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Creativity and Determination
are the KEY ingredients in all online success stories.
So many times, as a moderator and participant in the
net's most active and lauded online marketing forum,
The Internet Marketing Warriors, I have heard the same
questions repeated by hopeful marketer after hopeful
marketer. And mostly they begin with "How do I...?"
Similar questions, in a dead-heat in frequency, vary
around a theme such as "What tool should I use to...?"
Know-how and tools. Go to any forum on the net, on almost
any subject, and you will find hundreds or even thousands
of people exchanging information on know-how and tools.
"What is the best way to write copy?" "Which autoresponder
script is best for my business?" "What hosting is the
best for me?"
Very infrequently will you come upon a marketing discussion
that talks about creativity and determination. Even
more rare is a successful product that shows people
HOW to be creative and determined. This is because tools
and know-how are so much easier to write about.
If this, then that. Such a small phrase, yet it is the
bulk of what internet marketing training is all about
if you have read even a small pile of ebooks geared
toward making you a better sales producer.
And the formula sells - bigtime.
But then, why are there so many people failing at marketing
their business online? What is IT that separates the
masses from the relatively few truly successful online
small businesses?
It is this: You cannot teach people creativity very
easily. Some would say it's impossible. Art classes
are simply tools to weed out people that don't have
IT so they can get busy pursuing another line of work!
And it is this: Determination (including work ethic,
stick-to-it-ivenss, seeing something through to the
end) is even harder to simply instill in a person with
the written word or teleseminar. You cannot reach through
your ebook to slap someone everyday to recapture their
focus for them and keep them on-task.
The problem is compounded when you have one of the above
and not the other. Creative people very often have no
business sense or the drive necessary to acquire it.
Determined people fail gloriously in a gallon of sweat
at five in the morning without creativity. Nothing is
probably more disheartening than having one or the other.
It must be like being able to see over the fence, but
not have what it takes to climb to the other side.
Tools are tools. We must use them in any profession
to the best of our ability. Henry Ford used tools to
create Model Ts. But did you ever read a story proclaiming
that Ford won the day with his tools? Of course not.
The stories are about determination and creativity and
that's it.
You can go out right now and get the best software,
the most expensive copywriter, the best programmer,
and even the best product since sliced bread. And you
can fail. It's been done more times than success by
a long margin throughout history.
This article is not about how to succeed at internet
marketing. It is not about tools that will help get
you over the fence where the grass is greener.
This article is an observation. An observation that
is seeded with clues that only creative and determined
people will pick up on. And, despite all the success
manuals and training you may have spent hard earned
money on, this article contains the answer to why many
people fail and some succeed at not only internet marketing,
but in anything in life.
Creativity in internet marketing is being able to think
beyond what others have accomplished to date. It's being
able to take the pulse of the internet and the human
condition and react by putting something together that
is needed and desired.
Determination is being able to go out on a limb and
work until you succeed despite obstacles and naysayers.
It is fueled by belief in yourself and your creative
ideas.
Do you have these two key ingredients? Can you see what
is possible that thousands of other great minds have
overlooked? If so, can you then take that vision and
turn it into reality with dogged determination and perhaps
the hardest work you have ever done in your life?
If you have "it," then you can go learn about our trade
from the technical (tools) standpoint and you can use
them to succeed with your creativity and determination.
The tools are worthless by themselves.
I hope one day to see a lot more questions about the
creative process as it relates to business and success
in forums in the future. I want to see questions (and
honest answers!) about how much work it takes to create
a profitable business online. Then I will know that
a lot more people are on track and are asking the RIGHT
questions. Most of all, I hope to see more training
materials from experts that deal with not only what
tools and systems to use, but with topics on how to
think freely, on your own, about how you could make
something better or make something new out of the situation
at hand.
Finally, when you hear that this business is not for
everyone, it means quite specifically that this business
is not for people who cannot think outside the norm
and work long hours. That's why businesses that people
try to sell you that "do all the work so you don't even
have to think" are so absurd.
No one has ever succeeded at anything without creativity
and determination. Unless they have entered a couch
potato contest. But even then the most successful people
are going to be the ones who think creatively about
how to sit on that couch longer than anyone else and
watch more TV than was formerly thought humanly possible.
Here is an example using the above: 99% of the people
who set out to be the #1 Couch Potato will simply start
out by sitting in front of the TV for as long as they
can. They think, "I will just out-potato everyone else
by doing it 24/7."
And they will all fail. Because one person is going
to think creatively and freely. They are going to buy
5 TVs and plug them all in in front of the couch. They
are going to out-potato everyone else by being able
to compound the amount of TV they can watch by 5 times
the amount of everyone else while doing no more work
than the other 99%. Through creativity and determination,
the person who wins at anything is going to find ways
to succeed that most people never would have thought
of.
In the end, if you want to succeed online, you must
ask yourself: Do I REALLY have the creativity and determination
to turn my current situation into a better one through
an online business? Don't worry about tools and know-how.
Those can be learned and used by anyone. But there is
no need to commit yourself to a big learning curve if
you don't have what it really takes to succeed in the
end.
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Jack Humphrey is the Author of "Power linking 2: Evolution"
which hit the net this week to rave reviews. Grab your
copy
before your competition does at
http://power-linking-profits.com
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