May 2011

Businesses have a life span. Some live to be very old. Others die young. None are immortal.

Some get sick, but they get well. Others get sick, then get sicker.

Some businesses die on their own, while others are euthanized.

The same is true of careers. Our professional lives aren’t often diagrammed by a never-ending upward trajectory. They sometimes stumble, falter and take a nose-dive. At times they have to be reinvented. Like the US Marines, sometimes we encounter problems in our career and we have to improvise.

If you’ve got a business – or career – that is always under fire…take heart. There are probably opportunities within reach. You have to get some focus and clarity so you can see them.

 

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Internet marketing is full of snakes who want your money. We all love our dreams though. And most of us dream of more money!

A person buys a couple of domain names. Cost $15.74.

They invest in a year’s worth of shared hosting. Cost $83.40

They use WordPress, which is free, but decide on a premium theme. Cost $87.

Grand total of starting an online business capable of earning tens of thousands, perhaps more? $186.14

Three months pass. Nothing.

Six months passes. Still nothing.

Undeterred, another month passes. Nothing. Now depression sets in. Funk hit.

Hardheaded persistence prevails and another five months pass before they cry, “Uncle!”

They’ve managed to turn an annual investment (it’s really an expense) of $186.14 into an utter waste of time. That’s if they’re lucky.

The unlucky people have spent far more, in both time and money. They’ve purchased one $1997 information product after another. They’re on every Guru’s email list. They’ve purchased from all the big names. Thousands of dollars have been spent fueling their dream. They’re convinced success is happening for everybody with an online endeavor. They just lack the information necessary, but that next Guru Launch is going to be the missing link to their online success. They’ve foolishly swallowed lies or anecdotal evidence. Like lottery players all over the country, they embrace the dream of “getting lucky.”

Here’s the Wikipedia entry for the phrase “anecdotal evidence” –

The expression anecdotal evidence refers both to evidence that is factually unreliable, as well as evidence that may be true but cherry-picked or otherwise unrepresentative of typical cases.^[1] In other words, there are two distinct meanings:

(1) Evidence in the form of an anecdote or hearsay is called anecdotal if there is doubt about its veracity; the evidence itself is considered untrustworthy.

(2) Evidence, which may itself be true and verifiable, used to deduce a conclusion which does not follow from it, usually by generalizing from an insufficient amount of evidence. For example “my grandfather smoked like a chimney and died healthy in a car crash at the age of 99” does not disprove the proposition that “smoking markedly increases the probability of cancer and heart disease at a relatively early age”. In this case, the evidence may itself be true, but does not warrant the conclusion.

In both cases the conclusion is unreliable; it may not be untrue, but it doesn’t follow from the “evidence”.

Evidence can be anecdotal in both senses: “Goat yogurt prolongs life: I heard that a man in a mountain village who ate only yogurt lived to 120.”

The term is often used in contrast to scientific evidence, such as evidence-based medicine, which are types of formal accounts. Some anecdotal evidence does not qualify as scientific evidence because its nature prevents it from being investigated using the scientific method. Misuse of anecdotal evidence is a logical fallacy and is sometimes informally referred to as the “person who” fallacy (“I know a person who…”; “I know of a case where…” etc. Compare with hasty generalization). Anecdotal evidence is not necessarily representative of a “typical” experience; statistical evidence can more accurately determine how typical something is.

Do not trust an Internet marketer selling information products for $1997.

Resist the temptation. You can learn how to build a business without supporting these people. Sadly, some people still feel compelled to keep buying. Convinced there are secrets they don’t yet know, they read every sales letter, open every email and watch every sales video. Resisting the BUY button is difficult, even though the credit card bills keep on rolling in.

Don’t let that be YOU. Protect yourself.