The LIES about making money...and a thought!

If only there was a system that no matter how hard you tried you couldn't fail then you'd need none of the bs above.

if only there was less "muppets" like quadragon who spend time tryna look smart with pointless sarcasm and more people who are backing the online marketing cause and helping other marketers in the community

Nice post, hard to argue with the logic, though I am sure someone will,

It would be a great thing to see more people that actually engage in online business like they would if they were standing face to face with the customer.

That may be one of the things that makes it so much easier to not care about selling a product that they know upfront, may not be effective.

I know that there are situations that prevent people from becoming successful.

As a product creator, the first thing I do is to evaluate the need and then test out the solution until it works perfectly every time or at least so much better than anyone else.

One thing I would love to see more often online is products that promote creativity instead of copy pasting a system of duplication.

I honestly do not think that copying a "System" is a valid business model.

Creating a system is also not really the best way to help other marketers succeed.

Its a complex thing but it does not really have to be that way...

Thomas,

Thank you for your thoughts. For the most part, I agree. But number 11 doesn't ring true to me at all.

I believe there is right and wrong. I have seen the effects of making choices between right and wrong in my own life and they are very real. Those choices have nothing to do with morality, really, they are choices between what I have learned as being right compared to wrong choices.

When I choose to come to a stop at a red light . . . that is a "right" choice.
When I choose to exercise my body . . . that is a "right" choice in order for me to get the result I want.
When I choose to not lay my hand on the red hot burner on my stove . . . that is a "right" choice.

I certainly have the free agency to make wrong choices in all the examples above . . . but that would not be in my best self interest according to what I know and understand.

If you want to achieve certain results in life, you have to make "right" choices. You can certainly choose not to make the choices that lead to desired outcomes, but then you have no choice about the consequences of your actions.

Just my two cents . . .

Steve

I especially like number 12) - because I too experienced something when I taught a unique way NOT taught in the usual way. Some people have a hard time believing..

I have to agree with Quadagon. The sig says IF, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't fail ever again, then you don't need to systematize, a mentor, be humble, work hard, or anything else the OP listed. Why? Because even if you didn't do any of those things you could never fail.

While many of the points in the OP are good, necessary, helpful, etc. the disconnect between the post and the sig is exactly the same as those who come in claiming in their sig to be able to help you make big bucks by noon Friday but they are asking in their post about how to get traffic or how to earn some money before the power bill is due.

Tone down the hype. There is NO system that eliminates failure forever. But since you are claiming there is, then don't waste precious time and bandwidth espousing hard work, becoming a leader, etc.

Mark

Thank for the great post. I told a lot of people the same thing. It seems, now a day, people want easy money without doing work. I am sure a lot of people specially newbie will get a lot of help from this great post.

Good pointer Tomas. Could not have said it better.
Hopefully your opinion would not scare newbies into trying the "laptop lifestyle" if possible.

Re: the right or wrong thing...

It depends on what level of consciousness you're operating at.

I don't feel I'm going to change anyone's mind, since most of you are merely looking for confirmation of what you already believe to be true.

It's also probably just going to draw fire from the sort of people who enjoy doing that kind of thing.

But maybe there's one or two folks out there in a "slushy" state on this idea.

The statement/question opens up an entire philosophical and epistomological discussion only a few here are truly prepared to participate in. The deepest level of "Hey, what's this 'life' stuff made of?" talk I've seen most people have are shallow, pot-induced high school reflections such as "Woah, what if the Earth suddenly tilted this way?" "Wow, those cars would be over here then..."

Much of this comes from WHO you believe you are.

"I'm a single parent from an abusive family who grew up in a low income area and that's why I'm poor."

Really?

No, that's the BS story you've been telling yourself.

BTW you can also say, with complete self-validity, "I'm a single parent from an abusive family who grew up in a low income area and that's why I'm a SUCCESS."

"...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." ~Hamlet, Shakespeare.

An interesting way of viewing life is as a computer program. The Matrix did a fair job at this, but we can look at a deeper level. We have certainly seen evidence the universe is a hologram.

I strongly encourage you to read two books: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. And in that order.

The ideas they offer may stimulate you; in fact, you may find yourself believing some of them.

Funny thing: Rand's world view still works, even if Pirsig's is true.

The structured world of Atlas Shrugged operates just fine on top of Zen's proton cloud existence.

In other words, both can be TRUE.

How can this be??

Existence is a weird thing...it allows you to believe what you want.

Some "rules" like our old nemesis 'Fire burns human flesh' do seem to be immutable but I'm not so sure. It could be mass belief that gives credence to the idea. Meaning it gains its power from people believing it.

What happens on the other side of the universe? I don't know. I can't even say with certainty there aren't any human beings there.

The more you look, the more you see. The ancient magicians had a phrase for this, "As above, so below." A section of cell wall at magnification is indistinguishable from a segment of coastline.

As for moral absolutes: what is true and correct for you can be completely false and wrong for someone else.

If your understanding of existence is an infinite, continuous pouring and transformation of energy into the physical universe, where things are "created", "live", and "die" (and then return to the Elsewhere in another energy form), then what is "good" or "bad"? Everything is an illusion.

If all of us choose our entire existence, all the decisions, variables, outcomes...because we want to experience and learn this way--even what many of us would agree are the AWFUL things...is anything "good" or "bad"?

I can think of several AWFUL things.

I can think of many things I personally would never do, because they would be too hurtful to others. I will never, for instance, set up a rail network to transport people to concentration camps to be worked to expiration and incinerated in a machinery of death. But that's me and my choice, and those are my illusory beliefs. Someone else might do those things, because they've agreed on some level with the "victim" to do them. (You combine Hitler's activity with the illusory world view and you get a pretty pointless activity, don't you; the people you 'exterminated' merely come back later. Not so enjoyable for them, though, I'll admit.)

So where can you say "good" and "bad" or "right" and "wrong" are? Each of us has our own range of acceptable and unaccceptable behavior. A soldier who has been in active duty and done what I would consider terrible but he considers absolutely necessary things has quite a different range than I do. There's no "normal" or constant for this stuff.

It's not what happens to you that is important so much as the story you tell yourself about what happens, and the meaning that story gives it. But all that noise, the story, is fake.

And that is my conclusion. No consistent "right" and "wrong". The universe doesn't care. It will blow up planets, swallow you whole, and wipe out entire galaxies (have you SEEN the photographs?!) with, as one of my favorite writers put it, "fish-eyed indifference."

Pick your path, but don't think for a second your values are anything like The Other's.

And we haven't even touched solipsism...which would be the end game touchdown play in this discussion.

BS and lies sell that is what the 99 want NOT the hard truth!

Have to agree with you Tomas. Could not have put it better myself.
I think the part where you mention having a mentor is really important because it is tough out there and in lot of instances in my personal journey led me to inevitably seek professional one on one training as I was going round in circles and needed some help as the training on certain elements was not readily available to me back then. On a good note though, fortunately more and more training is becoming readily available, so in some instances, it's actually easier now than it was back then!

Nice thoughts

Good one though

Thanks for this. As a complete newbie who understands NOTHING about affiliate marketing to date, I agree with all of the above. I especially like #11. I'm trying to figure out how to do this with integrity and without turning myself into "just another affiliate scammer." That's why I'm going the social media routes, where I'm already somewhat established and have a decent reputation as a stand-up person. I think that morals are so important, because we've all seen black hatters come and go. Not that they care when they fail, they just pick up another scam to promote, but it still angers me when I see people like The Rich Jerk getting back into the fray, taking advantage of people like me who know nothing, selling them BS products that do nothing but drain their bank accounts.

Having a mentor is paramount, and one of my goals. I don't expect someone to mentor me for free, but I do appreciate all the valuable information that people are willing to share here. I think that a lot of people get into this not expecting to have to put any money out, just rake in the profits, and that's their biggest mistake. For newbies like me, starting with nothing, it's hard to get going sometimes. I realize, though, that for awhile, I'll have to put everything I earn back into growing my business, and I'm fine with that.

good thoughts....

I agree with your post! People need to go into network marketing with the right mindset. No one makes money the very next day! Building a business requires people to take action and to have realistic expectations. I hope that newbies start to understand this process.