What Are The Chances Of Becoming A Guru
Posted by Andy Williamson on May 24, 2007
Filed Under Entrepreneurship
Often when I chat to people about our on-line publishing business and explain roughly how it works they will seem really interested and motivated to try it for themselves, however often they inevitably ask one question:
“What are my chances of making it with an on-line business and being able to trade my day job for a successful career on-line?”
It seems like a perfectly valid question - some wise risk assessment before embarking on a new and very different career and business path - but when you look at it in the cold light of day, you’re actually asking for hard statistical data that is actually based on averages and isn’t going to add such great value towards your decision making process. In fact it may disable rather than enable your plans and goals for the future. Imagine if any of the leading Hollywood actors had stopped to ask ‘what are my chances’ - or for that matter World class sports people or captains of industry. Luckily I would say it is a lot easier to carve a career on-line that it is to set yourself up to become Hollywood’s most in demand actor; however that said, the means average statistics look incredibly grim…
But I always say don’t put to much weight into statistics especially in a new industry like on-line publishing and marketing - they just don’t carry that much weight when it comes to you as an individual. Statistics are compiled averages and you’re not just average are you?
Let’s take the current, much en vogue ‘blogging for money’ career path - the statistics for this look mightily grim, more than 99% of all blogs fail to make much more than a few dollars a day, so on this basis if you decide to blog for a living you’re a fool who has totally ignored the 99.9% failure rate right?
WRONG!
First of all you can weed out a huge amount of those blogs for the following reasons:-
- They are auto generated, grabbing data from RSS feeds and other sources
- They don’t contain original articles or content
- The blogger only makes a half hearted attempt to make money
- They focus on a money driven niche that the blogger couldn’t care too hoots about
- The blog is only months old and no consideration has been given to the time and investment it takes to build up readership numbers.
- The blog was started with little real planning and preparation.
- The blog is just crap!
I could go on and on - as in any business there’s a million ways to fail but with considered planning and thought you don’t have to go down that particular route.
So the question you should be asking is as follows:-
“If I spend a good deal of time preparing a plan for an interesting and captivating web publication to be produced in a blog format that talks about topics that I am both experienced in and passionate about, if I then expend a great deal of effort in producing and marketing my high quality blog publication while holding down my current job, what are the chances of me being able to pack in my current job in a few years time and pursuing my new career as a freelance publisher and marketer?”
At this point I have to say incredibly high - if you really are determined to go that extra mile to ensure that your publication stands head and shoulders above the 99.9% then you have a very good chance of making it, and this advice applies to anyone with a career ambition no matter what the statistics say, if you’re taking it seriously enough and don’t cheat yourself by cutting corners or paying scant attention to the detail then you have the greatest chance of become a leader in your chosen profession and reaping the rewards that will follow.
Don’t pay too much heed to statistics, pay more attention to why so many fail and make a pact with yourself that you won’t get caught out by the same silly traps that stop so many from realising their true level of their abilities and talents. Your goals are active visualizations of the future you want and deserve, don’t allow them to become nothing more than whimsical wishes and don’t allow yourself to be distracted by clever mathematics based on averages.
Whoever heard of a Guru who excelled at being average?!
