On Taking Responsibility

by Will Edwards

Posted: 12 years ago 17 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Recently, I was contacted by someone who had problems with a download and needed me to send the link manually. In his mail, he took the time and trouble to thank me for the information we provide via our newsletter and site.

He said he was looking forward to reading my book because ... and here is the thing that really struck me ... all previous teaching had failed him. Wow!

Now the reason I wanted to post today is because I think there is an important lesson to be learned here. Certainly, I do hope I will be able to help that person, I guess that goes without saying, but I feel sure that so too would many of the people who's products he had purchased in the past.

Perhaps the fault does not lay in the 'teaching' he has previously received at all.

There comes a time when, somewhere along the line, YOU have to take responsibility for your own life and your own success. Other people cannot do it for you. Sure they can help especially if they have already achieved what you are setting out to do.

But achieving success involves actually doing something - not endlessly reading. If you are still looking for something that is going to make you a ton of cash, overnight, for little or no effort on your part, then you are looking for the wrong products.

Actually, it is possible to make money doing absolutely nothing. You may be skeptical about this claim, but it is true. As I have said many times in the past, most of my web income is generated passively.

BUT ...

It didn't happen overnight and it didn't happen without me first building the systems that actually generate it.

So, if you have purchased products in the past that didn't work for you. Do yourself a favour and ask yourself: why? Did you actually do what you needed to do to make it work or did you chuck it to one side, convinced that you still had not found the goldmine you were looking for?

Stop doing that. Take responsibility for your own success.

Will

#responsibility #taking

Dennis Gaskill

12 years ago

True 'nuff, Will.

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
- Albert Ellis

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Exel

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill

True 'nuff, Will.

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
- Albert Ellis

Fantastic quote, not much to add, just that until you get this and take
responsibility for your actions you can't move forward in any way.

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jlandells

12 years ago

This is so true, Will! I've seen this from both sides - where people have told me that certain things that I'm using successfully "don't work", and also where I've purchased things that haven't worked for me. However, in that second case, I almost always can point out why it's not right for me, and it's usually that I don't have the necessary time to devote to it without being distracted from more profitable activities.

I think it was you, Will, who once posted in here that we should FOCUS - Follow One Course Until Successful - which has been one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever received!

-John.

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hitmobi

12 years ago

Originally Posted by jlandells

I agree with you 100%. If there's a chance it will work - it's up to you to make it happen. However there are a lot of things you can do to succeed in IM and some of them ARE easier than others.

I think people should put effort in researching what is the best way to go ( or what is the best method for them personally). A lot of people just swim against the currents

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trytolearnmore 12 years ago

What you just said Will is actually the key to becoming succesful. The moment people start taking action is the moment they start making money.
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- Don Luis Banned 12 years ago
  
  Excellent advice, Will.
  
  Thanks
  
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bastion 12 years ago

Most of people don't like to take responsibility for failure. It's easy to say - "This s*** doesn't work!" Only a few spend extra time and energy to make that s*** works. And these few people make money, real money.

Bad things always happen, but you still need to take action and responsibility for your decisions.
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showmack

12 years ago

Well it is always easy to blame a product instead of asking ourself that why it is working for others and not for us?. Simply there is nothing like quick success in this world. If you want to achieve something then put all your hard work and be steady.

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Martin Luxton

12 years ago

Will,

I think it's not just about responsibility, it's about being 'ready' for the lesson.

To paraphrase a well-known quote,

"Cometh the hour, cometh the teacher."

Maybe the customer is taking responsibility but they just can't get their head round the lesson.

I'll give you an example.

In the country where I live English lessons are mandatory. The problem is that there is a fixed schedule for grammar and that schedule is flawed.

At 8 years of age they are trying to teach kids grammar that they are not conceptually able to take on board. Frustrating for the teacher, frustrating for the kids.

Martin

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Will Edwards

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

I completely agree. It is a point I have made myself in the past.

Sometimes, this happens on my workshops. I get people for whom the session has clearly been life-changing. However, I get others for whom it is like water off a ducks back. I don't blame them. They are simply not ready.

Will

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theory expert Banned 12 years ago

Will it could be possible that the products that the person bought were incomplete or not comprehensive enough for him to be able to follow through.

I have been hinting about this point for quite some time. The actual product owners really aren't listening to their audience. Alot of people would do well to listen to the complaints of the biggest elephants in this room. The newbs themselves!

Assume nothing, start at square 1, as if they just learned how to turn on their computer. I guarantee you they will never call your product a bad one even if they don't fullfill their end of the bargain. Oh and you'll be able to sell that product forever.
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- RayWhittaker 12 years ago
  
  I think we would all agree that we are each responsible for our own actions. But I don't believe the answer is that simple.
  
  It seems to be very common in the IM world that people blame the customer for 'not taking action'. I don't believe it! I don't think that 90% of people pay money for this training then just sit on their butts.
  
  What's happening is people are taking the wrong actions; they don't know any better. With so many people on the internet, offering so many different 'solutions' to the same problem, is it any wonder that people become lost and confused? People who set themselves up as teachers have a responsibility to their students. They need to guide their student's actions.
  
  Too many people are selling a $27 ebook, along with the advice 'take action' and 'take responsibility', and then deluding themselves that they have given their student everything they need to succeed online.
  
  We ALL have to take responsibility for our own actions... that includes the teachers. And those of us who are selling this stuff need to stop blaming the customers for our own failures and start figuring out how we can better serve them.
  
  Sorry for the rant but this attitude of 'sell any old crap and blame the customer for not implementing it' (present company excepted I'm sure) is giving IM a bad name.
  
  Thanks
  
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  vettec5 12 years ago
  
  The new reality that has came about within the last decade or two and its called personal responsibility. People are becoming more independent and with that it brings entreupenurialsm.
  
  Its a rude awakening for a lot of people that are getting into business because all this stuff that worked for us in a job starts back firing on us in a business. And they cant figure out why. And what most people do is, when those things start backfiring, they blame circumstances, luck, the system, whatever. Somebody else and the unfairness of the world, they blame that on the problems they run into.
  
  There is a huge transformation that needs to happen. People need to realize the difference between work and business and most importantly act on it. People will realize that , I'm not going to get paid anymore just for showing up. Instead I have to create results that people will actually pay for.
  
  As an example a business will run an ad and get no results from it and they will wake up and realize, I'm not going to get paid doing what I am suppose to be doing.
  
  We must take responsibility for are actions, we must take responsibility for the systems in are business, we must take responsibility for all the results positive or negative, we must take responsibility for are people and for are relationships.
  
  Just my .02 on responsibility
  
  Thanks
  
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michaelgrisso 12 years ago

Will, great post. This can spill over into all kinds of life experiences. My son's football team (he's in 7th grade) had to play a team last week that had 5 or 6 8th graders on it (due to pay-per-play issues in their city). We got smoked and at the end of the game everyone was blaming the loss on playing 8th graders (even the coach).

I told my son, "You can only do your part man. You guys didn't lose because there were 8th graders on the team. You lost because they scored more points than you." Lol, he got a laugh out of it, but we talked about all the areas that could have been fixed to at least make the game competitive.

One of the parts of the conversation revolved around knowledge of the game and critiquing areas. A good example of this would be hiking the ball. We had 7 snaps in a row that went over the head of the QB or hit is feet.

When talking about online income (passive or not), it's about the knowledge you hold and the way you utilize it. However, some of the beginners have to realize this before they get started.

Cheers~
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Steven Miranda 12 years ago

You brought up a very interesting topic, Will.

Once people start JUMPING off the cliff and having faith.

To quote a few lines of a great song:

"There are miracles in life I must achieve
But first I know it starts inside of me"
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Aviator Joe 12 years ago

a solid post
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funkynassau 12 years ago

Great post! I run into people who whine that life treats them badly and when you talk to them about it you find they are just sitting back and letting negative things happen to them, they are not putting out any effort to improve their lot in life.

My husband has worked his butt off for over 16 yrs on his self employed day job, and it's paid off. We have a good quality of life, take an annual vacation somewhere nice, have a few bucks in the bank and no mortgage! You reap what you sow.
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On Taking Responsibility

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