Is learning IM like learning to cook?

Very, very true, I have two different courses, the older one I have not ever touched yet, it is very hard to resist sometimes, the best thing is to probably change your email address or unsubscribe from all the forums and marketing sites until you sorted out what you are doing. :-)

Okay...can I borrow this @nicholasb? This is a brilliant analogy. I love it.

I would also add that not only do they stop cooking half way through....they don't clean up the mess that they left.

Keep at it. One day you may be fixing one of those meals and say to yourself, "I bet it would taste good if I used a little more X and maybe some Y."

That's when you go from "knowing how to cook" to "being a cook".

PS- I don't know anyone who likes chopping onions. Try putting the onions in the fridge for an hour or so before chopping. You don't get as many volatiles in the air. Some people also swear by wearing goggles or safety glasses while chopping.

A while back when I wanted to become a cooker I knew I needed to learn the basics. The internet is good for finding that stuff out.

So I bought a report for $7 which told me the fastest way I would jumpstart my cooking career was to buy a microwave and that would get me going.

So I bought a microwave and tried to make toast for breakfast. Immediately I found out I'd need more than the microwave to be a good cooker. So I bought another $7 report on how to make that toast.

It said I would need to get this thing called a toaster. So I did. I was pretty sure at that time I was on my way to being a good cook.

The next day I got an email from the toaster guru with an affiliate link to the crock pot guru's offer. Naturally, all that new information made all the other old information seem outdated. I only had 9 hours left to buy the crock pot at the good guy price so I did. It came with a recipe book that I'll get around to reading one day.

The next thing to come up on my radar was BBQ'd ribs. Man, did they look good. Unfortunately, my microwave, my toaster, and my crock pot won't cut the mustard for this job so I found myself signing up for a $7 report on barbecuing with an affiliate link to a BBQ on Amazon. Now I am the proud owner of a four burner BBQ, and of course I went for the rotisserie upsell. I'm trying to do this cooking thing the right way.

Fortunately for me, the BBQ guru knew another guy who apparently knows George Foreman personally and he included an affiliate link in his $7 report for this really cool grill that nobody should be without. And that includes me. They had an upsell for an indispensible apron and hat for $19.95 plus S&H and I sprang for those as well. I'm serious about this cooking thing.

And being serious means that late night TV is a must if you're going to master cooking. I found out about this Magic Bullet blender doohickey from an infomercial that darn near does everything I'll ever need to become a master cooker. So now I'm the proud owner of two of those things. I got the second one at an unbelievable discount once I called in using the 1-800 number.

Heck, I even got these incredible silicon rubber baking pans in case I ever want to try my hand at baking once I feel I've mastered cooking. Nothing sticks to them. It's unbelievable! I love TV.

I also learned that nothing I do in life is going to matter unless I stay healthy and fortunately for me they sell this Juicer that won't make me a better cook, but at least I'll be cooking longer. No doubt stole the thing at only $199.

At this point I could probably mention the bread maker, and the pasta maker, and the omlette maker, the "Set It and Forget It" Rotisserie, and all the other things I've purchased in my quest to become a good cook that have reduced my kitchen counterspace to the size of a deck of playing cards, but I'll spare you that for the moment.

I'll tell you about those once my cooking pdf is finished and my affiliate links to Amazon are up and running. It'll be the best $7 you ever spent.

And if you're like me, you'll be happy to know that buying all that stuff feels just as good as actually becoming a cook. That's right, I get to live the dream, and the best part about it is I don't have to do any of the work.

I outsource all that stuff to McDonalds.

~Bill

P.S. Don't forget to buy my "Seven Secrets Guru Gourmets Don't Want You to Know About" when it comes out. I won't really feel like I've become a good cook until this report starts selling.

Couldn't agree more!

You're in the UK. How the heck did you get a look in my garage? :confused::p

and I want it all for free

Well said Mark, I like that!

Good point Lucas. Good point indeed. Once you find something simple, Rinse and Repeat.

Kevin, my late grandfather spent most of his career (at least the part I was alive to see) as the head chef at a AAA 4-diamond restaurant. This is exactly what he tried to teach us kids whenever we showed any interest.

He had two talents which always amazed me as a kid. I now know that those were actually one part talent and three parts learned skill.

The first was that he could taste a dish and tell you what was in it, what seasonings were used, etc.

The second was that he could take a pile of seemingly unrelated ingredients, work his magic, and come up with something delicious.

Reaching that point in one's business career will allow you to adapt and succeed no matter what is thrown at you.

Excellent point. Making a great dish (or making money once) could be blind luck. Being able to consistently repeat that dish will make you a star. Or a very rich person, however you define the word 'rich'...

Another way they are similar is that in both you only learn when you do it. So you can memorize the recipes and ingredients and steps in your head, but until you actually do it, you won't actually be cooking. Same as IM. Until you take action implementing the free gift, or the blog site, or the autoresponder sequence, it's just information in your head. So taking action is important in both, because true learning happens only when you do it.

Very cool thread!

I don't believe in "blindly" following someone elses success. It goes against the very nature of being an entrepreneur... Hey, we entrepreneurs don't follow any rules, we invent the rules.

I myself need the freedom of creation, and do things my way. By definition, we don't follow - we lead. However, we should pick the things we like about others (which is following to some degree) and make them our own.

This is the process of growing. We get inspired by other successful people, and we can tap into what they do. But we are not "them". We need to modify some things so that we work with our own strengths, rather than weeknesses.

If someone is having success doing A,B and C, it's because they have a natural talent for A,B and C. You might need A, B and D instead.

Of course, this is a business. And in business, some things must be there for it to work.

There are so many options in IM, so many ways of achieving the same goal. So yes, following to some degree, but we are different and unique. And our way needs to be unique, or we loose our passion.

First off, thanks to all who have made contributions. I'm glad I could touch a chord with some of you...

This is a recurring theme in both IM and cooking. We look at the finished dish, or the successful business model, and tell ourselves that it just can't be that simple.

Sometimes all that steak really needs is a little salt and pepper...