Congratulations to each of you for your commitment

Congratulations to this week's Smart Start graduates Ehab and Onyedika. AND A VERY, VERY SPECIAL congrats to Nicole Perry, our team's newest Executive Affiliate!!!

(Nicole: be sure to send me the website or gateway you'd like to have displayed on this blog!!)

Some words of wisdom from SFI's top affiliate, Stone Evans, from his guide "30 Days to Success":

"The fact is many people drop out as soon as they realize there is some work involved in building an Internet business. I don't really know why that is... People are willing to work their butts off for the guaranteed pay (however small it is) of a regular job, but some aren't willing to work toward building a business and achieving financial freedom.

But you are different and I applaud you for that.

I'm different too.

When I got online and decided that I was going to make my living from the Internet, I personally committed myself to doing whatever it takes. Just as I stated on the Plug-In Profit Site sales page: "I stayed up learning, working and drinking coffee until 5:00 in the morning month after month filled with the hope of making money online. There were days when I'd come home late from my job, start working on the Internet, and work the entire night without going to sleep — and then go back to work the next day."

That story is exactly true for me and I personally believe that it's this level of commitment that is necessary for anyone who wants to break through and succeed with an Internet business - the Plug-In Profit Site, SFI, or anything else.

Do you have that level of commitment?

In fact, it wasn't until I was in a "sink or swim" situation until my Internet business really took off. I was in the restaurant business. I owned the restaurant, but the reality of the situation was that the restaurant owned me.

I was the "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" which basically means I did everything from prepare the food to serving customers, to washing dished to mopping floors... I could never take a vacation because if I did, the restaurant would go out of business. It couldn't operate without me and I couldn't operate without it.

The restaurant was the thing that was keeping myself and my family afloat financially, but I was no better off than someone tied down to a job. I felt trapped, but I was determined to find a way out. That's when I read Robert Allen's "Multiple Streams of Income" book and decided that I was going to find a way to build a business online.

So I started working part time (in every spare minute) on figuring out how to make money with affiliate programs. Over time, I started figuring things out and making some money through many of the methods outlined in previous pages of this guide, but it wasn't until my landlord for my restaurant space told me that they weren't going to renew my lease that I really broke through the the next level.

I was losing my restaurant location and I had a major life choice to make. I was earning a few thousand dollars a month from the Internet, but it wasn't enough to replace my restaurant income or provide for my family. I had to decide between moving my restaurant to a new location, getting a job "for the man" or sitting at home and completely figuring out how to make this business work so that it could be the sole financial provider for my family.

Obviously in writing this, I chose the latter. It was actually an easy decision. I was following my one true passion at the time. My dream of being able to control my financial destiny through a little box (laptop) that I could carry with me anywhere in the world was too alluring to pass up. I had the opportunity to go full force for my dream and I grabbed it.

In those 30 days after losing my restaurant, it was either make this business work and go broke trying.

This is the sink or swim situation I was in and that I needed to make the necessary psychological shifts to succeed.

In those first 30 days of going full-time online, I multiplied my online income 5 times. In the 90 days that followed, I doubled that. In the years since, my income as continued to grow exponentially.

But it's this sink or swim mentality that defines my success and the success of many who make it in this business.

You must eliminate the option of failure.

There is a famous story of Hernando Cortes that goes something like this:

"Hernando Cortes had a plan, he wanted to lead an expedition into Mexico to obtain its many treasures. He presented his plan to the Spanish governor, who was so excited that he gave him eleven ships and seven hundred men. Cortes did not tell the men or the governor the complete plan. After months of travel the eleven ships landed in Veracruz. Cortes had the men unload everything from all eleven ships. As they headed into their new adventure the men turned back and saw all eleven ships burning! Their reaction was to fight back, as surely an enemy had initiated such an attack. Cortes halted the men, as this was in his plan, he had ordered the ships to all be burned. Cortes did not know what he and his men would encounter in their expeditions. What he did know was that by "Burning the Ships" he had completely eliminated their option of going back. At the same time creating an intensely powerful motivation to succeed."

You must burn your ship(s) if you are going to succeed in this business.

What ship(s)? Most likely your current job.

I'm not saying you need to quit, but whatever it is that you are holding onto for security is keeping you mentally unprepared to pursue your Internet business with the full vim and vigor necessary for you to succeed on a high level.

Internally, you must find a way to burn your ships of security and start relying on your Internet business as if it is the ONLY thing you've got.

Read that last line again. And again. And again...

THIS is the secret to success in this business or any other.

As soon as you make this internal shift, you will unlock forces inside you for growing and succeeding in your business that will surprise everyone - including yourself.

Likewise, if you cannot burn your ships of security, those same forces that exist inside you right now and which can set you free immediately will remain dormant and unable to carry you to the extraordinary life you dream of.

This is something no marketing technique I can teach you can do for you. It's something that must come from within you, and if it doesn't, no marketing technique I can teach you here will make a bit of difference.

Examine my words on this page and then examine yourself and your commitment to this business carefully.

Do you have what it takes? Are you as committed as you must be? Can you burn your current ships of security and do everything it takes to build new ones?

These are the central questions that must be answered by you and you alone which will determine your destiny in this business. Nothing is more important than this.

To be entirely honest, if you aren't willing to burn your ships of security right now, you might as well pack up shop immediately because this business will be nothing more than a hobby for you - and hobbies are money pits.

If however you are absolutely committed to making this business work, it is time for you to continue your journey.