If you've ever dreamed of owning a business, but have been holding back because you think it's too much trouble and hassle and not worth the money you'll make, then this article is going to shock the life out of you.

Here's why: The thing you have to keep in mind, and I found this in the early years of buying businesses and teaching others how to buy businesses, is most people only think about the negative things in business.

They have all these preconceived ideas about all these "nightmare" scenarios that will happen if they do this or that, or make mistakes.

And so I used to tell people at my seminars, Make a list of 50 different things that are going to keep you from succeeding in business." And people would begin writing down all the things theyve heard from their mother, their father, and all the scary stories out there, and I'd tell them to take the list of 50, put them in a drawer or safe deposit box, and then after they bought a business, take the list out.

And I told them, If any one of you run into one of these things you wrote on that list, come back to me because none of them exist. Youve all held back and you have not succeeded in business because of things that arent true."

And guess what happened?

Without exception, the people who went out and bought a business would come back and tell me I was right. None of the things they had on their list happened.

Now, the lesson here is if you have all these nightmare ideas, then chances are it's because the only people you've talked to are people who have failed in business. How can I be so sure? Because I've been in business for a long time, and people that are successful in business dont go out and complain. So if you have a bunch of negative ideas about how this all works, then I know all you've heard is feedback from people who have screwed up and quit.

Here's the bottom line: If you understand the basics of buying a business, what to do and what not to do, and if you talk to the right people -- those who have actually succeeded in business, and not people who have given up and failed -- you're going to find that buying a business is a LOT easier -- and a lot more profitable -- than you ever dreamed it was.

Art Hamel

Arthur Hamel has bought over 200 businesses in the last 40 years. He started back in the 1960?s, with a small 25 unit motel in Modesto, California ? that took all of his time, energy and money ? and today buys only multi-million dollar businesses that require almost none of his time, energy and money. Art has since shown tens of thousands of other people -- via seminars and his own unique home study course -- how to do the same thing.