I entered IM in 1994.
In a few days, I'll turn 40, and come September I'll have another
birthday. We'll call it my "21st IM birthday." Over the last two
decades I've seen new entrants into this business come and go. Some of
them arrived and made a fortune, some arrived and went on to lead good
lives, some arrived and simply managed to pay the bills, but most
arrived and departed as failures.
The aim of this post is to tell you my perception of the failures.
As the title succinctly informs: I'll be giving you ten reasons to quit
the business. There are exceptions, of course, and these are only my perceptions,
but if any of these apply to you then I hope they'll at least give you
pause for thought. God willing, I'll be in this business until I drop.
And it quit being about the money too many years ago for me to remember.
I love what I do; I'm good at what I do. But what about you? Should
today be the day you quit? Or should today be the day you wake up and
begin staking your claim?
Let's find out . . .
1. You're Lazy
2. You expect fast returns.
3. You expect easy returns.
4. You're a poor communicator.
5. You have an inability to adapt to change.
6. You dislike education.
7. You believe you can make money without first spending some.
8. You have a below-average IQ.
9. You lack passion.
10. You lack belief in yourself, and in others.
I'm going to describe for you an IM failure. We'll call him Joe.
Joe lost his job and found Warrior Forum because he needs to make ends
meet. Mouths to feed. Rent to pay. Like most people, he has a vague
conception of internet marketing. He's seen the popup ads while
watching movies:
"Hi my name's Ed Rich III. I earned $48,
500 yesterday and I'm gonna tell ya something. I never finished high
school, I came from a poor family, I'm lazy as heck, and it cost me
exactly ZERO to earn almost 50,000 buckaroos yesterday. Gonna tell ya
something else. YOU can do it, too."
Joe? He's heard anyone can do it. Heard millions can be earned
overnight. Heard fortunes can be made from nothing. Joe? Hey, he
wants a piece of the action. So he arrives on Warrior Forum and he gets
to work. Sort of.
He skims through a few threads. Literally skims. Barely reading.
Reading and research? Takes time. Joe? He has no time to waste. He
needs money and he knows it takes no time to get it.
After he's done "skimming" he starts with the questions. Some of the
folks on WF are making good money, he knows. He wants it, too, so
they're going to help. He plasters the forum with threads. Quick
threads. Not even taking the time to think about his grammar. Single
sentences. Unfinished sentences. Rush, rush. Someone will help.
A few do, but he never notices. Brent Stangel expertly explains list
building and sales funnels. Discrat gives clever insight into Facebook
fan pages and TeeSpring. Steve B shares erudite, thoughtful nuggets
about living the life of an entrepreneur and developing a serious
business. Kay King pops in to give a wake up call, and while it may
seem mean to you, the advice is nothing short of pure gold: "Stop
littering the forum with silly questions and expecting us to do
everything for you. It's not only annoying for us, it's
counter-productive for you. Dig into the vast wealth of knowledge here
and LEARN. Then ask INTELLIGENT questions." Joe? Like I say . . . he
never notices.
What he does notice is this (or thinks he notices): people are
holding out. There are clever push-button systems, he knows. Free
systems. Easy systems. Systems just perfect for a guy without
education and without a high school diploma (although, I should point
out, he was clever enough to get one, but just too lazy to do so).
Systems that don't require hard work, investment, writing, making those
stupid videos. Systems that payout - like ATMs - if one only points a
finger and . . . clicks.
Two months go by. Joe? As you can probably imagine, he quits. Want to
know why? Here it is: He finally figures it out. There are no
systems. Just people talking about systems. There is - let it be known
- no money in IM. A clever guy like Joe has figured out a simple
truth: No one makes a bean.
After all . . . if they did . . . Joe would, too.
Right?
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