Do you know when to stick at it, and where to give up and let the opportunity pass you buy?
Most businesses are not successful from day one.
It takes a long time, and a lot of hard work, to become an overnight success.
Unfortunately, most people give up long before they get close to this point. Perhaps that’s why 98% of people fail (or 99.5% in my estimations from my time working in the get-rich-quick industry).
I was watching one of Marcus Hochstadt’s DVD interviews with James Brausch recently.
It’s genuinely great content - after buying it for $35 during a 24 hour special, it almost feels like I stole it or don’t deserve it for what I paid for it.
I wrote down a page of insights that I wanted to apply to my business…
But one insight that stuck out to me was never explicitly revealed by James Brausch in the interview.
It’s about “sticking at it”.
James Brausch told the story about how he got into internet marketing. It was through an amazing piece of technology that he and four business partners had developed.
Over time, each of James Brausch’s business partners left the business for various reasons - he was left with a product, but alone with no marketing expertise, and nobody to help him.
It would have been easy to give up when things started to get hard - at the same time that his business partners left.
It would have been easier to give up now - when things were toughest, and he was alone with an whale-sized problem: How to commercialise this device?
But he “stuck”.
He kept going.
One thing lead to another, he turned that business into a success before selling it, started another, and then started the business he’s in today!
Ed Dale is another example - he failed to make a “winner” out of his first niche site 37 times before he created a model that worked.
Imagine how easy it would have been to give up?
What about Thomas Edisson - his story of persistence in the face of failure when inventing the light bulb is practically a cliche!
Personally, building an online business from $0 to $Millions in sales took 2 years before it reached critical mass.
The common trend that I’m noticing among the successful people I know is that you need to stick at something for 1.5 to 2 years in order to achieve success at it. (For relationships, I’m told it’s 6 months to 3 years.)
It’s a character building exercise.
It’s like success wants to test you to see if you can handle it - before it will give itself to you.
I don’t know why… It just works that way.
It’s interesting because if you can test someone’s character, you get a good indication of how likely it is that they will achieve success.
This is also something James Brausch spoke about in the interview.
I never realised how genuine his desire to see people become successful was.
He comes across as a jerk to so many people because he’s found “tough love” actually improves peoples chances of success.
It’s also interesting how he uses the Intern Program as a character building and testing exercise. (I won’t go into how, or what exclusive reward he offers though… It’s probably best that I don’t mention it.)
It makes me wonder… Do I have the character to stick with it, in my internet marketing ventures?
In the past, the answer (most of the time) was “no”… This time, I’m not so sure.
I guess time will tell.
What about you? Do you have the character to “stick it” for 1.5 to 2 years before you see the rewards of your work?
Brent