Do you really have to fail to succeed?

Or is that just one of those stupid cliches that people tell you to keep you motivated?

What are some of your biggest accomplishments?

In life?

In business?

In whatever?

Were you a first time phenom?

Or did it take a bit of time before you finally “made it” to the top of your “game”?

Starting an online business is HARD WORK! It takes self-motivation and persistence that some people just don’t have.

You have to set goals, monitor progress, and work hard through hard times.

So how do people do it?

Watch, listen, learn and apply!

How do you plan to apply this?

What’s a failure you’ve made today that is leading towards success?

I help clients start online businesses and then market them online with search engine optimization and social media strategies.

I’ve worked with clients who are very internet saavy.

I’ve worked with clients who are in the “older years” and need a bit more hand holding.

What I’ve found through these experiences can be summed up by a famous American:

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well. – Abraham Lincoln

So what does this really mean?

While doing my daily routine today of reading and commenting on blog posts, working on Twitter, etc. I found this cool video courtesy of @chrisbennett.

You don’t have to watch the whole thing (up to 3:11 is enough) to get the gist:

You can do WHATEVER you set your mind to!

Now watch this video!

6 Year Old Proves You Can Do Whatever You Want

Questions to Consider

Do you think this little guy was initially scared to hit those jumps?

Do you think he wiped out a few times?

Do you think this skill was developed overnight?

Do you think he had to practice a lot?

Running a successful online business is so much like this snowboarding video.

How to Make Money Online

You have to break fears.

It takes failure over and over again + learning to deal with it and move forward.

It takes time.

It takes practice.

And eventually, with persistence, you can succeed.

Notice I DIDN’T say you WOULD succeed. I said you CAN succeed.

Your initial idea my not be the “Million Dollar Maker”. In fact, it may completely flop.

Johnny B. Truant shared his philosophy on the ultimate formula for success as an new online business owner:

For many (maybe most) beginners, the surest way to begin building a good income online is to focus on networking and business principles, not push-button systems and arbitrage.

• How do you network?
• What are business principles?

If you have these questions, your first assignment is to find the answers, probably BEFORE you even start your first business!

My biggest recommendation for success with an online business boils down to this simple statement:

But be persistent and BELIEVE YOU WILL SUCCEED!

I believe Johnny’s formula backs up my words of wisdom:

The one and only one true formula for success

1. Try.
2. Repeat step 1 until the desired result is achieved.

How does this cool video help you believe in your abilities to be an online entrepreneur?

Are you meeting your potential with your new online business?

What are things you’ve done TODAY to make a sale on or off line?

Are you where you want to be with your start-up? Why or why not?

These are all questions I’ve considered many times, both for my own businesses and for the clients I’ve worked with over the last 4 years.

On a recent business trip I was reading a magazine and found some tips that I thought really applied to running a successful online business. The article I read talked about why people don’t reach their potential.

I’ve picked out 4 of the main reasons and added my thoughts in relation to building an online business.

What’s Holding You Back?

1. Choices:  “…the choice you make…makes you.” How many people do you know who have been blessed with so many talents and specialties, but they aren’t very successful? The choices we make with our talents are what help us become successful. What I’ve seen is you can chose every day to do things towards the success of your business. “Small success leads to Big Success!” is the Moller Marketing Mantra for a reason: it’s the little things that we do (or don’t do) everyday that ultimately lead to our success (or failure) with a new business.
2. Shortcuts: THERE ARE NO REAL SHORTCUTS TO SUCCESS! Often times people don’t reach their potential because they have no idea how long the process will really take. There is a saying by Saadi that says,
   “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.”
   No matter what project or goal we have in our lives, we need to stop “microwaving” them. Instead, we need to “Crock-Pot” our ideas – let them simmer and soak. Shortcuts NEVER pay off in the long-run. I have learned that there are quicker ways to do things but it still takes work and planning to succeed in anything.
3. Cost: Yes, success has a cost. You have to give up something for everything you gain. It could be time; it could be money; it could be a combination of both. But the bottom line is, we have to give up something very important to us to achieve something much more worthwhile. Fred Smith said the following:
   “Human nature tempts us to stay where we’re comfortable. We try to find a plateau, a resting place, where we have comfortable stress and adequate finances. Where we have comfortable associations with people, withouth intimidation of meeting new people and entering strange situations. Of course, all of us need to plateau for a time. We climb, and then we plateau for assimilation. But once we’ve assimilated what we’ve learned, we climb again…Many times, our challenges in life are not in understanding; they are in doing.”

   There’s a gap between knowing something and then DOING it. Our attitude affects our ability. What is success with your online business worth to you? Do you have a strong enough reason WHY you want/need to be successful?

4. Problems: Problems have a way of holding us back. There is a difference between problem-spotting and problem-solving. Most people can EASILY spot a problem. Problem solving, on the other hand, comes from those who maximize their potential. A great habit to get in to is, when you spot a problem, before you tell someone about it and complain about why it just won’t work, come up with three suggestions for solving the problem. One of the solutions has to involve YOU! It’s amazing to see a person’s attitude change when they are held accountable for their own solutions.

Now What?

Well, one of the things I plan to do with this information is work hard to be a better problem SOLVER instead of a spotter. I plan to come up with three suggestions for solving a problem, one of which includes ME.

What do you plan to do with this information?

If you’re just starting your new online business, welcome to the world of late nights and hard work!

Yes, there are such things as “Turn Key” and “Get Rich Quick” opportunities; in fact, if you’d like to be part of a great business opportunity, call me today (just kiddin’ – I love getting emails like that from old high school “friends” or even better, an old neighbor that talked to me maybe one time and now, all of a sudden, “…we should get together.”)

Sorry, got off on a bit of tangent there. So my clients know, I don’t do MLM or Network Marketing – just not my thing.

Anyway, one of the things you may have realized by now is that starting something new can be a bit scary.

• What if you FAIL?
• What if no one buys what you’re offering?
• What if you just can’t do this?

What is failure really?

Tony Robbins said this about failure:

I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.

Amen! Without failure how will you even know what success is? How many times did you fail to walk as a child before you actually figured it out? Did you give up or quit then?

To me, fear of failure can do one of two things for a person:

1. Motivate to take action and do something different. As the quote says, “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”
2. Hold a person back from changing their life, their income, or whatever.

Here’s an example of how I helped my 4 year old overcome his fear of getting his hair cut in addition to me practicing with iMovie on my Mac (you don’t have to watch the whole thing, just the first part):

(Audio works now thanks to @codykeith)

What can we learn from this?

1. To overcome fears, JUST DO IT! I’ve been hesitant to use movie at my dance bag website, mostly because I’ve never really uploaded or edited film much. As you can see by this amateur video, I’m breaking my fears and actually liking it!
2. Failure can be a big step towards HUGE success! Since this experience, my little boy has had no problem letting me cut his hair. It’s the same with running an online business – once you get one started, other ideas start coming too and there are no limits (just stay focused for a bit before you overwhelm yourself with so much that you get nothing accomplished.)
3. Set specific goals to break a fear every day! This is a fun challenge that I would love to hear feedback on. What’s a fear you recently broke and how did it help you see results shortly after?

I’m excited to hear about how you break your fears and the positive results that come from getting over the Fear of Failure as you start an online business.

Do you Love What You Do?

I thought it was interesting: tonight I got a comment on my Facebook status that looked like this:

As you can see, even friends of mine that really have NO IDEA what I do for a living are beginning to see trends on what I talk about on a day to day basis: Clogging, Clogging Shoes, and the New York Yankees – 3 of my many passions.

It just so happened that right after that comment, I read a short segment from one of my social media heroes, Gary Vaynerchuk, in which he said the following:

If you want to dominate the social media game, all of your effort has to come from the heart; and it can’t come from the heart in the passionate, irrational, wholehearted way it needs to if you’re trying to be anyone but yourself.  Authenticity is what will make it possible for you to put in the kind of hustle necessary to crush it.

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So, just some food for thought as you work on starting an online business and taking it to the next level!  I’m really glad that my mentor in online marketing helped me start something that I was passionate about – Clogging – and then since then has continued to encourage me to “do whatever I want to do because I can!”

Now go and do likewise!