Success – Should It Always Be Emulated?

Howdy!

I’m so pleased that you stopped by to check out this post.

If you’re looking to start an online business or continue building one, then I’m sure that success is something that you want, right?

I can’t imagine that the answer to that question will be “No”!

I’m sure that you can think of many successful people in many areas. People to whom you look up, people whose methods you may wish to emulate. People from whom you might consider purchasing training or even direct one-to-one coaching.

But, should you?

Are there any precautions that you should take?

The Dark Side to Success

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that the Internet isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Sure, it’s a great tool, it’s entertaining, it can be very helpful and, yes, it can be extremely profitable.

But here’s the thing:

The Internet, like nothing else and like never before, pretty much levels the playing field for people to make money. These days more than ever it is extremely easy to make money. Sure, it might not seem like that when you’re just getting started, but it’s the truth.

Now, making enough money consistently and doing so ethically – ah, that’s where it can get tough.

You see, because the Internet makes so many things so much easier, it also makes unethical behaviour so much easier too. Yes, there are more regulations these days that supposedly protect the consumer, but the fact remains that unscrupulous people will find ways around or even flat out ignore them.

There’s this idea that, because making money in the Internet is a digital endeavour, it is somehow possible to plug into some kind of ‘system’ and make money at the push of a button. And yes, to some degree, it is possible.

But you have the desperate, the gullible, the enthusiastic and the hopeful who are prime targets to be taken in by the people who will exploit the ‘push-button’ mentality.

For a long time you would see the sales pages with extravagant claims, featuring some smooth-talking rich-looking person standing in front of their mansion after just getting out of their Ferrari which they drove home after landing at the nearby airport in their private jet.

Those kinds of sales pages are still around, but people have wised up a lot over the years, not to mention that the authorities take a much harder line on that kind of stuff than they perhaps did years ago.

The ‘Systems’

These days there are probably more working systems around than ever before. I say “working” because they do actually work. In a way…

And this is where the waters get a little muddied.

Because, the unsuspecting person will find themselves attracted to a particular system, will see evidence that people are actually making money from it, therefore they believe that it’s a good business and pay their hard-earned cash to join.

Now, I’m not going to talk about the perils of pyramid schemes and the like here, but suffice it to say that many of these systems hinge on an unsustainable model that depends on the recruitment of others rather than actually selling a product or service.

Bottom line – the poor guy at the bottom is always going to lose out.

*Disclaimer: not all systems are bad. Even MLM programs that employ a pyramid structure are not necessarily bad. You just need to be objective and careful.

The ‘Gooroos’

I actually hate guru-bashing.

Too many people jump on the bandwagon of belittling successful online marketers, labeling them as “gooroos” and using the term, “guru”, in a derogatory sense.

Look – just because someone has built their business online from scratch, has learned from the ground up, has had a lot of success and now is teaching other people how to do the same, does NOT automatically mean that they have scammed anyone, are ‘snake oil salesmen’ and neither does it make them a bad person.

However, the problem lies when you get people who have achieved those things through unethical means.

Aside from the fact that they have built their businesses and achieved their success through such means, they then teach others the same bad habits that they employ.

And that is where the issue of being careful whom you follow comes in.

Think about it for a moment:

What reputable business school would teach that it not only acceptable but would encourage:

• Bullying
• Public humiliation
• Habitually releasing products that don’t work and aren’t fit for purpose
• Releasing products that are completely different to what is advertised
• Having hidden charges within a product or service that weren’t advertised before purchase, but are required for the product or service to work and the customer only discovers these after purchasing
• Sending unsolicited sales messages
• As an affiliate, recommending products that they know don’t work, or products from known shady vendors
• Using offensive language in their sales materials, e-mails, social media posts and to customers
• Being happy to take your money but then offering no customer support afterwards
• Not supporting a product and then the website disappears after just a few months

I could go on, but do you get the picture?

It would be ludicrous to think that any reputable business school would endorse, let alone encourage, such behaviour. Yet, this is exactly what many of the supposed ‘gurus’ do. All too often this kind of behaviour is taught as being acceptable.

Yes, these people might have made millions (then again, they might have made a lot less in real profit than they are actually claiming), so people look to them for inspiration, guidance and mentorship. But the point is, should they?

Before you invest any money, or heck, even time in a mentor, make sure that the person is genuine and that their success has been built the right way.

Now, that isn’t to suggest that everyone gets everything perfect all of the time, because that simply isn’t true. There are many hugely successful and well-respected people who made huge mistakes in the past. But the fact that they are willing to be completely open and to not hide them should speak volumes about their authenticity.

Always Do Your Due Diligence

Before investing money, time, trust and even emotion into a mentor, business opportunity or anything else, always take a step back and do your due diligence.

Not only is it the case that not everything is of acceptable quality, but the thing you’re considering might simply not be a good fit for you. More than that, you might not actually be a good fit for it!

Building an online business takes work, make no mistake. So, although there are ways to make things easier and to enable someone to get started even with no experience and a minimum amount of technical expertise, you should always be cautious of anyone or anything making what seem to be outlandish claims. Heck, even when something appears legitimate, you should still always do your due diligence.

Hopefully, you know me well enough to know that I am someone who always tells it like it is and will only ever recommend stuff that is truly valuable. If you are looking to get started with an online business or for something to supplement what you’re already doing, I can recommend a couple of things for you to take a look at:

For almost six years I have been a Partner with Dean Holland’s company, Internet Profits. Before partnering with Dean, I knew very little and had wasted years and much money jumping from shiny object to shiny object.

I made my very first online sale as a result of Dean’s coaching and the resources I had as a Certified Partner with Internet Profits.

I then had my first four-figure day.

As someone with a wealth of technical experience, Dean saw how I would be an asset to the company and took me on board as a member of his team in 2015 and I have been providing technical help, coaching and support to Internet Profits’ many clients ever since.

I truly believe that there is nothing out there that provides as much as we do at Internet Profits in helping people get started online. Do we get things right all the time? No. Do we make mistakes? Of course we do. But we are always striving to improve and be the best that we can be.

If you would like to have the chance to Partner with Dean, as well as the opportunity to receive personal coaching and support from me, click here to find out more.

Something that we all need, no matter what we’re doing online, is good quality tools. Things such as page builders, graphics software, mailing software, webinar software and more.

What if you could get all of those things in one ever-improving and ever-growing software suite?

What if, in addition to a fantastic software suite, you could get a built-in business, selling an evergreen, in-demand product?

Then I recommend checking out Builderall.

Again, I’ll tell it like it is. Builderall isn’t perfect. There have been teething troubles. But this platform is growing at a phenomenal rate and is making some of its competitors very, very nervous indeed. The improvements and growth in just the last year have been outstanding and it’s only going to keep getting better.

Anyway, that’s all I’m going to say about both those opportunities. If you think that either one of them sounds like the type of thing that you could be looking for, check them out. But if not, then don’t.

Look, completely transparency here – any sales that come through either of those links will result in my receiving a commission. But, I would rather that you don’t buy and so save your time and money for something that is truly going to help you, rather than invest in something that is nothing more than the latest shiny object to you.

The Future

For me, my blog and my business, you can expect to see some changes coming in the very near future. Some of them have been far too long in coming, but they’re coming. And soon…

I am going to be launching my own products that will be available here on my blog, as well as further resources and services that I know will benefit many people.

In the meantime, please make sure that you connect with me so as to keep up-to-date with what’s happening and I would love to know what kind of things you need help with and what sort of things you would like me to offer here through my site. Please let me know in the comments section.

Until next time!