When Persistence Proves Deadly to Your New Online Business

If you've had an online business for more than a day, you've heard that "the only way to fail is to quit." We are encouraged to be persistent from the day we are born. We prop our babies up and reach for them as they struggle to take that first step towards us.

We repeat this exercise over and over again until they finally manage to waddle unsteadily forward, arms straight out for balance. The only way any of us learn to walk is through persistence.

We shower our kids with kisses, hugs, band-aids and words of encouragement as they try again and again to ride their bikes without training wheels. We'd all still be in training wheels if not for persistence.

We admire the persistence of the Olympic athlete, the blind man who functions like a sighted person, the entrepreneur who failed at 17 businesses before making it big.

Persistence is a good character trait, right? Well, usually. But sometimes it fails us.

All too often, I see people with a new online business whose persistence is keeping them in a cycle of failure. It usually goes something like this. You see an ad on the internet about how easy it is to make money online, $10,000 your first month, quit your day job . . . blah, blah, blah.

You decide to start your new online business. You spend what feels like $10,000 that first month, but you earn nothing.

You, however, are persistent. So you buy another course. You join another program. You follow another "guru." Again, and again. Suddenly, this new online business has become an expensive hobby rather than the freedom-producing new career you first envisioned.

But it gets worse. Because, remember, you are persistent. The $97 e-books weren't doing it for you. Even the $497, $997, and $1997 courses didn't make you an online mogul. Thinking that it must be your lack of skill and training, you buy into a $5000 plus coaching program. You attend a $10,000 exclusive internet marketing seminar.

You won't quit. You watch the latest video sales letter that appeared in your inbox and you just know that if that joker on the video is making six figures a month, you can at least pull in six figures a year with this internet marketing thing. Online business success will be yours! No matter what it takes.

So, if persistence made it possible for you to walk, ride your bike, and master hundreds of other feats during your lifetime, what's happening now?

Here's the problem. Let's say you needed to travel from California to New York. You went to AAA and got a map. But the agent accidently gave you a map from California to Florida. You follow the map with diligence. But it doesn't lead you to New York. And it doesn't matter how persistent you are, that map can't lead you to New York.

Blind persistence will rarely if ever lead to success. You must have the right "map." You must know which road to take. Then you must persist through whatever roadblocks you encounter along the way. And with this guided persistence, you're certain to reach your destination of success.

Jumping from program to program, starting to implement one course for a week until you're distracted by the sales letter for one that sounds better, reading everything you can get your hands on without following any of it through to the end — this is all random persistence. All common actions when you're trying to start a new online business. And, all as productive as a dog chasing his tail.

If you want to succeed in your new online business, you must find the right map. Then, you must follow it with the daily persistence of a baby learning to walk. And never, ever, ever quit.