Do You Agree With Armand Morin's Statement "There are 2 ways to become successful, first you can..."

I suppose that depends on how you define success.

I'm going to agree and disagree.

If you're in the wrong market, you will never find success. It doesn't matter how long or hard you work or even who you pay to mentor you. Serving a market that doesn't resonate with you doesn't work. Your market will see right through you.

If you serve the market you're "intended" (for lack of a better word) to serve you will work towards success with or without a mentor.

I took time off from "being" a freelance writer to try my hand at "being" an internet marketer. It didn't work for me. It wasn't my market. It's not where I shine because I'm serving the wrong market.

As soon as I reclaimed my title of freelance writer, ghostwriter and paid blogger, I almost immediately started making money again---two years after I stepped away from that market. It's just who I am.

As for success, to me that isn't only about money. It's also about recognition and branding of the services you offer. For me that's being a writer, not a marketer. However, I'm very good at marketing my services as a writer, but not as a marketer. Go figure. lol

I've probably rattled on and it may only make sense to me, but that's what I think about it. Hope it made sense.

Great topic, by the way. Thanks for posting the question.

HA! love this one. Thanks.
I married up. Definite advantage to marrying well.

Perhaps an example might help.

It is said that Percy Shaw, the inventor of the Cat's Eye, was driving one evening and his head lights were reflected by a cat. This gave him the idea for his invention from which he made millions.

Will

PS - If the cat had been facing the other way, perhaps he might have invented the pencil sharpener

I would say both.

That being said, I've personally learned everything I know over the past 5 years through taking action, spending money, making mistakes, and repeating that process many times.

Someone Got It.

Whenever I attend an event by a Guru, I listen for the set up to sell coaching.
The best guys start the first hour and are setting up the coaching sale all the way through the event. Every question, poll, example, testimonial, is created to sell the idea of coaching.

That's what the OP question was. It's a false choice. And the question, and everything said around it, is designed to elicit "Just pay someone to teach you".

It's not a bad thing, it's just the way coaches pitch.
And coaching is the most profitable thing a Guru can sell.

This isn't a guess.

I don't know of ANY highly successful person in any field that does not use tools to improve profitability...the right tools used the right way are invaluable.

The problem with trying to learn on your own, is you do not know the things you are ignorant about. You make silly mistakes and pay an ignorant tax for not even realizing you needed to know something.

Indeed, I agree with you that you must learn from the "right" person.

THAT is an awesome combination, and necessary for high level of success. As someone who has done a ton of business and leadership training, I would dare say, those things are rarely, if ever "figured out on their own"...somewhere down the line, someone paid to discover and practice those things, especially as a combination.



Bwahahaaha! I love it! well, i love the irony of your comment. it is a sad, but true fact.

And he isn't the only one... :rolleyes:

Right Cathy,

It never ceases to amaze me how many people think they can do it alone...when NOTHING in life worthwhile, can be done with EXCELLENCE to its FULL POTENTIAL without some coaching.

Sure you can read a book, and start doing, but who would trust the airline pilot or surgeon who was self taught? no one...why? because they would not have ever had any CORRECTION, they would not know what bad habits or outright errors they had picked up.

Just like children can not raise themseelves and be HEALTHY, neither can one reach high level success.

Oh yeah, I am a coach, and not ashamed of it. I am expensive because I am darn good and worth every penny too! I have invested over a million dollars in my own personal development over the DECADES, a lot of it in coaching. It was all worth it.

Cowboys always like to tell otherwise, as if somehow being self taught has virtue...what society is full of self taught individuals? NONE!

They are full of snarky comments...just like most people who have never had education or personal development. In the end though, cowboys rarely reach the level those coached have (which without them even knowing it is usually the reason for being so bitter and snarky in the first place)...even when they do reach a measure of success, in an apples-to-apples comparison, they NEVER perform as well as one who was coached properly. And they most always are difficult people to deal with...again I could name names....lol

....my 2¢

Because without the false limit, there might be another option besides "buy my coaching" and "failure". And if that's 'snarky', sign me up for the tee shirt.

I've nothing against coaching or coaches. I don't particularly care for this type of self-promotion wrapped up in pseudophilosophy.

So - now anyone questioning the proposition is also a troll?

This a really interesting response from a 'coach' who is supposed to be demonstrating a positive/successful mindset.

You can avoid all the 'trolls' by just having an honest interaction about your posts and motives. The people calling you out are only seeming to you like trolls because you don't like being questioned. It's not "personal" it's just people's natural tendancy to want to understand the motives of a poster.

I'm sure you can understand that there are a LOT of people coming here to post purely to expose their sig file, so you surely can understand that for many people who've seen this to the extreme they have a red flag when they see a thread started by someone who includes a related sig file?

It's not about you so don't feel insulted by it.

Wow, this is interesting, I was reading along here looking at the replies and actually reading them, when I came across this, the first thing I thought about was the classic Aesops Fables, the story about the Fox and the Grapes.

Imagine how different the thread might have been had the OP actually been interested in coaching...

And I would say it is true that the collective We do not know this guy and what he is capable of doing, but I think it is obvious when you attempt to post what is an obviously flawed premise.

If there were only two ways to succeed, then we would live in a world filled with failures, instead we live in a very different world, one where success is measured in very different ways, when you attempt to manipulate and focus a post in a forum that is designed to be about marketing why would you play the Fox?

That's a great example Tara.

I've attended many coaching courses where people were new to coaching and expecting that once they have a coaching qualification they could start making money right away.

I also interviewed many successful coaches - who almost all said - they started out not with a financial target in mind, but becoming excellent at their craft. What made them successful was that they were not trying to make $xxxxx within x days, but that they were dedicated to become excellent practitioners.

My sister is a life coach and very successful, she can now travel around the world for holidays which pay for themselves because she has groups of people begging her to run workshops while she's there. She has run her own businesses for most of her life, while bringing up an amazing family and traveling extensively.

The fact that her husband is also a successful businessman meant that she did not have the need to pay the bills forcing her to put a financial focus on her business and so could build it in a manner which completely suited her goals and the revenue was just one element to consider rather than a driving force.

In IM many people get into it without reasonable expectations of the time it takes to build a solid business and gain experience but think that because it's online, profits should be instant.

Most businesses don't expect to break even for at least a year - if new IMers took the same expectation as normal I believe many would find success where they have previously not because they gave up after a few months thinking something must be wrong.

As the OP has now thrown his toys out and gone away we can probably have a decent conversation about coaching without everything having to come to how it agrees or not with Amand's comment.

Andy

My apologies for ignoring the great and powerful wizard and peeking behind the curtain... :rolleyes: