What is the One Quality you Must Have to Succeed in Online Business?
A few weeks ago, my friend, Kathleen Gage (who I hope to have on my podcast soon) emailed me and asked me to answer one question:
What is the One Quality you Must Have to Succeed in Online Business?
I'll paste my response below, but keep reading as I have a free gift at the end. 🙂
Here's my answer…
The success mindset is a fascinating topic, isn't it? It never ceases to amaze me to see two business owners who are equally capable and hard-working, yet one will succeed (seemingly effortlessly) while the other continues to struggle to make ends meet. If I could bottle whatever it is that successful entrepreneurs have, I'd be very wealthy indeed.
To answer your question, the top quality, I feel, is resilience. Business is wonderful, but it can be a roller coaster. I regularly see people who internalize all setbacks as their own doing (whether right or wrong), and never acknowledge their achievements when they succeed. Can you imagine doing that as a parent? Criticizing yourself for every mistake your child makes, and then never taking credit or patting yourself on the back when they soar? Ouch. That would make parenting very difficult. But, yet, we do that in our own businesses. I know that I've struggled with it, myself.
I feel that the main obstacle that makes it hard to be resilient is that we tend to work in a bubble and don't want to share our setbacks with others. We may be embarrassed by them or feel they show weakness. Obviously that makes being resilient difficult because when bad things happen in business, we think that it's only happening to us. Yet, when we open the dialog with other business owners, we often find that bumps in the road are just part of the path we're on. In fact, many of the most successful people that I've talked with have had colossal setbacks and have recovered from bankruptcy, depression, and worse.
So, my advice is to grip on to the dashboard and ride the bumps out, reminding yourself that everyone hits them — and be assured that it's smoother road ahead.
A few days after I sent in my reply, Kathleen sent me a report with the answers that she compiled from several of her friends. This report is normally part of a paid course, but she gave me permission to share it.
Here you go. Enjoy. No optin or anything. Just some good food for thought:
Click to Read “Mindset Report”
(Ignore page 2 where it says I stole the report illegally. lol. I really didn't.)
Warmly,
Nicole
Traci Knoppe
June 23, 2010 at 7:28 amAwesome post. Thanks for the gift Nicole & Kathleen. 🙂
Funny you should post this, as lately I’ve been thinking a lot about success. I can relate to much of what others said in the Mindset report.
For me personally, I attribute my success to faith in myself and pit bull like determination. I’m driven and passionate about what I do – and while I’ve most definitely made mistakes, had to change things, and realize I’m much better at some things than others: I didn’t throw in the towel and give up (even though there were days when I thought about it LOL).
One thing I believe is also key to my success (and that of others), is I take responsibility for what I do and I don’t make excuses. When an obstacle comes up, or something happens, I don’t blame someone else, or make an excuse for why I can’t do something: I find a way to do it, fix it and/or make it right.
The motto ‘git ‘er done’ is often applied in my business. Just do it!
Again, great, and timely post, Nicole. Can’t wait to see you again at NAMS4!
Traci
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:09 pmDetermination has been a big part of my business. I’m stubborn like a mule… and it helps. 🙂
See you soon, my friend!
liz
June 23, 2010 at 7:52 amHey Nicole, Sharing our setbacks and showing our vulnerable is sometimes hard to do, but you’re right, sharing it helps others relate and that’s comforting for them, and you 🙂
I think there are a combination of qualities needed, some we may already have, some we have to work on. For me it’s been reaching outside of my comfort zone, a tough one for a lot of people, but it’s something I work on 🙂
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:10 pmOh, I agree. It’s much easier to hang on out Twitter and Facebook than to do an interview or write an article.
Pushing that comfort limit is a toughie, but one that needs to be addressed. Definitely.
Kelly McCausey
June 23, 2010 at 11:01 pmNicole you are awesomely resilient and I can see how that serves you well as an internet marketer.
It’s not about what happens, it’s about how you think about what happened – plucking the lessons and processing them instead of getting all freaked out about what didn’t work.
Thanks for sharing!
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:10 pmAmen, sister!
Alan
June 24, 2010 at 10:04 amFor me it would be focusing on a proven profitable business model and stick to only it. Very often we just have too many things we want to get accomplished and doing almost everything just seems impossible. It would be a lot better to recognize your own ability and limitations and using a proven model that you know works and focus on that.
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:15 pmYes. Love it.
New entrepreneurs run around like bunnies, chasing things and never give themselves the momentum that they truly should have from all of their efforts because it’s way too spread out.
One proven business model. Definitely.
Michelle Schoen
June 24, 2010 at 8:06 pmOne quality that was not mentioned in the free report and is especially important for us moms is “organized”. It is extremely important to be able to prioritize and plan your schedule so that you can maximize your time to get the most amount of tasks done. Sometimes just knowing the kids are walking in the door at 3:00 makes me extremely efficient during the week and I attribute that to getting lots of tasks done in my business on a daily basis.
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:12 pmAgreed. And, one thing that you need to do to be organized is to know what is crucial to success and what isn’t… and that’s always a tough call, no matter what stage of the game you’re in.
Great comment!
William A.K.A. 2Xtremeblogger
June 24, 2010 at 8:07 pmFunny, I was talking with a friend @ work today about making money online and in the real world. He ask how he could become rich with out any effort.
I told him that he was reading to many ebooks.
But, if I had to narrow it down to just one quality to succeed in business online or off it would be to focus.
However, many other things need to be in order before hand. I would focus all my endevours like a laser focuses on cutting a diamond or like Google PPC focuses on your target market.
Hey, I think I have an idea for a new blog post!
Thanks Nichole for the inspiration…
& to you and Kathleen for the great report.
PS. Are you planing another BWT this year?
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:14 pmGlad I could help you write a blog post. 🙂 I’m loving the discussion here.
I haven’t planned on a Blog Tour this summer, but I am scheduling some guest blogging for the fall. Nothing quite as big as last time, though.
K.C. Gagne
June 25, 2010 at 7:13 amThanks for sharing! I think your answer is right on! Wish I had more resilience. I think I’m going for the slow and steady win. 😉
(It’s really hard not to get my attention when you post a name like Kathleen Gage. DId you know my first name is Kathleen?)
Nicole
June 25, 2010 at 12:08 pmlol. I used to get you two confused all the time because of the name similarity until I got to know you both better.
Slow and steady worked for the tortoise. It’s not a bad thing at all. 🙂
Dani
June 26, 2010 at 5:54 amYour opinion of yourself becomes your reality. The problem is, that very often we are to hard on ourselves. We tend to see only the things we did not achieve and take what we did for granted. It is, like you said, very important to give ourselves a pat on our own back every now and than. Thanks for that timeless post.
Kim DeYoung
June 30, 2010 at 5:33 amNicole – this is so timely. As entrepreneurs we are in our own isolated cocoon and we feel each and every little hiccup of our business as if it were a hurricane. Truth is it’s all part of the entrepreneurial journey but it’s incredibly lonely when you don’t have a person or group you connect with to share it honestly.
There’s so much hype on the internet as to what people say they’re doing and what we perceive they’re doing, that it’s really easy to assume that when we have our own problems that we’re the only one.
To stay sane (and enjoy the process) it’s really important to acknowledge what we did well, what we learned from, and what took action on from that learning.
Jeanie
July 7, 2010 at 8:25 pmI learned perseverance is the key in business when I first started my brick and mortar store and only earned 30.00 every two weeks. I could have thrown in the towel,but I stayed with it and saw success. Now that I am closing the B&M and starting online I have to remember to hang in there until things get better and not give up.
Jeanie
The Business Coach for Moms
July 15, 2010 at 9:27 pmI ditto everything that was said here and I will add: the importance of not listening to other people. You have to intuitively KNOW what you’re capable of, even if you’ve never done it before. This allows you not to be distracted when others tell you that you need to be going in “dat” direction.
You also have to be oblivious to others opinions. When the business isn’t growing as fast as “they” think it should, or they’ve seen you fail a few times, you have to not “hear” their questions and criticisms and keep moving.