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Effective
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06.16.04
 By
Jack Humphrey
Creativity and Determination are the KEY ingredients in all online
success stories. So many times, as a moderator and participant in
the net's most active and lauded online marketing forum, The Internet
Marketing Warriors, I have heard the same questions repeated by hopeful
marketer after hopeful marketer. And mostly they begin with "How do
I...?"
Similar questions, in a dead-heat in frequency, vary around a theme
such as "What tool should I use to...?"
Know-how and tools.
Go to any forum on the net, on almost any subject, and you will find
hundreds or even thousands of people exchanging information on know-how
and tools. "What is the best way to write copy?" "Which autoresponder
script is best for my business?" "What hosting is the best for me?"
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Very
infrequently will you come upon a marketing discussion that talks
about creativity and determination. Even more rare is a successful
product that shows people HOW to be creative and determined. This
is because tools and know-how are so much easier to write about.
If this, then that. Such a small phrase, yet it is the bulk of what
internet marketing training is all about if you have read even a small
pile of ebooks geared toward making you a better sales producer.
And the formula sells - bigtime.
But then, why are there so many people failing at marketing their
business online? What is IT that separates the masses from the relatively
few truly successful online small businesses?
It is this: You cannot teach people creativity very easily. Some would
say it's impossible. Art classes are simply tools to weed out people
that don't have 'IT' so they can get busy pursuing another line of
work!
And it is this: Determination (including work ethic, stick-to-it-ivenss,
seeing something through to the end) is even harder to simply instill
in a person with the written word or teleseminar. You cannot reach
through your ebook to slap someone everyday to recapture their focus
for them and keep them on-task.
The problem is compounded when you have one of the above and not the
other. Creative people very often have no business sense or the drive
necessary to acquire it. Determined people fail gloriously in a gallon
of sweat at five in the morning without creativity. Nothing is probably
more disheartening than having one or the other. It must be like being
able to see over the fence, but not have what it takes to climb to
the other side.
Tools are tools. We must use them in any profession to the best of
our ability. Henry Ford used tools to create Model Ts. But did you
ever read a story proclaiming that Ford won the day with his tools?
Of course not. The stories are about determinaion and creativity and
that's it.
You can go out right now and get the best software, the most expensive
copywriter, the best programmer, and even the best product since sliced
bread. And you can fail. It's been done more times than success by
a long margin throughout history.
This article is not about how to succeed at internet marketing. It
is not about tools that will help get you over the fence where the
grass is greener.
This article is an observation. An observation that is seeded with
clues that only creative and determined people will pick up on. And,
despite all the success manuals and training you may have spent hard
earned money on, this article contains the answer to why many people
fail and some succeed at not only internet marketing, but in anything
in life.
Creativity in internet marketing is being able to think beyond what
others have accomplished to date. It's being able to take the pulse
of the internet and the human condition and react by putting something
together that is needed and desired.
Determination is being able to go out on a limb and work until you
succeed despite obstacles and nay sayers. It is fueled by belief in
yourself and your creative ideas.
Do you have these two key ingredients? Can you see what is possible
that thousands of other great minds have overlooked? If so, can you
then take that vision and turn it into reality with dogged determination
and perhaps the hardest work you have ever done in your life?
If you have "it," then you can go learn about our trade from the technical
(tools) standpoint and you can use them to succeed with your creativity
and determination. The tools are worthless by themselves.
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I hope one day to see a lot more questions about the creative process
as it relates to business and success in forums in the future. I want
to see questions (and honest answers!) about how much work it takes
to create a profitable business online. Then I will know that a lot
more people are on track and are asking the RIGHT questions. Most
of all, I hope to see more training materials from experts that deal
with not only what tools and systems to use, but with topics on how
to think freely, on your own, about how you could make something better
or make something new out of the situation at hand.
Finally, when you hear that this business is not for everyone, it
means quite specifically that this business is not for people who
cannot think outside the norm and work long hours. That's why businesses
that people try to sell you that "do all the work so you don't even
have to think" are so absurd.
No one has ever succeeded at anything without creativity and determination.
Unless they have entered a couch potato contest. But even then the
most successful people are going to be the ones who think creatively
about how to sit on that couch longer than anyone else and watch more
TV than was formerly thought humanly possible.
Here is an example using the above: 99% of the people who set out
to be the #1 Couch Potato will simply start out by sittting in front
of the TV for as long as they can. They think, "I will just out-potato
everyone else by doing it 24/7."
And they will all fail. Because one person is going to think creatively
and freely. They are going to buy 5 TVs and plug them all in in front
of the couch. They are going to out-potato everyone else by being
able to compound the amount of TV they can watch by 5 times the amount
of everyone else while doing no more work than the other 99%. Through
creativity and determination, the person who wins at anything is going
to find ways to succeed that most people never would have thought
of.
In the end, if you want to succeed online, you must ask yourself:
Do I REALLY have the creativity and determination to turn my current
situation into a better one through an online business? Don't worry
about tools and know-how. Those can be learned and used by anyone.
But there is no need to commit yourself to a big learning curve if
you don't have what it really takes to succeed in the end.
About the Author:
Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2: Evolution, now in
it's 4th revision at http://power-linking-profits.com.
He is also the CEO of http://EquipMint.com,
a membership site for anyone who sells anything online.
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