Make Up Your Mind Already
Issue #2122
- WEALTHY: The real difference between the super-successful and the wannabes (Rich Schefren)
- HEALTHY: Is it possible to live a life free of disease? (Jon Benson) %
- WISE: Thomas Edison on success
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Re-invent your product - even if it’s still good (Michael Masterson)
- An unlikely place to post a job (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about first-class, first-class travel
- Add "perforce" to your vocabulary
Your Computer Sucks
No, I’m not being impolite. I mean your computer sucks your time, your money and your life away from you.
Drip drip drip… out it goes.
But now there’s a way to turn that flow around… to stop GIVING all the time and start GETTING!
Join hundreds of your fellow ETR readers who are making the switch over to the “Other Side” of the Internet.
- Patrick Coffey
"The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t do."
Thomas Edison
Make Up Your Mind Already
Have you ever met an idiot who is more successful than you are? We all have, right? When I am coaching one of my small-business clients, they will frequently say something along the lines of: "I’m just as smart as so-and-so. So why am I working so much harder yet making so much less than him?"
When they ask that question, I’m never quite sure… Do they really want the truth? Or are they simply venting their frustrations? To play it safe, I usually say nothing and wait to hear what comes out next. After a silent pause, the client speaks. And the next few words out of their mouth tell me everything I need to know. If they are serious, they’ll press me and ask again. If not, they’ll simply move on to the next topic.
You see, I need to know if they are serious. Because if they’re not… they aren’t ready to hear the cold, hard truth.
What about you? Do you want to know why people with half your smarts are making 10 times more than you? If so, keep reading…
Today, the Internet provides an overwhelming amount of information. Never before have so many people been so well informed… and yet, so utterly confused.
Lots of entrepreneurs go around thinking that "access to information is what separates the winners from the losers" and that "the smartest person in the room should be the most successful." Not true. If it were, then whoever bought the most "how-to" products or read the most books would be the richest - and we both know how ridiculous that is.
That’s not to say that getting the right information isn’t important. But it’s only a tool. When it comes to being successful in business, there are a few easily overlooked elements that are absolutely vital. They’re truly the deciding factors.
So, what are the crucial "winning" elements at the core of all successful entrepreneurs (even the "idiots")?
1. Being Action-Oriented
Taking action is the real difference between the super-successful and the wannabes. Wannabes simply absorb information and, at their very best, react to it. And with such an overwhelming supply of information available on the Internet, most of them are simply numbed by it.
Contrast that with the successful entrepreneurs out there. When they get good information, they act on it - as soon as they possibly can. The main reason why so many don’t take action is because they are paralyzed by the prospect of failure. Add to that their mistaken belief that the next information nugget they come across will make the difference between success and failure, and it becomes obvious why "waiting" for it has them stuck.
If they press on, they only become more confused by conflicting facts. All the while, becoming increasingly frustrated that they still haven’t found the magic they’ve been seeking.
If that sounds like you, here’s my advice: Stay focused! Take a deep breath and ask yourself, "What do I have to get done today?" Not tomorrow or next week or even next month. Today! And not "What do I have to learn to further my success?" but "What do I have to DO?!?" It’s easy to lose your focus on today when you are thinking about tomorrow. And it’s tempting to believe that the next pearl of wisdom you come across is going to make all the difference. But it won’t. You’ll never reach the level of success you crave without taking specific DAILY steps that get you there.
It’s pretty straightforward. To build a successful business, you have to train your brain to crystallize a future vision, break it into small details, and organize those details into daily tasks. After that, all you need is the courage to commit to the completion of those daily tasks - despite all the obstacles that get in your way.
Sounds easy enough, right? So what will sabotage your success? Mainly fear! Fear is your enemy. The little voice whispering "What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m wrong?" Look, some self-doubt is natural - but when it prevents you from achieving the success you deserve, it’s a problem. Which leads to my next point…
2. Rising Above Your Fears and Doubts
You have to get far enough above your doubts to keep working, or you’re doomed. What works for me is to forget about my fears and doubts by getting lost in the project at hand. It works for me, and it’ll work for you. Just throw yourself so deep into your work that your fears stay away until you’ve finished everything that needs to be done. Every successful business owner learns how to do this, sooner or later. What makes it easier is knowing that experience will always be your best teacher.
When it comes to business, you are going to make mistakes. We all do. Even the Intels, Microsofts, and Googles of the world mis-step from time to time. Building a successful company is complex, and there are always factors that lie beyond your control.
The trick is to learn from your mistakes. Just do your best to limit your risk. Focus every day, keep trying, learn what works, and don’t torture yourself when you take a wrong turn. Just notice it, learn from it, and change your approach.
And since we are talking about mistakes… do you know what’s at the root of most mistakes that you’ll make? I see it over and over again, playing out in so many new businesses. Most people would never guess what it is - even though practically everyone who struggles in business is guilty of it. It’s this…
For some strange reason, everyone wants to make things more complicated than they need to be. It’s as if everyone is fascinated by the overly complex. So, instead of keeping things simple, they burden themselves with too much to do and too little time to do any of it right. Which leads me to the next crucial element of entrepreneurial success…
3. Keeping Things As Simple As You Can to Avoid the "Stupidity Tax"
This is a big one. It’s so easily avoidable - but, for some reason, it’s one that almost everyone trying to make a success of an online business seems to walk right into.
Here‘s an example of how this flawed approach plays out…
Instead of picking one way to drive traffic to their website, mastering it, and then moving on - they do the opposite. They want to learn about launches, pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and every other method under the sun - all at the same time, and without developing any level of mastery in any of them.
Yet, the most successful online businesses I know concentrate on one method at a time. Agora Inc., for example, focused primarily on pay-per-click advertising to get to their first $50 million in online sales. My company focused on joint venture/affiliate launches - and in nine months, we did over $7 million in sales.
When you pursue multiple directions in your business, you end up making very little progress. And it doesn’t matter if you are smarter and working harder than other people, because you are spread way too thin.
If you’re in an Internet business, making this mistake can really kill you. Here’s why: In the online marketing world, your results are directly related to how your skills stack up against those of your competitors. If your competition is better than you at using Google AdWords, for example, they’ll pay less to get traffic to their website and will convert more of it to sales than you will. In search engine optimization, they’ll rank higher than you. In the affiliate world, whoever converts better, sells more - and, therefore, can pay their affiliates more, which locks other competitors out of the market.
It doesn’t work this way with an offline business. You don’t pay more if your ad or commercial sucks. You might not get as many responses as your competitors - but you’re not locked out, and you’re not forced into an inferior position, saddled with paying the "stupidity tax."
Isolate the fewest activities you can be successful with. Then knock them off one at a time. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do too much and, thus, marginalize your results. As Confucius said, "Man who chases two rabbits catches neither."
If you follow my advice, you’ll get to take back quite a bit of the time you’re currently wasting. You’ll be free of wasting time trying to learn too much about too many marketing tactics at once. Plus, you’ll get back the time you’re wasting trying to execute strategies with a superficial level of knowledge. What you do with your newfound free time leads us to our fourth and final success component, which is…
4. Knowing Where the Money Is
It takes time to know your market, but it’s time you must invest if you’re serious about your business’s success.
The first step is quite simply to open your eyes and look at what’s going on around you. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of your market to know what’s "hot." But that’s only half the equation. The second step is to do your best to understand WHY it’s hot. Until you understand your market on a deeper level, you’ll keep scratching your head and wondering why you are making less than your "dumb" counterparts.
The good news is that once you get it - once you really understand the psychology of your market - your results will improve immediately in all the marketing you do. From e-mails to pay-per-click, your results will multiply, because you’ll know your prospects better than any of your competitors do.
So there you have it. If you’ve ever wondered why you make less than others even if you are smarter than they are, now you know. And it’s up to you to change that. Are you going to make up your mind to keep plodding along in frustration? Or are you going to embrace the four elements of business success that I shared with you here and decide that, once and for all, you are going to do what it takes?
Only time will tell…
[Ed. Note: Rich Schefren is arguably one of the world’s best small-business strategists. His businesses have done over $35 million in sales, and he currently coaches many of today’s top Internet gurus and service providers on streamlining their businesses while exploding their profits. Don’t miss your chance to learn the secrets of Internet marketing from Rich at this year’s Information Marketing Bootcamp: Making a Fast Fortune on the "Other Side" of the Internet.]
Wanted: Investors Who Want to Grow Rich the "Lazy" Way
It doesn’t take a lot of time. You don’t need a lot of money to get started. It doesn’t require a lot of work. Best of all, the returns you’ll pocket will shock you (how does 724% sound?).
Get all the facts right now here.
Make It "New" - and Sell It Again
The most reliably profitable businesses are often those that sell products or services that need to be replenished. (Think groceries. Think magazine subscriptions. Think lawn maintenance.)
If you are selling such a product or service, so much the better. But if you are not - if you are selling a "one-shot deal" - spend a little time figuring out how you can make it replenishable.
There’s always a way to make a perfectly good product obsolete. Sometimes you can do so merely by making a few superficial changes. (Think Japanese cars.) Keep in mind that most people tire of the same old things, even if the same old things are perfectly good. By taking an existing product and making it "new and improved," you satisfy the customer’s desire for something different and give yourself a chance to resell to your existing customer base - always a very lucrative practice.
Another Use for YouTube
By Suzanne Richardson
In a recent ETR article, Paul Lawrence explained how YouTube can help you sell your products and services. Here’s another way to benefit from the fourth-most-heavily-trafficked site on the Web: Use it to search for new employees.
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs recently posted a video on YouTube to announce that he’s looking for a new personal assistant. The application process: Submit your own three-minute video about why you deserve the job. So far, over 600 people have applied.
You may not be a celebrity, but you can still follow Diddy’s lead to help you find your next superstar employee. Post a short video on YouTube that explains who you are, gives a job description, and lists the qualifications you’re looking for. (And make sure you supplement your video by posting the job in more traditional ways as well.)
Is Disease a State of Mind?
By Jon Benson
Statistics show that an overwhelming 87 percent of people believe they will die from either cancer or heart disease. But is it possible to live a life free of not just these but all diseases? One doctor thinks so. In fact, he claims the secret can be traced to the connection between the mind and the body. In a landmark article on anti-aging, author and Stanford University research scientist Dr. Bruce Lipton said, "Rather than being the victims of our genes, we have been the victims of our perceptions."
Can you change your physiology down to the cellular matrix simply by changing the way you think? More and more studies are concluding that the answer to this question is "yes"- and that ideal health begins in the universe between your ears.
One study focusing on mind over body involved the effect of so-called "super-oxygenated water" on exercise performance. Eighty-four percent of the subjects given this super-water (which was actually tap water) ran considerably faster. Heart rate and perceived exertion increased as well. Merely believing that the water they were drinking was super-oxygenated altered the physiological states of the participants. (There have also been studies done on cancer patients that have shown an increase in recovery rates among those given any form of treatment they believe will work.)
One way to begin to tap into your own mind/body connection is to create an identity for yourself rather than a task. A simple mental change from "I think I will eat better and exercise" to "I want to become an athlete/body shaper/bodybuilder/whatever" creates a larger target for the mind and imagination to aim for. The result is quite often greater performance and faster results.
[Ed. Note: Jon Benson, a lifecoach and nutrition counselor, is a contributing writer for ETR’s brand-new natural health e-letter. His work in the field of post-40 fitness and mental empowerment has helped countless thousands. Learn how you, too, can rediscover your youthful body and a positive outlook at www.fitover40.com or www.mpowerfitness.com.]
It’s Fun to Know… If You Can Afford It
The best first-class seats in the flying world will soon belong to Jet Airways. They have introduced a new first-class section on their 777s (which fly between Newark and India) that offers sliding doors, an 83-inch lie-flat bed, and a 23-inch entertainment system. The price? Up to $10,000 per ticket. Premium passengers (business class) get a 73-inch bed and a 44-inch privacy screen between seats.
Revealed: Probably the Biggest Red Herring in History!
While the world’s been stock watching (and losing!), the elite quietly play a different game with different rules…
Feeling cheated and disillusioned by the stock market? Sure, you may have made a good trade here… but then lost on another. The people dutifully pour their hard-earned cash into investment banks to put into the stock market for them… and those investment banks gladly oblige, for a fat fee… which they invest somewhere else! I’m no conspiracy theorist, but in my opinion the stock market is really a diversion for the masses… a distraction from where the BIG and consistent money is made… in the world’s money mountain. And when I say “Money Mountain,” I speak quite literally… the BIGGEST mountain of money on the planet. Click here to read more…
Word to the Wise: Perforce
"Perforce" (pur-FORS) - from the French for "by force" - means by necessity.
Example (as used by James Gardner in the National Review):"… the error of supposing that, because everything indeed is not right with the world, everything must accordingly be wrong with the world; the error of supposing that, because we are plainly not a race of angels, we must perforce be a race of beasts."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007