The Underachiever Life

At the end of September, Dan Raine and I were having one of our very rare, very expensive and if I do say so myself, very good Over The Edge Conferences.

People pay big bucks to hear the very,very cutting edge. Day Two was my responsibility and I had set myself a big task.

"What is the difference between a business that makes $1000 dollars a month and one that makes $10,000 a month or more"

Given the Wolfram Alpha was not available at the time... I had to come up with this myself. I wasn't worried, I knew I would. As long as you give your brain enough of the right content it will give you the correct answer to any question you put it (People know this, The problem is we don't often like the answer...For example, right now my brain is screaming "PUT DOWN THE TIM TAM")

As i'll teach later on in this course - the act of creating content is a HABIT, it's a learnable process and good content is not a gift from the Deity of your choice or the result of coming from a good gene pool!

Anywho...

After the challenge finished, I looked over the past four years of the challenge, I've had the privilege of watching thousands of business start the challenge. Some have been run away hits, some have been great, some have provided a great plan B and the majority of them

SUCKED AIR.

FFFPPPPPPPPZZZZZZIIIIPPPPP

(That's me touching the third rail again - Bart Simpson style)

That's not to say that the Thirty Day Challenge is a failure - quiet the opposite - it has created thousands of people with a plan B. I'm sure our success rates and participation rates are way higher than the industry average.

Of the seventy plus comments I received about Part 1 - So many people where inspired by the thirty day challenge to get involved - so while they didn't finished, they were inspired to start an online business.

That's all cool, my problem is...

The vast majority fail and it's their fault.

FPFPFPFPPSPPSPPDPDPFPFPFPFFPF ... OUCH...FFPFPFFPFPPPXZZZZZZZZZZZZ....OUCH .......FPPPPPPZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

(That's the sound of me not only touching the third rail, but warmly embracing it as 35 ton of New York City Subway Train slams over the top of me)

IT"S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

(Not you personally, I mean your reading this...that makes you AWESOME)

The fact is that at some point in any program, let alone the thirty day challenge you hit a wall. It could be you don't understand something, something happened externally or they had the belief that this was their Willy Wonka golden ticket and all they had to do was show up at the gate and wave excitedly and all the chocolate in the world would be theirs.

ummm no.

This stuff takes time, commitment and hard work...

FFFFPPPPPPPPPPPZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

(Sidenote: Why the hell am I writing this..I mean things were good...)

Ok for the seven of you left reading. Let me explain.

I'm going to EXPLAIN by talking about a category of people that I discovered (and bluntly, makes my heart bleed)

These people do everything RIGHT, they work hard, they do everything as is described. They break through walls, they reach out, they network...they get everything spot on eventually...BUT...

IT DOES'NT WORK.

That really hurts and it does happen. Why?

Some Markets Just Want To Tease You And Then Spit In your Face

It's just the way it is, I have had 43 niche failures, hundreds ruled out at the market research stage and exactly 38 successes that made me over a $1000 a month.

If I was an NFL coach - I'd be sacked.

Luckily I'm not because I realize this one fundamental law...

A negative TEST result is not the Universe telling me I suck!
A failure is not a personal character indictment!

PEOPLE TAKE FAILURE PERSONALLY AND THAT'S WHY THEY FAIL

Now I'm not saying that failing should'nt hurt, in my observation, failures that happen to successful people just make them more determined. It makes them focus on the fundamentals more.

Tiger Woods had a shocker on day 2 of this years masters. Did he sulk and go off and watch TV in the hotel room. YUH.

He practiced till it got dark on the driving range.

It's so easy when the thing you are doing is optional...to just "put it on the backburner" when you hit your first big challenges.

If time in business has given me any vague insight. Is that the brick walls just keep coming and in what I'm sure you take as "Great" news. The challenges grow with your ability to handle them.

Yep, they just get bigger and badder and have way worse haircuts.

You probably know this side of things, it's nothing you couldn't have read way better in a self-help book. I figured I should cover it for completeness!

So what did I figure out - what was the commonality that all of the successful thirty day challengers do...

What was my Tuvalu aha moment...

I listened to Seth Godins TRIBES on my iPhone and It hit me like a ton of bricks...

To Be Continued

Sidenote:

I wrote this prior to releasing the first part of the series publically. All those comments were spot on and this is what I'm trying to say in my failing english.

The number one failure reason in the Thirty Day Challenge is what goes on between your two ears and their is nothing that I can do about it.

But as an Educator I'm interested in the things that I can do better. Stuff, that I can control...

So after touching the "Third Rail" of Internet Marketing. I'm going to leave what goes on inside your head to the most qualified person around...

YOU

What I discovered on the trip over to Orlando I believe Is a fundamental shift in the way Internet Marketing is taught.

It's truly a new discipline. (Now that should set of your bull pokey detector!)

I have proof to back it up and judging by the two minute standing ovation I got at Mass Control 2 and the Twitter traffic after my speech.

I've struck a chord.

The question is can I get it out here?

Remember I FAILED english.

FAILED.

FAILED.

But I'm going to try. Car accidents, sadly always draw a big crowd. Grab a seat and some popcorn and perhaps a shamwow. this could get messy (or messier depending on your level of grammatical education).