Perception is everything

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Perception is Everything

I was helping a friend of mine this week handle a Skype support conference for over 300 clients for 4 hours.  He trains internet marketers and has several amazing systems to assist people to become profitable online.

What was interesting to me was the enormous percentage of people who weren’t following the basic training they had received.  Their perception was they they were doing everything correctly but when we checked their websites in many cases three of the first four steps had been executed wrongly.  So without someone forcing them to correct their mistakes many of these people would have been sitting there complaining that the system didn’t work because in their minds everything was perfect.

I see the same thing in property circles too where people are in such a hurry to make money that they do the darndest things and actually make it more difficult for themselves to make money than if they had slowed down.

Some of us have the ability to learn something and internalise it quickly and we are the ones who get fast results and who tend to end up on stages telling people how easy it is.  However I think that these people are really the exception rather than the rule.

Most of us learn something and it can take days/weeks/months for this to be internalised so we actually understand why and how and when and where.  I often think the most significant role mentors play in others lives is to be a brake, the person that says No!

Once we learn the need to internalise information we become much more reluctant to go off half cocked or try something new just because it is new.  This can be an expensive lesson of course.

I recently saw the worst advertising I have ever encountered for a share based investment.  It is a good example of a company trying to make people avoid the skill of internalising.  Part of the owners comments regarding the “opportunity” are:

“You don’t need to understand how it is done anyway all you need to do is trust the people running the business and let them get on with their job and you get on with yours and sit back and enjoy the fantastic returns”.

It certainly gets my vote for the most irresponsible statement ever made, especially when they were asking for a five hundred thousand dollar investment and “promising” 400% returns, but the point is they are specifically attacking the need to know what, why where and how.

So as you get educated in any area you need to understand the cycle of of interest, education, revelation, trial, failure, education, revelation, trial, failure and then internalisation.  Understand that your perception is likely to be wrong at the start so running in the wrong direction even faster is not going to get you closer to your goals.  Take your time, keep learning and wait for the understanding to overtake the revelation.  Success is knocking at that point.

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

The Ethical Investing Strategist