When I started marketing online full-time a couple years ago, I still had this notion that I was going to be a millionaire overnight.
Somehow I felt that God was going to be exceptionally pleased with me and give me more success and wealth than I would know what to do with, and I was certain this would all happen before I would reach the age of 25.
Well fact is, I am exceptionally blessed and not having to go to work every day is more freedom than most millionaires get to enjoy, but I am nowhere close to having that million dollars in my bank account that I always thought I would have by now.
And that is ok!
I have matured a lot as a business owner and despite many of the “overnight internet multi-millionaire” success stories you might have read, I have learned that building a business online takes time and hard work, just like any other business.
Sure… you don’t have to break your back when working online, but there are other challenges you need to overcome. It is very much a growing process!
Keep Building One Brick At A Time!
Every successful marketer I have gotten to know on a personal level over the years has built their business one brick at a time (one website at a time, one client at a time, one blog post at a time, one backlink at a time, etc).
It takes hard work, but the beauty of it is – if you do it right – it will (with time) pay off BIG time!
Here is an email I just received from Jared Croslow, a fellow internet marketer.
Subject: Are you a bricklayer?
Ever get one of those flash backs while working on something?
I was just sitting here working on some backlink systems and an old memory came to me.
It was from when I was about 14yrs old, and I was just starting to learn the family trade of Bricklaying.
I come from a long line of Bricklayers and Tuckpointers. For generations my family has built churches, court houses, and even skyscrapers.
But what I remember is when I first started to learn bricklaying, and the lesson it taught me about business and life.
You see bricklaying is hard work.
Your back hurts.
It’s hot.
The hours suck.
And for a 14 yr old kid it seemed like an impossible task.
My uncle and I were on one of my first bricklaying job which was to rebuild the side of a wall of an old garage.
It was overwhelming to me. Hundreds upon hundreds of bricks.
“How will we ever finish?” I thought.
But my uncle taught me one of the most important lessons of my life…
“We will do it one brick at a time, and lay each brick as perfectly as possible.”
And so we began. One brick at a time. Add a little mortar. Slide it into place. Tap it a little. Line it up. Check the level. Scrap off the excess. Rinse & Repeat.
At first nothing seemed to be happening.
But before my very eyes a wall began to form. A wall that was strong enough to withstand storms, and to provide protection from intruders.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was learning how to create anything of great value in life.
It’s not fast.
It’s going to suck at times.
And at first it appears nothing is happening.
But then all of a sudden, all that hard work. Materializes into a wall!
Are you a bricklayer?
I know what ever you may be working on today can at times seem overwhelming.
I know it can seem as if you will never get to where you want to be.
But I promise you, if you just focus on laying one brick at a time, as perfectly as you can lay a brick.
Not only will you build a wall, but a wall that will survive the storms, and be there for people to come and see for years to come.
So go lay a brick… as perfectly as you can lay a brick.
Have a great Monday,
Jared Croslow
http://www.cliconomics.comp.s. My grandfather also taught me another very important lesson.
“Your back is only good for so long.”
Thank you internet!
@ Jared: Thank you for allowing me to post this. I very much appreciate it!
@ my readers: Let me know your thoughts or feedback below and hey, if you like it, why not pass it on?
Someone will thank you for it!
Konrad Braun
Hey Konrad thanks for sharing this with us, that was very, very inspiring to read. I am going to read this whenever i need motivating (which is most days). One Brick at a time.
Hi Shannon,
I think Jared hit the nail on the head with that one. I am glad he allowed me to share it with you guys… and thank you Shannon for the comment. I really appreciate it!
Have a fantastic weekend,
Konrad
Hi Konrad,
Thanks for Sharing this. This is an important lesson for me.
I am a newbie and have been learning for the past few months (buying a lot of crap stuffs as well as some good ones along the way). There is so much to learn and just so difficult to stay focus especially with all those emails coming in everyday.
One side of me keep saying “you must make your 1st dollar fast, you have debts to clear”, the other side of me says “Take your time, build your foundation well, learn one thing at a time”
A great lesson fro Jared, now I will lay one brick at a time and build a strong foundation for a long term successful business. No more making fast money.
Once again, thanks Konrad for sharing.
To you success.
Allen
Hi Allen,
Yes, indeed an excellent lesson. When I started doing internet marketing fulltime, I had to make money fast because it was all of a sudden my only source of income.
I should have built my internet business up while I had another source of income and should have gotten out of the “job” world only after my online business would have brought in enough income, but I didn’t.
Foolish decision on my part I guess… but no regrets. I have learned a lot and am continuing to learn a lot. I consider myself a student for life.
One thing though: when starting out, we (I did this too) tend to go in to the “I need to learn magic” trance, which makes us spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars – trying to learn that one magic formula that will be the break through for us. The result? Information overload.
I will make a blog post one of these days where I will talk a little more about it, but basically… knowledge is useless unless it is applied (which is wisdom).
Anyways, I will leave that for another day. Have an awesome weekend!
Konrad
Dear Konrad,
I don’t know how I got onto your mailing list, but I’m very glad I did. This kind of parable is just what I need right now. I started Internet Marketing in the early 90’s, before we even had images! Then I moved on to other pursuits for many years. I just returned to IM in March and, wow, are things different. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking two steps back for each step forward. The scamming gurus with their one-click paths to instant wealth were new to me. Shameful. But one of the things we didn’t have back then was the community of Internet Marketers that I am slowly becoming acquainted with. Genuine people sharing real knowledge, like you do, is a truly wonderful development. I look forward to a long association. Thanks.
Hi Scott,
I am glad you made it on my list somehow. It always makes my day when I succeed at making someone else’s day a little brighter.
I actually wrote this post a couple days ago and had no intention of mailing it to my list, but I’m glad I did.
Thanks again for the wonderful feedback!
Konrad
Thank you Konrad. Bricklaying is a concrete work. The same work is a web-building, first you buy the bricks and mortars, and then build your walls. And if it is still stony ground, as I have, to start it is difficult
Well put,
Just keep at it. Better to stick it through than to wish you had 🙂
Konrad
Konrad,
I’m an ‘olg geezer’ and I have never found anything worth doing unless it involved hard work. And the hard work can take both physical, emotional, mental and faith in what your doing.
The online business world is the same way. You could be one of the exceptional ones, who hits a home run the first time at bat, but if you did likely your past experiences from previous hard work made that home run possible.
The income you can make online is only limited by you, as an individual, and the amount of work your willing to do or even worse not do. I have made more money in the last 3 years, online, than I did in 10 years off line. And what I made back then was considered middle to upper class income. (That really tells you how old I am, LOL!)
So even if your up there in age or just a young whipper snapper you can improve your life with hard work. Just ask me and I’ll tell you again.
Ken
Hi Ken,
You got the right mindset: treating it as you would treat any other business and work hard at it. I love to hear your success story too. It’s a positive reminder for every entrepreneur to just keep at it. Payday is coming!
I guess what I had to learn is: success is not the achievement of a distant goal, but rather the execution of each small step that gets you there.
Or another quote:
Thanks for sharing Ken, this truly is inspiring!
Konrad
There are many different methods for making money on the internet, and many methods that support the above methods. I think it is vital to find the method that you can understand, relate to or enjoy – once you have found this the biggy then is focus, discipline and faith in your choice.
There is an old expression “Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts” now to any Greeks reading this, the expression dates back to ancient history it is in no way a contemporary comment!!!! I have been stung twice. My problem really was that I was like the moth attracted to the bright light – but hey I didn’t know any better! Over time, however, you develop a very valuable skill and that is sorting the wheat from the chaff; recognising those with integrity and empathy and those facile, self centered individuals with no integrity.
But the parable of building the brick wall is right. I was a CEO in the traditional world and really the basic requirements of building an IM business are the same as a traditional business: If you place every brick in the correct position with the right amount of mortar, you don’t have to worry or keep looking back to see if the wall is going up OK. Cut corners, get a bit slack with your technique and that will be a weak spot that could undermine the strength of the whole wall. Hhhhhmm….why did some people suffer in the Google “Panda Slap”????? I was concerens as anyone but I was relieved to find that some of my older sites had a wee boost.
One last thought – I often wonder why I couldn’t have found the “real people” like Konrad and others right at the start, instead of going through the crap at the start. Perhaps my start was a sort of apprenticeship, giving me a perspective that would let me recognise or be drawn to the good guys!
Cheers
Hi Mike,
Excellent thoughts.
It appears almost everyone gets stung a time or two when starting out online. Unfortunately some people make a living doing it!
The reality though is that people who sell empty promises continually have to look for new customers to lure in to their traps. If you run a real, honest, and solid business however, you can count on the same customers over and over and over again. As Jim Rohn would say:
Have a fantastic weekend,
Konrad
Hi Konrad,
This article from Jarad ranks among one of the best topics I’ve read in many months. The bricklayer analogy sums up the essential characteristic required to create any business that is going to weather the storms and the droughts. As a new affiliate marketer who has been building my online business, I’d unconsconiously applied the bricklayer mentality toward building my online business. GREAT ARTICLE!
Thank you for the feedback Nathan,
Awesome article indeed and a fantastic strategy to keep in mind for sure.
I’ve been following Jared around for a while and his message or his big thing is: do the work once, turn it in to a system, than outsource it.
Konrad
Is everyone going to start using the story Will Smith told about rebuilding his father’s store?
It’s a good story, but definitely stolen from the Will’s Wisdom video that was viral on Youtube. Just saying……