EnTrends

Online, I believe business success is
certainly easier to achieve than its
brick-and-mortar version. It's not a
free ride and it definitely requires
some time let alone work. But on the
web, I also believe that one can
easily -- as that famous cliché goes --
work smarter instead of harder.

Yet the challenge that most Internet
marketers encounter is the fact that
they feel their success is not coming
as fast as it should. As Wayne Dyer
once said, "They keep striving but
never seem to be arriving." Most
people jump into business with the
hope (and often the erroneous or
naive assumption) that their
marketing efforts will lead to virtually
instant results.

I can certainly appreciate how
entrepreneurs, business owners and
Internet marketers feel since, in my
life, it took me years (and many of
them) to finally learn the so-called
"secrets" -- and enjoy the fruits -- of
success. With two bankruptcies
under my belt and numerous
sleepless nights, it certainly was not
an instantaneous, overnight process.

In fact, I was once interviewed and
asked: "Mike, you seem to be an
overnight success; how did you do
it?" My wife loves that question.
With a huge grin on her face, she
answers my critics with a simple
comment:

"Indeed, it took him many
'overnights' alright."

Experience as Priceless Education

I've lost everything a few different
times in my life. I've had my cars
repossessed and lost two of my
homes. I was once forced to seek
shelter at a local YMCA. I was
reviled by my peers and persecuted
by my own family. I was even forced
to -- yes, believe it or not -- find a
job. I even once had to work in three
of them simultaneously in order to
make ends meet.

But I learned from my mistakes. After
falling flat on my face, I quickly
picked myself back up, dusted myself
off, rolled up my sleeves, shifted
gears and kept on keeping on. In
short, I didn't look at it as failing, but
as educating myself and gathering
priceless feedback along the way.

The truth of it all is this: Failure is
feedback. And failure is probably the
most common denominator among
the successful. One of my favorite
marketing gurus is without a doubt
Dan Kennedy (see
http://DanKennedy.com). In one of
his books, "No B.S. Business
Success
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos
/ASIN/1551801434/thesuccessdoctor
," Dan explains: "Failure is part of the
daily entrepreneurial experience."
Therefore, failure is to be expected.

All this is to say that, while success
is indeed possible, it is not an instant
result like that of winning the lottery.
And I'm not saying that you have to
fail a lot in order to succeed.
Moreover, I certainly am not trying
to inculcate some positive, rose-
colored glass, pollyannish kind of
thinking in you. But as Jim Rohn
once wrote: "If the man is going
down the wrong road, he doesn't
need motivation to speed him up --
what he needs is education to turn
him around."

You Need Tools in Order to Build

In other words, there is no such
thing as "get rich quick." But with
the right tools, the right education
and the right attitude, one can
definitely get rich quicker. There are
many resources (like
http://SuccessDoctor.com/IMC/
http://success-doctor.com/IMC,
http://www.wilsonweb.com and
http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com)
that can certainly help. I encourage
you to investigate them.

As Bill Gates once said, the Internet
will definitely create more millionaires
than any other medium in history.
Since the Internet is founded on both
information and speed, the web's
plethora of information and

tools grant the entrepreneur the
ability to achieve success faster than
ever.

It took me years to achieve success
in the offline world but only a small
fraction of that time to achieve it
online. And I believe that it's
because, with the Internet, one has
the ability to (quickly and efficiently)
access knowledge, ideas and
resources that were once unavailable
to brick-and-mortar business owners.
It's all available at the simple click of
a mouse.

In essence, and I've said this many
times: Learned experience is far better
than learning from experience. And
you have the ability to learn from
other people's failures, setbacks,
bouncebacks and successes -- these
are, in my opinion, the most powerful
weapons you can ever include in
your arsenal.

Be a Sponge

The moral of it all? Learn. Keep
learning. Use the Internet to learn as
much as you can. If you can join the
many resources available on the web
(especially if they're guaranteed, like
IMC), do so. Attend seminars. Take
courses. Listen to audio cassettes
while you're surfing the web. Turn
your car into a university on wheels
by listening to tapes as you drive.

Remember that you can chalk it up to
research and education for tax
purposes. Personally, I have a library
literally filled with thousands of
books, videotapes and audiocassette
programs, from the motivational to
Internet marketing. The most popular
ones (ones I often shop myself) are
located at:

http://www.audible
.com,

http://www.amazon
.com,

http://www.succes
s.com

http://www.peoplesuccess.com