{"id":100,"date":"2012-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/3-weird-things\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T18:51:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:51:02","slug":"3-weird-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/3-weird-things\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Weird Things You MUST Do To Have A Successful Online Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just read this blog post<\/a> by Andrew Hansen I thought you might find interesting.<\/p>\n

Ok so here they are. Ready?<\/p>\n

1. Digging Where The X is<\/h3>\n

I go to a lot of these \u201centrepreneur meetup\u201d kind of events where people with all kinds of businesses and business ideas go to chat and be around \u201clike minded people\u201d. And at them I hear about all kinds of ideas for new products and new businesses that these passionate people are trying to share with the world\u2026<\/p>\n

Many of which are just horrible.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be listening to a guy talk about his business idea and having this internal dialogue\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYep\u2026 ok\u2026 I can tell that you\u2019re really passionate about this designer air freshener\u2026 But you realize NO ONE wants this right?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh no I get that it\u2019s really creative\u2026 I can see you\u2019ve put a lot of thought into the combination of scents\u2026 But you get that NO ONE else cares \u2026 right?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem and the problem comes from the mistaken idea that business is about YOU. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Forget\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0interests. Forget\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0hobbies. Forget the creative little ideas that would solve\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0problems.<\/p>\n

Having a successful business is about solving OTHER PEOPLE\u2019S problems\u2026 not your own.<\/p>\n

You find a group of people with a clear, stated problem, and the already existing desire and the means to solve it\u2026 and you can build a business.<\/strong>\u00a0(In that sentence there\u2019s a checklist for niche research in case you missed it\u2026 In fact that might be the best sentence I\u2019ve ever written\u2026 justsayin\u2019)<\/p>\n

If it so happens that you are already a part of that group, then that\u2019s a\u00a0bonus<\/em>. It shouldn\u2019t be a prerequisite.<\/p>\n

You dig where the X is. That\u2019s all you do.<\/p>\n

You go to where there is money already being made, and you start there. The more money is being made there the better, and the less other diggers there are the better\u2026 but that\u2019s what you do.<\/p>\n

You put up camp there, and you keep digging until you uncover your gold. Which brings me nicely to\u2026<\/p>\n

2. Stupid Persistence<\/h3>\n

If you hadn\u2019t realized it already, let me clarify for you: If you\u2019re starting a business, you\u2019re going to fail. A lot. You\u2019re going to fail more often than you succeed. No matter who you are or what business you\u2019re in.\u00a0And that\u2019s for a successful business.<\/em>\u00a0If you\u2019re succeeding, you\u2019re going to be failing more. Wrap your head around that.<\/p>\n

The person who makes it in this game is the one who employs what I call \u201cStupid Persistence\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the person who tries again when there\u2019s no good reason to believe that trying again will work.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re starting a business, you have to behave in a way that\u2019s irresponsible to behave in, in any other area or time of your life.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve gotta be willing to mess it up 10 times in a row, and say \u201cYep, the NEXT ONE is it!\u201d.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s stupid! That\u2019s not logical. That\u2019s not what a rational person, learning from their experience would do. But it\u2019s what you must do.<\/p>\n

Because \u2013 and not everyone in business likes to admit this \u2013 there\u2019s an element of luck involved with every attempt. Your taking actions but always, there are influencing factors that are out of your control. And the only way you overcome the effect of those factors is by having more attempts than anyone else\u2026 (stay with me even if that sounded weird\u2026)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like flipping a coin. On your first attempt you can flip a head or a tail. You can win or lose. But if you just keep flipping that coin, probability suggests that sooner or later you\u2019re going to get some heads.<\/p>\n

In the same way, the factors out of your control will fall against you sometimes in business\u2026 but they\u2019ll fall with you sometimes too. And if you flip that coin enough, eventually you\u2019ll overcome the effect of chance. Your hard work will line up with the factors out of your control falling in your favor, and you\u2019ll get the outcome you want.<\/p>\n

(Of course there\u2019s a whole discussion to be had here about not persisting with the same thing over and over\u2026 learning from your mistakes, making better attempts each time, and being able to flip the coin in a way that makes it more likely to turn up heads\u2026 but I hope that\u2019s self evident, and I hope the above point is clear enough without it.)<\/p>\n

So persist, damn it! Persist when your family thinks it\u2019s dumb, when your friends think it\u2019s dumb\u2026 persist when even YOU think it\u2019s dumb! Persist because it\u2019s all you can do. Persist because there is no other way.<\/p>\n

3. Imbalance<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of people who starting out building an online business have all these romantic ideas about living the dream and having a \u201c4 hour work week\u201d.<\/p>\n

They dream of a low stress lifestyle, with balance, with time to do the things they love\u2026 about \u201cpassive income\u201d and holidays, and freedom and\u2026<\/p>\n

STOP RIGHT THERE\u2026<\/p>\n

Those things are great. They\u2019re amazing in fact. They\u2019re what we should all be seeking.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t get to live them NOW.<\/strong>\u00a0Not yet. No no no.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re getting started in business, trying to grow your revenue online, you don\u2019t get to have freedom yet, or balance yet, or spare time, or a 4 hour work week of any kind. Not if you plan on actually making it.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t reached your initial goals yet, it\u2019s the time to employ extreme imbalance. It\u2019s the time to do things you\u2019ve never done before. It\u2019s the time to make your life worse rather than better.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a time to hurt yourself because you\u2019re working so hard. It\u2019s a time to give an unhealthy focus to your business, and sit at your computer with pizza and soft drink until your eyes are red and your brain is mush, and when you go away from it all you can see is the lines from that screen burned into your retina, and you can\u2019t have a decent conversation with anyone because it\u2019s all you think about and you\u2019re just crazy with dedication until you\u2019re a weird, disgusting specimen of a human being and\u2026<\/p>\n

Ok, I\u2019ll stop there, but you get what I mean right?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not necessarily recommending this but I\u2019m telling you\u2026 and mark my words \u2013 that\u2019s how it happens. That\u2019s how it happened for me, and for pretty much everyone I know with a successful online business. You give it everything you have, and if you do it long enough, it gives you everything you want.<\/p>\n

If that sounds terrible, you need only remember it\u2019s temporary, and it\u2019s for the greatest glory you could achieve\u2026 a life lived on your own terms.<\/p>\n

Give up your freedom now for the ultimate freedom later. Get it?<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

I hope you\u2019ve found inspiration here. Perhaps some clarity. I hope this post keeps you focused on what\u2019s important for achieving your income goals this year. Add a comment below if you found this helpful.<\/p>\n

Here is a link to Andrew\u2019s original blog post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just read this blog post by Andrew Hansen I thought you might find interesting. Ok so here they are. Ready? 1. Digging Where The X is I go to a lot of these \u201centrepreneur meetup\u201d kind of events where people with all kinds of businesses and business ideas go to chat and be around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/frankieb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}