You’re Not an ‘Entrepreneur’, You’re a Liar (Part Two)

This is part two of You’re Not an ‘Entrepreneur’, You’re a Liar.
Haven’t read part one? Then click here.

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So now you know the problem, let me tell you the solution.

Success Leaves Clues

I’ve always approached this old-school Personal Development saying in the way in which it was intended – that is, if you study successful people for long enough you’ll see that there are reasons they’re successful. Typically, reasons that you can replicate.

But recently, I’ve been using it in reverse.

Success Leaves Clues – and if you understand those clues, it’s really easy to see who is telling the truth and who isn’t.

“I run a multi-seven figure business!”

Selling a $197 product?
Online?
With no staff?

That’s 10,000 sales, MINIMUM a year, online.

Average closure rate online is 1% to 3% – let’s pretend you’re amazing (you’re probably not) and assume you’re closing 5%. That means you need 2 MILLION hits a year on your stuff.

Baby, if you’re doing that, screw the $197 product- you could be making millions in advertising revenue. You’d have a book deal. You’d have hundreds of thousands of followers.

You’d also find it super difficult to administer all of that yourself – industry average refund rates are 20% on low-priced products. Let’s pretend you’re amazing (you’re probably not) and you’ve managed only 10% – that’s still 1,000 people you have to deal with emails from every year requesting refunds.

That doesn’t include dealing with actual clients. That’s a full-time job in and of itself.

So why are there so many photos of you hopping on a Tiger Airlines (or equivalent low-cost airline with terrible service if you’re not Australian) plane?

Why are you tagging people in photos on Facebook asking them to buy you something that’s $100?

I always say: you can tell what someone thinks is noteworthy by the photos they post of it on the internet.

If someone posts a photo of a book they’re reading, you can almost guarantee that’s someone who doesn’t read very often.

How Do I Know? (If He Really Loves Me?)

So, if anyone can say anything on the internet, and if most people are lying, how do you decide who to buy from and where to go?

Step one?

Stop worrying about how much money people say they’re making and start looking at how much their clients are making.

Because if they’re really making millions, and they’re good mentors, they’re clients will also be making huge amounts of money.

When you look at a website full of testimonials and they’re all ‘feel good’ with no hard and tangible results, you have to ask yourself questions.

Of course, that said, if people are willing to manipulate their numbers, why wouldn’t they be teaching their clients to do the same thing?

Here’s the most important thing though:

Only poor people are obsessed with money.

When we were on our way to, and when we hit our first seven figure year (that is – $100,000 a month in cash – a total of $1,000,000+ in cash through our back accounts in 12 months) – we talked about it relentlessly. We posted photos of our fancy shoes and handbags everywhere.

Because it was exciting. I’d never had real money before – being able to spend $3,000 on a handbag – in cash, no credit – was freaking ridiculous to me.

But there’s only so many $3,000 handbags you need before you’re like – meh.

Once you realise the money isn’t going away, that it wasn’t a fluke, that the cash is still going up and this is your new reality, you start to lose interest in those things. I mean, not completely – don’t get me wrong, I’m not wandering around the NGV Gala in a second hand dress. I still like pretty things.

But I spend a lot more time and money, now, engaged with experiences.

Going to Necker Island.
Mentoring with Jay Abraham.
Building social enterprises.
Doing philanthropic work.

There’s an old Latin saying:

Caveat Emptor.

In English it loosely translates to ‘buyer beware’.

Stop looking at what people say – that is ‘content’.

And start looking at what’s really going on – that is ‘context’.

This ability to think critically and dissect is more important today than it has ever been in the history of society.

We’re living in an age where everyone is a broadcaster, and there’s no possible way to monitor every single transmission.

Finally, remember this:

Shouting the loudest does not equate to being the most successful.

Remember it for yourself.

And remember it when you’re looking at other people.

For me, the louder someone is shouting about themselves on Facebook, the more likely I’m blocking them.

Because I’m not interested in fake authority and gamed systems – I’m not interested in ‘fake it until you make it’.

Not as peers, not as clients.

I’m interested in craftspeople.
Those who treat their business as though it’s a career they’ll be engaged in until they’re 90.
People who are building something real that’s intended to create actual change.
People who live by the adage “If your goal is achievable in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough”.

Those who study and strive and hone their craft.

Those who eschew talent and display for quiet excellence.

Funnily enough, those are the people who end up making millions of dollars. Those are the people who have real seven figure businesses.

While everyone else is shouting, they’re working behind the scenes. They’re doing the true and hard work – confronting their demons, dealing with their fears, learning what they need to know, not to be ‘rich’, but to be better than they were yesterday.

They are relentless in their pursuit of excellence.

They are wholly committed to their career.

And when the $30,000 millionaires have packed up and gone home, they’ll still be on the field.
Quietly toiling.
Slowly changing the world.
Making a dent in the Universe.

Because they understand that after the ‘authority’ and minor celebrity are gone – when the 15 minutes are up – the only thing that really counts, that will really make you happy, is being engaged in real, deep, hard work.

In Great Work.

Everything else?

That’s just a bunch of people screaming at you, hoping that whoever is the loudest will get you to hand over your credit card.

Don’t be one of them.