I Found Success!
Once upon a time, I found a teacher that I really liked. He was very successful at creating money making websites. I listened to his podcasts for several years in hopes of creating my own portfolio of money making websites. I tried to apply the things he talked about, but nothing much happened. I reached the point of desperation.
I finally had enough of the struggle and decided to shell out several hundred dollars to learn the secrets of how to build money making websites (guaranteed!). I would gladly trade a few hundred dollars to relieve my suffering and gain the secret to website success! Teacher, take my money!
The Teacher
The teacher was very active in his student community group and quickly answered questions when they arose. His students often posted testimonials about their success and thanked him.
This guy is the real deal. He was clearly an expert and cared about his students’ success. It was clear this training was well worth the money.
But Then
There were a couple of red flags for me.
In one community discussion he posted a link to one of his “successful” blogs. I read a few articles but they were uninspiring. That really bugged me. These articles were so different from his podcasts which were inspirational, encouraging, and motivating.
What’s Going On Here?
I Hated It
His money making secret was my misery.
The revelation came to me through a student's question in the community. They were complaining about how much time it took to do the SEO keyword research part of the training. I agreed.
His response was: “I devote four hours a week to keyword research. This is part of the system.”
Did you catch that?
This means to implement his system, you must devote 204 hours every year to keyword research. That's 25.5 eight-hour-days a year. A month of your life. Noooo!
Let that sink in. A month of your life, every year.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s why his process worked. And that’s precisely why it won’t work for me.
No, no, no. I will not devote one month of my life to sparring with a search engine bot. And that bot constantly changes the rules.
I am not condemning this teacher’s system at all. I just realized I cannot live that way. I refuse. Impossible. No way. I’m out. What is easy for others is death for me.
Lessons Learned
We must invest in ourselves. I continue to sign up for online classes. But one thing I have learned is: The tactics that work for others won’t necessarily work for me. Even if they are sincere, true, and guaranteed. Even if it's a proven step-by-step system.
A money-back guarantee doesn’t equal “works for everyone.” There are many guaranteed ways to success, but not all ways are profitable.
Being clear on my values, talents, likes, and dislikes, is very helpful in making choices that work for me. Focus on what you enjoy and are good at. Keep the things you dislike at a minimum. And opt-out on training that requires doing things you strongly dislike.
Just as the teacher leveraged his own strengths and talents to become successful, I must leverage my own strengths and talents to make my own path to success as I define it. Most successful people leverage their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
I could have asked for my money back, but I felt I learned a lot about the behind-the-scenes tactics people use to make money, and the teacher was genuinely trying to help people with high value training. It also helped me to decisively rule out his path to riches. I never listened to another podcast.
I will stick with Zig Ziglar's philosophy.
"If you can help enough people to get what they want then you can get everything you want." -Zig Ziglar
For me, success comes through pursuing my dreams in a way that helps others. Rather than wrestling with search bots, I choose to invest my time in encouraging the dreamers.
Finally
Many people find success and end up hating it. The key is we must find our own success — the success that aligns with our heart.
Dreams are not jobs, careers, or hobbies. Dreams are born of the heart. They are an answer to a calling. They are an expression of a purpose. And ultimately they exist to grow us and transform us into our greater selves.
To your success!
James Wilder
You don’t have to read 100+ articles on James on Success. Just read the books.
