Years ago, I came across a quote from LeBron James that stuck with me. When asked who the best defender against him was, he answered without hesitation: “I'm the only guy who can stop me.”
That line applies to making money online more than almost any motivational quote I have encountered in nearly two decades of building internet businesses.
The Pattern I See Over and Over
Since I started Late Night Internet Marketing, I have watched hundreds of people start building online businesses. The ones who succeed are not necessarily the smartest, the most talented, or the ones with the most resources. They are the ones who do not stop themselves.
The pattern of self-sabotage looks the same almost every time. Someone gets excited about building an online business. They pick a niche, set up a website, maybe publish a few pieces of content or launch a small ad campaign. Results are slow. They do not see significant income in the first few weeks or months. They start doubting whether it works. They find a different strategy, a different guru, a different shiny object. They start over. The cycle repeats until they quit entirely and declare that making money online does not work.
The thing is, the original strategy probably would have worked if they had given it enough time and consistent effort.
Why People Quit Too Soon
Most online business strategies take longer to produce results than people expect. Building organic search traffic takes months. Growing an email list takes consistent content creation over time. Affiliate income grows gradually as your audience and content library expand. There is a gap between when you start doing the work and when the work starts paying you back, and most people quit during that gap.
The internet is full of people selling the idea that you can make money quickly and easily online. When reality does not match that expectation, it feels like failure. It is not failure. It is the normal timeline for building something real.
How to Stop Getting in Your Own Way
First, set realistic expectations. A side business built in your spare time will take six to twelve months to generate meaningful income. That is normal. Plan for it.
Second, pick one strategy and commit to it for at least six months before you evaluate whether it is working. Jumping between strategies every few weeks guarantees that none of them will work because you never give any single approach enough time to gain traction.
Third, measure progress, not just income. In the early months, track the things you can control: content published, email subscribers gained, skills learned, relationships built. Income is a lagging indicator. The leading indicators are the work you put in consistently.
Fourth, find accountability. Whether it is a mastermind group, a business partner, a coach, or a community of fellow entrepreneurs, having someone who knows what you are working on and checks in on your progress makes a measurable difference.
The Bottom Line
You are the only person who decides whether your online business succeeds or fails. External obstacles are real, but they are rarely what actually stops people. What stops most people is the decision to quit before the work has had time to pay off. Do not be that person. Keep going.
Hi Mark
I have to agree with you, that most us quit just before we turn the corner, and sometimes don’t even know it.
My biggest obstacle at the moment is TIME and money… or lack thereof of both.
Given today’s economic turn down, I found myself scrambling to do whatever I can do in the short term to generate the income to stay above water with mortgage and the basics. So, I’m doing web sites, email and graphics for OTHERS… and it’s a big time stealer, although I enjoy it.
Can’t quite get to my own stuff or when I do, it’s in small bytes. Yet, I know if I could just hang tough and keep at it, I can get there.
Any advice on managing time so I can make faster strides? I know if I could, my income might increase at least enough to take a bit of pressure off.
Anyway… that’s where I’m at. Thanks for all you do.
Christine
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I agree with Christine…. time and money.
I am constantly trying to balance moving on my blogging and getting client work done…. if money giving but non progressive client work comes in I have to drop all my blogging and get that done… gotta pay the rent.
I’m not moaning, I love my work and the variety…. But just saying it’s take me longer to get to that dream place as I can’t throw all my time at it.
Great quote 🙂
Thanks Mark for sharing this with us.
Sometimes obstacles are so close to us that we don’t see them. We are one of such obstacles. Everyone of us stop ourselves in a different way.
The way I’d stopped myself recently was to try to focus on different things including the stuff that were not my type of things. The result was diversion from the main path I’d planned for myself long ago. Fortunately, I managed to stop myself and even pay to let me go … ! Now, I feel I’ve paid for my freedom. I’m an SEO practitioner, but I had been tempted to get into e-commerce.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing negative about it, but it was not the right thing at the right time for me. So, I just let it go.
I learned that the only liberator is also myself. I’ve discovered this recently and feel so relieved. I’ve decided to do one thing at a time, but do it well.
Absolutely Mark. You have to keep going (provided you like/love what your doing). Never quit.
When I was a teenager (1980 or so) I wanted to be in a rock band. I loved AC/DC, Judas Priest, Van Halen, etc. Everyone told me I sucked, I wasnt good enough, I’ll never make it. For years I was told this. But I held on to the belief that I could do what these guys were doing. I kept at it, kept practicing and “jamming” with different groups. Eventually in 1993 I was good enough and connected with a group of people that were in the same place as me. That band did extremely well. We headlined friday and saturday nights in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. We went on tour up through the east coast and had a great time.
I look back on that experience and compare with what I’m doing today. Everyday whether I have enough time or not I try to do at least a little something. Some days I do more than others. But everyday I “practice” my SEO and writing. One blog post at a time. I’ve also joined up with a great group of like minded people on Coaching with Josh where we can all share ideas and help each other reach our goals.
Its up to ourselves whether we “make it”, whether we can “headline”, or whether we can quit our day jobs. Don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone is different and learns at a different pace. And Never give up or you will certainly fail
Do or Do Not – there is no try — Yoda
Cheers!
@Joe… that is an awesome story man 🙂
@Joe…I totally agree with Forest’s comment… awesome story!
I have always been an etrepreneur at heart, and I have battle scars to show for it from years of struggling with a brick & mortar franchise and other endeavors in years past.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop trying, but I still face resistance from friends and family when I mention I am working towards creating income on the internet… wow, the negativity you face at times!
By staying connected with like minded folks like all of you and hearing the overcomer and success stories, it keeps me on the path and reinforces my belief that I need to believe — in ME!
Thanks to all of you out there! 🙂
Hey Mark :),
Exactly what I am trying to do 🙂 and you have been a great inspiration for this…. oh by the way did you ever see my vid that pimped your NAT themes :)…. by the way I could not find an aff program for it? Does it not exist or am I being an ejiot?
http://therandomforest.com/how-to-create-a-micro-niche-website-video-tutorial/
@Mark — wow, how well put — funny thing is that these are things that we really already know — but it’s just being disciplined enough to implement it.
I like the idea of committing to one hour a day or whatever you think you can start with and compete. Doing something on a smaller scale lends to success rather than setting goals too difficult to meet and setting yourself up for failure, feelings of being overwhelmed and becoming anxious and discouraged.
SO, instead of spending 15 MORE minutes expounding on the subject here… I think I will go and do 15 minutes of something toward my goal that will help me move forward.
Thanks again, Mark… great stuff!
whoops typo… I meant to say “I like the idea of committing to one hour a day or whatever you think you can start with and COMPLETE” not compete
🙂
I agree with you and have been advising folks on my team to have the same attitude. I equate it to being told there is buried treasure but you don’t know how deep. If you knew this without a doubt, you would continue to dig until you find it. Most people in life establish great goals and want the success, but they stop short and if they had just been consistent and persistent, they would have reached their goal.
To me, it has to do with motivating yourself daily and also recognizing where you’ve been. If you’re not keeping a baseline, sometimes you forget how much you have accomplished.
As for trying to keep your head above water in this economy, residual income is the best consideration. For myself, I am always supporting my team so the business I am in is great because I just need to buy the customers from the company and they do the follow up. I think any business where you believe in it and are able to achieve residual income paying you month after month instead of a linear paycheck where you are paid once for your efforts just makes sense. 🙂
Great story Joe. I think it largely gets down to lack of focus and time committment. Most folks, myself included, make our real money somewhere else. Between work, family, sleep, etc. – you only have so much time to commit. And, that time we do “commit” ( I use that word loosely) can often be not super productive.
So, my goals – commit more time, stay more focused, and worry less about finding the magic shortcut!
I love my blog. I have the coolest readers. Thanks for the great comments.
@Christine and @Forest — I only see one and only one path out of the time and money trap. You have to shift your focus to work on things that pay your residually. Of course this is more easily said than done — I get that. Still, you need to spend more and more time on things that you do once but pay you over and over again.
Let’s take Forest’s clients, for example. Forest is very talented and great to work with. I am one of his clients in fact. But the bottom line is that Forest get’s paid once and by the task for that work. That is good because he gets paid a premium and gets paid immediately. It’s bad because once he gets paid the transaction is over and he has to do more work to get paid again.
I have the same problem in my day job — if I don’t show up, I don’t get paid.
If Forest is able to use some of his talent to build something that can generate passive income — even just a few dollars a day, then he can get paid over and over for working once.
This is the key as far as I am concerned.
Of course, Forest knows this, and has some great projects in this area. I’m just using him as an example.
The problem is that this takes longer and you need to have good ideas that you can execute. It’s not simple, but it is the only way that I can see that you can really make it big online.
If it were me, I would dedicate 1 hour per day to working on something that could eventually make a few dollars per day. When I was done with that, I would do the next one.
Wait – that is what I am doing. 🙂
Regards,
Mark
@Joe — I love that story. Thanks, man. Giving up is the single biggest problem that I see out there.
@Rahman — Boy, you said it. I get so distracted by bright shiny objects. That is exactly my biggest problem — staying focused.
Bottom line — people need a workable plan, and they need to tirelessly work the plan (ignoring everything else).
Thanks for the great comment!
Regards,
Mark
@Kathy — thanks for the comment.
I read on your blog that you had a 6000 person downline at one point. That is really impressive.
Regards,
Mark
Thanks everyone – I wish my own blog posts would get that kind of response 🙂 It just goes to show you that you need to speak from the heart. Thanks again — hmm.. maybe I should blog about it 😀
@Joe: Loved the story, so keep on rockin’.
James Mangosteen Dean
A marketer I was listening to, I believe it was Steve Resell or Greg Gillies said he enjoys listening to sports athletes. They are all winners.
All the major leagues are comprised of the top 1% in their field. Their heads MUST be screwed on right for the most part to get that far.
A great story in Moneyball, the book about Billy Beane ( a truly physically gifted player, who DID NOT have the right pyschological makeup to make it in the big leagues), goes that he was stting in the dugout watching in awe as Steve Carlton pitched. Lenny Dykstra, with little in the way of physical gifts, but a totally scrappy player, says: ” I don’t care who he is, I can that sh!t he’s throwing”.
Two players, one with the right mental attitude, went to have a very nice career, while Billy Beane, a thinker, went to success in Baseball Management.
Well, I am sure about one thing. I played 3rd base on an off for nine years and there is no way in the world I could hit Steve Carlton on my best day. LOL