Lance,

i cried after i read your words above, sincerely

how are you defining success? by what metric?

My reasons are what keep me going. I'd like to know what feeds you?

to what end? Seriously.

my enquiring mind wants to know, "to what end?"

In my and Chris Zubryd's 35 minute video
entitled The Pitch, Poker & The Public
staring...

✯ Joel Bauer,
✯ Howard Bloom,
✯ Howard Campbell,
✯ Mike Caro, &
✯ Jay Conrad Levinson.

i asked each icon of success, what they were doing AFTER they were established as a successful, unstoppable GURU in each of their respective fields.

Mike Caro, the world's greatest Low-Ball player and author of the seminal book, The Body Language of Poker where Caro details for the first time a comprehensive rubric of body-language poker tells.

To make a long story short...

Mike Caro said he reached a level of maturity when he stopped looking for the toughest game in town, where he could prove his superior strength and prowess...

Mike Caro said he matured the day he realized he no longer had an interest in beating the toughest game in town. Instead, he found joy in beating the easiest game in town.

Therein lies my confusion with your strategy of mounting tactics that require you to find endlessly challenging, regardless of your motives and reasons.

For me, I only keep-after challenging opportunities because they are aligned with my bigger goal to bring drinkable water to every human on this planet.

Sincerely,

Ben

Hello,
I recently learned about a concept called survivor bias. You will hear about the traits it takes to win . From winners . Then no one mention about the throngs of people who had those same traits and still lost.

The point is that people attribute something you need to succeed. To something that will cause you to succeed. Then totally ignore the numbers of people who do what they love . While remaining poor and unsatisfied.

What you do has to create some sort of passion while your doing it.

Ken

You make a couple good points Ken.

The "survivor bias" is very strong in society-- if it were not then we wouldn't have the kazillion "how to succeed" books out there-- many trumpeting the different way to succeed. And that's a prime reason why I gave up reading those sorts of books over a decade ago... plus I started meeting and talking to those that were considered successful in business. Most would not have fit into guidelines of what many of the "success" books claim you need in order to succeed.

The second point you made about the passion coming as you do something seems more consistent with the people I know that are successful in business.

Many of them were struggling business owners or failing entrepreneurs. All of a sudden they came across or did something (like Ray Kroc) that made them some money-- from there the passion came from building a successful business. Heck that's how it has worked for me. I tried doing it twice the other way-- doing what you love. And I failed miserably at it. Yeah, I could make a living but I wanted to make more than a "living". When I started looking for what identifiable segments of the population truly wanted or what problems they wanted to solve is when I started having a successful business.

If you start a business entirely on what "you want" you've already cost yourself some money. A successful business isn't about you. It's about what problem or desire a segment of the population wants and what you're going to do to satisfy them. The closer the "match" and the more money you'll make.

And no, it's not all about money. But I'll tell you that making money itself can do a great deal to drive passion.

Can't argue with you there! Which leads right into why we find business people to be lousy clients for our copywriting/marketing endeavors...

I think you should give people more credit though...I keep reading about, hearing about, and meeting people who (like me) needed to get kicked in the butt a few times before waking up.

Failure is par for the course...it's how you deal with it that matters.

Quite frankly, becoming a copywriter was a pragmatic decision for me. That's where the money is if you want to write.

The mistake I made was listening to people like Bly and Bowerman who made it sound like average Joe Business wanted my services.

Now...if I could do what I really love, it would be to sit in a cafe or at a smallish dinner party (like 8 people) and have fascinating and deep discussions about everything.

I suppose I could fulfill this by becoming an online radio talk show host (with different guests)...but as somewhat of a pragmatist, I am after where the money is.

Suzanne:

Joint-venture with a nice restaurant or a chef, charge $295 a head, pick a topic, call it a "private workshop" or a "dinner seminar," and you're on to something.

wow! that's not a bad idea!

Excellent point! But an entrepreneur can also try and fit what she loves into a match for what the market desires.

I know it's easier the other way around and I know this is what most marketing books suggest, but if you're clever enough, you can find a broader market for very niche subjects. It's all about positioning.

You're right if you are clever there is some latitude there. I just don't think people are clever (enough). They'll come up with a single idea-- say they're an expert catfish skinner. What they'll do is create an ebook for catfish skinners and when it doesn't sell they'll be shocked and dumbfounded. And instead of trying to expand the niche and/or look for other products that are a better match for the existing niche they just putter around with what they've done so far and beotch about how stupid people are for not buying their product and how unfair the world is.

I actually see those on the Food Network. (I don't watch TV. But when Sylvie and I do, it's the Food Network, of course!)

And I've seen this in one show where it's a "cooking seminar." Not a seminar about cooking but one where the chef prepares the meal, teaches 10-20 how to make their own meal while watching him, and while cooking (and eating afterwards), discussing the topic of the "seminar."

It was brilliant.

I think you can call it, "Let's talk over dinner."