Every now and then I do a survey of my email subscribers, and I was just reviewing a few of them.
In one survey I asked how many people had a “why”, in other words, why do they want to succeed as an Internet marketer, and I was surprised that 97.2% said that they indeed do have a why.
It surprised me because in my experience, very few have one, at least a good one that drives them to succeed.
Personally I never had a strong one during the 3 years when I was puttering around, with no focus and no success, and it wasn’t until I really sat down and come up with a strong one that things took off for me.
In another survey I asked how much experience people had in the “make money online” niche, and 30.5% said 5 years or more.
Another question asked how much they were currently earning, and only 16% said $500 or more, and just 4.7% said $2000/month or more.
That’s disturbingly low, and I didn’t expect to hear that. It’s especially low to hear that only 4.7% make $2000+ and 30.5% have been trying for over 5 years.
Wow, that gives me some incentive to get my coaching/mentoring program going, you know?
And in another survey, I asked about the major causes of frustration. #1 was overwhelm, #2 was focus, and #3 was misinformation being delivered. That last one really shocked me.
Now… I don’t want anyone to get frustrated and give up because of what I just told you, but I do want to rant a little today.
First of all, the “why” factor…
In our Facebook group, a couple of months ago I had a daily topic asking what people’s why actually was (and I gave mine, nothing to hide).
There were some nice responses, but all in all, most people didn’t have one, certainly nowhere in the range of 97.2% (or even 9.2%), and that’s more along the lines of what I expected in the original survey.
Just saying “I want to make more money so that I can quit my job” isn’t a why. Why do you want to quit your job? When? What will you do instead? How will your life change if you do? What will your spouse or friends or family think? Just a few things to think about.
Do you want to quit your job so that you can be a work at home mom or dad and your young children aren’t dumped at a daycare center or a babysitter every morning? Is your daily commute exhausting you? Do you detest your boss, but you can’t get another job?
There can be a thousand or a million different why’s that you might come up with, but my advice: come up with one, a strong one, one that takes you more than a few minutes to put into words, that you’re passionate about, that is starting to drive you.
Drive you where? Read on…
I asked recently as our Facebook group’s daily topic what amount of money it would take for people to reach a level of happiness.
Very few could provide a number… shockingly few.
So what I want to talk about today is this.
Think of your mind, or your subconscious mind, as a GPS device.
Today I drove my wife to a store where they serviced sewing machines. She had bought one that had broken early in life, and it was the closest repair facility under the warranty. She told me that we had to be there by 5 p.m. because that’s when they closed. Plus she was pretty desperate to get it fixed because she had something that needed to be done that she couldn’t do without it. So desperate that she didn’t want to waste time mailing it to them.
So we got in the car, set the GPS for the address, and off we drove, and arrived there, 30 or so miles away, in a reasonable time. There were several turns, and at one point I missed one, but the GPS calmly recalculated and told me how to get back on track.
Simple stuff, really.
Now compare that to your income goals… and your why.
If you don’t have a why (like my wife’s desire to get her machine fixed), and if you don’t have a destination, how do you expect to get there? And if you don’t know when you want to arrive, what’s the chance that you’ll just say, I’ll start tomorrow… and tomorrow… and tomorrow… and tomorrow never comes.
A why is very powerful. Without one, you’re likely to fuss around for half a lifetime, and at some point you’ll wonder how unlucky you are because (for example) you had this great idea that you thought would make you famous and rich, and someone beat you to market with it.
Or nobody needs it anymore. Gosh, good thing you didn’t spend time on it 18 months ago, right? When everyone was hot for that type of product but now they’re not. Right?
Not… money loves speed.
Going from point A to point B is pretty simple, but if you don’t know where point B is, or if you don’t plug it into your mental GPS (your subconscious), what are the chances that you’ll arrive anytime soon?
Success is a matter of figuring out where point B is, deciding why you want to get there, and taking off on the journey. Step by step, uile by mile, recalculating along the route if necessary, you’re bound to make it.
Think about that (today), and I’d love to read your comments.
By the way, if you’d like to join our Facebook group (no charge), you can request to join here:
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Otherwise I may be tempted to use a yellow highlighter on my screen (at the moment I’m settling for scratched out notes on paper). I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do with the coaching DB.
Dennis Becker Reply:
August 7th, 2013 at 4:21 am
Thank you, Elizabeth.
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