Link: What did you learn this year?

This post was not originally planned as one of the "Ten things I learned this year" series (See more details on the writing project here and at the above link).

However, I was inspired by a sequence of events last evening that I've decided demonstrates I learned one lesson better than I thought this year.

At precisely 6:02 p.m. EST Thursday I received a courteous and reassuring e-mail on a not very pleasant subject from Jill Ambrose Chief Marketing Officer of CafePress.com.

Since just a few weeks ago when we did our series on building and stocking an online boutique here at BootStrapMe, I have been both a shopkeeper and affiliate with the print-on-demand juggernaut.

This second part means that when customers click through designated links on my recently launched n10ah Online Music Network Blog, for which I also opened the boutique, n10ah receives a percentage of any merchandise they buy at CafePress.com.

But Jill's e-mail last night was to inform me that the entire CafePress.com network was under a targeted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. (For more on what this horrifying occurrences entails, read this informative little post at Wikipedia)

Suffice it to say that when clicking to a link for my store either on this blog or at n10ah instead of this you would see this.

Now, I'm not usually the kind of person who takes this sort of thing very well. But, you know what? I'm going to have to start learning to be.

Things are going to go wrong in this new entrepreneurial path I've chosen. Ventures may fail or be anemic at best. Projects may go awry. I told myself this was another good reason for the bootstrap approach. Limited money invested. What was the worst that could happen?

To my surprise, I found I was able to shrug the issue off with confidence that CafePress.com would straighten the situation out and it seems this morning they already have. I even found myself with some renewed energy for current projects that have in some cases experienced set-backs.

Considering remaining at my current job for the rest of my working life (kind of like a DDoS attack that continues unending until retirement or the inevitable coronary) certainly helps at these times too.

Develop your own strategies to roll with the punches during the tough times. You'll find it well worth the effort.