You Want The Fish Or You Want The Rod?

Just humour me for a minute here will you …

It’s 1:20am here in England, but I just had to get this off my chest before I went to bed …

If you’re starving hungry and I’m holding a fish in one hand and a rod in the other, and then I tell you have a choice, take the fish, bake it and eat it, or take the rod and go catch the fish before you can bake and eat it, which one would you take?

Well, I know without a doubt, I’d take the fish and run!!  In my view, now is not the time to learn to fish!  Yes I must learn but not at a time when my knees are weak and my stomach is twisted from hunger.

And you know what I percieve to be the biggest reason for failure on the Internet today …

Too Much Choice!

At the seminars, in the forums … whenever you speak to newbies trying to make a living in online and you ask them to tell you what one thing is stopping them succeeding, it’s not a lack of motivation, it’s not their willingness to take action (not directly anyway), it’s not their unwillingness to learn … By far the biggest reasons I hear as to why those new to Internet Marketing just don’t succeed online, its because …

They Have Too Much Information!

They are suffereing from information overload and the reason they just keep purchasing every course that presents an enticing description in their in box, it’s because they think, some how this will be the magic pill.  This course will tell them exactly what to do and then they can find success on the Internet at long last. 

I’m a firm believer in the philosophy that "if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach an man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime," but I’ve added my own philosophy to this … "just give me some fish whilst I’m learning to fish!"   

My experience as a mentor over the past few years is that like the starving person, people who lack knowledge in a particular area, just want to be given the fish … at least whilst they’re learning to fish.  And if you’re more experienced than they are, aren’t you going to suggest where to fish, the right rod to use, what kind of bait to use depending on the type of fish they want to catch … etc.

Well I believe that as mentors, we need to stop trying to give our clients too many choices and just tell them exactly what they need and then guide them through the process.  If you don’t do this, the moment your back is turned, they’ll be trying to find some other solution to fill the learning gap that they "perceive" is there. 

I’m speaking from my own personal experience now and I remember one of my mentors saying to me one day "Trish, just allow me to speak into your life and give you some direction" and knowing Marc Goldman’s and Shawn Casey’s successes with building profitable membership websites, when I read their Membership Superstars sales letter, I heard this same "sweet" music I’d hard from my mentor.  

Marc and Shawn were telling me that they knew EXACLTY which tools I needed to build my membership site and they would coach me through the process and provide me with excellent support if I needed it.  Now, that is what I call a big fish!  And what have I done?  I’m just following their "paint-by-numbers, learn-by-doing system" and perhaps one day when I’ve created a few successful membership sites, I may be able to tweak the process here and there and who knows, I may even find a better solution.

Right now though, there is no better solution - I’ve been looking for one for many months and haven’t found it up until now.  So the only fishing I have to do is for the content for my site.  I don’t need to decide which software is best, upload 5 different scripts and then tweak them to make them work seamlessly together …

I Just Gotta Eat The Fish!

This was music to my ears because this guy is a huge success in his own right on the Internet The last ebook I purchased on running a successful membership site gave me so many options that once I’d done the book I was more confused than when I began.  

With MemberOne, I get 30 days free trial of their software, I get training videos, I get coaching and, I know how much it will cost me each month.  No starting and then realising I need other software to really make the system flexible and functional so now, I can get on with marketing my business which is where the real money is to be made.

And my advice to you?  If you’re new to the Internet … Go find someone who will give you the fish and enjoy it whilst you learn to catch your own!

To your online success,

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