Why the Vast Majority Will Fail in Their Online Business
As I started the day today, I saw an interesting topic about why most people most people fail in online business. After looking at these 6 short reasons, I realized that some of them struck a deep chord with me and why my own online efforts haven’t been more successful than what they are.
So, I thought I’d provide my own commentary on these 6 points and how they have come into play in my own business, and what I’m doing to overcome these obstacles and drive towards success. (Thanks to Michelle Waters for the original list, first posted in the Self Starters Forum!)
1. Lack of Action - OK, I’ve just as guilty of this as anyone and I’m pretty sure this is one of the most prominent reasons why people fail online. You get wrapped in up reading and buying every new product that comes out, looking for the fastest way to achieve your goals. You read about how to write your own ebook, create a video series, make money with blogging, make money with Adsense, and on down the list. But that’s all you do. You read. You fill up your hard drive with report after report and never do anything with them. I liken it to the person that gets a degree in chemical engineering and then goes to work for a toy store. What a waste!
Let me give you a piece of advice: Reading about doing something will never make you a dime. You have to dedicate to yourself to take massive action and start making things happen, rather than reading about what other people are doing. Let it be an inspiration and gain some knowledge, but don’t forget you have to put that knowledge to work!
2. Impatience - Yes, I am the world’s most impatient person. I want everything to be done now, now, now. I don’t have time to wait, I need to see immediate results. It’s just too bad that nothing ever really happens that way. And don’t get fooled when you see all of these massive product launches that generate thousands upon thousands of dollars in sales in the first few days. What you don’t see is the hours and weeks of prep time that had to go into these products to make them successful. Do you really think that you will earn six- or seven-figures on something that you just came up with 30 minutes ago and put up a web page about? It’ll never happen. Sorry to burst your bubble (and mine!) but it just doesn’t work that way. Be patient and work your butt off and then begin to see the results.
3. Life - Yep. We’re all humans and we all have lives. Sometimes life just happens. Sometimes we plan for life to happen (like my upcoming marriage to my best friend and the most beautiful, caring woman in the world who was put here to be my perfect partner and absolutely, 100% completes everything about every aspect of my life) and sometimes life just happens (like the tragic death of my fiancee’s cousin and the loss of both of my grandfathers in the last year and a half.)
Some of you have kids, some of you have full-time day jobs. Some of you are not in the best of circumstances. Some of you are up to your eyeballs in debt and can’t see a way out. Some of you are struggling to make ends meet and don’t know how you’re going to pay your rent next month. Some of you are just plain fed up.
You can make it. You can rise up from where you are now to where you want to be. But there will always be life and sometimes it just plain sucks. But then, there are the good times. The times that are in the home videos and pictures. Live for those times and make your own memories. Keep pressing on and overcome, there’s something spectacular waiting for you just on the other side of whatever situation you’re in.
4. Lack of Planning - You’re heard it before: Ready, Fire, Aim! This is not the way you want to go. Everything you do in your online business has to have a plan. From making sure that your site is set up correctly, to making sure that your payment processor is up and ready to go when all those orders start to come in, you’ve got to plan.
Planning ahead will save you a ton of headache later. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but you will thank me for telling you to plan when you become rich and famous and we all start buying your ebooks on how to be successful online.
5. Negative Attitude - OK, I’m not going to spend much time on this one. Whether you believe it or not, your attitude absolutely affects your outcome of everything you do. If you think you’re going to fail, guess what? You will. Get an attitude adjustment and start believing that you’re going to be successful. ‘Nuff said.
6. Getting Bogged Down in the Details - This one kind of ties in with #1. As someone with an entreprenuerial mindset, we all tend to be perfectionists. It’s just something that comes with it. We want every little thing to be just perfect. And that stops a lot of progress for many of us.
One thing I’ve had to learn over the past couple of years is that sometimes good enough is good enough. Things dont’ always have to be perfect. As a matter of fact, they probably never will be perfect. So if you’re working towards perfection, you’re never going to get there. You’re getting stopped because of your own refusal to get things moving.
Forget perfection. Get that web page up. Write that report. Give out your business card. Start networking. Then, the results will come.
OK, so that’s the list. Are you letting some of these things prevent you from becoming a success? I know that I have in the past, but not any more. I’m taking my own massive action to create my own success and you should to. We are masters of our own destiny and the only thing standing in our way is ourselves. Get yourself out of the way and get started being the next big success story.
I’d love to hear your comments or how you’re overcoming your own struggles. And please share your success stories!
Until next time,
Mike Paul
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Comments
Hi Mike,
Really enjoyed your post.
It’s given me quite a bit to think about, especially regarding the point about getting bogged down. This is something I tend to do and it’s amazing how quickly you can lose focus.
I used to blog to make $ and wanted to earn it quickly. Recently though I gave up on this rather stupid idea and focused my attention on creating a site that I hoped would be helpful to people.
Pretty much over night I went from never getting comments on my site to people actually responding to my posts! I am delighted. I’m not making money at the moment but I’m actually enjoying my blog and maybe one day some $$ may come from it.
Thanks
Sally
Mike:
Great post.
My own thoughts about this are based in a profiling technology I created almost 30 years ago. In this technology I explore language, behavior, and the thinking patterns which go along with that language and those behaviors. Inaction comes from many of the patterns I work with. One of the most common is outlined below.
All of us have a range of behavior along a scale I refer to “Options & Procedures.” Most of us cluster all of our thinking and behavior on one end of this scale or the other.
Those of us who are “Options,” tend to look for alternatives and are always searching for better ways of doing things. We look for options, possibilities, and alternatives.
Those of us who are “Procedures,” tend to follow the proven procedures and have difficulty when others talk about alternatives, because we want to stick with what has already been shown as “the way.”
The problem is:
For us Options folks, we tend to get distracted from what works and regularly try new things. After a while we get so far away from what was working that we distort our own history (our memory of what happened) and we forget what worked. So, we have to start from scratch again, searching for what works. In this case we have a lot of activity, but we don’t stick with proven processes.
For us Procedures folks, we really like to stick with the proven processes and this is our strength. But, if we don’t know the procedures in a situation, we are stuck and cannot take action. We Procedures folks are often stuck and not taking action because we really don’t know what to do.
I have more about why we are not taking action and what to do about it. I’m preparing a free teleseminar on this as part of an upcoming launch process. If you want to get on the list to attend this teleseminar, please click on my name (above) and sign-up to join the conversation.
Rodger