A little guidance and advice

Good morning guys and gals

This is, in part, a venting frustrated whine, and since I hate whining, I'll keep that part to a minimum. I'm also looking for some genuine pointers, as I feel a little bit isolated, and when that happens, I tend to lose objectivity.

I suppose my short term history with IM is like many peoples. I got on the internet before anyone knew what the internet was, before the web was released from the dungeons at CERN and where people used to talk to each other using black and white terminals and a couple of tin cans tied together with string.

When the IM stuff started, I just ignored it. It was spam in my eyes, since if there was something I wanted, I sought it out and bought it, and no 2,578,098 page long sales letter with the headline in quotes and a time limited offer was going to make me do otherwise.

The internet was an expression of freedom (not to mention a network designed to continue operating in event of a nuclear strike) - what the hell was this commercial sales crap?

I was about 14/15 when IM started surfacing, and I ignored it as trash for the next 15 years.

The last few years, I have worked as an IT contractor, specifically as a Project Manager for a Germany company that has a name that bears a phonetic similarity to male sexual fluid. They had a cull at the beginning of the year, and I found myself out of a role.

Note to one and all: perfect example of having all your eggs in one basket. Never rely on one source of income, no matter how profitable it is.

Time went by. I qualified as a Hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner, Time Line Therapist and Executive Coach, thinking that I might go in that direction. I certainly didn't feel like going back to PMing for a large corporate. Somehow, I wanted to help people.

But, I found myself drawn to IM quite by accident. I started to see it as a legitimate business, as it actually is, but with far far less strategic and logistical operational problems compared to the bricks and mortar counterpart.

I bought Mike Filsaimes Hands On Workshop for Newbie's. A bit of a mistake in some respects - but I was intrigued. Who wouldn't want to operate a business that is highly profitable, but lightweight?

Then I found the Warrior Forum, buying George Browns Google Sniper. Wow! Was I convinced that I could do this? You betcha!

10 Google Sniper sites later, followed to exacting instructions, has led to one sale in 6 months. Not so convinced now.

I got the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp and heard inspiring stories from the likes of Andrew Reynolds and Ted Nicholas. Bought stuff from Perry Marshal on PPC. Frank Kern Screwing Google. Blah blah blah.

Yes, I overdosed on information, but PMing is my bread and butter, or it was...

So I took action. I've done the stuff in the videos. I've written articles. Made screencasts. Created Podcasts. Submitted press releases. Wasted multiple figures on PPC advertising.

The spend has been in the region of 5 figures.

The return has been a $60 sale and a list of 24 people.

I'm doing my nut in here and I don't get it.

Perhaps the only thing I can do is use these skills to help others earn, because they aren't doing jack for me. Indeed, that is where I am going to head next. Little choice really because the money is about to run out.

They say that the moment you are about to quit is the moment you should continue, as success is probably around the corner.

And as much as that makes perfect sense to me, it would also seem to make sense that perhaps success is just a mathematical statistic....

A statistic that is improved greatly when a minority of people make money by selling other people products about how to make money.

Almost like Fight Club, the newbie in IM is led to believe that they too can be rock stars, actors and models, where actually, they might just be cementing the status of the statistical minority who did achieve their goals, all at the expense of their own personal effectiveness.

That is social parasitic behavior at its finest.

Now, do I actually believe that? Not really. I am so inspired when I hear the stories of people who were crushed with bankruptcy rising to financial freedom. When I see testimonials of everyday people doing something they love. Escaping the pointless 9 - 5 of another person's dream.

At the same time, I've gotta admit... With all the time and money I have spent, knowing that I have successfully run multimillion pound projects for massive global telecoms companies, this all is starting to feel like it did when I was 14 - a very big scam.

So, I'm curious to know of people who reached a similar position, what their particular challenges were and how they overcame.

What was your turning point? Where and how did it turn around for you?

One last question then - is it really worth becoming a paid member of this forum, considering all I've just said? It is getting to the stage where $37 is a lot of money - so what is in there that isn't in my now bulging IM library?

Thank you for reading and here's to your success, whoever you are and where-ever you may be.

Tref