Self Improvment: Success: You ARE One Step Away From Success

by Willie Crawford
willie@williecrawford.com

http://www.profitautomation.com

Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

We've all heard the stories of people who gave up on a
dream when they were only one step away from achieving it.
We discovered that they were only one step away because
someone else following their path took that next step and
succeeded wildly.

When you observe, or talk to many people in the online
marketing arena, you see lots of people who're only one
step away from success. Not only that, but many need to
take the SAME next step.

For some reason, people like to hire me as a marketing
consultant so that they can "discuss marketing theory."
What these consultations soon reveal is that we've often
studied the same material and have the same basic
understanding of how things work. They understand the
mechanics, the psychology... even the how-to. Yet they're
stuck!

That next step that we often need to take is simply in the
doing. Knowing is not doing. You can understand something
as deeply as possible on an intellectual level, but until
you do something with that knowledge, you're no better off
than someone who doesn't understand.

One of my recent phone conversations centered around how
all of the Internet marketing "gurus" teach the same thing
in their courses... with only slight variations. The reason
for this is that they've all studied the same material.
Certain principles of direct marketing haven't changed in
over 100 years! Certain things about human nature probably
haven't changed in thousands of years. They're immutable
natural laws.

There's a reason every great copywriter, or marketer, that
I know has studied Claude Hopkins and Dr. Robert Cialdini.
These authors understood certain things about human nature
and were able to explain them in an understandable way. If
you study their material long enough, and often enough,
something magical does happen. Their thinking becomes YOUR
thinking. So, of course, all of your marketing gurus will
tell you similar things. They've studied the same material
AND they mentor/coach each other :-)

I've just revealed to you one of the few success secrets I
really know. That secret is that "repetition is the mother
of mastery." That's why really successful people teach
their students to study the same material over and over
again. That's why, 25 years ago, my karate instructor use
to have me spend 4 solid hours just practicing one thing.
Do, or hear, the same thing often enough and it becomes a
part of you.

However, making a piece of information or knowledge a part
of you is not enough. Then you need to take the next
step... the one most of the world seems afraid to take.
You need to act upon that knowledge.
People don't do the things that they know that they should
do because they're afraid of making mistakes. The fact is
that you WILL make mistakes. Hopefully, you don't keep
making the same mistake over and over again. Hopefully, you
learn from the mistakes and then that ingrained knowledge
helps you to make major breakthroughs.
Every successful person that I've ever talked to admits
he's made many mistakes. My coach use to teach me that
since you know you're going to make mistakes, and then move
past those, why not get them out of the way. He preached
"fail fast" so that you can then get to the success born
out of the lessons taught by failure.

Major successes overshadow a string of minor failures!
This is why major book publishers are willing to publish
1000 books that rarely break even in order to find one or
two best sellers. The best sellers make up for all of the
failures many times over. It's generally the same with
operating a business. So don't be afraid of mistakes. Seek
to avoid them by learning from the mistakes of others.
However, don't let fear of making mistakes keep you from
taking that critical next step.

If you're like a major percentage of online business people
I've studied, you really are just one step away from
success. That step is sometimes a big one, but it's a
necessary one. Look closely at where you are, and you
should be able to see what that next step is for you. Then
take it. If you don't, you'll still be one step away from
success tomorrow, and even a year from now. Now that you
know... go ahead and TAKE that next step.

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Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build an
on-line business since late 1996. Frequently featured in
radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews,
Willie teaches the average guy what the top marketers are
doing but seldom talking about.

Learn Willie's Success Secret at:
http://TheInternetLifestyle.com

More articles by Willie Crawford - http://www.submityourarticle.com/internet-marketing-articles/Willie-Crawford-37/

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