“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” ~ Thomas Edison
If you run your own website, blog or eCommerce business, then you need to hear what most people don’t know about making our business profitable – lessons from one of the greatest inventors of all time, and business minds, Thomas Edison.
- Did you know that Edison struggled with hearing issues at an early age?
- Did you know he used to sell sweets and news papers on trains (and vegetables) to earn extra money?
- Did you know he has founded 14 companies, including General Electric, still one of the largest publicly traded companies on the globe?
- Did you know he has patented more than a thousand inventions in the US alone?
His biography is not the normal type of rags to riches story. The challenges he faced made him the man he was. In fact, these life challenges helped him to create the products he envisioned, and even build the companies he planned. Picture this toddler with deep blue-green eyes. Until he was almost four years old, Thomas did not learn to talk. Immediately thereafter, his natural curiosity and “why” questions would drive most of the adults (crazy) that he’d encounter and interact with.
Let’s think about our online business for a moment
- How many CEOs and web site specialists did we talk with before and after starting the venture?
- How many pro bloggers, eCommerce webmasters and
SEO experts did we grill for wisdom? - How often do we analyze our competitors business and operations beyond the surface?
- How many of us buy from our competitors and dissect and reverse engineer their marketing and business systems?
Don’t expect to figure out what works and what doesn’t, (which will unlock the keys to running a profitable business), by doing the same things, over and over again. That’s called insanity! The reality is cruel though. The people who lack success or significant results within their business are the very same people who run their operations blindfolded.
Most of us start a business by pure instinct, with no clear path of where to go for pro advice or specialized knowledge. When things get stuck or start to shake, we have no idea where to turn… We don’t ask questions. We don’t ask the right questions. We don’t ask the right questions to the right people. And more importantly, we aren’t used to asking ourselves the right questions.
No wonder 95% of businesses struggle to make significant profit and die within the first 5 years, as most statistics show.
The biggest question you need to ask yourself is “WHY”!
- Why this works?
- Why did this work for him or her?
- Why didn’t this work for me?
The second biggest question you need to ask yourself is “HOW”!
- How can I make this work for me?
- How do I hire this person to build me X or Y?
- How do I make my site profitable?
- How do I start a blog or build a mailing list?
- How do I create my own product or iPhone app?
The third biggest question is “WHO ELSE”!
- Who else has a profitable site in my niche or industry?
- Who else has a successful blog or mailing list?
- Who else has created a top product or iPhone app?
- And then you go backwards, and ask yourself “WHY” and “HOW”.
The questions we ask ourselves are the most important questions. Even more important than the ones we get to ask other experts and specialists.
“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison.
The reason why some people are able to build successful businesses is not because they’re smarter than you or me. The reason why some people know how to create profit from the Internet is simple……because they’ve learned to ask the right questions, and do what others can’t or won’t.
Let’s face it. It’s not easy to get up in the morning and get the hardest task done first. Instead the majority of us are chatting with colleagues, checking emails, or reading blogs. It takes guts, perseverance and determination to get things done, and remove the noise.
When you start off your day with the hardest and most important activity, you’re miles ahead of your competitors. The big key to online profits resides in asking the right questions, and getting the hardest things done first, better and faster than anybody else in your niche.
“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” ~ Thomas Edison.
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Images: ”A field of original vintage Thomas Edison light bulbs, illustration of hundreds of light bulbs lined up. / Shutterstock.com“
