Agencies, Freelancers, Design, Copywriting & more.: [Copyblogger] What Mitch Hedberg Can Teach You About Making Money Online

What Mitch Hedberg Can Teach You About Making Money Online

What Mitch Hedberg Can Teach You About Making Money Online

Mitch Hedberg

Are you familiar with the late comedian Mitch Hedberg? Very funny man, taken from us far too soon.

There's Nothing That Will Make You Rich

No thing will make you rich.

There is not one thing out there that will turn you from rags to riches. There is not a single thing that you can pick up off a shelf and pay for that will perform internet alchemy on your behalf, turning online lead into gold.

If you’re looking for a magic bullet, it doesn’t exist. If you’ve just cashed in your 401k to buy XYZ SuperCourse and aren’t worried because XYZ SuperCourse is guaranteed to return 500% of what you paid within a week, then guess what? You may well be screwed.

I’m sorry to be so incredibly obvious. I wouldn’t do so if I felt I was saying something that everyone already knew, but statistics show that only around ten percent of people who buy a book read past the first chapter. Around the same percentage of people who purchase an internet marketing product or course actually use it.

Again, apologies for the obvious, but that means around 90 percent of people who buy a course apparently figured it was going to drop fairy dust onto them from where it was sitting on the shelf.

Internalize this fact all the way down to that burrito: Nothing will make you rich.

The Mitch Hedberg Guide to Real-World Success

The only force with the power to make you rich — or to even make you one red cent — is YOU.

You will do what it takes or will not.
You will develop the quality and personality and credibility and gusto needed to succeed or you won’t.
You will want it badly enough and persevere enough and have acuity enough to figure out if you’re on the right path… or you won’t.

So right now, you’re reading this and probably thinking, “Great. This post is of zero help. It’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses of posts, where my success or failure is predetermined and nothing can change that.” But that’s not true.

Let's get back to Mitch Hedberg.

Mitch has a joke that goes, “I bought a jump rope — but man, that thing’s just a rope. You have to do the jump part yourself.”

Buying a jump rope and expecting it to make you fit is like buying an info product and expecting it to make you rich.
Using that jump rope for a few minutes a day is like picking through an info product, reading it slowly, and doing a few things here and there, getting mixed results.
Using that jump rope for hours on end every single day because you’re so incredibly determined to get really, really good at it? Using it doggedly, passionately — almost angrily — because you are so determined to master it?

Well, that’s how this happens.

You Have To Do The Jump Part Yourself

Maybe Buddy Lee, the guy jumping rope in that video, is an anomaly. In the same way, maybe Darren Rowse, who makes well over six figures blogging, is an anomaly.

Or maybe Buddy and Darren were just lucky (not).

Do you think that at the outset, Buddy Lee bought a really spectacular jump rope that allowed him to instantly do what he does? Do you think Darren Rowse started from nothing, bought a course, and suddenly started raking in a healthy six figures with Digital Photography School?

No. Because no thing made them successful.

I mentioned at the outset that I’ve created a course and that my online friends have created courses and products. None of these things are useless. Far from it, in fact. A carpenter who works hard can build a house, but one who has the right tools and knows how to use them can do it a hell of a lot faster.

Will the things you learn in Naomi Dunford’s Online Business School improve your business? Yes, after you give it your all and refuse to quit.
Will Dave Navarro’s ebook launch course help you to produce a blockbuster launch? Yes, if you've created a great enough product, culled a large and motivated enough following, and work it, work it, work it.
Will my inappropriately-titled course help you set up your site, your mailing list, your cart, your affiliate program, and generally all of the nuts and bolts of your online business? Yes, if you take the time, do the work, and follow my instructions.

But will any of the above make you rich? No. Online business courses are like Mitch Hedberg's rope. In the end, it’s ultimately up to you to jump it.

Now get jumping.

P.S. If you buy Naomi or Dave's stuff, I'm donating the affiliate commissions to Copyblogger… I hear Brian's hurting for money (not).

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is the creator of Make the Internet Your B*tch: A ridiculously simple guide to turning your online business from tech headache to profit center — which, by the way, will help you immensely but will not make you rich.