Why do people fail at internet marketing? 
My suggestion is that you go to YouTube and watch old re-runs of The Andy Griffith Show.
If you already think you are a failure, don’t try to build an online business, or any other kind of business for that matter.
You will not succeed because you are a failure. So-long, Friend!
If your thinking is the slightest bit different from above, then continue reading. There is hope for you yet.
Failure is one of those dirty words that people should not think about. But is this necessarily true?
I don’t think so. You have to think about it, because it is here to stay. People think of the word, failure in three different ways.
A Person Thinks He is A Failure
I refer to this person as the pre- conceiver. At the beginning of every venture, he has already envisioned himself as a failure.
The mind is a very powerful tool. “You are what you think you are.” When a person thinks he is a failure, chances are, it is true. The person has already conditioned his mind in a negative way.
Therefore, whatever he does, or tries to do will not be successful. From the very beginning, this person knows he is going to fail. Eventually, he gives up, because he is a quitter.
Have you ever been around a pessimistic person? It is very sickening. Go to this kind of person and present to him an idea that has the fullest potential for success, and he will give you at least fifty reasons why it will fail.
Listen to him, and you will have the exact same thought pattern, which is, “Nothing I do is going to succeed”. If you come into contact with such a person, get away from him as fast as you can.
He has nothing good to say about anything. What he needs to realize is, not everything is totally useless. “Even a broken wristwatch has the correct time twice a day”.
Even failure is not totally useless. But the pre-conceiver does not think of failure as a stepping-stone. He thinks of it as total doom.
A Person Is Afraid of Failure
If you are still with us, I am very happy for you. You probably are not a failure. The person who is afraid of failure is the tentative atychiphobic.
Atychiphobia is the fear of failure. It can result in a disruptive lifestyle and devastating effects. I call this condition tentative because this person is not about to allow failure to overcome him.
It’s perfectly all right to be afraid of failure. Browse through history some time, and read about the accomplishments that people have made over the years. My favorite example is Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
Was he afraid? I would have been terrified out of my wits.
Was Mr. Armstrong human? Sure he was. Being human, he had to be afraid of being the cornerstone of one of the most dangerous missions in history. Did this stop him? To find the answer to this question, click here.
Fear of failure is natural. In some cases, being afraid means that you are only human. It’s the way you handle fear that will determine whether you are a failure or a success.
A successful person will use fear as a motivator. When he achieves the success he is after (and notice that I said, when), he has made two amazing accomplishments.
First, he has achieved the success that he originally set out to achieve. Second, he has overcome fear.
This guy is on his way to the top. While everything he does in the future may not be successful, he is going to keep pushing ahead, because the fear of failure is not going to overcome him.
A Person Welcomes Failure
This person is the challenger. He knows he is not a failure. He is not afraid of failure. He welcomes it with open arms.
In fact, he has made failure his new friend. Are you familiar with the quote from The Godfather Part II, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”?
To this person, failure means nothing. If you have an online business, or any kind of business, you are going to fail many times. This is part of doing business.
When the challenger fails, he will say to himself, “What the heck! I’ll just move on to the next project.” When the challenger fails, he is devastated, for about twenty seconds. Then, he moves on, and every trace of this failure is non-existent.
He will probably fail again, and again, and again. This does not bother him, because he knows where he is going.
This guy does not believe he is going to be successful. He KNOWS he is going to be successful. He will fail ten times. The eleventh times, he will not only succeed. His success will more than make up for the ten failures.
How Successful People Have Handled Failure
Are you still reading? Good for you!
One of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world is Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. According to Mr. Cuban, there is no failure. What may be thought of as failure by some people is just a learning experience.
No matter how many times you fail, it really doesn’t matter, because “All it takes is one hit, and then everybody can call you an overnight success.”
I’m sure everyone remembers Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. One of his many theories of success is not being afraid to ask for help. You have to take action, and do whatever it takes to get the job done. If you are afraid of failure and rejection, you won’t get very far.
Who was baseball’s greatest hitter? If you said, Ted Williams, you are one hundred percent correct.
Did you know that his lifetime batting average was 344? That was good. But, do you realize that he failed at least 656 times? Even the greatest experience failure!
Who is the greatest College Football coach? Even though I am a fan of his cross-state rival, I have to admit that the greatest is Nick Saban. In 2007, one would have never thought so, when Alabama finished the season with a record of 7 wins and 6 losses.
Considering it was Alabama, they may as well have had no wins and 13 losses. Many of the Alabama faithful thought of him as a failure. Did this get to him? I don’t think so.
After the 2007 loss to Auburn, Saban was interviewed. I distinctly remember him saying, “You fans, bear with me, because I am about to build something special.”
Did he do so what he said he would do? Ask Mack Brown of Texas, Les Miles of LSU and Brian Kelly of Notre Dame.
If you still have a hang-up about failure, consider two of the most successful people in internet marketing, John Chow and Jeremy Shoemaker.
One of the characteristics of the successful internet marketer is, they learn from their setbacks. Failure is just one part of the road to being successful.
With this being said, you have to think that these two entrepreneurs failed many times. But look where they are now.
Closing Thoughts
Failure is a part of your internet marketing business. It is a very big part. In the absence of failure, many of the successful internet marketers would not be where they are today. You will fail many times.
But only concern yourself with the big picture. Use failure as the motivational factor to keep that drive inside of you going in the right direction.
Welcome failure. Make friends with it. Learn from it. Keep doing this, and you will not just have that one hit that will set you up for life. You will have several hits.
Keep failure close, overcome it, and crush it like a bug.
This guest post is by Charles Mundi. Learn more about him at charlesmoney.com
Photo Credit: Charts