Dien Rice
February 22, 2012, 10:23 AM
This message is ONLY for people who have not had meaningful success in their business/professional lives.
Doesn't it just tick you off when one of the "belief lecturers" tells you that to be successful, you just need to "believe in yourself"?
So here's the Catch-22. They tell you that you can't be successful unless you believe in yourself. And you and I know 100% for certain that you CAN'T believe in yourself, because you've never been successful. How do you find an exit from THAT box?
And ... it's not just you and me. It's probably 70% of the population who get trapped in there. There are a lot more of US than there are of the "belief believers."
But there is at least one way out of that box. Back in my 100% unsuccessful days, I was fortunate to spend time with and learn from some very good marketers. I learned a lot of stuff that changed my life, but far and away the #1 mindset I learned from great marketers was ...
Testing
EVERYTHING must be tested.
So long as you are testing, you do NOT need to believe. People believe because they feel they know the answer. But if you don't believe, then you must test to see what works best. If you learn from each test you do, then over time you will eliminate what does not work and eventually find something that does work.
In other words ... you will have success. And now you're out of that box, and belief comes much more easily.
But even today, 20-some years after I went thru this mental transformation, I still consider everything a test. And I know most tests don't work. So THAT is my expectation. That is my belief about everything I do. But I know how to test and how to learn from my testing, and so I know that even tho today's test probably won't work, I will keep testing and learning and inevitably will hit one that does work.
So the good new is, if you consider yourself a failure, you absolutely do NOT have to believe in yourself in order to achieve success. So long as you are testing, you can actually end up successful, even if you expect failure with every step you take.
There may well be other ways out of that box, but that's one process I don't need to test anymore.
Hi Richard,
I want to say "thank you" for what I feel is a very important message!
I love your attitude of
"EVERYTHING must be tested."
and
"So long as you are testing, you do NOT need to believe."
Now, I have to say that one reason why I like this is, I really should have this attitude more!
By the way, "testing" can also be fun. It's fun and interesting to try to predict what will happen - then to see if you're right.
I'd also add - it is a very "scientific" approach too. Kind of like doing "experiments" - try it out, and see what happens. Then try it again - or a different variant on it.
Having said that, my own personal attitude is probably actually close to that of sandalwood/Tom's, who said (in a post in this thread)...
"I wasn't successful for a long time but I was 100% certain I could be because I knew there was a way out of the box. I simply had not found it yet."
That's basically been my attitude. Even if I wasn't successful - I knew that (1) success was possible (since I could see other people being successful), and (2) I felt I could "learn the ropes" sooner or later (with enough experience)!
However, I don't think that negates your message at all, about "testing"... I feel everyone can probably benefit from taking an "everything is a test"-type of attitude...
I'm going to try to incorporate it more often into my own stuff...
Thanks!
Best wishes,
Dien
P.S. Thanks to Tom, too, whose posts I seem to learn a lot from as well...
Doesn't it just tick you off when one of the "belief lecturers" tells you that to be successful, you just need to "believe in yourself"?
So here's the Catch-22. They tell you that you can't be successful unless you believe in yourself. And you and I know 100% for certain that you CAN'T believe in yourself, because you've never been successful. How do you find an exit from THAT box?
And ... it's not just you and me. It's probably 70% of the population who get trapped in there. There are a lot more of US than there are of the "belief believers."
But there is at least one way out of that box. Back in my 100% unsuccessful days, I was fortunate to spend time with and learn from some very good marketers. I learned a lot of stuff that changed my life, but far and away the #1 mindset I learned from great marketers was ...
Testing
EVERYTHING must be tested.
So long as you are testing, you do NOT need to believe. People believe because they feel they know the answer. But if you don't believe, then you must test to see what works best. If you learn from each test you do, then over time you will eliminate what does not work and eventually find something that does work.
In other words ... you will have success. And now you're out of that box, and belief comes much more easily.
But even today, 20-some years after I went thru this mental transformation, I still consider everything a test. And I know most tests don't work. So THAT is my expectation. That is my belief about everything I do. But I know how to test and how to learn from my testing, and so I know that even tho today's test probably won't work, I will keep testing and learning and inevitably will hit one that does work.
So the good new is, if you consider yourself a failure, you absolutely do NOT have to believe in yourself in order to achieve success. So long as you are testing, you can actually end up successful, even if you expect failure with every step you take.
There may well be other ways out of that box, but that's one process I don't need to test anymore.
Hi Richard,
I want to say "thank you" for what I feel is a very important message!
I love your attitude of
"EVERYTHING must be tested."
and
"So long as you are testing, you do NOT need to believe."
Now, I have to say that one reason why I like this is, I really should have this attitude more!
By the way, "testing" can also be fun. It's fun and interesting to try to predict what will happen - then to see if you're right.
I'd also add - it is a very "scientific" approach too. Kind of like doing "experiments" - try it out, and see what happens. Then try it again - or a different variant on it.
Having said that, my own personal attitude is probably actually close to that of sandalwood/Tom's, who said (in a post in this thread)...
"I wasn't successful for a long time but I was 100% certain I could be because I knew there was a way out of the box. I simply had not found it yet."
That's basically been my attitude. Even if I wasn't successful - I knew that (1) success was possible (since I could see other people being successful), and (2) I felt I could "learn the ropes" sooner or later (with enough experience)!
However, I don't think that negates your message at all, about "testing"... I feel everyone can probably benefit from taking an "everything is a test"-type of attitude...
I'm going to try to incorporate it more often into my own stuff...
Thanks!
Best wishes,
Dien
P.S. Thanks to Tom, too, whose posts I seem to learn a lot from as well...
