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Saturday Musings - How to Become a Success
The “success” industry is worth billions of dollars a year selling seminars, videos, books and the like. They peddle guaranteed instant success formulas that for some reason first require you to fork out your hard-earned cash. Most truly successful people don’t apply any of this snake-oil, so what is it that they’ve discovered?
Several years ago, I found myself on the platform at a conference being interviewed about what it takes to create a successful blog. It was at the height of the SEO (search engine optimisation) hysteria and as I looked across the audience, I could see they were hoping for some formula that would guarantee they would become successful.
Maybe I would say that I incorporated a particular number of hot keywords into articles or ensured that each one was of a particular length. This would provide them what they needed to become successful!
I turned to the moderator and asked, “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes,” came the reply.
I looked across the audience and said, “It’s incredibly easy to create a successful blog.”
By this time the moderator was getting a little impatient and asked, “Well, what’s the secret?”
“Write two to three articles a week for ten years.”
A groan could be heard across the auditorium and the moderator looked at me with a particular level of disappointment. This isn’t what anyone wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that with a wave of my hand I could turn them all into successful bloggers.
The problem is that I was sharing a truth that no one wanted to hear. Most people I come across want easy success with piles of money showering them at the end of each day. This just doesn’t happen.
In the case of writing a blog, Google’s ranking algorithms are designed to reward good quality content that is updated on a regular basis that people want to read. You can employ an SEO company to “game” the system for a time but my recommendation is to give Google want to wants….consistency and discipline.
These two words are what drives me is most of my life. Even in playing computer strategy games I apply the techniques of consistency and discipline. I know that if my computer enemy allows me to save a consistent amount of my resources each and every turn then I will ultimately win the game.
Hugely business successful individuals like Elon Musk are up at 4am each morning and go to bed when the job is done. They don’t just do this every so often but every single day. He is amazingly disciplined and consistent in his life’s endeavours and is driven by a huge bold vision.
I recently sat down with one of my daughters and explained business like this. Starting a business is like rolling a big boulder up a hill. You push and push and suddenly the boulder moves a few feet. You wished it would get easier, but the pressure never seems to relent. At each stage you wonder if the boulder is going to roll back towards you but in grim determination you push yet again.
Many entrepreneurs look at their friends who clock on at 9am and off at 5pm and bemoan the fact that they have it so easy. Some give up, not realising that they are only a couple of feet from the top of the hill where the boulder can roll down the other side.
Being consistent and disciplined is a major contributor to building a successful business. So many of us look on with a certain amount of jealousy at the successful people portraited on the front page of the newspaper. “That should be me!” we say…..not realising the incredible discipline those individuals have out of the lime-light.
I know very wealthy domain investors that are up early in the morning every day to make sure they are in the drop auctions. They are unassuming individuals that largely mind their own business but there is one common trait they all have, discipline and consistency. It’s a part of their life, it’s who they are.
This weekend I would encourage you to stop looking for the next quick rich scheme and focus on yourself. How you can apply consistency and discipline to create true success in your life?
Have a great weekend,
Michael
Comments
In 1999 through early 2000s I had a huge Club Music / DJ community. I grew it to 35,000 members in 2-3 years. People tossed around words like lucky and easy .. but nobody realised that on top of my full time "real world" job, I was working 40-50 hours a week developing content. On top of that I had developed some great efficiencies and most certainly had found some custom secret tricks to growth. But the reason I was so successful (with $0 marketing) was hard work.
That being said .. this time around with my daily lists at NameCult I find myself a little more frustrated. For a couple of years now, day in and day out I post the most comprehensive manually curated list of expiring domains in the industry. Yet even after several hundred daily lists, most people don't bother to use the affiliate links .. or even to bother clicking like/thanks for my lists at NamePros. Not only that, but even NamePros doesn't think my site is worthy enough to merit a "NameCult" badge .. and Domaining.com refused to post links to my daily lists because the other people who make lists don't want it.
At a certain point hard work only goes so far .. after a while if the industry you're trying to serve doesn't show any respect, then that "boulder" you're talking about suddenly starts to feel significantly heavier than it actually is.
So on that note Michael .. thank you for your blog, your writing/musings and most importantly .. your time!
Hi there,
Let me first thank you for the kind comments about my blog. Secondly, I'd be happy for you to publish the list of domains here.....or if there is anything that you would like me to do to help you out then don't hesitate to ask. It could be good to connect via skype or phone. Email me and let me know what would be best for you.