 points before their opponents even touched the ball. Apparently, the team was able to use onside kick’s to push the ball down the field, recover them, and then score. They did this 4 times in a row. Allowing for complete control of the football, touchdown, after touchdown. Granted, on their 5th try they failed, but this was an astounding feat for a team that was ranked nearly last and ended up winning big, 64-34.

Let me first start off by apologizing for what looks like a ridiculous indie art project. I mean seriously what the heck does a girl wandering in the woods have to do with this quote? Anyways do your best to ignore the picture and focus on the wise words of Mr. Mark Twain.

Twain’s words are spot on. Of course avoiding people that belittle your ambitions seems to be common sense. However, understanding that your success is tied to those that support you is oftentimes completely ignored. Because the truth is there are no self made men or women. Everyone finds success and even failure with the help of their communities. Great people do great things with the support of others. You are only as good as the people supporting you. Therefore it’s only logical to help empower your community as much as possible.

So this week’s COJ was going to be about the famed Walt Whitman poem “Song of Myself“. But, after I finished writing, I re-read my post and thought, “this totally blows!”. I mean seriously, what was I thinking? BORING ALERT.

So without even saving the post I just highlighted all 1000+ words and hit delete. Because honestly the post wasn’t up to my standards, it wasn’t good enough for you, and it certainly wasn’t good enough for myself.

To be honest with you, I am tired of online content that isn’t good enough. It seems like most people are spewing out words just to see their name in print or rank their pages. Not enough people care about the words they write and sign their name to. Not enough people want to be awesome.

A few weeks ago I had lunch with a couple of SEOs. Both of them own their own businesses. We discussed briefly a specific niche that they had both worked in and they both mentioned how it was extremely competitive in the search engines. I remember one of them saying that because it was so competitive there was no chance for a new company to come in and compete.

Our discussion shifted to affiliate marketing and the huge potential for SEO’s to do well with it. Once again they both mentioned that all of the lucrative niches are already being dominated, and there wasn’t much point to getting started in them.

I am in the cab of my dad’s pick up. We are coming home from visiting family in the South Carolina up-state. The blazing sun above and the infamous southern humidity have mixed to create an almost unbearable atmosphere. The only escape that we find, is keeping the windows rolled down and the truck moving forward. We are on one of South Carolina’s many back roads. It’s the kind of road that seems to go on forever and is lined with old barns and tobacco fields on either side.

When your main source of air conditioning is keeping a steady flow of air pushing through your open windows, the last thing you want to do is slow down, or heaven forbid, stop. But, occasionally you are forced to do both.