I am a member of the I-Don’t-Care-Club-For-IMers.
Do you want to join me?
Back in April this year, I read an amazing blog post on failure; specifically on various ways one can overcome failure. And since then, it has stuck with me all the waythrough.
Do you know why? Because, just like most people, I’ve always cared too much about how people think of me.
I have always wondered how people think of me and what they said about me. Even though 97 percent of what I did was good, most people tended to talk about the two percent that was negative.
I would lie to myself that everything is okay and that their thoughts didn’t matter to me, but after some time I would find myself wondering what people would think of my next decision.
With this type of fear… fear to live up to people’s expectations, you cannot achieve anything worthwhile.
Before we discuss the fear of failure, consider this example. Imagine you have landed a new job as a sales person and your first job is to call total strangers over the phone explaining to them about a high-priced product and why they should buy it. It is scary, right?
However, the truth is that if you know the product well – its benefits and downsides – you know why it stands out from the rest and you understand the competition. You know the market and all the marketing skills and language to use to convince people to buy it.
However, you still find it hard to make those sale calls because you are afraid that people might reject you. They might say a BIG NO while some may even get angry or annoyed with you. You are afraid that your feelings might be hurt by their response.
(One thing you should know is that no one can hurt your feelings unless you permit them to do so….but we will save this discussion for another day).
Now the job is becoming hard and challenging, and you haven’t even started yet. You are giving hundreds of excuses to procrastinate making those calls. You already hate this job, and you have not even started.
Imagine I’m your sales manager and I want you to overcome that fear. Instead of making endless excuses, why don’t you take a week out and go out to as many people and offices as possible and get as many rejections as possible.
All I want you to do is to go out and explain the product features and benefits politely; in a language of selling, but don’t count your sales as I’m not interested in the sales that you make. I only want you to tell me about the rejections. The sales person who gets the most rejections will get a hefty amount of cash.
Is this enough motivation to get you to approach as many customers and go from one office to another, confidently telling them about your product and why they should buy it? Can you see yourself booking appointments so that you can get more rejections? Can you see yourself getting angry and hurt each time a person turns down your offer?
This is the difference that a change of thought can make.
This brings us to the question of the day; how can you turn things around so that you can look forward to failing in Internet Marketing? Any successful person has their story, and everyone who is successful has their own story of the failures they encountered before succeeding.
In fact, we learn from failure, and it is through failures that we harden and learn. Success is built upon the failures we encounter, meaning that if you hadn’t failed and tried again, you never would have achieved what you have at the moment.
Failure is an ingredient and requirement to achieving success.
Bill Gates dropped out of Havard to start Traf-O-Data, a company that failed terribly. But look at him now. Henry Ford pulled off five failures before successfully launching the renowned Ford Motor Company. The list is endless, and we can go on and on.
What I’d like to get across is that beside a successful person is a long string of failures.
So, let me ask you what would happen if you launched a product and no one enquired about it despite marketing it to the best of your ability. What would happen if you wrote a blog post that fails to appeal to people, or try marketing a product that totally flops? What would happen if you set up a website, invested all your money in it and upon launching it, no one visits it except your mother? Does this mean that you have failed? Or you have begun your success journey?
The answer to the above question is straightforward at this point. But it is how you bounce back after that failure that will make all the difference. If you hang your head low and quit in shame because of failing, like most people, then you might never succeed. Many people might be encourage to go that route and try something else, but that is not what you should do.
Become a member of I-Don’t-Care-Club-For IMers. In this club, people try as fast as possible to fail because they know that with failure comes lessons that will teach you more about how can achieve your ultimate goal.
The best thing about this club is that you don’t give a damn of what other people think of you and your decisions. You simply don’t care about what they think and say about you. The only thing that you are concerned about is what you DO.
Even if you go bankrupt or use all your savings on a failed business, you need not to give up. Even if you fail 14 times and get up the 15th time, the fact is that your success is just around the corner; it is only a matter of time and perseverance and success will come when you are wiser and hardened.
Therefore, from now on, every time you fear trying again, just smile and say out loud, bring it on again. Give it your everything, this time avoiding the mistakes you did during the previous trials, and for sure you will be on your way to success.
Until next time, wear the I-Don’t-Care-Club-For-IMers badge and walk without fear; you are destined for greatness.
