If making it big were easy, everyone would do it. The journey is not going to be easy, but the reward, if you can get to it, is well worth all the effort. That’s the only way that you’ll be able to fully enjoy the dot com lifestyle with all the benefits and amenities it can provide.
We all have to start somewhere, but even before you take that initial leap of faith to launch your first blog, create your first online video, or start your first affiliate marketing campaign, you need to take some of these life lessons to heart. When you’ve internalized what they can teach you, you’ll be much more poised for the mindset of success.
You Can’t Do Everything
You know why they say that time is money? Because if you don’t have one, you can try to make up for it with the other. When you’re first starting out as a blogger, Internet marketer or online business owner, maybe you don’t have a lot of extra money. What you might have is more time.
So, instead of hiring a designer to code up a custom theme for your blog, you try to do it yourself. You spend time instead of spending money. But you also want to learn about SEO. And video production. And graphic design. And affiliate marketing. And video production. At some point, you’ll come to a very simple and profound realization: there’s not enough time.
Recognize that you can’t do everything, nor should you try to do everything. Especially in the beginning, you should focus your efforts on just one or two things, well before you even consider diversifying. And even when you get there, you’ll need to outsource a lot of what you want to do anyhow.
You Will Fail Often
Many people have this false impression that successful people are always super successful right from the start and they just continue enjoying monumental success after monumental success. Nope. Not at all.
The hard truth of the matter is that you will fail and, more likely than not, you’re going to fail pretty hard. For every 10 times you step up to the plate, there’s a good chance that you’re going to swing, miss and strike out 9 of those times. You might even strike out all ten times, and it’s not until your 11th, 12th or 20th time up to bat that you actually make contact with the ball.
The more ambitious your goals, the more likely you are going to fail. But the less ambitious your goals, the less rewarding it will be when you achieve them. Swing for the fences and don’t get disheartened when you miss. There will always be another opportunity.
Not Everyone Is Going to Like You
In fact, if everyone likes you, there’s a good chance you’re not doing it right. Or you are playing it far too safe. It is impossible to please everyone all the time and trying to do so is only going to limit your chances at success.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this is Apple. There are plenty of people now who claim to be big Apple fans, buying up all the Macbooks and iPhones and iPads in sight. There are an equal number of people, if not even more, who revile the company for any number of reasons. But all that negative attention can just spur on a stronger enthusiasm among the brand’s fan base.
Take risks and don’t let the haters hold you down.
You Will Feel Uncomfortable
This goes hand in hand with the previous point. If you stay within your comfort zone, you can only hope to achieve mediocrity at best. But playing it safe, you are shooting for average, not exceptional. If you only stick to what you know, you will never broaden your horizons and improve your value proposition.
I’m not saying that you should continually place yourself in situations that are far outside of the norm for you, but you should stretch your boundaries. Public speaking is one of the greatest fears that many people have, but if you’re brave enough to stand in front of an audience, you’re already ahead of the curve.
Do more than you think are you capable of doing. Step out into the open water so that the ground is just barely out of reach of your toes. Only then can you truly assess your potential. And only then will you be able to step a little further out.
Excuses Are Meaningless
I’d be more successful if I had more startup capital. I’d be more successful if I lived in a city with a more supportive environment. I’d be more successful if I didn’t have to keep this full-time job to pay the bills while I try to build and grow my online business. Excuses. Nothing but excuses.
And yes, many of these may sound perfectly legitimate. You may start out in a truly disadvantageous position compared to some of your peers, but there’s nothing you can do about that right. You can only play the hand that you are dealt, so stop making excuses. Deal with the situation, use what you have, and keep moving forward. Blaming it on a series of excuses is only going to hold you back.
It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
There’s a misconception that some of the biggest success stories we read about in the news are overnight success stories. And that’s simply not the case. Rovio was an overnight success when it launched Angry Birds in 2009, right? The truth is the company was founded back in 2003 and it didn’t really achieve much of anything until Angry Birds exploded on the scene. Pokemon Go was an overnight success, right? Not exactly. Niantic Labs was founded in 2010 and it released Ingress, the game on which Pokemon Go was fundamentally based, in 2012 to limited success.
It’s not about a sprint to the finish. It’s about running a marathon. Take a look at that picture above. If you imagine that each one of those runners is someone who is interested in making money on the Internet, the overwhelming majority of them are going to drop out well before the finish line. And if we’re going to be completely honest, there is no finish line.
Success is not a destination. It’s a journey. It’s a mindset. And successful people understand that.