My friend Mark Joyner (who was the highlight of Continuity Summit I as the keynote speaker), recently wrote this on his facebook page…
Guy eying my ride says, “If I win the lottery I might buy one of those.” I reply, “Or, you could work your ass off and get one for sure.”
This true story, as only Mark can tell, just resonated with me.
I can’t even begin to guess you how many times I’ve been to a gas station or convenience store and see people put all their hopes in a lottery ticket.
Or how many times people have personally told me, “wow, you’re really lucky!”
LUCKY?
I have a secret to share…
Making money online (especially seven figures) takes WORK!
That’s right, you cannot just sit on your ass all day and collect checks. Sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way.
I started my first site back in 1999 in my parent’s basement. Do you know how many literally thousands of hours I’ve spent learning how to do this? How much money I’ve invested in seminars, workshops, products and other coaching programs? Do you know how many sites I’ve tried that didn’t work?
And don’t think for a minute other “gurus” have it so easy. I know all of them, and believe me, they all work. None of them are sitting on the beach all day, sipping drinks with umbrella straws. Even as I’m writing this (at 4:30am since one of my kids crawled into our bed and woke me up!), I can see other marketers online through my IM box.
What’s my point?
Don’t listen to all the bullshit about making millions (or even six figures) that sell the dream of how “easy” it is. I think the formula is “simple”, but definitely not easy. And yes, there’s a BIG difference between ‘easy’ and ‘simple’ (I’ll get to that in another post).
That’s why going with your PASSION is how you stay in the game for the long run. Believe me, if you hate “cats”, the last thing you want to do is market a “cat lovers” site at 4am when your competitors are breathing down your neck and stealing traffic from you. But I LOVE teaching success – that’s why I’m online right now. That’s why I’ve been doing this for over 11 years and will never “retire”!
Retire? Retire from what? I LOVE what I do. I can’t wait to wake up and hit the ground running.
Being your own boss and making a living online is the greatest business in the world. Virtually unlimited income, freedom and all the perks that come with those two very big benefits.
However, just be prepared to put in the work.
It’s time to get off my soapbox. And please excuse my rambling, but it is 4:30am :)
Feel free to add your comments below…
Great post Ryan! Other Trainers always tell me they want to have their own place or do an online site but when it comes down to it, most people don’t have enough desire. Sometimes you have to work to your eyes bleed (and you gotta love it when it happens :)
Thanks for the inspiration brother!
Right on point Ryan. You read my mind I just started creating a video journal to show more of the underbelly of being an entrepreneur as you go the ups and downs daily while you are so called “making it”. In my case it’s being in the business I love right now and succeeding no riches yet. I think the process gets romanticized by your listeners after you make 7 figures. Listeners don’t really “feel” when you say you were in the parents basement. They may get it when they see it. Fortunately, I’m not in my pareents basement right now :-). Keep preachin and teachin brother.
Nick
Ryan, so true. You know our buddy Rich Schefren loves to hit the Tim Ferris (4 Hour Work Week) story. How Tim came and hung out with a bunch of the guys one weekend – or at least Rich thinks so, but couldn’t say for sure because Tim worked 20 hour days! :-) Thanks for keeping your integrity high, Ryan.
Great post Ryan!
This is so true. It reminds me of the book Training Camp. Nothing beat smart, hard work.
Sleep well my friend :)
Ryan,
This is so so true. I’m just getting started doing something I love and I can vouch for the fact that it is taking a lot of work :)
Thanks for all of your encouragement and, like you, I plan on never retiring because I’ll be doing something I love for the rest of my life!!
Have a great holiday and keep it up!
~Cam
Well Ryan,
At least you have the integrity to speak the truth.
Happy Chanakah!
Ryan,
Most of the time I just scan my emails and get the “gist” of what a person is trying to say and move on. For some reason, I clicked on your “Confessions of a Guru” and it hit home with me. I feel the same way. I have even posted on my facebook about hard work is the key to success and gotten some “right ons”. I see so many ads for making BIG money with very little investment of money or time and I feel sorry for the people who sign up for these. If you asked people to take their hard earned money and throw a percentage of it away in the trash, they would look at you like your crazy. But that is what the lottery is or these “get rich quick schemes”.
And finally, I really like what you say about retirement. If you really liked your job, you wouldn’t be so anxious to retire. A job should be enjoyable. I try to share this with my team and inspire them to achieve their dreams with a job that is challenging and fun but hard work.
Hopefully you will be able to reach more people. Keep up the good work.
I once came up with this visual to illustrate the odds of winning the lottery: if people were to line up on the freeway between here (Grand Island, Nebraska) and where I used to live in Utah, each person staking out about an 18 inch section of the road (or was it 6 inch? I don’t remember), ONE of them would win.
If you’ve ever driven a comparable distance (about 860 miles), imagine driving 12 to 14 hours past densely packed people the whole way and picking just one to win. The rest are the suckers who stood by the side of the road watching the winner drive off with their money.
It’s probably about the same with “laxiest get-rich-quick scheme ever” systems. Most of the people who buy them sit by the side of the road watching the one who gets lucky (and the one selling the system) drive off with a bunch of money.
Spoken like a true champ. It gets old seeing all of the IM products that come out saying that they have some simple 3 step system. In my experience it takes 1000 hours to become an expert in anything! There’s nothing simple about that!
This post is the TRUTH!! Now if I can just get my wife to read it, maybe she would understand all of the late nights and early mornings!!! :-)
Ryan,
Great post. Whether it’s training athletes and writing about it like I do, running a website on dating, or profiting from a brick-and-mortar dog walking business, it all boils down to the same stuff: Doing the right things, working them hard, and crushing the 80/20 rule.
I just had a great conversation with one of my former physiology profs last night about this topic. It all boils down to putting in the work, keeping your nose clean, and not worrying about the fancy stuff. If you can do those things, being successful is a pretty simple process. Most people are just too lazy to put in the work and too willing to be distracted by passing fancies.
Cheers, and happy holidays to you and the family!
Thanks again for the reminder and the reality check. I think sometimes we think, “If we build it they will come” and that is far from the truth. I hope one day to report back that all the hard work and continued learning paid off! No lottery ticket for me coach!
Speak it my man, speak it….The Truth in Anything. Simple work repeated daily! Awesome!
This is something that has been bothering me about the internet marketing training I have seen – you are led to believe that you can pick any subject to market and make money at it. And that it is easy to make money. I am learning that internet marketing takes lots of work. Just like anything else you better enjoy it. I am finding that I love this line of work also! It is different from what I expected, but I actually like it more than I expected.
I am focusing on niches that I have a passion about, just seems more authentic. I hated thinking that I would have to pitch something that meant nothing to me just to make money. Thanks for justifying my feelings.
That’s the truth right there. At the end of the day what a lot of people do is make a lot of excuses. This game takes work to excel, like any other. I made a post the other day on my blog about all the failures I’ve had, in response to people saying they’ve launched a whole “5 campaigns” and haven’t found profit yet…. Great post Ryan.
Yep, this has def been my experience. It’s a lot of work to set up the foundation, but it’s so worth it because when you’ve got your products and programs, front end and back end, virtual teams, and you are doing it all in service of your Great Work – there is no better life possible.
Keep up the Great Work!
Alexis
PS – Happy Chanukah to you too!
Another good one Ryan. I totally agree. Running a business is like being a professional athlete. You are going to have losses, you are going to have failures. The greatest athletes a.k.a. business owners are the ones that can learn from failures and move on. It’s part of it.
A little hard work goes a long way…Great post
It so takes a lot of work and all of your passion to make this online gig work. I wish I knew that when I first started. I guess I believed people were actually sitting on the beach and writing their blog posts! HA!
Retired? I had them direct deposit my money into a VISA card account, and I moved here into the tropical Philippines, at a famous Beach Resort. Added an extra battery into the laptop by removing the CD-ROM so that I get a good 5-6 hours laying in the sand (or shade) at the pristine beach on the South China Sea. But even there and at home, a 5 minute leisurely walk away, I get online as soon as I awake, and often fall asleep at the keyboard in the wee hours of the morning.
Made A Million Dollars? Not even close. Like all of you, I love building the site, hiring outsourcers and playing with them to insure they perform as desired. Like you, I see the rewards of working on what I love to do, Affiliate Marketing and product creation. Great article, thanks for allowing me to participate.
VERY motivating Ryan! You are a true inspiration and source of motivation!!
If you looked at how much I vacation time I took last year and you asked my wife, she would probably tell you that I don’t work that much. ha ha
But heck, what’s work when you love what you’re doing! :-)
David
Hey Ryan -
Loved the RANT! Aside from the hard work to get things going – it takes some money. I think many newbie entrepreneurs believe you can create a list of tens of thousands of people with only $50 and a laptop. Overnight.
Being successful in the business means you have to put “some skin in the game”. You do need to hire people, you do need to work hard and most importantly SELL SOMETHING DAMN GOOD that other people need or want.
So there. That’s my Sales Diva rant!
Keep up the great work!
Kim
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