Professional Blogging
How To Become An Overnight Success
I am full up of over night success claims!
That’s right, you heard me. FULL UP!
And no, there’s no “until I tried this” or “wait till you hear about that” coming next. It’s ALL horse fertilizer designed to get people excited and draw them in for the sale, end of story.
Here’s why.
Nobody, not a fine art painter, a guitar player, a computer programmer, or a street corner pimp learns how to make a stack of cash over night, none of them!
Yes, over time they may all learn a few valuable lessons of their trade that they can put to work, but those lessons still take a finite amount of time to learn. The human brain just doesn’t normally absorb, organize and act on information that fast. It just doesn’t work that way. It takes time to learn what you need to do, organize your thoughts into actions, and then actually do something.
Here’s an example of what I mean.
Twenty Years To Make An Overnight Success
One day at an art show, when I was sixteen, I came across a very talented artist. He was selling beautiful paintings for a healthy price. Being young and financially challenged, I asked him how long it took him to paint the picture. My “by the hour” mentality at the time equated time spent into value in dollars. The painter was polite and had obviously heard the question before so he responded, “Twenty years”.
At first I didn’t get it. How could it take someone twenty years to paint that! I mean it was pretty, but come on. Then I realized, the painter had studied art, tirelessly practiced his skills, thrown away all the paintings that didn’t work, and finally twenty years later on Saturday afternoon he had produced the painting I was now hassling him over.
You see it took him twenty years to be an overnight success. He didn’t just produce the painting on day one. He spent hours up front learning how to do what was now on display.
That’s not to say that it takes twenty years to produce an overnight success on the Internet, but time and effort are still required. When was the last time you heard of something online and thought that it was brand new only to find out it had been around for several years?
Google in all it’s current Google goodness is ten years old this month. That’s a short time frame compared to twenty years, but it still took time and effort to get things off the ground.
Reality versus Fantasy
You see, most people I want to believe that it happens overnight without blood sweat and tears. They want to believe that all the rules of the game have changed and the simple flip of the computer power switch will turn on the money machine and set us free financially, but it’s just not true!
Generations of smart people have been mentally crippled by the idea that they will hit it big without an investment of time and effort. We keep hoping and dreaming, chasing that next best thing when the answer is already in front of us. We just don’t want to listen.
The truth is, no one is going to simply hand us all their hard work in an easy push button solution and they’re certainly not going to push the button for us.
Yes, I’ve read the same sales letters you have. I’ve been enticed to know more by just putting in my name and email address. I’ve even put my money where my mouth is and purchased ebooks, training courses, and site memberships. But what I’ve learned from all the behind the curtain stuff is this, there really is no silver bullet. Real study, real time, and real effort is still required to make things happen. These materials can help accelerate the learning process, but time and effort is still required.
Now, am I saying online success isn’t possible? No I’m NOT! A lot of things are possible on the Internet. In fact, more things are possible online than offline. But when we, you and I, talk ourselves into believing that something is true when it’s not, then we get hurt because we stand to loose our motivation, or desire, and our money and that just isn’t productive.
Moving Past The Hype
So what are we suppose to do and who are we suppose to trust? How are we suppose to learn what we need to know and do what we need to do if outrageous claims are everywhere?
The answer is simply this:
We have to understand why Internet Marketers make claims of overnight success and we must learn to move past the hype and understand what they really have to offer.
Let me explain.
People, in general, work hard for their money and they aren’t willing to give it to anyone who politely asks for it. So, Marketers have learned over time what to say and how to say it to get people to make a decision. The headlines must be compelling, the copy must be long enough to remove doubt and explain benefits, and the timing must be urgent enough to promote immediate action. If the Internet Marketer doesn’t present the offer just right, then people won’t buy, period. The marketer might say please, and have an attractive site, but if he doesn’t hit the right mental triggers then you and I won’t give them our money.
This creates an environment where outrageous claims become common place to get the buyer to pull out their credit cards. Believe me, most marketers would much rather provide you with a simple order page where you can quietly buy their product without the need for flashing lights and Broadway dancers, but that’s just not the way things really work. So, they come up with bold claims that sound attractive to get buyers to take action.
When a marketer says he’s made $100 thousand dollars overnight he’s probably being completely honest, but what he’s not saying is that it took him several years of learning how to do all the things required that led up to this success. He’s probably not telling you that he spent a lot of money on training courses or spent long hours at seminar taking notes and studying all he could before getting to this point. He’s probably not telling you that he had to give up half of his current profits to his affiliates to make that dollar figure, which still isn’t a bad deal.
What we have to recognize is that marketers are in the business of constantly trying to get us to take action. It’s that simple. That’s what they do. Yes, we can still learn plenty of things from them, be first we have to identify and move past the hype to get to the good stuff.
Internet Marketing can teach us how people think and how we can encourage action. They can show us how to test sites, and how to look for advantages in the online market place. They can give technical advice and show us how to combine systems to create value for site visitors. They can make suggestions and recommendations based on hours of study and research in an industry that is constantly changing. Most marketers do have some value to offer beyond the hype. What they can’t give us is overnight success without any prior knowledge or experience.
So what should you do to shake free of the overnight success bug?
- Fix in your mind that you are building a long term business
- Look for ways to be efficient and productive and stop looking for shortcuts
- Decide to commit to what you are doing even when it seems like the payoff is way off
- Recognize hype as just a way to sell products and services
- Remember that get rich quick is ALWAYS a lie
- Remind yourself daily that success requires time and effort
For now the goal is simply to get ourselves off the sugar high of looking for an overnight way to get rich. Once we can recognize the lie and remove it from our expectations, then we can start to look for real solutions that get real results.
Remember, at no other time in human history has someone been able to have an idea, start a global business, and begin making money without ever leaving their home. But it still doesn’t happen overnight.
There is money to be made online. There are creative ways to generate traffic and market to buyers. Success is out there waiting for you. Just remember it all takes time, and it all takes effort.
Just keepin’ it real.
Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com
Great post Charles, I myself was a victim of all the hype my first year or so online. I did’nt buy all the products, but I was sure sucked in by all the great sales letters. Of course after a while we just grow immune to them.
I think the problem is by then we have conditioned ourselfs to look anyways. We dont want to miss the next big thing. So Frank Kern wins, because he has mastered the
MassControl required to attract our attention.
Gary McElwain
Thanks Gary. I find psychological triggers totally fascinating. There are so many subtle things we don’t notice until we’ve seen them several times or have read about them in advance. That’s why I don’t advocate walking away from the sales letters and the marketing materials entirely. There is so much to be learned for free by studying them.You mentioned not wanting to miss the next big thing but I bet you already have an idea for the next big thing. Just remember, unless your the lead dog, the view never changes.
What do you think could be the next big thing?
I don’t know alot of the ins and outs of the Computer World, but I did find your article interesting . And, there were a couple things that stood out to me to be very encouraging in other areas of our lives.
Everyone who has ever worked at getting out of credit card debt knows how discouraging it can be alot of times, and that’s where I’ve found myself lately. Having that goal, but it seems such a far reach sometimes. But you said,”Decide to COMMIT to what you are doing even when it seems like the pay off is way off”, and, “SUCCESS requires time and effort”. Although what I’ve just written really doesn’t have anything to do with the computer world or how to get rich quick, it does relate to mine and, I’m sure alot of other folks day to day lives. Thanks so much for the words of encouragement!
Hey Deb. I’m thrilled that the article hit home for you. You are so right about how easy it is to get discouraged. I would bet that for most everyone, it is the small doubts in our own heads that grow bigger than the actual challenges we might face. We are uncertain which leads to fear and no one likes that feeling. But I really believe that if we can learn to acknowledge that feeling and still push through that we can learn to beat it or at least deal with it so that we can do the things we find most difficult.
Thank you for speaking up. It’s an encouragement to know that others are watching.
I could go on for hours agreeing with you, Charles. Instead I’ve boiled my feelings about this article into two words, and those are gained from years of experience in the Internet business. (I started in 1996)
Amen Brother!
Jerry, thanks for the support. I hope this article helps people understand that it’s okay to dream big. Just back it up with some realism and know that if it doesn’t happen overnight, that’s okay. It’s not suppose to happen overnight. The important point is to stay focused for the long term.
Great post. I guess some of us in the older generation are a little slow to learn . I knew the overnight millions was bs from the beginning. What I didn’t know was there was so much to learn and do to have any success. I have learn a lot and have gotten a lot of free info from all the sales letters and free sign up or money back guarantees. I just don’t have them sent to my personal email. For us new to this nothing is better than FREE.
Hey LR. Free is good, yes. I do advocate buying training to accelerate the learning process though. The point still remains that we shouldn’t get caught up in the excitement of getting rich quick. Free advice or paid advice still takes time and effort to implement and that’s something we all have to live and learn.
I agree with being Full (Burrrp) Up, I’ve been spreading the same kind of advice about not believing all you hear. I had to stop being a mechanical engineer in the field and learn this Internet marketing and computer usage because of a disability.
At first, I thought all the claims about making a fortune overnight were true, that was 1997 – I’m still learning, everyday!
I would still rather be working online more than any other place I’ve ever worked in my life!
Great post!
Thanks for throwing in your own experience. I think it’s important for people to take away from this article that there is money to be made online. That’s really not in question. The most important thing is to realize that the money doesn’t just fall in your lap. It’s “easy money”, but it’s not that easy.
I bet you’ve seen a lot of things happen since 1997. Have you had any home run events you’d like to share?
I’d say it’s not easy money… it’s simple money. It’s far from complicated and even a monkey can understand it. I do think it’s harder than most people realize.. but after a short while, you can get the hang of it.
The biggest reason for the hype is that money can be made very QUICKLY on the internet, if you do all the right things. It’s just that payoff comes so fast after you build a system that works. LEVERAGE is the reason for all this. Internet marketing is extremely low cost, and extremely leveraged.
Shiraz, I agree and that is very well put. The barrier to entry is extremely low and on the “hardest” day, it’s still easy work. The real trick is patient, persistence, and continual learning.
Homeruns are not the thing I’d wish to share, but I would like to say that reading and/or listening to people that have proved that they can make money online like Mark Joyner, Dan Kennedy, Joe Vitale and others who freely tell you how to “DO IT” aka Mentors that are not afraid you may become their competition.
Doing it all yourself is a mistake, you can make a bigger impact with your efforts if they are multiplied with other marketers in a win-win-win situation, I tried to build a list of subscribers for a long time on my own and get hardly any, then got involved with a few giveaway events and Bang, my list is now respectable and growing all the time.
Never let anyone make you give up your dream, if you really want to do this then learn what you need to learn, make mistakes – we ALL do, then move on, most of all – do something everyday that helps your business even if you’re not “in business” yet.
Forget the Hype.
Don’t wait to get started, get movin’!
Find out what people want and give it to them (solve their problem).
Make yourself known – talk to people.
Do what you Love – Love what you Do!
@ Craig Bak [http://opensourcemarketer.com/blog/business-essentials/how-to-be-an-overnight-success/#comment-351]:
Craig, that is some fantastic advice. Somewhere we get the false idea that we have to do it all ourselves of somehow we failed. The truth is we need others as much as they need us and when we lean into that, then things begin to happen.
Thanks for reminding me of that important idea.
i would say success are back from couple of experiences.