Learning so much this year. Sometimes I think I need to execute more than learn. Would have liked to be much further along with my Ecommerce adventure, but not so.
Every step of the way is a problem. Each problem has to be overcome to move forward. Sometimes problems you don’t know to solve, so you have to work around them. Some of the problems I couldn’t fix, they are still there. This coming year I need to overcome problems faster and spend less time thinking about them.
As you solve problems and move forward you realise their is more problems to solve, bigger problems. I think that I avoid the big problems because of fear. I have found that I have to develop new skills to move forward. Some skills I don’t want to develop, currently too scared.
The skill of selling, personal selling, talking with people, I still have not learned yet.
Anthony Robbins talks about modelling successful people if you want to shortcut the learning curve. I have long believed this. I read books, watch videos, listen to podcasts, do courses of people I believe I want to model. As I learn more about success, while you can model after someone else, you must be willing to do what they did, and even then what they did may not work anymore.
I invest a lot of money into education. I look for anything that could make the difference to me becoming successful. What I have found is that what people share that made them successful no longer works, unless they are they doing it right now, but they rarely share that.
If I were “successful” would I share everything I did? I could share everything and someone could come along, take massive action and implement my strategies. Who knows, maybe they would become a competitor.
Maybe I would share the general things to be successful. Is it even worth while sharing your journey? Others have shared their knowledge with me. 99% of them I don’t know personally. I have learned a lot though.
Problem Solving is the key. Being able to see a problem and solve it and move onto the next in minimal time. And try and have fun while doing it. Business is about solving problems, hell, life is about solving problems. I need to better and faster.
You need to know what problems to solve and what problems you don’t need to solve. I imagine this is why we have dreams and goals, a path, a direction. I am not sure of my path, not sure of my direction, not sure even about my dreams and goals.
Struggled with not knowing the answers. Every step of the way I would say, “I don’t want I am doing”, but I would do something and see what happens. The results were not exciting.
When I follow in the footstep of others success, I find that how they achieved success cannot be duplicated for many reasons. First one being, the technique or practise or method now has been banned or made illegal. For example, when I got into Teespring the pioneers scraped Facebook names and targeted them with t-shirts with their own names on them. People bought these t-shirts as they were highly targeted. Incredible amounts of money were made overnight. 12 to 24 months later and Facebook slowly closed the loop and you could no longer do this method. Also there has be something said for competition. They more people that get involved in a market, it drives up advertising costs, drives down margins and over time their is not enough money in it to keep going. Maybe one day I will stop following others and find my own path.
In this pursuit of success I have learned skills though. Now when I see Facebook group posts or youtube videos showing how much money they made I know what to look for. 99% of them are telling you this so that they can sell you something. What is worse is what they are not telling you.
Just how did they sell $100k this month. Was it because the sold counterfeit goods. Did they infringe copyright? Did they actually make any profit? I have discovered that many of them have a little success then turn around and sell you a course, telling you that you too can be successful.
The problem with that thinking is when they are selling the course, the opportunity is over! I need to remind myself of that in the future.
Now let’s be clear. If I didn’t buy courses I wouldn’t learn all the answers to the problems that happen along the way. So in fact buying courses, gaining knowledge does create a shortcut. Our store is doing $2000 per month revenue. Would I have this store if I didn’t follow the info I learned? Probably not.
There are people out selling “how to make money”. People making money are too busy to write courses on how they made money. Back in the real world of normal everyday business. The local plumber does not tell all his secrets of how he is making money. If another plumber finds out, he has lost his competitive advantage. Maybe the plumber would create a course when he successfully sold his business. He has nothing to lose. He tells how he did it, but you will find if you tried it, there would be something that has changed and you could no longer use that method.
I think in business you have to find breakthroughs. The breakthrough may give you advantage for 6 months before others find out about it. Eventually others do find out about the methods and competition enters the market.
The challenge is always to be solving these problems, creating breakthroughs for yourself.
On my journey so far I have come across many people who have had success in the past, but it was short lived. Maybe 12 months, 2 years. But over time they don’t evolve and competitors enter the market taking their share. Sooner or later the business dies.
This year will be working on getting faster at solving problems, doing things that are uncomfortable and enjoying life more.
What will you do this coming year?
Garth
