In the early hours of Sunday morning March 21/2010, tropical cyclone Ului slammed into the region in which in I live on the north east coast of Queensland Australia.

Tropical cyclones are a natural occurrence basically caused by the clashing of hot and cold air in the atmosphere over the ocean in tropical or sub tropical regions of the world. South of the equator they are known as cyclones and rotate in a clockwise direction while north of the equator they are called hurricanes or typhoons and rotate in an anti-clockwise direction but regardless of their title or rotational attributes, they can have a devastating effect on the human habitat as anyone who has been unfortunate enough to live in a area or indeed be in an area which is struck by one of these powerful quirks of nature.

They are categorized by numbers one through to five…. one being the least intense and five the most. Tropical cyclone Ului was officially classified as a category 2 which has a maximum wind speed of 125 kilometres per hour near the eye but because I was situated on the southern edge (which I call the tear duct) of the eye in reality the area experienced wind gusts of up to 260 klms per hour. This happens because on the upward side of the cyclone’s rotation, the wind is actually building in speed and velocity while on the opposite side it will decrease until it hits the bottom arc where it will regenerate.

Much has been documented by people who have lived through a natural disaster or indeed an unnatural one but regardless of what we read and how we interpret what we read, the actual experience of having done it ourselves is usually vastly different to other people’s interpretation of similar events and the effects they have on us personally.

I was fortunate in that I wasn’t harmed physically by the cyclone and my home only suffered minor damage but the immediate environment suffered heavily with fallen and broken trees which in many cases only came crashing down because during in the weeks leading up to the event we had experience significantly more than average rain fall than usual for the time of year, which had left the ground extremely soft and sodden. As a result, when the cyclone hit, the roots of the trees (some of which were up to two hundred years old), simply had nothing solid to grasp and succumbed to the might of the wind which flattened them against the earth.

Peripheral damage such as downed power lines and telecommunication towers added to the chaos which in many cases left people without basic services such as electricity or telephones and in many cases water, for up to 2 weeks and in my case it was 10 days before I had power restored which in turn also gave me water.

However, surprisingly, the most difficult thing to come to terms with and which I missed the most was my internet connection.

During the ten days without basics, I was able to cook with gas, shower with rainwater, light with candles and listen to the radio using a battery operated portable, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about the shattered satellite dish on the roof which provided me with my satellite internet connection which went on even after I had the other services restored.

It took a full 2 months before I was able to have the dish replaced during which time after the initial couple of weeks following the cyclone’s damage; I was restricted to a dial up connection.
Now for someone trying to create a new career through internet marketing it was a long and frustrating couple of months in which I had plenty of time to contemplate the enormity of the consequences of taking many things in life for granted.

For example, I think there are many people who think that just because they try to do something some else does successfully by mimicking that person, that they too will enjoy the same success.

Simply not so because we are all individuals, each with our own unique set of circumstances and traits.

Such is the same in internet marketing. It doesn’t matter who you follow as a teacher or mentor, or which course you buy or follow, at the end of the day your success or failure can be governed by circumstances, occurrences and events over which you have no control, such as being in the tear duct of a tropical cyclone.


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Tagged with: Cold Air • Human Habitat • Kilometres • Klms • Maximum Wind Speed • Natural Disaster • Natural Occurrence • North Of The Equator • Queensland Australia • Quirks • Regions Of The World • South Of The Equator • Southern Edge • Speed And Velocity • Tear Duct • Tropical Cyclone • Tropical Cyclones • Tropical Regions • Typhoons • Wind Gusts

Filed under: Internet Marketing

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