Taking the step to truly commit to your online marketing business can be a real challenge, and it can be a million times harder when you feel like it’s you against the world. And quite often, that’s how you feel after telling your friends and family what you’re doing.
Unless Steve Jobs is your uncle, they’re not going to “get it”. When you say “I’m starting an online business,” you’ll usually get one of several different reactions:
- “You know all that stuff is a rip-off, right?”
- “A friend of mine tried that once; he’s broke now.”
- “You’ve got to be pretty smart to make that work; are you sure?”
And the all-time classic
- “That won’t work; I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
It happens to everyone. Your friends think you’re hacking into banks, scamming people into sending money to a Nigerian prince, or for those of us lucky enough to be involved in network marketing, “getting sucked into an evil PYYYRAMIIDDD ” (Ooh.. goosebumps, lol). Well, guess what? It doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll never convince them that what you’re doing is on the “up and up”, so don’t bother. When it comes to talking to your friends and family about your online marketing, there’s one good piece of advice I can give you:
Don’t try.
In fact, don’t even tell them what you’re doing if you don’t have to.
It’s only natural to try to get validation for the decision you’ve made. But that generally won’t work in our case. If you try to bring up your online marketing to friends and family before you start seeing results, you’ll be met with reason after reason why you can’t do it, and unfortunately it can be hard not to listen. At the very least, it WILL subconsciously affect your belief that you can succeed.
What you have to realize is that quite a few of those people would have the same reaction if you were opening what they would refer to as a “real” business. In both cases, it’s not so much a reaction to whether or not they think you can do it…it’s that they think they couldn’t. And in the case of online business, not only do they not think its possible, they don’t even understand it.
One of the most important parts of being successful online is your attitude, and your belief that you will succeed. Notice I didn’t say “belief that you can succeed”, but “belief that you will succeed”.
If you truly believe that you will succeed, then guess what? You will. With that belief powering you, any setbacks or obstacles will stop looking like the end of the road and more like “just another thing to deal with”. People deal with setbacks and obstacles on a daily basis in other careers; the difference is, if you have a problem at your nine-to-five job in your cubicle, you won’t have a crowd of friends, family and acquaintances standing ready to say “See? It’s not going to work; you should just quit.”
The reason why is that there are few people that view making money online as a business. That viewpoint is the reason there aren’t more people who are successful online. The same people who will “stick it out” in a dead-end job with a brick and mortar business wouldn’t dream of starting their own business…of any kind, much less online.
It can be done; heck, it is done on a daily basis by thousands of people all over the world. And, just to be honest, some of them are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, yet they still earn a good living with online marketing.
If they can, you can…and will, but only if you don’t spend your valuable time dwelling on the reasons why you can’t.
You can…you will…keep that foremost in your mind, and before you know it you’ll be able to add “you did” to the list.
The sky’s the limit,
PS Let me know what you thought about this post and leave me a comment below. And if you liked it, help me out and share it with your friends!
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Garrett,
Wise words, my man… The biggest
obstacle for people is themselves.
It’s all about attitude and actions,
never giving up, and putting others
first.
You’re on your way to great things.
Keep in touch,
Kary
[Reply]
January 24th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Hey Garrett,
Great post, and can EASILY be related to anyone. If your in Network Marketing or not! If people are not supporting you and challenging you to move forward…guess what? They are probably not the right people to hang around.
I’m curious, what do you usually do when others don’t see your vision?
Ryan Yokome´s last blog ..How to Build Rapport With Prospects In Less Time
[Reply]
January 24th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Great post Garrett. A very successful network marketer told me this weekend “What other people think of you is none of your business.” What she meant by that is that successful entrepreneurs have to forget about other people and what they think and focus on their dreams. Go for them with all of their might and not worry about what other people think or want for them. It’s not what other people want for us that should drive our dreams and actions, but what WE desire and want for ourselves that should drive them. Thanks for sharing this post. Look forward to more great stuff from you.
[Reply]
January 24th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Hey guys, thanks for the comments!
Kary, thanks for the kind words… I’ll see you at the top!
Ryan, honestly, being that I’m 19 and in college veeerrry few people whom I interact with on the day-to-day have any idea what I’m doing or where I’m going with my life. That said, people who don’t see my vision now will have no choice but to see it once it’s fully manifested and staring them in the face. I live in my reality, not theirs, and the people who gave me the most guff in the beginning for “getting into the whole pyramid thing” have already apologized as they see all the awesome, positive changes I’ve been able to bring into my life since I fully dedicated myself to improving my life and the lives of others no matter what the cost… Not that an entrepreneur should care what the “haters” think either way…
All that said, when people don’t see your vision, just keep your head down and your feet movin’ in the right direction… You’ll get to where you’re going eventually, whether people think you will or not!
Krista, true dat! If you’re living in tune with your own core morals and values, waking up each day dedicated to your own productivity and prosperity, and are living each moment of your life thankful for the limitless abundance that all of our lives have been blessed with… Your dreams will materialize much quicker than you think.
[Reply]
January 24th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Solid solid post Garrett!
As Napoleon Hill famously stated… what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
If you want to catch the ball, focusing on why you can’t catch the ball doesn’t help you in the least!
Kimberly Castleberry´s last blog ..The FTC Changes & You: Protecting Your Business
[Reply]
January 24th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Hi Garrett,
This post really hits home with me. I have definitely been there! It can be tough getting out of the herd because the herd doesn’t want you to leave and will try everything they can to keep you with them. A true leader makes their own decisions and doesn’t look back.
Sally
[Reply]
January 25th, 2010 at 11:04 am
This post is exactly what I went through when I first started on my internet marketing journey! Your upline always tells you to talk to everyone that you know. And in the network marketing world everyone knows that is not good advice and that does not work. Someone once told me that you must look at what everyone else is doing and do something different. Thank God for people like yourself who realize the same. You are on your way to the top my friend and I will see you there!
Shekinah
http://www.shekinahrussell.com
[Reply]
January 26th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Great write up… having the belief that you can and will succeed is 90% of the battle. The other 10% can be learned…that’s the technical skillsets.
You rock Garrett.. thanks for sharing buddy.
Debbie
debbie turner´s last blog ..Tribe Syndication Free Webinar Reveals Hidden Powerful Marketing Strategy
[Reply]
January 27th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Great response man, much appreciated!
Ryan Yokome´s last blog ..My 5 Life Changing Visualizing Secrets
[Reply]
March 13th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
“The biggest battles are inside our minds”, if we think we WILL SUCCEED, it WILL HAPPEN.
And being yourself is what real personal branding is about.
Thanks for sharing!
Raisa
Raisa Garrido´s last blog ..Plugins útiles para WordPress
[Reply]