Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

What's Wrong With Online Business Owners?
I got my latest Renaissance Club newsletter in the mail today and had to laugh. Perry Marshall led off the newsletter with this headline:


Think Perry's ticked off about something? His article related a conversation he had just had with another marketer. Their conversation was essentially a gripe session over what they saw as the laziness of so many new business owners.

Both of them had repeatedly had the same experience with the new business owners they taught. Time and again, they taught some of the nitty-gritty things you have to do to succeed. Time and again, they watched their students' eyes glaze over.

"But that sounds too much like work," the students exclaim. Next thing, those students are off chasing some junk tools for creating junk sites that do nothing to benefit anyone (except the scumbags who are selling them).

Perry isn't the only marketing teacher I've heard express similar views lately. More and more I hear exasperated marketing teachers complaining about the appeal that get-rich-quick schemes have over so many new business owners.

Whether it's finding the "right" product that will sell itself or finding the "sure-thing" tool that will guarantee riches, a lot of new business owners are drawn to things that promise them that they won't have to lift a finger to achieve success.

But I don't think it's because people are lazy. I think it's because so many people are trying to put together their first business from scratch. And having no business experience to draw from, they're afraid.

Hey, it's a big endeavor to start a business with no previous experience. There's a lot to learn. And, frankly, a lot of us feel overwhelmed.

Doubts deep within us tell us that we don't have it in us to succeed. So if the key to success isn't in us, how can we hope to succeed?

That's why scammers who promise that what they're selling will do it all for us find so many easy marks for their scams.

Contrary to the myths that anyone can put up a website, sell anything, and be guaranteed truckloads of cash, an online business follows the same principles that an offline one does.

You still have to find a way to attract your customer. You still have to do something to fill your customer's needs. You still have to gain your customer's trust.

Often our self-doubts convince us we can't do these things. But the fact is that if we can't do this now, we can grow into this if we work at it.

Yes, it takes work. But where we end up is really only a tiny part of who we are. The journey we take is where we spend most of our time. So why spend it shuffling your feet and getting nowhere in the hope that some way, somehow, you'll magically end up at some pleasant destination?

Let's face it, if we were to achieve success through some stroke of luck that we didn't deserve, would we even enjoy that success, knowing we played no part in it? Or would it merely deepen those doubts, knowing that we were merely pretending to be what we really weren't?

Embrace the journey and become the kind of business owner who deserves to succeed. Don't waste opportunities to learn and to grow by merely hoping that some magic wand will make it possible for you to pretend.
Jeff