I know that this is a topic covered by many entrepreneurs much more experienced than me. What do you think the biggest enemy to your business is? Cash flow? Staff problems? Venture capital? No plan or goal? No effective systems? Of course they are all important but for me there is a much more sinister threat that is not often discussed in all those hugely successful businesss books. Of course by now you are asking What? What is it?
For me it is – discouragement!
You know, that feeling when nothing seems to go right. When no matter what you do and how hard you work it is just not happening. You pour everything you have into this great new idea – your time, love, money, energy, passion. You give up all the things you love to focus on making your dreams come true. Isn’t that what all the good books say?
That you have to stay focused. Block out everything else in your life and give everything you have to your dream. This is how the winners do it. If you don’t believe me read Napoleon Hill’s very famous book “Think and Grow Rich” (actually it is really worth buying a copy as you get lots of freebies such as courses, downloadable products and other books)
You know what? I believe them but it just doesn’t stop that terrible churning eating away at your stomach until you start to think – why am I doing this? It is just too hard.
Every so often I have days like this. Do you? If so, what keeps you going? We all realize that of course, if we do not keep going, then our dreams will not come to fruition. There is this wonderful experiment that was performed a number of years ago with preschool children. The children were taken into a room and told by the person looking after them that they had to leave the room. They put a marshmallow in front of the child and told them that if they could wait until they came back and not eat the marshmallow in front of them that they would receive two marshmallows when they came back. The worker then left the room and watched them through a window. Some children put the marshmallow straight in their mouths, others just licked them and put them back and others simply did not touch the marshmallow and promptly received another when the worker came back. This longditudinal study followed these children up later in life and found that the children who were able to delay gratification had achieved more success in their lives than the ones who could not delay gratification.
The immediate is not always easy and there is always something more inticing to do with our time than work. But history does show that the more we can delay gratification the greater our chance of success.
So what are some ways that I use to deal with discouragement( and thereby keep pushing ahead with my online business)?
1. Make sure you have good support networks. Sometimes you will really need to download a hard day with a very sympathetic ear
2. Give yourself some time out to enjoy your favourite activities
3. Try to mix with like minded people
4. Have a mentor or at least a mentoring program
5. Everyday come back to your commitment. What is it that you are trying to achieve and do you still want it just as much as you did originally?
6. You must have a strong belief that you can do this
7. An attitude that every problem has an answer – just make sure you look in the smartest places for an answer
8. One that I try and apply everyday is an attitude of gratitude regardless of the circumstances. There is always something to be grateful for
Please let me know how you cope with discouragement as I could really use all the help I can get and I’m sure that others can also
Until next time
Julie
motivation, online business, success secret, success, success; secrets to success; motivation; online business; internet business
Education is the greatest key for unlocking the secrets to success.
With this in mind I started a purposeful journey to source the information I needed to develop a successful internet business.
Books were what I knew so this is where I started. As mentioned in Entry 1, my first book in this area was the “One Minute Millionaire” by Mark Victor Hansen which was actually responsible for giving me the idea to start an online business. The basic idea was – write a book, sell it online and make a $million. Sounded good to me so off I went.
“How to Make Money While You Sleep” gave me the “meat” I needed or in other words, the “how to”. Brett McFall takes you through 7 steps to build an online business. It was through subscribing to Brett’s newsletter (www.brettmcfall.com) that I found out about a seminar being held in Brisbane over the weekend. We managed to get free tickets which was really important as we had very little money to spend.
This seminar was a turning point for us and although each speaker only gave a brief information session we still learnt heaps, formed the direction that we wanted to move in and was inspired to commit to this. Just a suggestion: be careful not to commit too much money up front as it is useful to understand exactly what you want to do before you commit to specialized help. There are lots of these sorts of generalized seminars around and they will help you make up your mind.
Dale Beaumonts “Secrets of Internet Entrepreneurs Exposed” blew me away (see our banner ad for heaps of free information from Dale on how to become a publisher). Here was story after story of people who were doing what I wanted to do and doing very well at it. I didn’t understand any of the technical stuff they were talking about but I was able to narrow down the sorts of systems that I thought would work for us. It was in this book that I had my first introduction to the people who were to be my main model for developing our business – Daryl and Andrew Grant – see our banner ad for their mentoring program to which I belong.
So begins my journey of learning and I have a funny feeling this journey is never going to end.
I soooo love learning!
Until next time
Julie
Uncategorized internet business, learning, online business, online business; internet business; success; learning;, secrets to success, success
It all started at the beginning of August 2008. At least that is when I actually started to do something about developing an online business. Prior to this time I had been busy reading whatever I could lay my hands on that might give me a clue how to go about all of this. Of particular use were:
“Secrets of Internet Entrepreneurs Exposed” Dale Beaumont
“How To Make Money While You Sleep” Brett McFall
But the one that actually first got my husband and I fired up with ideas was Mark Victor Hansen’s “One Minute Millionaire”. I can remember running downstairs to Will, jumping up and down shouting and trying to tell him that this was the answer to our prayers and the means of achieving many of the dreams that we had written down together on our dream book in January 2006.
At this time we knew absolutely nothing about internet businesses. The books and people we listened to gave the distinct impression that this was all really easy and we would be making tons of money within a few days.
Well, I’ve found both to be untrue although I am sure for a lucky few it seemingly happens overnight. To build an online business, like any business, actually takes lots of hard work and lots of time. Maybe we are just slow learners ? 
Or maybe we are really trying to learn about this business thoroughly.
Anyway, I had this idea about creating a website dedicated to me discussing the trials, tribulations and hopefully the successes of our journey to building a successful online business. My aims are to help others but to also help myself. I’ve always used journaling to deal with my emotions, clarify my thoughts and ultimately to give me direction. So for me writing this diary on line is quite a natural extension of something I have always done, I’m just using a different format. I suppose the teacher in me is also itching to get out
I’m hoping that as I learn from my mistakes, so will others
Until next time
Julie
online business, online businesses online business
