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Did you know they serve deep fried sticks of butter at the Iowa state fair?
Yuck!
I'm writing this post from Alkmaar, Netherlands.
Once upon a time, when I was a child; my mother wanted me to eat more vegetables.
What she did, is steamed up some nice healthy portions of green beans, broccoli, you name it, and put it on a plate.
And then she covered the entire thing with half a stick of butter.
No wonder why I gain 20 pounds every time I go home to visit my family for the holidays.
It's not the things you need to do, but the things you need to STOP doing.
Until you recognize and take a deep look at your flaws and your faults (yes...this is painful), you're doing nothing except holding yourself back.
But what is more painful is that feeling of regret that you didn't make any progress in the past six months of your life!
How to get rich quick(er):
What if the secret to speeding up your success in entrepreneurship is not so much the things you should be doing, but to STOP...and take a look at the things that you shouldn't be doing.
Shine light on the darkness and it becomes light.
Avoiding the common pitfalls will be the key to speeding up your success.
The things you have to stop doing.
Are you covering your business with butter, thinking you're in for some healthy results?
Pitfall #1 - Jumping from Idea to Idea
The analogy I like to use is building sand castles at the beach.
You go down by the water, and you put down a couple buckets of sand. Your sandcastle isn't massive, so you think you chose the wrong thing to work on.
What do you do?
You walk 10 feet down the beach and put down a few more buckets.
What happens when you do that enough? You have 100's of small piles of sand, and nothing to show for it.
What if, instead, you take your time to put down bucket after bucket, and focus on one thing.
Pitfall #2 - The Learning Loop
When you do something pleasureful, your brain releases a chemical in your body called dopamine.
When you read a book or learn something new, your brain releases the chemical into your body and you feel good.
This is nothing more than an artificial sense of accomplishment.
You literally accomplished nothing, but you feel good when you do these things, so you keep doing them. I read 50 books on one year and took no action.
What I do now is I jump both feet forward into something, and then get the experience - only learning after I take action. I did 3 sales calls recently - and failed miserably on one of them, did OK on the other - but the person wasn't interested - and closed the third.
I'm now going through Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Persuasion - and putting one concept to use before I go through the whole program. "The sale starts at no - when they have an objection, don'e resist it, but loop back and make sure they see you as a 10 out of 10 for your product, company, and yourself."
Man, it would feel so nice, and I would feel so accomplished if I just finished all 10 of his videos.
But I wouldn't have accomplished anything, except release that chemical into my body that makes me feel nice.
It's like taking meth...
Pitfall #3 - Trying to Convince your Friends & Family
My friends and family don't approve of my decision to be an internet entrepreneur.
I've earned into the six figures over the past few years, I have an app company that has 1,000,000 downloads, and I have changed the lives of thousands of people.
The people around you will only begin to listen when you GET RESULTS. Don't talk about it, be about it. Have them see the life you live and they'll see.
And if they don't...who cares?
Despite some past accomplishments I had, right now, my family doesn't approve of my decision.
My business went through a financial speed bump as different events unfolded, and they don't think it's the right path.
Four years ago, I wasted all of my energy trying to show them that entrepreneurship was "the way", and it was nothing but wasted energy.
But now, looking back - I'm in the same situation with my friends and family disapproving of me (well, my non-entrepreneurial friends at least). But I don't waste a single breath trying to convince them.
Because I have the confidence in my future, and I'm too busy getting shit done and executing on my business.
Don't talk about it - be about it.
Execute.
Pitfall #4 - You're an Architect
See this guy with the mis-shaped eyes and weird tie?
This is you.
You plan out your entire business from start to finish, map it out with algorithms, marketing angles, and a million other things.
You spend months or years on end planning these things you're going to do.
But you don't actually do them.
Maybe this is giving you the same heroin-high like The Learning Loop, and you feel accomplished. But what happens when you finally take action?
Your entire plan falls out the window.
"Every body has a plan until you get punched in the face." Mike Tyson.
Do you know the reason I am typing this all these things up for you? Not from books I read or successes I've had. It's because I made these mistakes and these mistakes delayed my success in business by two years.
The most interesting part is this...
Pitfall #5 - "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich."
Some zen like sea creature who used to roam these forums first said this to me.
Basically, the man told stories about building a $50 Million company, raising $90 million in capital, and running a business that made $12 Million per year.
In 2013 - I was a technical systems analyst for a finance company making $20 per hour.
He used to tell me about all the things I was doing wrong on my business and holding me back, but I was stubborn. Something inside had me resist the things he told me to do....so I didn't listen to him.
I was too engrained in my belief system that was taught to me by teachers making $30,000 per year and my parents/friends/society - that anything he said conflicted with everything I was taught growing up.
I spent most of my time arguing with him and proving MY way right...instead of having an open mindset to learn new things.
All the things I take about in this post are things I'm sure you heard of before...you can resist them like I did, or you can read them and not actually put these lessons to use (and carry on with the life you life now).
Or you can actually show with your actions that you're taking this advice to heart and begin:
Because if I listened to him, I wouldn't have these reference experiences to share with you and help you out today.
Pitfall #6 - You don't have any battle scars
I just wrote an email to a friend of mine who wants to chase her dreams as an artist.
She was scared of failure.
On my Facebook, through my email newsletter, and elsewhere - I make a lot of motivational posts with the intent of putting positive energy out into the universe. To inspire people that they can live the life they dream of living.
But what I've been too scared to put were my failures (my battle scars) into the public realm.
Vigilante first talked about the concept of having "battle scars" in business. It's almost as if the things that most of society would call you a failure for are badges of honor in our line of work. We aren't true seasoned entrepreneurs until we gain some battle scars along the way.
Those are the things that show we are committed.
While chasing my dreams over the last 5 years:
I'm still alive.
Will her worst fears manifest if she chases her dreams?
To be honest - most likely they will. But Walt Disney went bankrupt 6 times before he had success. Some people give up - while others keep pushing forward (like him) and that one home run makes up for all the strike outs along the way.
Battle scars are a badge of honor.
Pitfall #7 - Try to get 100 NO's - Fear of Rejection.
When I was in a mastermind with another entrepreneur - his business was making $10,000 per month. He needed to line up a manufacturer to produce his products, but he made 3 phone calls and stopped.
He didn't like hearing the word NO.
So he avoided the painful action that always led to no.
Our mentor told him that his goal should be to make 100 calls to 100 different manufacturers and to try to hear 100 NO's.
The first 37 calls were NOs.
The 38th call was a YES, and his business grew from $10,000 per month to $45,000 per month the following month.
But why did he keep pushing forward through the 37 NO's?
Pitfall #8 - You're not committed to it.
Why did he keep calling through 37 rejections?
Because our mentor told him to "burn the boats" (put himself in a position where he HAS to succeed). He destroyed one of the key manufacturing pieces of his business, while he was sitting on $10,000 worth of orders he had to ship.
He needed to find the manufacturer, or else his business would be destroyed.
In that moment, he created a situation where he had no other option, except to succeed.
He committed to his business.
Pitfall #9 - Listening to people who have no clue what they are talking about.
My ex girlfriend's parents are teachers.
They graduated college and went straight into teaching. For those of us on the forum, bring up the stereotypes about teaching with no experience for this part of the post....
They have experience in the academic world, but in the realm I work in.
For the website of my dog magazine, they noticed that I didn't list my degrees in Political Science (BA) and Homeland Security (MA).
I think MJ talks about in his book where none of his customers ever asked about his certifications and degrees.
Would the conversation rates of my email opt in page for a free dog magazine skyrocket when I list that I have a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Stony Brook University?
They were teachers in an academic world; they aren't the ones I should listen to for business advice on that...
Listen to people who already have experience doing the things you want to do. If Cesar Milan gave me advice for my dog magazine, I should listen to it. If MJ gave me advice for my dog magazine...I would take it...unless it conflicted with Cesar's advice (owns one of the largest dog magazines out there) - where I would usually go with someone doing exactly what I do.
Be open to feedback from everyone, but in personal development, they call it modeling success. If you find someone having success in EXACTLY what you do - model their behaviors and thought processes and you'll get their results.
Ok, I might have a little bit of resentment from the breakup with the story of the ex...but the main point is don't listen to people who aren't experienced in your field. Be open to learn from them...but screen out the information that doesn't work.
Pitfall #10 - Being stuck with in your own ideas.
I had the most amazing idea for a Facebook marketing campaign.
It failed miserably in terms of click through rates, but I kept pushing it because in my mind, my idea was great.
I lost about $500 from that first campaign, which was a lot of money for when I was first starting out.
My idea was so great, but I wasn't willing to adapt to the data/feedback I was getting.
In paid advertising, there is a concept called split testing. You get two pictures on your ad, run the ad to the same group of people - and see that 5% clicked one ad and 10% clicked the other.
Test your ideas, and then analyze the results, and see what performs the best.
Some of my 'worst' ideas actually turned out to be the best.
Pitfall #11 - Talking about these things you're going to do "someday".
The year was 2012 and I was sitting in a cubicle at the call center I worked in.
I worked in the customer service department for the warranty department for a used car company. Translation - I spent 8 hours of my day talking to people after their cars broke down, and our warranty didn't cover it.
Every Friday at lunch, myself and Jason (non-forum member) went out to get drunk at lunch.
A group of us would just have fun every Friday afternoon to blow off steam from the work week, go home, sleep a bit, and go out for the night.
One Friday, I was talking about all the great things I was going to do with my business "someday". And Jason said to me "It doesn't matter unless you have points on the board"
Unless you're actually out there, doing these things, getting these results...nothing matters.
All this talk bout entrepreneurship and doing these things in the future went on for a year, but I had nothing to show for it.
One afternoon, Jason gets up around 2 p.m., and quits his job.
He was too busy actually doing those things already....and his business took off - he did VERY well with his fitness brand.
He didn't do these things "someday"...he was already doing them.
Pitfall #12 - Hiding behind your email
It sure is comfortable hiding behind your computer/email and trying to build a business.
But you don't form any deep-meaningful relationships with anyone. That is why the Fastlane summit is so amazing. You get to go out and meet people face to face. You get drunk with them at the clubs (the younger crowd), or you sit back and talk shop with the more experienced folks.
You build deeper personal connections when you meet people face-to face.
I used to have so many opportunities come my way, but I was too scared to even pick up the phone and call them. I never built those connections.
And those opportunities went away.
Go to trade shows, networking events, conferences. But I'm sure most of you reading this now will be too scared to do that (hopefully I'm wrong on this assumption). At least pick up the phone or do a face-to-face Skype call with a stranger in your industry.
Or the opportunities will go away, forever.
Pitfall #13 - You have a scarcity mindset.
Opportunities are abundant.
Yes, ironic from the sentence from the last pitfall...right?
Those specific opportunities will go away, but new ones will come. There are 7 billion people on this planet and trillions of dollars circulating the economy every day. If you can't grab on to $500 of those $Trillions a day...you're living in a world of scarcity.
We all live in the same world, and the world is abundant.
Start seeing the abundance, and you'll be more open to abundant opportunities.
Pitfall #14 - You give up too soon.
When you get a flat tire, do you just give up and stick a knife in the other 3?
Or do you fix the flat tire and keep pushing forward?
I wrote an article the other day about how I got featured in Inc. magazine because I sent out email to writers on HARO. I did that for 3 days in April, and I wasn't featured until November.
This was a big magazine.
But the lesson here is that I gave up after 3 days. I didn't see those immediate results, so I gave up.
Mark Zuckerberg just did an interview here he is striving to connect the world and cure all the worlds diseases.
Yes, he said all.
You're thinking too short.
The actions you take now are going to pay off. But when most people don't see the results right now, they give up.
Know when to adjust your approach, but the results here are delayed.
Browsing YouTube for the next motivational video is more immediately gratifying.
Pitfall #15 - The word "uncomfortable" should be re-branded as a good thing.
In our evolution, in the wild - when we went out to a new areas of the wilderness, or walked down a trail where we might get lost on, we began to feel emotions that triggered us to stick to what kept us alive.
Those mechanisms are still build into our biology, but for the wrong reasons.
When you do something new such as pick up the phone and call a supplier, call a prospective client, etc. you feel those emotions.
But c'mon. Let's realize that these are actually GOOD emotions.
They are indicators of growth.
You're doing things that will get you new results.
Get uncomfortable being uncomfortable, and you'll never feel that way again.
Pitfall #16 - You watch motivational propaganda.
Yes, that's what it is- propaganda.
Some marketer puts out pretty images and quotes to get you into their funnel. You feel good, you like the brand, but you're not putting in the work.
Motivational quotes don't lead to action.
But do you know what does?
Actually doing shit...
Pitfall #17 - You listen to the BS stories in your mind.
I was talking to a girl the other day who wants to start an internet business, and then she lists all the excuses why she can't. She's never done it before. Doesn't know how to do it. blah blah blah.
There are millions of reasons why you can't do something.
And there are a few million more why you CAN.
The stories in your mind, or the past failures only feel real - but they literally have nothing to do with what is going on right now in the present moment.
Forget the past completely for a moment, look forward...and now come back to focusing on what you are doing right now.
You are here right now, and as you are reading this - you will soon begin to realize that you are paying more and more attention to the things that are happening around you right now in the present moment. You hear these sounds around you, which you may have tuned out before. You begin to notice feelings and sensations in your body that you once ignored before.
And this simply means that you have these new insights that you didn't have before, don't you?
And with these new insights, you have these new understandings of things that you can now choose to simply not do anymore.
In this moment, as you are reading this, you already recognize that by simply understanding what these pitfalls are, you are at a place where you no longer fall into them.
You already stopped covering your vegetables in butter the moment you read the last sentence.
Going forward only the things you DO right now matter.
So what'cha gonna do?
It's time to do them.
Or live a life of regret.
Yuck!
I'm writing this post from Alkmaar, Netherlands.
Once upon a time, when I was a child; my mother wanted me to eat more vegetables.
What she did, is steamed up some nice healthy portions of green beans, broccoli, you name it, and put it on a plate.
And then she covered the entire thing with half a stick of butter.
No wonder why I gain 20 pounds every time I go home to visit my family for the holidays.
It's not the things you need to do, but the things you need to STOP doing.
Until you recognize and take a deep look at your flaws and your faults (yes...this is painful), you're doing nothing except holding yourself back.
But what is more painful is that feeling of regret that you didn't make any progress in the past six months of your life!
How to get rich quick(er):
What if the secret to speeding up your success in entrepreneurship is not so much the things you should be doing, but to STOP...and take a look at the things that you shouldn't be doing.
Shine light on the darkness and it becomes light.
Avoiding the common pitfalls will be the key to speeding up your success.
The things you have to stop doing.
Are you covering your business with butter, thinking you're in for some healthy results?
Pitfall #1 - Jumping from Idea to Idea
The analogy I like to use is building sand castles at the beach.
You go down by the water, and you put down a couple buckets of sand. Your sandcastle isn't massive, so you think you chose the wrong thing to work on.
What do you do?
You walk 10 feet down the beach and put down a few more buckets.
What happens when you do that enough? You have 100's of small piles of sand, and nothing to show for it.
What if, instead, you take your time to put down bucket after bucket, and focus on one thing.
Pitfall #2 - The Learning Loop
When you do something pleasureful, your brain releases a chemical in your body called dopamine.
When you read a book or learn something new, your brain releases the chemical into your body and you feel good.
This is nothing more than an artificial sense of accomplishment.
You literally accomplished nothing, but you feel good when you do these things, so you keep doing them. I read 50 books on one year and took no action.
What I do now is I jump both feet forward into something, and then get the experience - only learning after I take action. I did 3 sales calls recently - and failed miserably on one of them, did OK on the other - but the person wasn't interested - and closed the third.
I'm now going through Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Persuasion - and putting one concept to use before I go through the whole program. "The sale starts at no - when they have an objection, don'e resist it, but loop back and make sure they see you as a 10 out of 10 for your product, company, and yourself."
Man, it would feel so nice, and I would feel so accomplished if I just finished all 10 of his videos.
But I wouldn't have accomplished anything, except release that chemical into my body that makes me feel nice.
It's like taking meth...
Pitfall #3 - Trying to Convince your Friends & Family
My friends and family don't approve of my decision to be an internet entrepreneur.
I've earned into the six figures over the past few years, I have an app company that has 1,000,000 downloads, and I have changed the lives of thousands of people.
The people around you will only begin to listen when you GET RESULTS. Don't talk about it, be about it. Have them see the life you live and they'll see.
And if they don't...who cares?
Despite some past accomplishments I had, right now, my family doesn't approve of my decision.
My business went through a financial speed bump as different events unfolded, and they don't think it's the right path.
Four years ago, I wasted all of my energy trying to show them that entrepreneurship was "the way", and it was nothing but wasted energy.
But now, looking back - I'm in the same situation with my friends and family disapproving of me (well, my non-entrepreneurial friends at least). But I don't waste a single breath trying to convince them.
Because I have the confidence in my future, and I'm too busy getting shit done and executing on my business.
Don't talk about it - be about it.
Execute.
Pitfall #4 - You're an Architect
See this guy with the mis-shaped eyes and weird tie?
This is you.
You plan out your entire business from start to finish, map it out with algorithms, marketing angles, and a million other things.
You spend months or years on end planning these things you're going to do.
But you don't actually do them.
Maybe this is giving you the same heroin-high like The Learning Loop, and you feel accomplished. But what happens when you finally take action?
Your entire plan falls out the window.
"Every body has a plan until you get punched in the face." Mike Tyson.
Do you know the reason I am typing this all these things up for you? Not from books I read or successes I've had. It's because I made these mistakes and these mistakes delayed my success in business by two years.
The most interesting part is this...
Pitfall #5 - "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich."
Some zen like sea creature who used to roam these forums first said this to me.
Basically, the man told stories about building a $50 Million company, raising $90 million in capital, and running a business that made $12 Million per year.
In 2013 - I was a technical systems analyst for a finance company making $20 per hour.
He used to tell me about all the things I was doing wrong on my business and holding me back, but I was stubborn. Something inside had me resist the things he told me to do....so I didn't listen to him.
I was too engrained in my belief system that was taught to me by teachers making $30,000 per year and my parents/friends/society - that anything he said conflicted with everything I was taught growing up.
I spent most of my time arguing with him and proving MY way right...instead of having an open mindset to learn new things.
All the things I take about in this post are things I'm sure you heard of before...you can resist them like I did, or you can read them and not actually put these lessons to use (and carry on with the life you life now).
Or you can actually show with your actions that you're taking this advice to heart and begin:
- Focusing on one idea - through all the failures.
- Stop trying to convince your friends and family - and execute!
- Stop falling into the learning loop, and execute!
- And....
Because if I listened to him, I wouldn't have these reference experiences to share with you and help you out today.
Pitfall #6 - You don't have any battle scars
I just wrote an email to a friend of mine who wants to chase her dreams as an artist.
She was scared of failure.
On my Facebook, through my email newsletter, and elsewhere - I make a lot of motivational posts with the intent of putting positive energy out into the universe. To inspire people that they can live the life they dream of living.
But what I've been too scared to put were my failures (my battle scars) into the public realm.
Vigilante first talked about the concept of having "battle scars" in business. It's almost as if the things that most of society would call you a failure for are badges of honor in our line of work. We aren't true seasoned entrepreneurs until we gain some battle scars along the way.
Those are the things that show we are committed.
While chasing my dreams over the last 5 years:
- I was 2,000 miles away from home in the middle of the desert, with my credit card maxed out and my final $250 was on the line with one hand of poker. If I lost that hand, I would have been stranded in the middle of an indian casino.
- I was 94 miles in the middle of the wilderness almost dying of heart palpitations from stress after my business collapsed in 2015.
- My bank account hit the red at last 5 times without any stable paycheck coming in.
- I was left with an over-drafted and frozen bank account, with my stuff thrown out on in the middle of the street, in the middle of a foreign country, with no cell phone service.
I'm still alive.
Will her worst fears manifest if she chases her dreams?
To be honest - most likely they will. But Walt Disney went bankrupt 6 times before he had success. Some people give up - while others keep pushing forward (like him) and that one home run makes up for all the strike outs along the way.
Battle scars are a badge of honor.
Pitfall #7 - Try to get 100 NO's - Fear of Rejection.
When I was in a mastermind with another entrepreneur - his business was making $10,000 per month. He needed to line up a manufacturer to produce his products, but he made 3 phone calls and stopped.
He didn't like hearing the word NO.
So he avoided the painful action that always led to no.
Our mentor told him that his goal should be to make 100 calls to 100 different manufacturers and to try to hear 100 NO's.
The first 37 calls were NOs.
The 38th call was a YES, and his business grew from $10,000 per month to $45,000 per month the following month.
But why did he keep pushing forward through the 37 NO's?
Pitfall #8 - You're not committed to it.
Why did he keep calling through 37 rejections?
Because our mentor told him to "burn the boats" (put himself in a position where he HAS to succeed). He destroyed one of the key manufacturing pieces of his business, while he was sitting on $10,000 worth of orders he had to ship.
He needed to find the manufacturer, or else his business would be destroyed.
In that moment, he created a situation where he had no other option, except to succeed.
He committed to his business.
Pitfall #9 - Listening to people who have no clue what they are talking about.
My ex girlfriend's parents are teachers.
They graduated college and went straight into teaching. For those of us on the forum, bring up the stereotypes about teaching with no experience for this part of the post....
They have experience in the academic world, but in the realm I work in.
For the website of my dog magazine, they noticed that I didn't list my degrees in Political Science (BA) and Homeland Security (MA).
I think MJ talks about in his book where none of his customers ever asked about his certifications and degrees.
Would the conversation rates of my email opt in page for a free dog magazine skyrocket when I list that I have a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Stony Brook University?
They were teachers in an academic world; they aren't the ones I should listen to for business advice on that...
Listen to people who already have experience doing the things you want to do. If Cesar Milan gave me advice for my dog magazine, I should listen to it. If MJ gave me advice for my dog magazine...I would take it...unless it conflicted with Cesar's advice (owns one of the largest dog magazines out there) - where I would usually go with someone doing exactly what I do.
Be open to feedback from everyone, but in personal development, they call it modeling success. If you find someone having success in EXACTLY what you do - model their behaviors and thought processes and you'll get their results.
Ok, I might have a little bit of resentment from the breakup with the story of the ex...but the main point is don't listen to people who aren't experienced in your field. Be open to learn from them...but screen out the information that doesn't work.
Pitfall #10 - Being stuck with in your own ideas.
I had the most amazing idea for a Facebook marketing campaign.
It failed miserably in terms of click through rates, but I kept pushing it because in my mind, my idea was great.
I lost about $500 from that first campaign, which was a lot of money for when I was first starting out.
My idea was so great, but I wasn't willing to adapt to the data/feedback I was getting.
In paid advertising, there is a concept called split testing. You get two pictures on your ad, run the ad to the same group of people - and see that 5% clicked one ad and 10% clicked the other.
Test your ideas, and then analyze the results, and see what performs the best.
Some of my 'worst' ideas actually turned out to be the best.
Pitfall #11 - Talking about these things you're going to do "someday".
The year was 2012 and I was sitting in a cubicle at the call center I worked in.
I worked in the customer service department for the warranty department for a used car company. Translation - I spent 8 hours of my day talking to people after their cars broke down, and our warranty didn't cover it.
Every Friday at lunch, myself and Jason (non-forum member) went out to get drunk at lunch.
A group of us would just have fun every Friday afternoon to blow off steam from the work week, go home, sleep a bit, and go out for the night.
One Friday, I was talking about all the great things I was going to do with my business "someday". And Jason said to me "It doesn't matter unless you have points on the board"
Unless you're actually out there, doing these things, getting these results...nothing matters.
All this talk bout entrepreneurship and doing these things in the future went on for a year, but I had nothing to show for it.
One afternoon, Jason gets up around 2 p.m., and quits his job.
He was too busy actually doing those things already....and his business took off - he did VERY well with his fitness brand.
He didn't do these things "someday"...he was already doing them.
Pitfall #12 - Hiding behind your email
It sure is comfortable hiding behind your computer/email and trying to build a business.
But you don't form any deep-meaningful relationships with anyone. That is why the Fastlane summit is so amazing. You get to go out and meet people face to face. You get drunk with them at the clubs (the younger crowd), or you sit back and talk shop with the more experienced folks.
You build deeper personal connections when you meet people face-to face.
I used to have so many opportunities come my way, but I was too scared to even pick up the phone and call them. I never built those connections.
And those opportunities went away.
Go to trade shows, networking events, conferences. But I'm sure most of you reading this now will be too scared to do that (hopefully I'm wrong on this assumption). At least pick up the phone or do a face-to-face Skype call with a stranger in your industry.
Or the opportunities will go away, forever.
Pitfall #13 - You have a scarcity mindset.
Opportunities are abundant.
Yes, ironic from the sentence from the last pitfall...right?
Those specific opportunities will go away, but new ones will come. There are 7 billion people on this planet and trillions of dollars circulating the economy every day. If you can't grab on to $500 of those $Trillions a day...you're living in a world of scarcity.
We all live in the same world, and the world is abundant.
Start seeing the abundance, and you'll be more open to abundant opportunities.
Pitfall #14 - You give up too soon.
When you get a flat tire, do you just give up and stick a knife in the other 3?
Or do you fix the flat tire and keep pushing forward?
I wrote an article the other day about how I got featured in Inc. magazine because I sent out email to writers on HARO. I did that for 3 days in April, and I wasn't featured until November.
This was a big magazine.
But the lesson here is that I gave up after 3 days. I didn't see those immediate results, so I gave up.
Mark Zuckerberg just did an interview here he is striving to connect the world and cure all the worlds diseases.
Yes, he said all.
You're thinking too short.
The actions you take now are going to pay off. But when most people don't see the results right now, they give up.
Know when to adjust your approach, but the results here are delayed.
Browsing YouTube for the next motivational video is more immediately gratifying.
Pitfall #15 - The word "uncomfortable" should be re-branded as a good thing.
In our evolution, in the wild - when we went out to a new areas of the wilderness, or walked down a trail where we might get lost on, we began to feel emotions that triggered us to stick to what kept us alive.
Those mechanisms are still build into our biology, but for the wrong reasons.
When you do something new such as pick up the phone and call a supplier, call a prospective client, etc. you feel those emotions.
But c'mon. Let's realize that these are actually GOOD emotions.
They are indicators of growth.
You're doing things that will get you new results.
Get uncomfortable being uncomfortable, and you'll never feel that way again.
Pitfall #16 - You watch motivational propaganda.
Yes, that's what it is- propaganda.
Some marketer puts out pretty images and quotes to get you into their funnel. You feel good, you like the brand, but you're not putting in the work.
Motivational quotes don't lead to action.
But do you know what does?
Actually doing shit...
Pitfall #17 - You listen to the BS stories in your mind.
I was talking to a girl the other day who wants to start an internet business, and then she lists all the excuses why she can't. She's never done it before. Doesn't know how to do it. blah blah blah.
There are millions of reasons why you can't do something.
And there are a few million more why you CAN.
The stories in your mind, or the past failures only feel real - but they literally have nothing to do with what is going on right now in the present moment.
Forget the past completely for a moment, look forward...and now come back to focusing on what you are doing right now.
You are here right now, and as you are reading this - you will soon begin to realize that you are paying more and more attention to the things that are happening around you right now in the present moment. You hear these sounds around you, which you may have tuned out before. You begin to notice feelings and sensations in your body that you once ignored before.
And this simply means that you have these new insights that you didn't have before, don't you?
And with these new insights, you have these new understandings of things that you can now choose to simply not do anymore.
In this moment, as you are reading this, you already recognize that by simply understanding what these pitfalls are, you are at a place where you no longer fall into them.
You already stopped covering your vegetables in butter the moment you read the last sentence.
Going forward only the things you DO right now matter.
So what'cha gonna do?
It's time to do them.
Or live a life of regret.
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