It's AMAZING to me how often I see hints of the
fear of success from the online entrepreneurs I
stumble upon each and every day.

It's easy to get it. We've been brainwashed
all of our lives that "failure is not an option."

For example, we're tagged as a "loser" if we
start a business and crash it into the ground.

Even entertaining the idea of bankruptcy is
worse than a new case of Herpes simplex encephalitis.

What's confusing is our education system (and the media)
brainwashes us into thinking that failure is a bad thing.
Yet they give us mixed signals because they also
quote stories of how now-successful business gurus
relied heavily on failure as inspiration that ultimately led to their success.

This is "Orwellian doublethink" – a word coined by
George Orwell in the novel 1984… describes the
act of simultaneously accepting two mutually
contradictory beliefs as correct.

In simple speak, we're constantly told that
failure is not an option, yet the most successful
business people we know failed a lot to
ultimately become successful.

It's like saying voting is rigged, but vote for Ron Paul.

It's no wonder everyone is confused.
And it's easy to understand why most
sit on their hands instead of moving forward.

Went broke, then made millions (or billions)

I can name several examples of this twisted logic…
one of the biggest failures in modern history is Donald J. Trump.
Trump managed to pull off at least 19 business failures
over the course of 17 years,

Another example of a mixed message is the story of
Colonel Harlan Sanders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame).
We're told the Colonel failed 1,009 times before someone
bought his secret fried chicken recipe when he turned the
ripe old age of 62. (Talk about persistence.)

But wait… there's more: Microsoft founder and super-rich "geek"
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and started a company called
Traf-O-Data (a service that read the raw data from
roadway traffic counters and created reports for traffic engineers).
It was a colossal failure as the company only booked a
few thousand of dollars in revenue.

Henry Ford (reportedly) went broke five times before
successfully launching the Ford Motor Company.

I could go on and on with these rags-to-riches stories,
but I'm guessing you see the pattern… that is,
successful people failed a lot.

In fact, I only know of one business person I've
ever met in my life (a well-known Philadelphia jeweler)
who claims to have hit it big without a hiccup.
Everyone else failed their way to the top.

So why are we given two completely opposing mantras
about the path to success?

It sure is confusing. In fact, it was this email I got this morning
which inspired me to write this blog post:

Markus,

I need a little guidance. Since the health and fitness niche is so big should I be concentrating on trying to pick something that we can put a unique twist on or should I pick something that everyone is selling and let your marketing system do the rest. I think I'm getting caught up in the fact that I'm trying to find a niche within the health and fitness area that is not totally saturated and it's driving me nuts. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way and over thinking it.

John

John is a client of mine…

… (I teach writers how to create online infoproducts).
And I sense John is like most business people I consult.
It sounds to me as if John is under tremendous pressure to succeed.
And his social network (i.e. family and friends) are subconsciously
pressuring him to get to the top without failing.

Motion beats meditation

The IDEA of failure is so immense, that most find it easier
(and way less risky) to delay or overthink than to "just do it."

Copywriter Gary Halbert is often quoted as saying,
"Motion beats meditation."

While there are very little guarantees in life,
I'm 100% certain that suffering "analysis paralysis" and
stressing about failing is a surefire way to get stuck.

And it's a terrible condition because most tend to get
distracted and procrastinate when they're stuck (rather than do stuff).

Tiger Woods and his balls

Say what you will about Tiger Woods -
but you've got to admire his attitude on the golf course…

… One reason he wins is he doesn't fret about failure.
For example, I've never seen Tiger putt a ball and
have it stop short of the hole. Because if the putt
lands short, it's impossible for the ball to drop into the cup.
His putts either go into the hole or they roll just past the hole…

… The same is true in my world, if I don't type,
my words won't get read. If I don't create videos or audios,
my content doesn't get seen or heard. And since I'm
not a believer of remote viewing, if my stuff can't be
soaked in by my website visitors, I don't get paid.

On the flip side, when I publish content,
my bank account increases. No exception.

Let me repeat this because it's important…
every time I publish content on this blog
(or as a paid infoproduct), I make money.
And that money gives me the ultimate prize – FREEDOM.

The importance of this simple, yet crucial advice
shouldn't be overlooked… the bottom line is if
I don't publish stuff, I don't get paid. And that's 100% guaranteed.

I'm the founding member of the
"I-Don't-Give-A-Crap-Club-For-Men" -
(Wanna join me)?

I do quite well selling my online infoproducts these days…

… But that wasn't always the case.

That's because I wasted over 12 years of my adult life
analyzing, worrying, wondering and stressing about
whether or not someone wanted to buy my writing.

"Will they buy my infoproduct?"

It didn't end there. I worried about what people
thought about the brand name of my sneakers…
my religious affiliation… even the kind of car I drove.

I worried so much about how I was perceived that
I didn't have enough time to care for myself.

Over time, I S L O W L Y realized that
catering to others was insane.

As a result, I've developed a very thick skin over time.
And I made a conscious decision to eliminate the
barriers our society challenges us with.

Eventually, I got over the social stigma of this
odd thing known as failure.

Today, I don't see failure as a result of making mistakes.
Rather, I see failure as a necessary process to
reach my personal goals.

Now don't get me wrong – I don't rush things
just for the sake of "taking action." That's just careless and
ultimately leads to unnecessary stress.

With that said, I no longer fear failure.

My solution was to setup a sort of secret organization inside my head.
I refer to it as the "I-Don't-Give-A-Crap-Club-For-Men".
And as the name suggests, I make decisions that benefit me first.
Everyone else in my life comes second.

This goes totally against what we're told to do.
They even invented a word for this (i.e. selfish)…

… But something rather remarkable happened as I
adopted this controversial mantra. As a result of being selfish,
I'm truly happy for the very first time in my life.
The stress of making everyone else happy has
evaporated into thin air. My stress level is near zero…

… And much to my surprise, I've had a bunch of people RESPECT
me for this new lifestyle (instead of spurning me for being so damn egocentonic).

Just say no to "friends" and family

With this said, some people HATE the "new me".
They want the old Mark back… you know -
the guy who was all politically correct,
\got pushed around, etc. Unfortunately for them,
those days are over. Because there's a
new sheriff in town and his name is Markus Allen.
Ya'll be cool. Right on (and I quote Eddie Murphy in the movie 48 Hours).

Here's what I've discovered. Once I put myself first,
it's impossible to go back. And yes, there's collateral damage.
I've lost a bunch of friends over this… even family members, too.

But the good news is life is really awesome these days.

Say adios to toxins

The reality is most people I used to hang out with
were toxic to me which ultimately delayed reaching my #1 goal – FREEDOM.

I used to hang out with people who LOVE their servitude
(working 9 to 5). They'd rush home from their job,
barely wolf down dinner, dart off to their "kids'" games,
limp back home exhausted – turn on the TV and
hit the sack.

Rinse and repeat.

And if life wasn't complex enough,
the worst invention in the history of mankind
has completely taken over our lives…

… Of course I'm referring to those smartphones.
Nowadays, these same slaves (yes, I said slaves)
are now 24-hour-a-day workers as "the corporation" is
tethered to these workers via their smartphones
every single second of the day – even weekends and holidays.

Yet everyone thinks this technology is somehow cool
This is FRIGHTENING to me.

In order to cope with the stress of this nonsense,
these "friends" were intolerant, drugged up,
out of shape and made really poor personal
choices in almost all aspects of their lives.
And they would bitch about their life to me.
Even worse, they were always a paycheck away from
homelessness (and ruin).

That's no way to live life. Instead, everyone I used to
hang out with were miserable. And their misery
bubbled over to me. So if I wasn't politically correct and
endorsed their life of servitude to the corporation,
I was "uncaring", a "kook" and "weird."

Ending my toxic relationships took time.
It wasn't easy. At first, I was lonely and
wondered if I made the right decision.

But today, I KNOW it was the
best move I ever made in my entire life.

"Take massive action"
(Another "guru" stretch of the truth)

Ask any guru or expert why their "students" fail and
they'll always scream, "They didn't take massive action."

Yes, it's true – sitting on your hands and doing nothing is a
surefire way to nothingness. But at the same time,
taking the WRONG action isn't going to help, either.

If I lost everything today and was forced to start all over,
I'd be doing the EXACT same thing I'm doing right now.

I can't think of any other business I'd rather be in.
Because for a little more than $100 a month, I own a
REAL, online business (that I started from scratch) with
VERY low overhead and VERY high profit margins.
As an infoproduct publisher, I literally get paid
every time I write, replay an audio file or show a video.

I publish content. I get paid for my content.
My freedom increases. Rinse and repeat.

The best part is I "create the wheel" once, and
I turn it over and over again for life. It's the
ultimate set-it-and-forget-it business.

Let me tell you about a "failed" infoproduct I crafted
more than a decade ago. It was called,
101 Instant Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business.

It was literally my best 100+ marketing ideas ever -
all organized by category and complete with quick how-to tips.
I literally POURED everything into this online book.
I even invested a ton of money having it professionally edited
(which in retrospect was a colossal mistake by the way).

And I was CERTAIN it would be a runaway best seller.

Unfortunately for me, it didn't sell so well.
In fact to this day I have no idea why it didn't take off.
I mean, it's packed with my best stuff. The
online salesletter hit on all of the right pain points.

And it was priced right (at $19).

What's interesting is those who bought it RAVED about it.
Yet word of mouth referrals never spread. And over time,
orders stopped coming in.

Now, I could have pulled out the violin and
chanted "Shakespearean" woe is me -
hoping that somehow that would change things…

… Instead, I waited many many years and
created an online infoproduct system that would
revive my online book.

(Click here to get my FREE infoproduct training course
to see my system in action).

And that's exactly what I did – I pulled the
online book off the market. I updated it.
And now I use this online book as a giveaway.
To get it FREE, just enter the access code of:

amazingsecrets

Here:
http://www.marketing-ideas.org/101/login.php

Turn lemons into dough rey me

Giving away this online book
gets new visitors onto my email list.
And from time to time, I send announcements of
new infoproducts I offer for sale. A percentage
of those on my list buy my stuff.

Taking my "failure" and giving it away to build my list
is just one of many ways I get paid to write.

So back to John's original concern:

I think I'm getting caught up in the fact that I'm trying to find a niche within the health and fitness area that is not totally saturated and it's driving me nuts.

First of all, creating infoproducts should be
super fun, obscenely profitable and stress free.
If this is "driving you nuts", let's fix that pronto.

The beauty of my infoproduct creation system is
there's no pressure to sell sell sell. Your cost of
doing business is the same whether you
sell one infoproduct or 100…

… That is, webhosting and your email marketing service provider
are basically the same cost month to month. And once you
create an infoproduct (using my evergreen strategies that are timeless),
you can create it once, and sell it for life – right from your website.

Because we're NOT selling our stuff the traditional way
(e.g. bookstores, Amazon or even ClickBank),
there's no need to worry about profit margins.

With my system, there are no affiliates to pay and
no cost of goods sold. You're merely selling
how-to solutions to people with problems -
all delivered over the Internet.

There's nothing to lose -
this business is OBSCENELY profitable

It's all ones and zeros… so there's
no real cost to deliver your infoproduct.
For the exception of processing fees,
you get to keep the VAST majority of the
revenue for yourself.

The only business that comes even
close to this model is religion…
but my business has no need for
expensive buildings with stained glass and
doesn't have to payout billions to quiet the pedophiles.

No matter what topic you pick, there's
always a demand for it (when you use my system).

For example, if I try to sell something
(and it's not selling well), I pull it and
offer it as a bonus gift inside one of my
other infoproducts. Or, I offer it as a
FREE giveaway (to capture leads into
my email autoresponder). I can even
use it as fodder for my blog or even
content for a guest post on my competitor's blog.

Turn each word you write into cash

Either way you look at it, every word you write…
every audio you record and every video you capture is
going to always pay off. It's literally impossible
not to make money with my system. Impossible.
(Of course the amount of money you make is
directly proportional to your work ethic.)

This concept is SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT to grasp.
Because every minute you think about it (instead of doing it),
you're missing out. Every time the clock ticks and
you're not offering your pearls of wisdom in
one way or another, you're GUARANTEED a $0 payoff.

Let me offer this example to inspire: this blog post about the
fear of success is going to generate some nice dough rey me
into my bank account over the coming years.

On average, the ads at the top of this page
pays me roughly $50.00 every time 1,000 people
see this post.

Even better, a percentage of the visitors reading this are
going to join my email list. The industry average is roughly
$1.00 per email subscriber per month. (I'm a bit
lower than that because I don't hype
crappy products to my list.) Let's go on the
really low side and say each email subscribe
on my list is worth 50 cents a month…
the math tells me just 100 new subscribers
who stay with me for 5 years is worth a whopping $3,000.00.

(And yes… with my system, most of my subscribers
stay on my lists for years.)

Again, that's just for getting merely
100 subscribers onto my email list.
That's a PIECE OF CAKE with my infoproduct system.

The bottom line is if I didn't write this post,
I'd LITERALLY be giving up thousands and
thousands of dollars in easy, long-term money.

If I instead suffered analysis paralysis and fretted
whether or not to figure out what niche I wanted to
start with, I'm to be GUARANTEED zero dollars from
my lack of effort.

My suggestion is to just get started. Use my Keywords for Traffic and
Customer Pain Points' tutorials to find a starving niche to serve.
These tutorials combined show you EXACTLY what to write about…
it even shows you how to get your buyers to help you
write your online salesletter for you.

But the best part is these tutorials help you
create content so the search engines refer you
precisely-targeted traffic to your site (who have
credit card in hand and are virtually
BEGGING to buy your infoproduct)…

… Then take a few moments picking a niche that
you're most passionate about (because it's
much easier to create content in a niche that you like)…
and start cranking out the content…

… If you find that your content isn't selling well – that's cool…
just take it in another direction. Pull apart your product into
several "chunks" and give it away to build your email list.
Then shake off the setback and try it again until you
find a niche that is willing to pay you
handsomely for your solutions.

I don't know of a single business person that
wins 100% of the time. Most are THRILLED
when one of of five ideas pay off.
And you're never going to find that winner
unless you're doing the work.

Remember, motion beats meditation.

Bottom line

Never give up.
Always be creating content that offers solutions to the pain points of the marketplace.
Just say no to the fear of failure.