What does the internet owe me for all my hard work? What am I entitled to in return for the money I spend advertising my business every month? What, in the grand scheme of things, do I rightly deserve for giving 100% of myself to the success of my networking ventures? Not a single thing. Don't misunderstand me here. The question is not "What would I like to see in the way of profits from my efforts?" Clearly, I hope and work for the best possible results. However, my projections and anticipations are an entirely seperate issue for the moment. The matter at hand is the ideal the we deserve success because, after all, the internet "levels the playing field". I read a lot of forum posts made by people who "just don't know what to do" or "are almost out of money (sob)". I can almost hear the whine in their voice as I read their little pity rant. I'm sorry to see people struggling with money issues, and I know it can be very frustrating to work so hard at a venture and make zilch after months of perseverance. I've been there before, and I'll probably be there again because that's life for everyone but the Rockefellars. Business is risk, and there is no guarantee. I chose to write about this because it's something I need to continually remind myself of. This past week, I was throwing my own pity party, and I invited a friend via IM. After a brief exchange of "How's it going?" type stuff, I let fly with the moaning and groaning. "I don't understand it. I'm spending hours a day on this thing, and I've dumped $400 into advertising within the last four weeks. Why am I not seeing the results I want?" The victim of my energy sapping whimper fest casually told me he had spent $6,000 on one of his ventures in 2004, and that things were starting to go pretty well for that project. There was a brief pause in the conversation as I realized I was being cordially told to quit with the whining. It was a nice reality check for me. What had I been thinking? Did I honestly expect to make a fortune in a month's time just because I had been working really hard and spending a decent amount of money on advertising? After all, my online business is a long term commitment. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new endeavor. A tremendous amount of hard work and the wise use of one's resources will usually pay off, but it may take a while for this to manifest. To borrow a few of the words used by Clint Eastwood in his film Unforgiven: "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it..." |
