Why Are You Sabotaging Your Own Success? (written December, 1996)

I learned long ago that if I help enough people achieve their goals that I could reach mine. Along the way not everyone was going to agree with me or even work with me, but as long as I know I tried my hardest and gave freely of myself, then I would have no regrets, so as of today, I can honestly say that I am proud that I have been able to accomplish my goals to this point. Of course, I could not have accomplished them without you and there is no doubt about it, that you are the key to my success and I thank each of you very, very, very, very much for that – I really do. Some of my new goals are to keep improving my telephone skills; to answer as many important questions that I can through my many articles; to continue to get better plugged into the Internet so I can express my ideas even more universally, and to improve the quality of mailing services and my mailing list services. Most of all, to insure that whatever I do is honest, forthright, and morally correct – all of this of course is done free of charge to you for you. That has always been my goal and I hope these new goals will take me even further towards my quest. I always enjoy any feedback, and opinions you may have, so feel free to contact me about them at any time. Peace & harmony.

In the many years of being in this business, I have seen far too many people sabotage themselves and then blame it on others – including me – which not only is offensive to me, but worst, it is offensive to themselves. In addition most of the people who do sabotage themselves are the ones who are not reading these type of articles. People like yourself, who are taking 10 minutes to read these type of articles are the ones who do succeed eventually.  I know firsthand what I am talking about. When I first started in this business, I never read anything and consequently I failed and quite honestly, I failed miserably, but instead of blaming others, which I did feel like doing at first, somehow, somewhere, from some unknown source, God must have giving me enough wisdom to stand up, look in the mirror, and decide right then and there that I am the one responsible for my own errors in thinking, advertising, and losing money. The only way I was going to achieve success was by first learning what others were doing to achieve success and then working towards what they were doing by improving what they were doing and serving people at a lower cost. So many, many years ago it seems, I embarked on that idea. No I did not go to some top flight college and get the highest degree in my field and no I did not abandon the so called “little people” that are struggling to make ends meet, and no I did not and do not ever think  I am better than anyone else. I saved those ideas for my competition. You people reading this article are just like myself. You are gathering information for your own mental databank and using it to improve your ideas for your business and I admire that. Of course I do admire that because that is what I do. It’s a shame that there are not more people like us and quite frankly, I actually think there are more people who sabotage themselves, then who don’t sabotage themselves. What can we do about it?  I wonder?

Why do I say this? Well in general, how many people do we know who are overweight and out of shape? How many people do we know who don’t commit themselves to positive ideas?  How many people do we know that join health clubs, record clubs, amateur teams, relationships, programs, practically everything and anything and then don’t follow through with their commitment?  In all facets of life, it amazes me, but especially in this great business of ours. Think about it? Why would someone join into a program and then not follow through with it?  Probably the same reason someone would join a bowling team and never show up to bowl. Right? Well I am asking you to help me to get more people to commit to themselves and their ideas and stop sabotaging themselves.  Let’s talk about our industry in particular. OK? First of all, if you are going to join into a program, commit to that program for at least a year. Yes one year! Commit to spending at least a hundred dollars to promote that program monthly. Yes at least $100 per month! Commit to learning about the company you are promoting and learning about advertising in general for at least 5 hours a week. Yes, 5 hours per week!  Stop falling for the “pie in the sky” theories that ruin our business. No they don’t exist. Stop sabotaging yourself!

If you wanted to become a marathon runner, would you run one mile today and jump on the professional marathon tour? No I think not. What you would probably do is run one mile today, then 3 miles a month from now, then maybe 6 miles two months from now – of course you would be doing this everyday – and of course you would commit to eating the right foods, studying about health and improving performance – then 6 months from now, you would be ready to run your first marathon. Then after running your first marathon to see what it takes to achieve ultimate success, you would go back to the drawing board and keep training harder, learning and preparing for your next marathon – right?  This is a process. There is nothing “pie in the sky” about it. Right? It takes commitment and patience. Well your business is like preparing for a marathon. We are not sprinters. First you join into a program that you like, then slowly you promote it by committing a certain amount of funds each month to advertising. While these ads are running, you should be learning more about your program and learning more about advertising in general by reading, so when your ads finally appear and you analyze the results, you can then determine what needs to be changed by going back to the drawing board to continue promoting your business and to continue to learn about your industry.  Well this is a process and if you are the type of person that believes that by mailing out some flyer that claims that you can make $90,000 in 60 days, then my friend, you better change your beliefs. It won’t happen. Not because you are bad or you are stupid, but because just like preparing for a marathon, our business – any business for that matter – requires you to commit to learning about it and then applying what you have learned. This is a process that requires time, money, and effort. If you are willing to do these things, but most of all, commit and be patience, you will succeed and I believe that is true with any endeavor. Especially in what we do.

So I ask. Are you willing to commit to the program or programs you are promoting now for at least one year? Are you willing to commit to the program or programs you are promoting now to the tune of at least $100 monthly to promote them? Are you willing to commit to the program or programs you are promoting now to learning about how to promote them for at least 5 hours weekly? If you are not willing to do these things, I would highly recommend you reconsider your position right now and determine what you can commit to. Because when you do, you will succeed. Why? Because there is nothing that can stop the success a committed individual and I guess that’s what the point of this whole article is. Now is the time to commit to something that will change your life forever for the positive. If you don’t commit to what you are doing 100%, you are sabotaging your chances of your own success and instead of making excuses why you can’t commit, why don’t you do the opposite? Make the excuse why you can’t afford not to commit. Thanks for listening.

The author of this article is Larry Costello, President of All-American Print & Mail, 2200 Wilson Blvd #102-57, Arlington, VA 22201.