Day 14 - Mental Strength

[CCarter]

Igniting the Beacon

"If you don't make the paradigm shift, it's not possible, I can't do it for you..." - Dan Peña​

You alone have to ignite your own flame, and continue being the beacon of light even after you start hiring employees to help you with tasks. You have to be the driving force of creativity and innovation - do not depend on others or look to others to be the force of momentum for your dreams.

We intrinsically know most of the elements of success: hard work, dedication, vision, ideas, applied talent, character, loyalty, teamwork, strategy, execution, drive, adaptability, accountability...etc.

Sauce: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248960​

What you are about to endure will be the most difficult thing you've encountered in your life up until this point. You will not be battling an outside force, but an internal one, the final stage, the final battle field = your mind, it seems only fitting that I the final... something something (I forget), should be your guiding voice. You'll be going up against your old self, your old habits, your old thoughts, and your old existence - the same existence which has worked until now.

It's not going to be easy, the fall may break you forever. I've seen people fall in business, and the fail was just so hard they went and got a 9 to 5 cause they couldn't take failure. I love failure, cause it means now I've got a new journey coming my way. My mind cannot see nor understand working for another individual for a safety net. If I fail there isn't an option for me to go "get a job" that door was closed along time ago when I saw what height I can achieve with my own ventures.

You see with a corporate job, you'll never make more then the boss or owner. You can work really hard and put all your effort to pleasing someone, and eventually climb the corporate ladder, but you'll look back in 20 or 40 years and ask yourself what you really did with your life.

BUT this entrepreneur life isn't for everyone.

It's a harsh existence as you rise to the top IF you can even find the top. You'll be surrounded by your business and consumed by it's every whim. It'll be hard to not get emotional, and that's when loneliness will creep in - when it's the absolute worse moment to. Day and night, weekdays and weekends mean absolutely nothing to you. It can be 4 a.m. and on a Sunday night and if you have enough dedication and mental focus you'll be working to solve a problem for your business or create new revenue - and even though it'll be tough, it'll feel great.

"The only person that got me through the tough times was me." - Dan Peña​

Your friends will not understand, your family will not understand, and people that you used to associate with will not understand. But there will be a group of people that will understand of the struggle, we are out here and we know everything you are going to go through. What I can say is if you keep on learning from your experience and sharpening your knife, your skills, you'll come out tougher and a better individual for going through the struggle.

"The word of God didn't get me through the tough times, believing in myself got me through the tough times." - Dan Peña​

Make sure to set clear goals and do daily self-fullfilling affirmations towards those goals, cause during the downward spiral of the rollercoaster, you'll need something to focus on, otherwise, you'll be a ship sailing at sea with no destination.

"They've limited their thinking and would feel much more comfortable if you’d limit yours too." - Dan Peña​

You will have to get rid of the negativity in your life, and the only things on this planet that cause emotion are other people, so if you have to stop associating with people, say goodbye to them and don't look back. The time you had was great, but if they are not willing to elevate themselves to a higher level you'll never be able to elevate yourself by associating with them.

I wish I could tell you to do XYZ and things will be better or you'll get through the hell easier, I can't. Everyone's inner demons are different but focus and discipline are a key ingredient to defeating most demons.

Mental strength requires physical strength as well, so you'll have to get into shape and continue to improve your overall health, cause otherwise when you do arrive at the top, you'll be a fat weak old man, and by then it may be too late. Even if it's simply as starting out with doing 100 push-ups a day, start off daily and do it in between breaks, until you get in the rhythm. When things are especially tough exercising and being active in a sport will help clear your mind, releasing much needed adrenaline and endorphins into your brain to help clear your brain.

This game is serious, and your about to do battle with yourself - the hardest battle of your life. Battling yourself means not indulging in your vices, and staying disciplined and focused. If you must indulge in a vice, set a goal to only indulge AFTER you've achieved a specific big goal, that way you have a short term win to look forward to as you continue walking this journey.

"If you want things to change, first you have to change." - Dan Peña​

 

[CCarter]

Common Excuses And Roadblocks

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All common excuses and roadblocks are mental. You can overcome anything if you simply go through it. This thing of ours isn't easy, but I want to talk directly about some of the things I see that grip people into inactivity.

"You've known all long it's tough to be successful. But you'd rather hear the fairy tales" - Dan Peña​

Fairy tales of working a couple of hours a week and then magically becoming a super successful individual - nonsense. Let's be serious, you know it takes hard work, grind, and timing - luck will only get a person so far - those are called one-hit wonders, they don't have the fortitude to make the real climb.

My biggest gripe are with people that waste time, intellectually procrastinating by reading books instead of doing action. If you sit around reading books for 4+ hours a day when you could have been moving your business forward then you are just procrastinating. I have no problem with someone busting their ass for 8-12 hours on their business and then going to read a book to relax, but if you are reading BEFORE you do work everyday, let's be fucking serious, just go get a job.

How can you possibly get a complete game plan and "mental" preparation from books about YOUR business? Think about it, how? Whatever excuse your brain just defaulted to right now as I hit that deep down emotion that just pissed you off and you are trying to conjure some attempt to correct me - is simply an excuse as to why you are not working.

"Excuses are the crutches of the untalented and unambitious." - Dan Peña​

Now I'm not going to go too hard on you guys, I'm going to try to help you guys overcome some of these problems with some of my own experience and what I've seen with others.

 

[CCarter]

Paralysis by over analysis aka procrastination.

"'Thinking it over' is for people who can't take action." - Dan Peña​

People waste a lot of time thinking. PERIOD Full Stop.

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The problem is as you grow older you think more about the obstacles in your way rather then the rewards and excitement you'll have. I was recently with a former employee talking about the old agency I used to run and we both had several bad experience there, but the one thing she told me was she had the most fun there out of anywhere. And I had to think about it, so did I. The reason it was so fun was because it pushed us out of our boundaries and comfort zones - cause we literally were thrown into the deep-end every single day for years, it was crazy and chaotic. But when I started that company I didn't sit there thinking for months or weeks on end whether I should do it or not. The decision was almost instantaneously yes, and I got started working on the project that night.

Most people's instinct are immediate - yes or no. The problem is when you start thinking and over-analyzing it, you try to turn it into a situation where you think you would prefer it to be, and if you go against your immediate instinct, you'll end up miserable and fail.

Don't think - Just ask "Do you want to be in this business or not? Yes or no." If Yes, do it, and start RIGHT FUCKING NOW. If no, then keep sharpening your knife - your skills, until an opportunity presents itself - when you see and feel that lightbulb click on in your head. It may take days, weeks, months or years, but it'll come.

"The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself." - Dan Peña​

 

[CCarter]

Comfort Zone

The reason people don't fully become "100%" of themselves - meaning ascend to the greatest heights of their own ability by pushing the boundaries of their skills while mastering new challenges - is because they get too comfortable in the "known". It's a fear of the unknown" that deters them from exploring further. Even if they have a desire to explore there is a deeper desire which sets in as you get older of you not wanting to "rock the boat", cause you don't know whether you can do it again. You start to doubt your own abilities and skills.

Mayweather wasn’t satisfied. He envisioned himself as a headliner who could make “nine-figures” in one night. “Floyd wanted to take his career in a new direction,” says Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s long-time confidante and CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “Floyd walked into Top Rank’s office, handed them a check and the rest is history.”

Mayweather had a unique opt-out clause in his contract with Top Rank that let him pay $750,000 to get out of his promotion contract. The $750,000 price tag might seem small today with Floyd banking $105 million last year as the world’s highest-paid athlete, but in the mid 2000s his paychecks were all in the $3 million range.

Mayweather went out on his own and started calling the shots. His first fight was against Carlos Baldomir and the fight drew only 325,000 PPV buys, but Mayweather banked a career high $8 million payday, more than double what he was earning over his last fights with Top Rank. Baldomir was a warm-up for what was to come.

Sauce: Boxing's Greatest Investment: Floyd Mayweather's $750,000 Bet On Himself​

Mayweather could have stuck with his promotional company, but he took a gamble in himself and won out big. He took his own career into his hands and as you can see the rest is history. He could have stayed in his comfort zone and continued fighting for Top Rank, but he believed in his own abilities.

Most entrepreneurs, when they make that one step forward it's because they believe deep down in their own ability to win. How do you cultivate that, it's either by inspiration or desperation.

"We only make changes for two reasons, desperation or inspiration" - Dan Peña​

The reality is most people don't go for the gold simply because they don't believe in their own skills and abilities. The reality is the people that actually go for the gold don't have any more skills or abilities than you have - but they are willing to risk it, and do a ton of on the job learning as they go.

There are no books that are going to make you pull the trigger.

"Most of you kids spend too much time reading and not taking action, cause it's your way of procrastinating in an intellectual way." - Dan Peña​

You have to jump into the darkness and the void and believe that you will land on your feet, maybe you'll stumble a few paces, but since you've got skills and a brain you can achieve your goals and desires. If you were hungry on the streets, you'd find a way to eat, the homeless do all day, so if these people with nothing can find a way to eat and stay alive, you should definitely be able to step out of your comfort zone - if you really think about it, it's not a life or death scenario. The decision you make isn't going to kill you - so if the worse possible scenario, death, is unlikely, what do you really have to lose?

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Bet on yourself, and believe in your skills and abilities. And when you are battling put 100% focus on your goal - no distractions, that's the formula of a winner.

 

[CCarter]

Redesigning the website, Again.

This is a huge common excuse for web projects. People are under the impression that a complete overhaul is going to magically bring in traffic. Going out and getting traffic will bring in traffic - nothing else. But now you've been given dozens of ideas with traffic leaks, getting traffic in difficult niches, exposure engines, and social media supremacy. The key is to create a calendar for generating traffic and stick with that calendar. At first you won't get much success, but everything is difficult at first.

"It may seem difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first." - Miyamoto Musashi ((The Book of Five Rings)​

A brand new web design is NOT going to get you traffic. Don't use that as an excuse since you have, up until now, never had the traffic methods laid out to you in an easy format. Ugly websites like craigslist get millions of visitors everyday, and they all start out with value - a service that helps users or informs users, the design doesn't matter.

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You have to promote each article you create. And what I mean by promote is not just posting it on your facebook page, and tweeting out a link. I mean reaching out to influencers in your niche to spread the word to their audience. What if they say no? So the fuck what, go to the next motherfucker. There are thousands of people with audiences in your niche, the worse thing that can happen is they say no and call you a "stinky-face stupidhead". Fuck em.

Promoting also means going to where your audience is, and WITHOUT Spamming, engaging the audience in conversation, and IF and ONLY IF it makes sense to talk about the piece of content you wrote do so in a pleasant manner. Don't fucking spam.

Reddit, Growthhacking, your industry newsletter and authority sites - they have comment sections, they have forums, they have dialog platforms with their customers, there are thousands of ways to get your content out there, including offline channels. So DO marketing - DO NOT 'redesign' your fucking website.

 

[CCarter]

Overcoming The Fear of Failure

The only way to overcome the fear of failure is to continue to strike out, and continue to fail and get back up. After the first couple of failures, you'll realize getting back up is a lot easier than most people think. And the fact that you lived through a failure means it's not a life or death decision.

Failure will happen.

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Failure is a key ingredient to success. You cannot skip levels no matter how hard you try to. You can learn from others' failures and make sure you do not repeat theirs, but at some point you'll have to battle failure. If you are mentally ready to, you might be able to mitigate the failure, but it still cannot be avoided. Unless you are at war, the key is to remember failure will not kill you. It might hurt your ego, but you can use that drive to re-ignite your flame within you to make sure you never fail again and give it 110% all day everyday.

But failure is another essential element of success because it helps eliminate unworkable options, sharpens focus and clearly directs next steps. In fact, failure is the underlying principle of the scientific method --hypothesis, test, fail, repeat until a solution is found.

The overused example of Thomas Edison is a good one. He tested and failed 9,999 times while trying to find the correct filament for the incandescent light bulb. He's famously quoted as acknowledging none of those were failures but instead helped him find the correct workable solution.

There can be no success without failing first at some level.

Sauce: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248960​

You can lose your whole savings on some bad project, multiple times over and over, but you can't let fear stop you from getting up to bat. Go for it, and when you are in the moment, in the mist of your project, give 110% focus. Don't let distractions blindside you, don't try to do multiple other project simultaneously, just focus on the 1 project, and keep grinding at it until you succeed or there is ABSOLUTELY no possible avenue left.

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Make sure to get out of your comfort zone too, that's important, cause that's when you'll have the most fun.

"As for you, I'd like to think that reading this will set you on the path of your own magnificent screw-ups and cavernous disappointments. You're welcome! And if I forgot to mention it earlier, that's exactly where you want to be: steeped to your eyebrows in failure.

It's a good place to be because failure is where success likes to hide in plain sight. Everything you want out of life is in that huge, bubbling vat of failure. The trick is to get the good stuff out." - Scott Adams (Sauce: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304626104579121813075903866.html)​

 

[CCarter]

Set Goals

You have to see your goals and success clearly in your mind. Write your goals on an index card and read it several times a day, and have it in your pocket or within arms range at all times. Vague goals will lead to vague attempts. A clear goal can be seen and you can then plot a course to get to that goal. Imagine your journey as being the captain of a ship. The people you surround yourself by, friends, family, employees, etc, are people on that ship. The first thing you need to do before leaving the harbor is know WHERE you are going. If you have no direction, no end goal, then you can't figure out who you'll need, how long you'll be gone, or if you even have the qualified people around you.

Once you have clear goals, for example 30,000 active customers in the ABC industry, providing XYZ service - you've got step 1 covered.

Step 2 - Remove people from your life that do not align with your goals.

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This will be hard, cause society will tell you that you have to be at your parents, spouse, friends, kids, or relative's becking call. This is wrong, you have to be at your vision's becking call. The reason the 99% are where they are is because of those rules that the same society imposed on them. If you do what the 99% do, there is absolutely NO WAY you can obtain what the 1% do - it's not even quantifiably possible.

"Every worthy dream has a 'pay-price-to-action'. That means you have to give up something to get something. You can't have it all" - Dan Peña​

What do the 99% do? Waste time, lots of it. Waste time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - waste time partying every weekend, waste time watching sports, waste time going to each other's birthday parties, weddings, and the thousand of other random events that the 99% create to keep themselves busy. They may not see it as wasting time, and I don't say don't indulge every now and then, but if you have goals and want to achieve your goals, and the people you surround yourself with don't respect that goal or even actually try to hinder you from achieving your goal then you have to get rid of them.

"What other people think of me has nothing to do with me. It has to do with their reality" - Mimi Ikonn​

I know this is a sensitive subject, but the reality is if your ship's crew do NOT 100% support you in your endeavors, and it could be your spouse simply understanding why you have to work late nights - if they do not support you completely, then there is absolutely no way you'll be able to achieve those goals.

Think about it, you'll be battling within your industry, then have to turn around and battle for your goals on your home front, explain to your parents why you are doing XYZ instead of what they think is best, and waste time with events that do not add or move you towards your goals. No one can mentally battle all that at the same time, conserve your energy and only do battle within your industry. Explain to your loved ones why you have to do what you have to do. If they support you keep them in your life, If NOT remove them. If you don't do this, then your ship will barely make it out of the dock.

Step 3 - Focus - actually hyperfocus.

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Hyperfocus on your goal and be willing to put in the long nights, weekends, struggle and sweat needed to make your project a success. There are going to be hundreds of lonely nights. There is going to be doubt that creeps in, that's okay. But as long as you have clearly defined goals, you can use that as your North star to keep you going, especially when you are going through hell. You'll need your goals as the shining beacon to keep you going.

And for god-sake don't set low goals, set high goals, so you can rise to the occasion and battle the best of the best.

"It costs nothing to aim high, but if you aim at nothing, you'll hit anything." - Dan Peña​

 

[CCarter]

Conclusion

@Ryuzaki has an excellent thread with lessons in a perfect format that can help everyone with strengthening their mental capabilities. Read Psychological Barriers to Success and absorb all the lessons in those writing. I came in with a post about Imprinting as well, so check it out. If you have any questions, let us know your thought so we can work together to get through these barriers.

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"Just Fucking Do it." - Dan Peña​

- CCarter ( @MercenaryCarter)


Additional Day 14 Study Materials

• Psychological Barriers to Success by @Ryuzaki
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Grind by @stargazr1968
• The Point of Diminishing Returns & Other Things About Winning in Life by @turbin3

 

[Klayne]

Can resonate with this.

When I was 15 - 17, I was the one who needed constant escapism from reality, going out as much as possible, and trying to make other people do useless shit, as they were the same as me, not in acceptance with reality and generally lost in life, and it was also the time of puberty, so hormones did play a role in that.
That time was the worst of my life, constantly drinking, unhappy with everything, being a complete beta male, getting overly emotional, as the ego was extremely fragile, being skinny fat and weak, having a diet, which even a starving animal wouldn't eat.

18 - 20 ( I'm 20 now ), Go out only when somebody invites or has something planned, I am usually the one who tells no, and need to be dragged out, slowly moving away from friends, family, as I don't have much in common, can't connect with them, see through their motivations, and really don't much enjoy the time with them. Have lost the little fat I had, gained 10 kg of muscle, got a freelancing job and a vision for my own project, meditate, ice cold showers everyday, becoming slowly an alpha, it is becoming very hard to make me emotional with personal attack or in life in general, and feeling much happier.

I guess the next step in life is to move forward even more, move away, develop myself even more and start a successful business, take even more control over my mental process, and stop worrying about things I can't control.

Hit the nail on the head with intellectual procrastination, as that's my go to. At least I'm thankful that I'm aware of that, as they say the first step is admitting the problem.

Thank you @CCarter for this master piece and also the piece @The Engineer wrote at the start.

Hope I will get painful advice from y'all in the future, as the pain is the road to bettering myself.

 

[animalstyle]

hugely inspiring. I read this intending to fall asleep after but instead I've just fully entered a new level of understanding. I see why I've been getting sick and have succeeded at some things in my life and not at others. With such clarity I see the garbage I have to clean from my in order to move forward. I am truly frightened to my core about being supported by this life and giving up what I know and quite honestly hold very close, very dear and have created my identity with for so long. I literally feel 100% better just mentally accepting that the stuff I've been holding on to is weighing me down.

 

[Island]

Awesome post.

Something that improved my productivity massively was simply having a workplace where no one else could bother me (for me it's a library I go to) and which is conducive to work (no distractions). Then turn off the phone and work.

Working at home when you have other people interrupting you can kill your flow.

 

[contract]

99% just don't have the willpower.

It means ending browsing/posting on social sites aimlessly. Removing almost all, but your emergency contacts in your phone. (If their not apart of your goals, their gone). Cancelling Netflix, cable/television; no more sporting games. The PS4, Xbox, PC games need to go, in the fucking trash can. Cut out the eCommerce window shopping.

All of that shit is a complete waste of time.

Time is the most valuable asset anyone can own. You only have so much of it...

There's nothing wrong with indulging in a hobby now and then, it keeps you sane. I shoot at the gun range, but I don't do it every single fucking night. I don't drive my car around the block for 8 hours a night either, even though I enjoy driving.

In comparison, people today will come home from work or hell, even on the weekends with the entire day off, and sit in front of the TV for eight hours a day. That's nonsense. Even small things like browsing FB here, watching a YT video there, etc add up. All the sudden you've wasted an entire day.

How do you expect to run a business like that?

So many people get caught up in the process thinking their doing something wrong too. Then comes all the fear of failure, wasting time looking for answers, etc. It compounds everything and you get stuck, you get lazy, you loose motivation. So you revert back to the TV, games, whatever...

In reality, you and your choices are the root problem.

Are you ready to work 14 hour days? How about 24 hour days?

You'll be 100% amazed at how easy it is once you do it. I'm serious, even the most boring work can feel like cocaine if you know it's a step towards your goal. You have to want it bad enough; if you're not addicted towards fulfilling your goals every waking second, you're accepting failure.

I don't care how small or large, boring, repetitive, etc the task is. Or how much knowledge you have or don't have; or what people may think of you, etc. etc.

Just fucking do it. - DP

If you don't do it now, you might as well be dead.

All that other shit that wastes time; it should have absolutely no part in your life.

Now, I'm no exception.. I didn't magically become how I am overnight, truthfully, there's still things I'm working on too. I owe a great deal of thanks to CC as well.

It takes time, commitment and a serious addiction to your goals + believing 100% if you fail at anything, you can rise back up.

You will be the victor in the end. There only person who says you can't be is well, only yourself.

 

[built]

@CCarter why do I feel like my ideas are never good enough? Even though I can do a Google search and find people who have the problem I'm trying to solve, I can't help but feel as soon as I launch people won't like it or it won't be successful

 

[Prentzz]

@CCarter why do I feel like my ideas are never good enough? Even though I can do a Google search and find people who have the problem I'm trying to solve, I can't help but feel as soon as I launch people won't like it or it won't be successful

I feel like you're probably scared of failure. You've been on this forum since Jan 23rd, 2015 and you feel like you haven't succeeded yet. You might be asking yourself if you're good enough. But you've seen failure and you know how terrible it feels and you don't want to encounter it again.

So, you're paralyzed.

When of course the irony is that doing nothing is the worst kind of failure because you didn't have the guts to ante up and give it another go.

I think that you should accept that failure is an option and become okay with that, as long as it's the less likely outcome.

This is from the post directly above yours:

So many people get caught up in the process thinking their doing something wrong too. Then comes all the fear of failure, wasting time looking for answers, etc. It compounds everything and you get stuck, you get lazy, you loose motivation. So you revert back to the TV, games, whatever...

In reality, you and your choices are the root problem.

Even if you do fail, you're going to be further down the line than you are now. Right now you're stuck, stuck at the start line. It's easier said than done, but you've got to stop worrying, pick a path that has a chance of success (which is probably most paths) and start moving towards it.

 

[CCarter]

@CCarter why do I feel like my ideas are never good enough? Even though I can do a Google search and find people who have the problem I'm trying to solve, I can't help but feel as soon as I launch people won't like it or it won't be successful

Its fear. Fear happens when you lack self-confidence that you should be the one to come in and lead the pack.

I can guarantee you people won't like it. Are you okay with that?

I am.

Do you know how many gurus we put out of business with this free digital strategy crash course? A LOT - they HATE US. If you notice the only thing left for people to push out marketing courses on are stuff we didn't touch like Local SEO - courses no going for $1K a pop, cause we ruined the market for other online marketing courses. You see courses for PBNs and other ancillary online marketing side hustles, but no one serious is going to be going after the main online marketing cause BuSo's DSCC is completely free and comprehensive. Some have made the twist into creating "Videos" and throwing them on Udemy, but realistically so many people keep talking about the DSCC that the gurus had to figure out another way to make their money.

Gurus hate us because we brought the light to the surface and gave it away for free. I'm not sorry at all, there was a lot of bullshit being sold on ideas that were around for ever.

Never be afraid to disrupt and industry or take on the old gods - cause you might find out that the old gods were just using smoke and mirrors to create their "magic".

Don't let fear of the unknown stop you from attempting to make a jump into the void.

In your mind you might be thinking "Who am I to come in an industry that have other experts in in it?"

But here is what you are missing:

#1 - Those experts aren't talking to newbies or simply aren't able to see the void because they are experts. It's like someone asking simple SEO advice and people wonder "why don't they already know this?" Probably because they are new. When you become an expert in an industry you forgot all the small details that newbies need to understand. It's one reason why when I was at Wickedfire I was always in the newbie section answering questions - their questions kept reminding me that there are people that don't know the simple basics and they need a helping hand. YOU can be that helping hand since the experts aren't doing a good enough job.

#2 - Sometimes - actually A LOT of times, an industry needs shaking up. When we launched SERPWoo with our 3rd party metrics and data, the SEO tools industry was stagnate - we pulled in metrics that no one dared to do - a couple of years later now "everyone" has 3rd party metrics. We shook up an industry and caused ahrefs, moz, and majestic to re-think their free APIs and interfaces and put everything behind login and paywalls since several copycat tools came onto the scene trying to out do us.

There are competitors that hadn't updated their website or interface in 10+ years, then all of a sudden their interface and ideas look like SERPWoo. We don't care cause we've got newer ideas and better ideas in the pipeline. We shook up an industry and instantly became a "thought leader". YOU can do that too.

Outsiders are the ones that change an industry - rarely does an "insider" change anything, cause they are too ingrained.

You have to have the self-confidence to take on an industry and change it.

#3 - Failure is a key ingredient to success. Your ideas may not always work. But you can learn from them. When I started my marketing agency I didn't know how to run a marketing agency. I worked for another one, then we split off and I was given small equity in this new firm. However I quickly realized I was creating all the ideas that were growing the business and thought - I should just do this for myself. But that meant giving up the comfortable salary, and diving deep into the void - I took the leap.

I took the leap that my brain was able to out-smart my competitors, my hard work was able to out-run competitors. I had proven it with the new company and they knew that if I ever discovered how essential I was I could do it on my own. They underestimated me and eventually we were going head-to-head on contracts and for new clients.

Now this is the part were I am suppose to say "We lived happily ever after..." - Wrong.

Remember I consider that marketing agency a failure - but we made a good chunk of money, however I made a ton of mistakes that I learned lessons on what not to do the next time around. Here are some:

A. - Always pay yourself. At the agency We had a lot of employee - too many within the first year, however they were spread out too thin, and we didn't really have target goals or task set out. It mean there would be long stretches of months I wouldn't get a paycheck cause we were always nearly red. The lesson I learned is don't hire anyone until they are absolutely needed AND they have to be able to produce or sustain at least 2-4x the revenue versus their salaries.

Also ALWAYS make sure you pay yourself - there will be tight months, but if it's that bad, you simply have to let go an employee or cut back somewhere else, otherwise you'll be personally running into debt and thinking the company owes you money that will be paid "down the road". Also if you always pay yourself, when it comes to sell the company you won't be trying to nickel and dime and squeeze everything out of the deal, killing the deal, because you didn't pay yourself what you were worth in the mean time.

B. - don't hire or let your partners hire family or friends. That's a death blow cause my partner was hiring his high school doofus buddies and basically wasting a ton of our time. We should have hired people that were hungry and more qualified to do the job. Hiring family and friends makes it more difficult to fire people.

C. - Know when to say NO to a deal/project. Some ridiculous deal may come on the table that's some quick cash flow, but those quick deals may hinder your ability to take on or put energy towards long-term projects which are more profitable.

I've got a long list that can go on and on about what not to do. These are things you read about in books and advice but once the situation is at hand that knowledge always seems to go out the window. Sometimes you have to go through the experience to really learn the lesson.

So don't be afraid to fail - you WILL fail. However the reality is in each failure you have to learn the lesson that cause the failure and learn what not to do next time around.

Every failure I've had I've always landed in a better position afterwards. When I left my marketing agency I was emotionally and physically fine with it - I knew that my brain was capable of coming up with ideas to generate revenue since I had done it multiple times before. I never had a doubt in that - but the first attempt there was doubt however I still leapt.

Me leaving my agency, that failure, put me on the path to SERPWoo and into the SAAS world. I never built a SAAS before SERPWoo - nor any outward facing consumer product. SW will led me down another road towards another SAAS and new target market and then a path towards a business idea/venture which is the accumulation of all my past failures.
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#4 - You are afraid that if you fail it will destroy your self-worth and self-esteem. That destruction might be too much for you and you'll regret your whole life and consider yourself a loser forever. This idea is WHY SO MANY SEO and entrepreneurs never take the leap. They are afraid that if they fail it might be too much for them - so instead of finding out they are a loser at this one attempt they choose to never try and can think in the back of their minds "you know I could have made it if I tried..."

The reality is theey DID NOT try and were scared to figure out when they are climbing the mountain were would be the point they would fall, so instead they stand on the ground looking up at all the people that are climbing the mountain and criticize them - "sideline commentating".

"Elon Musk should have done this.", "Lebron James should have done that", "If I was Jeff Bezo I wouldn't have take Amazon in this direction." - Give me a fucking break, you aren't any of those people because you didn't try - there is a reason that no high performance people response or listen to people that never got off the bench - why would they.

At least when you go after an industry you can say "I learned XYZ lesson" to people that come to you for advice. At least you were IN the game, not just sideline commentating about the success and failures of others.

Even with ALL my failures I never regretted taking the shot. No one regrets taking a shot even if they miss. Regret happens later in life or at your death-bed saying "I wish I had taken the shot - just to even know how far I could have gone."

#5 - That lack of confidence leads to not giving whatever project you are working on 100%. It's why so many SEOs have dozens of side-projects they aren't willing to risk failure at one big thing they gave 100% at - so they spread themselves across a dozen projects that they KNOW deep down it's impossible to win at without giving 100%. How can you give 100% focus to 12 projects? It's impossible, so what happens is when one project starts going bad, they concentrate on another "hoping and praying" that the other project turns around "somehow" and if it fails they are comfortable and state to themselves "Well I didn't waste my time to give 100%, so it's not me that really lost".

All those paths are defeatist.

If you were to give 100% on a single project when something does go bad/wrong you can concentrate on correcting the problem and fixing it instead of ignoring it and hoping "somehow" it will fix itself.

Pick a project, put 110% effort into it, get rid of all distractions and you'll be surprised at how far you can take it, because most likely you are going up against competitors that are stagnate, satiated, and not really hungry. If you are hungry you'll hustle your way around them and leave them in the dust.

Even in the projects I failed at I believed and still believe I was better than anyone doing it, I just made mistakes that I learned from. Even if I was not the best I became the best by hyperfocusing on one area that the others were weak at.

It's one reason I tell people to concentrate on customer service. It's no secret SEO tools, and SAAS tools in general make it IMPOSSIBLE for you to contact them. I knew this from my own experience and from reading all the complaints about my soon-to-be competitors. So the first and only rule that I set for myself was to make sure ALL communication with users are answered within 24 hours, even on weekends and holidays. It's why I strive to get under a 33 minute average response time - and that ONE THING alone has helped us grow month over month, year over year.

My customers KNOW there is someone they can talk to and ask questions even questions that aren't directly related to the software usage. I give advice and send them guides when I can. It's why we came together and created the digital crash course - it's a place we can send people that need help. It's why BuSo is here - in the long run people know if they have a problem they can ask and genuine advice will be given.

How does this translate to your industry - YOU need to become the guiding light even if you are brand new to an industry. If someone has a problem find a solution and send it to them. YOU helped them - they will always remember that and be grateful.

Right now you have an opportunity to help people - there is absolutely nothing wrong with making money in the process, but think about this - if you don't help those people WHO will? Will they be given genuine advice or sold some bullshit so someone can take their money? Even if you don't have all the answers you can make contacts and connections with people that might which will help you grow your credibility in that industry - it's how I got in contact with @Steve Brownlie - I didn't know alot about outreach and needed to find someone who did, now he's a powerful ally in the coming war.

Think about this: the worse case scenario is death, and if getting into an industry and failing will not result in death, then what do you really have to lose except your fear of jumping into the void and finding out whether you can or cannot? And realistically you'll end up learning valuable lessons that you can use for the next jump and the next jump.

The day you become afraid to jump is the day death has won.

"Your "options" are ALL based out of fear, and the only thing that successfully operates in the realm of fear is death. Whether it's death physically, emotionally, financially, mentally, or spiritually - only death can come from fear." - CCarter (#post-29565)​

So just like Dan Peña says "Just Fucking Do IT!"

"If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate." - Thomas Watson​

 

[Apex]

Although @CCarter message was not intended for me, when I read such a detailed, extensive, and useful comment, I can only thank him for the time he has invested in selflessly offering such complete help.

I think that many don't value the so complete and useful content that can be found in this forum. Others charge large amounts of money for much shorter and less useful content than what this forum have.