A child, no more than 3 years old, was starting to saunter across this crazy road. Alone. Reacting instantly, I sped up and got ahead of driver to my left, then slowed dramatically, turned and stopped my car across both lanes to block traffic. Jumping out, I snatched up this tyke just as she was about to cross center line and into oncoming traffic. The timing could not have been closer.

The story gets better.

As I was hurrying toddler to safety of sidewalk I just about stumbled over her younger brother, who was starting to wheel his stroller between parked cars into street, following his sister. Of course, he was safe as traffic was now blocked, and suddenly I felt blessed to have arrived at this critical moment.

Where was mom during all this? You shouldn't have asked:-) She had apparently told her kids to wait on sidewalk while she walked across this major thoroughfare to go into a store. The siblings were simply trying to find her.

What I said to this poor-excuse-for-a-parent you don't want to know and has nothing to do with this article, but what does is that during entire time I was making sure these children were safe (which really wasn't that long) there was a car horn blowing furiously in background.

Guess who?

Yep, disheveled looking driver in next lane. When I returned to my car, he made a point to open his door, stand up and scream at me at top of his lungs (in what I perceived to be Arabic). After witnessing what had happened, he was VERY upset WITH ME because I inconvenienced him! This my friends, is referred to as road rage.

I would assume that most people (and drivers behind him) would have breathed a heavy sigh of relief that neither of these kids were hurt, or worse, killed on that road that day. But this article is not about "most people". It's about "some people" and a phenomena on Internet that is becoming all too commonplace. And I don't like it one bit. It's what I call Road Rage on Information SuperHighway.

The majority of people I come into contact with as customers, resellers (I own 2 affiliate programs), newsletter subscribers and folks who email me with questions or advice, are simply put, wonderful. But since I am communicating with sheer volumes of 'netizens', I am receiving more and more blatantly angry email. I mean kind of ugly verbiage that most people would never have parts to say to your face. And, I'm not alone. I'm in contact with many Internet marketers who are experiencing very same thing.

Here are some recent examples, straight from my email files. Bear with me as I attempt to set these up for you.

I've written, and sell through a popular affiliate program, a best-selling marketing eBook called The Ezine Marketing Machine. The ordering system is state-of-the-art (digital delivery) and extremely dummie-proof. When a customer inputs their final order information on our secure server, they receive a 'Thank You' webpage with simple instructions on how to download their book and bonuses. It's virtually impossible to miss simple process and get instant access to your goods (I send an automated email with same download instructions as back-up), but a minority of customers do. I am only too pleased to quickly assist them and am online to do so from 6:00 am til 9 or 10 pm seven days a week.

However, one particular customer didn't quite "get it" and fired off no less than five emails within an hour. They arrived around 11:00 p.m. when I wasn't online. I've extracted content (verbatim) from three I've kept:

#1. "I've paid $$$ for your program, now what about goods? The info sounds wonderful as does your yada-yada! Why not deliver goods now so a mere morsel like myself may possible take advantage of material you allude to as "Gospel" for success?"

#2. "Is it time to take all this stuff to next level?? I'm prepared to do just that unless you can resolve this TONIGHT."

#3. "Why is this such a hassle?? I sent my $$$ and followed your directions. Where hell is final product?? You "Gurus" appear to be all same. You promise moon and deliver nothing."

To top off his nastiness, he called at midnight and left a totally vile message about what a "#&@*!! thief" I was. Now, what makes this quite humorous is fact that this unfortunately computer-unsavvy person actually had his files entire time, but never knew he had to click to open them:-)

Talent, ambition, vision, sacrifice, stick-to-itiveness and resilience are all major qualities I'm sure you'd agree, but I've simply lost count of TOO many absolutely brilliant, creative and serious entrepreneurs who are still wallowing in mediocrity they sought for so long to rise above. In most cases, it's heartbreaking.

It really got me thinking about what could possibly be ONE defining trait or quality of those we admire in our quest to be successful. Here's one conclusion I came to.

I've never met an individual who I considered to be truly successful on personal and business level who wasn't filled with good feelings about themselves! The kind of people who can look in mirror and say "I like you a lot"! More than that, they can exclaim "I love you"!

Sound corny? If you think so, consider this question before you click on to something else:

In business, how could you possibly feel good about what you are doing if you didn't feel good about person doing it?

Yes, I'm talking about psycho-cliche of self-esteem. The kind we hear about every day on talk shows, read about in countless self-help and parenting books, and, gratefully see becoming a long-overdue part of education system in our schools. Feeling not only good, but great about oneself is arguably most important success-building characteristic a person can possess!

Think about this. Most of us were NOT raised when concept of self-esteem was a part of our "fibre", as it is now. Some of us may have been fortunate to have come from families that fortified fact that "I am good", "I am special" and "I like and love ME!" However, most of us were nutured without learning, and having instilled deep within us, belief that "I deserve all good things in world I desire". That built-in sense of confidence allows us to grow (and keep growing) in order to be able to have ALL blessings that life is just waiting to bestow upon us. In other words, SUCCESS!

I thoroughly enjoyed studying world religions in my last year of high school, when it became very clear to me that every "faith" has concept of self-esteem as a cornerstone of it's beliefs. The Bible has as one of it's injunctions: "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself".

But doesn't this beg question, "How could you Love Your Neighbor, or anything else for that matter, if You CAN'T Love Yourself?" An unfortunate reality that translates into business ie: "If you are not able to love and respect yourself, then how can you expect others to even just respect (and trust) you?" And isn't respect and trust a cornerstone of successful businesses and entrepreneurs?