The One Thing That Separates the Successful from the Unsuccessful

People often ask me how I’ve been able to build a successful business that’s doubled every year for the last three years.

I had similar wins in the corporate world. I was able to set some audacious goals and beat them again and again. This has been a pattern for me professionally, but I have a secret: I’ve never assumed I could do it on my own.

So how have I done it?

Here’s the answer: I always invest in the best training I can get my hands on. As far as I can tell, that’s the main thing that separates the successful from the unsuccessful. It’s how I’ve been able to consistently grow both my leadership and my business.

I stress the word invest. I’ve utilized plenty of free resources over the years, and there is some amazing help to discover in something as cheap as a ten dollar ebook. But the real jumps have been when I’ve matched the money to the momentum I expected to achieve.

You Get What You Pay For

There’s nothing magic about a price tag, but there’s also truth in the old adage that you get what you pay for.

I have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for conferences, consultants, coaches, and online courses over the years and without exception these investments have been the catalysts for breakthroughs in my business.

One reason is that the cost demands my full engagement. I’m not about to waste my hard-earned money. But that’s not the main reason. It’s not even the second or third.

What We Don’t Know

Most of us experience those times when we want to get to another, better place. It could be in our professional or personal life. Regardless of what it is, we feel like we’ve plateaued and we don’t know how to get to the next level.

It feels like we don’t know how because—are you ready for this?—we don’t know! We all have certain insights and skills that have gotten us to where we are. But those insights and skills may not be enough to go beyond.

I’m not going to improve my golf swing until I know what improvement looks like. In the same way, I’m not going to grow my business until I know what to do differently than I’m doing now.

That’s where premium training comes in. It’s an infusion of information that you can leverage to go to the next level.

3 Reasons to Fund Your Own Success

The right training may cost you. In fact it probably will, and it might cost you a lot. But I think there are three key reasons we have to be willing to invest in ourselves:

1. Mindset. We know what we know, and it’s not always enough. That’s not only true for the bare facts and data we need to learn, but it’s also true for the different frames of mind, the different angles, that we can’t just generate on our own.
2. Strategy. There are two ways to learn winning strategies: We can get it by trial and error—usually lots of error—or we can have someone else give us the inside scoop, saving us tons of time and effort. Even if it costs us money in the meantime, if it’s the right information, it’ll save us that in the long run too.
3. Skills. Sometimes the most important thing we need to learn to go to the next level is a simple skill set. Ballroom dancing is great example. So is time management and the kind of productivity hacks that lop ten hours off your workweek. To win in certain areas, you need specialized skills—and you can pay someone to teach you.

I’ve always followed this basic assumption, and it’s true for all of us: To be successful, we need teachers, and our success is worth funding.

An Investment, not an Expense

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve blogged a lot recently about Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about here.

Jeff’s approach has totally revolutionized my marketing and is directly responsible for the massive growth my business has experienced. I have used his formula with every single product I’ve launched in the last two years, including Platform University,^™ 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever,^™ and the Get Noticed Theme for WordPress.^™

As I’ve said before, it was pricey—but has proven priceless. It has returned at least $1000 per dollar I spent on the course. You can’t call it an expense. It was an investment in the success of my business.

If you sell anything online (or if you’d like to start), I cannot recommend Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula course highly enough.

If you would like to take Jeff’s course for yourself, the window is closing. Jeff only opens registration for the Product Launch Formula once a year—and this is it. I can’t think of a better investment if you’re looking to fund your own success.