Everyone wants to be the next Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg or Walt Disney. However… what are you willing to do to get there? If you believe that the successful just happen to fall into these lofty positions, you need to read their stories.
Success is rarely easy. Let’s face it, very few of us will be born a Rockefeller and inherit the world.
I could tell you that you are probably better off not being born rich, but I don’t want to shove my personal dogma down your throat.
In my humble opinion, you’re better off attaining wealth on your own over time, but I’ll stop there.
Once you start checking into the back-stories of some of these impressive people, you’ll probably be glad that you’re not in their shoes, especially when you consider the responsibilities they have.
When these folks make a decision, their butts aren't the only ones on the line, but everyone else’s as well.
In the case of Spielberg, whenever he makes a movie he’s responsible for thousands of people and their reputations. If a movie that he’s making turns out to be an unmitigated disaster, then everyone that’s working with him gets tarnished too.
And the results aren't the only thing he has to worry about. He’s responsible for the safety of his crew, the logistics of when and where his filming is going to take place, dealing with unions, budgets etc. I don’t know about you, but I’d be folding, fast.
Not to mention that the road to this lofty position isn’t exactly fun either.
The Mouse That Almost Wasn't
Take Walt Disney for example.
(Now, who wouldn't want to be the next Walt Disney?) If you skip over the fact he dropped out of high school to go and fight in WWI you’ll see that he worked for years as an advertising artist, making slim wages.
(Actually, he wasn't even successful in getting in the army because they found out he was underage.)
After that, he went into business with a friend making short cartoons for movie theaters. That company went bankrupt because the profits weren't even coming close to covering the expenses of the business.
After that, Disney produced an animated series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. However, the main stake holder in that business tried to reduce Walt’s compensation on those cartoons, so he protested. Eventually, Walt was on the street again, looking for another gig.
After those fiascoes, Disney created a series based on his character Mickey and the rest is history. But the point needs to be stated that this was not an overnight success story. It took him years of blood, sweat and tears to get to his first successes…And even then it wasn't easy to maintain!
The Life of an Entrepreneur Isn't Easy
So, I guess it goes without saying that if you’re going to take on the responsibility of becoming an entrepreneur, you’re going to have more responsibilities than you have now.
But hey, that’s what you want to do if you want to be more successful than everyone else, take on more responsibilities!
In the past, someone pointed out to me that if you want to be more successful in life, you've got to step it up. A homeless bum might have a free and easy lifestyle, unencumbered by responsibilities.
However, he also has no home, family or life worth living either.
That’s kind of the safe way to live, isn't it? When you don’t step up and take responsibility for your life, it’s almost a comfortable, safe cocoon you can live in.
“Just let me lie around, sleep, and eat… I’ll be content, like a good dog.”
What a waste of life!
How Can You Make Lots of Money on The Internet?
If you frequent any of the Internet marketing forums where wannabe “netrepreneurs” frequent, you’ll see this question asked almost daily,
“How Can I Make Lots of Money on The Internet?”
As a matter of fact, you’ll also see the responses of seasoned entrepreneurs that frequent those forums lament that they are sick to death of those types of questions.
Usually, people that want to start Internet based businesses, or any other type for that matter, are looking for a simple strategy they can follow to make piles of cash. Part of the reason why these people think this way, is because they've been conned by marketing hype they've seen online.
Everywhere you look on the Internet there are pages and pages of successful entrepreneurs that make the bulk of their money “selling the dream.” I’m not saying that there aren't any good Internet marketing products out there, because there are. As a matter of fact, there are some stellar products that you can buy that will help you learn the business.
However, when you read much of the advertising copy that accompanies the desire to buy, the sellers won’t tell you everything they went through to make it. Some of these people were on their last dime, some of them were single and didn't have many of the responsibilities that many of us experience, and most of them failed at their endeavors many times before making it.
So, the illusion of Internet marketing success is you can do something fun, hang out online and use social media sites to make a wad of money.
The Salesman Experience = Good Internet Entrepreneurs
What I've found in almost every case, is that most of the people that make it big were already salesmen and businessmen of sorts BEFORE they became online entrepreneurs. That’s why so many of them take to writing advertising copy like a duck to water. They've already been memorizing sales scripts for years before beginning to write copy.
To a certain extent, many of these online successes already had selling and writing sales copy in their blood, so whenever they hit a wall or an obstacle in their businesses, it was just another day…another experience to learn from…another way to grow.
The average wide-eyed optimist online doesn't have that kind of experience and therefore, when they don’t get have a successful experience right out of the starting gate, they have a tendency to give up pretty quickly.
Attitude Thoughts: How You Can Turn This Around and Start Succeeding
While I can’t speak for every type of business model that I know is out there, I will tell you that there are quite a few things that you can do to help yourself move in the direction of success with your business.
You’ve got to get serious. Almost every day, I get up at 6:00. This includes weekends and holidays. If I have everything set up from the night before, I can get a solid two hours of writing in before anyone else gets up to bug me. Why do I do this? Because I’m freakin’ dedicated. When I had an online embroidery business, I worked from 6:00 AM to sometimes 3:00 AM the next morning. If you are going to be successful and show others around you that you mean business for real, then you’ve got to get up and kick butt. Make plans and schedules and stick to them like glue. Your friends and family will be amazed!
Become an authority in your field. If you want to really be taken seriously, then become an authority. There are many ways to do this. For one thing, you could write about your area of expertise quite extensively. You can get articles published in trade magazines, journals, or even write a book.
A book is actually the best way to gain authority quickly because it has a “Thump Factor”. If you hand a client or customer a solid copy of a book you’ve written, it immediately establishes you as an authority. An online eBook can have a similar effect, especially if you sell a Kindle version of it on Amazon. If people like your eBook and make a ton of comments on it, chances are they’ll look to you as the “go to guy” for your respective niche.
Use a planner regularly. Get a planner and use it for real. Don’t just buy one and let it sit there. Buy one and use it every single day. Plan everything you can think of and set your goals. Put a start and ending date for projects and ideas to begin and end. This way, when you complete each goal, you can check them off one at a time and you won’t get discouraged by a lack of completion or a lack of direction. Don’t forget that small goals eventually equal big goals. As Zig Zigglar used to say, “How can you hit a target if you don’t even have one?”
Use a whiteboard. In conjunction with #3 above, use a small whiteboard to place your goals on. Why? So you can have your short term goals right where you can see them until they are completed.
A few years back, I bought a $25,000 house that needed rehabbing and using small whiteboards I was able to knock out every single short term project that needed to be done with efficiency.
Since almost every single wall, ceiling and floor had to be ripped out of that house, as well as a few extra rooms to be built, you can’t imagine what a lifesaver having those whiteboards were. Especially since nobody believed rehabbing this house was possible. We completed the entire rehab in about a year and a half.
So, a good strategy is to make a list of all of your chores that culminate in completing your goal and place the white board on a wall where you have to see it often. Then, as you complete each goal, you can cross off each chore or segment as you get it completed. You will definitely have an incredible sense of completion as you near your over-all goal.
Never forget the value of a client or a customer. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see a documentary on the life of the painter/instructor Bob Ross. It was a most enlightening 2 hours, to say the least. Not only was Bob a great painter, able to knock out pieces of art with great flair and pizazz, but he was also an excellent instructor. But the main thing I’ll remember the most about the documentary were the stories that were told on how he handled his customers and students.
In the early days of his painting instruction business, Bob didn’t get very many students to the art stores he was going to give his classes at. One time, only one man showed up and Bob’s business partner said, “Hey Bob, why don’t we pack it up. Only one man showed up, I’m sure he’ll understand.” That wasn’t good for Bob Ross.
Bob told his partner, “If only one person showed up then we’re going to give him the best lesson he’ll ever get on how to paint.” And he worked closely with the man until the store was about to close. That’s the type of care and commitment you have got to show to everyone you meet in your business.
Make Sure You Hit the Road…And Hit It HARD!
As you can see, the path to success on the Internet business model is just like any other business; fraught with all kinds of problems and hassles, just like any other business. If you are really going to go down this road, then congrats!
I truly wish you all of the success in the world. But please, bear in mind that you are going to have to pour your guts into this. I’m not going to sugar-coat this one little bit for you, because that would be doing you a big disservice.
You've got to find your personal niche, create a plan and execute it with everything you've got.
One last success strategy before I sign off…
Read as many success stories as you can. Read about Bruce Lee, Jack Lalanne, Vince Lombardi, Bill Gates, George Washington and other famous people that made it to the top. This will give you encouragement and keep you motivated on a daily basis. God knows, there will be enough people out there that will try to drag you down, to include jealous relatives.
If this article helped you in some way, please shoot me a comment or an email and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear about your successes and also help you out by fielding any questions you may have about this subject and others.