subject: Overcoming Failure 101 [print this page] It is a fact that over 95% of online marketing businesses fail within the first year. One of the reasons why this condition exists is the way new business owners interpret failure within their day-to-day activity. They really believe that if their marketing efforts don't produce the expected results then THEY are a failure. You can only put that on yourself so many times before you beat yourself to a pulp and throw in the towel. This is why so many new internet marketing business owners quit before they really get started. They are focusing only on their RESULTS and not their ACTIVITY.
Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Many years ago, I had a job that involved cold calling individuals on the telephone at home in the evening. Now for most people, they would rather face a firing squad than deal with the rejection that comes with telephone solicitation. For me, I loved cold calling because it was so easy. All I had to do was dial the phone and when someone answered, read the words that were on a piece of paper that my manager gave me. If they said yes, I sent them some information. If they said no, I went on to the next person on the list. In a single evening, I would dial the phone 100 times and speak with about 60 people. From those 60 people, I would get 10 new leads. From those 10 new leads, I would open 1 new account. So if I cold called 5 nights a week, I could open about 20 new accounts in a month. That was more than enough to build my business at the time.
Here is the secret to my success as a cold caller - I always focused on my ACTIVITY, never my RESULTS. Why? Because I could CONTROL my activity, I could never control whether someone would say yes or no, in other words, my results. So the physical act of dialing the telephone 100 times per night was the only thing I measured. Once I had dialed the phone 100 times, I went home feeling really good about myself regardless of the results. I knew that the numbers would take care of the results over time, and that is exactly what happened. My business grew and I was one of the top producers in my firm.
Starting a business to earn income online requires an endless list of daily tasks that must completed in order to start generating sales. This is the definition of ACTIVITY. To test this theory out for yourself, make a list of the tasks that you need to do daily, weekly, and monthly on a spreadsheet. Spend a few minutes at the end of the day looking at your list and create a mental game plan for knocking off the tasks you want to accomplish the next day. When you get up and start your day, focus only on the ACTIVITY part of completing the tasks on your list. Do not think about the RESULTS (or lack thereof). Here is what I believe you will experience over time - If you measure your success by your ACTIVITY rather than your RESULTS, you will feel good about yourself and have the energy to keep going. Once the sales start rolling in your production will explode. Don't ever measure yourself against the things that you cannot control. That is what losers do. The folks who make it always focus on what they can control. If you are feeling like a failure, give this a try for 30 days. I promise that you will feel better about yourself and your business.
Whether you focus on repeating a single task many times, or completing several different tasks during the day, measuring your activity rather than your results will keep you focused and positive. Remember, you want to focus on the things you can control. You can control activity, you can't control results.
