Chasing The Gurus

I’ll admit it. I’m a procrastinator. Big time and been punishing myself over this for as long as I can remember. Usually, it doesn’t yield very good results leaving me grumpy, stressed and very depressed. So, I purchased “The Now Habit” by Neil Fiore, Ph.D

One of the things mentioned in the book I immediately took note of is how we need other activities in our lives so when one part (like our business) has a falling out, we have other interests to help us get through it. The more we base our identities on that one particular area, the more you’re going to be upset, distressed and depressed when something goes wrong. For example, as full time entrepreneurs, we’re more likely to be upset about something going wrong in our business than a part timer who dabbles in
a part time business and has other activities throughout the week to distract him.

Looking myself in the mirror, I realize I have no life. My life is the business and the kids. And the kids in my mind are invariably tied to the business because it’s their college fund I’m trying to build with this business. So… where does that leave me? Where does that leave my husband and me as a couple and us as a family? Doesn’t sound good. Being part of Mom Masterminds, I also notice I’m not the only one. We see many moms caught in this same trap. We work harder
during all odd hours, forfeiting sleep, thinking it would be better for the business but rarely does it turn out to be so. When they take a break and come back the immediately see a difference in productivity. I’ve experienced that myself.

This is a great reminder to myself (and maybe to you), that we need ‘distractions’ in our lives. Other things that make us the people we are. As an avid reader, I’ve been neglecting that part of my life that has brought me so much joy in the past and am back reading again. I’ve got books ordered, magazines in the mail and look forward to some more snuggle time with my honey

When you put your hard earned money down to purchase a course, a book, a set of audio CDs or whatever information product you’re buying. Do you say

A. “I’ve got to put into action everything in this course to get my money’s worth”?
B. “I’ll learn, observe, apply what I can, consider some and throw out the rest”?

So, which are you? I’m sure there are people who react in more ways than those two, these are just what I can think of now. I used to be A. When people told me buying courses from the gurus is an investment I kinda put on the traditional accounting hat. To me, investment meant something I should squeeze out every little bit of use out of this thing I can that when I’m done with it, it’ll either be unfashionable, not as effective or I’ve outgrown it.

Today, reading one of John Carlton’s older blog posts, one small point jumped out at me. He says,

And while I took copious notes about the tricks they used, I also paid close attention to the nonspecifics — how they dealt with clients, how they treated information, even the warm-up routines they went through before working. I couldn’t use everything I observed, because it often didn’t fit my style.

That hit home for me. Sometimes there are just things in a course that you won’t feel comfortable doing and you won’t want to do, no matter how much money people tell you it will make. It could be it’s against your religious beliefs, against what you stand for, it’s uncomfortable for you or it just plain isn’t your style. So my big guru lesson is, it’s OK to not apply every little thing a course teaches me. But it’s very important to take what I can work on, try it and use it to death if it’s worth while.

What you don’t know may not hurt you, but it may not take you very far either. I was watching a video put out by Jim Edwards in which he shares the truth about “The really good information“. All the while, I kept nodding my head. If you haven’t viewed it, the video tells you what is the real quality of the free information you get in forums and blogs etc. It’s not bad information. A lot of it is good information but not the really good information.

You know, as a once skeptic of paying for information, I now attest to it’s truth. A lot of times people won’t share the really good tips freely because they either

• Learnt things the hard way and took a long time to learn it they feel they should be compensated for what they know
• Discovered something new and don’t want other people to join the gold rush so to speak and spoil the market for them the pioneers
• Feel that if you don’t pay for it, you’ll take it for granted and won’t apply it
• And countless other reasons

When I took my first plunge into purchasing an infoproduct I made a drastic investment on Traffic Secrets and later, Reese Report. I wanted to prove that they are no secrets. Instead, I was proved wrong. The information is secret because I didn’t know about it and I certainly don’t know everything. There is a saying in Chinese that goes “If I knew it all I’d be god”. How true

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Would I have found it out later on my own for free? Possibly, but I’m quite sure by then, many months or years would have past and I would have lost out on those months and year’s of potential revenue if I had known earlier. Or, the technique would have been used to death that it isn’t as effective anymore