Do You Have the Right Mindset for Success?

I hang out at quite a few internet marketing and business forums because... well, I'm geeky like that. An entrepreneur/geek. (Hey, there are worse kinds of geek to be.)

One of the questions I see come up again and again are variations of, "How do I make $#,### in # days?"

The numbers are usually so ridiculous that you have to snort. $5,000 in two weeks or some such. The reason the old hands snort is not so much because it's impossible to make big numbers in a short amount of time, but it's highly unlikely for a newbie to walk in and be able to do it.

You see, making money is like anything else. You have to learn the ropes, you have to gain hands on experience, you have to figure out for yourself what works and what doesn't, you have to build up your assets...

So, you see, people who come out of no where and expect the Internet to provide some magic potion to solve all their financial ills are starting out with entirely the wrong mindset.

You wouldn't go into a mountain climbing forum, and say, "Hey guys, I'm a couch potato who's climbing Mt Everest next week--what do I need to do to make it to the top?"

Right?

Of course, not. That's silly. If you tried to climb Everest without tons of experience and without getting into the best physical condition of your life, you'd probably fall off a cliff and kill yourself!

But it's the same mindset as the guy who comes in asks how to make X amount of money in X days.

Sure, failing at making money isn't going to kill you (probably), but by setting up such unrealistic expectations, the act of failing to achieve them can kill your motivation.

When that fellow doesn't make his goals, he may be turned off from building wealth this way forever. Oh, you can't making money online, he'll say. I tried it and only lost money. It's a big crock.

In other words, if you have the wrong mindset at the beginning, you've failed before you've even gotten started...

Ok, so now you know how not to think.

But how should you approach this making-money thing?

It's not as hard as you might think. Approach it the way you've been taught to approach everything you've want to learn how to do since you were a kid.

If you want to become a doctor, you go to school and get experience.

If you want to become a real estate investor, you go to seminars and lectures, read books, and learn from others.

If you want to climb a mountain, you take classes on how to climb, train every day for it, and join others with the same goals.

Making money online is no different. You have to approach it with the mindset that it is something to be learned, gradually, over time. It's not something you do overnight.

Start out thinking to yourself that you're going to learn everything you can, practice the techniques used by the successful, and work at building up your assets day by day.

Start out working toward making that first dollar. It's okay to dream big and think big, but realize you have to learn how to make a dollar before you can make a thousand dollars or a million dollars.

Be happy when you make that first dollar and realize that further success is just a matter of scaling up.

Don't let your desperation to make some extra cash obfuscate the truth:

Making money is about learning a new trade, not winning the lottery.

"It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." ~ Bill Gates

"As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big." ~ Donald Trump

"The last thing that people want to hear is the plain simple fact that the rich think differently [about money] than the poor ... They have what I call a wealthy mindset." ~ Robert G. Allen

"If you work for money, you give the power to your employer. If your money works for you, you keep and control the power." ~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success." ~ Dale Carnegie

"Actually, I'm an overnight success. But it took twenty years." ~ Monty Hall

"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over." ~ Warren Buffet