I was in my car listening to my favorite podcast, I Love Marketing, and heard something that made me realize why there is still abundant opportunity online even though there is probably 50 times more competition online than when I started.
But first, let me tell you about my first big six figure success.
At the time (2004), my life was in shambles. I’d just broken up with my live in girlfriend, was 2 months behind on my mortgage payment, and my credit cards were all maxed out!
Things were looking bleak to say the least.
But a friend of mine turned me onto a program that I understood, resonated with and matched up well with my skills… so I jumped in and got started.
I wasn’t the only one hopping on the bandwagon, but I did become successful very quickly in that little venture – $125,000 in my first year building websites and affiliate marketing. I was doing so well that I was being asked to speak on the topic and the founder of the company I was with always liked to feature and talk about me.
And you want to know what I attribute to my success?
BLINDERS
Each little success opened up more and more opportunity for all of us. But in the beginning I had just enough money to put gas in my car and for groceries at the store (and sometimes I rode my bike to the store and bought ramen noodles because all I had was a few dollars in my pocket).
I literally couldn’t afford any of those other shiny distractions even if they only cost $5.
I had to work with what I had and nothing else. So like a horse in a parade, I strapped on a pair of blinders and ignored all the other distractions and noise that would take me off course and slow me down or prevent me from reaching my goal.
I was focused and because I was focused, I succeeded.
It had nothing to do with me being the smartest (I wasn’t), most talented (not even close), and to be honest there were people who worked harder than I did. However, I was relentlessly focused.
To sum it up, I found something that worked, and I focused on that.
I wish I could say my success was a permanent achievement. As time went on though, I found myself being less and less productive. Looking back on it, it’s easy to see that those shiny objects and opportunities I ignored early on became more and more enticing and as I earned more money and could afford to try them out, I did.
And it cost me!
It will cost you too!
The biggest hurdle you’ll face when you try to make money from the comfort of your own home (or coffee shop, which is my preference) is distraction and that’s exactly what the podcast said.
While there is more competition than ever trying to make money online and run home based businesses, these same people have never been more distracted and that’s why there is still abundant opportunities for those willing to ignore all that shiny and new stuff and just focus on what works.
When I first got started, there was a whole lot less information out there for would be entrpreneurs. You had to spend $200 buying mail order courses just to get the basics. These days you can get the basics absolutely free just by reading a couple blogs, free reports, or watching videos on Youtube.
And like I said, that $200 was just an for a quick introduction to the world of Internet marketing. If you wanted to go deep into any topic, that’d be thousands more for a quality education.
These days there is no lack of information. There’s not even a lack of quality information. On just about any topic, you can find mountains of quality information to sort through.
Now the reason you purchase a $200 product (like a home study course) is not to get all the information on the topic, but rather to limit the amount of information you’ll receive.
Once you get started, stay away from your email, stay away from Facebook and every other social media site you visit. Turn off your phone and focus only on the task you’ve set out to accomplish.
And once you have a good idea of what to do, stop learning about the topic and instead focus on doing that topic.
Gary Ruplinger is the founder of No Pants Marketing, a site dedicated to serious professionals who prefer to work from home. He has been running his own business since 2001 and has built over a dozen online businesses to date.
