The Steps Before The Steps To Success

Posted by Palmer on Apr 23, 2010 in Fumbling, Internet Business, Notice | Comments Off

I’m studying my butt off and I like to think that I’m doing the things that lead to realizing and online income. But I’m new at this thing, and who knows?

I do know something though, I know that I’m struggling. I’m struggling with knowing whether or not I’m making the right moves. I’m struggling with the million tiny little steps that seem to constitute “doing it right.” Most of all, I’m struggling with the emotion of feeling overwhelmed and a failure before I’ve even really begun.

I’m sure I’m not the only one.

My issue comes mostly from the education that I’ve been receiving and how it places one crucial (to me) aspect of the process of performing a project out of order.

Online Business: A Sporting Contest?

The way that internet business creation is taught is basically the same system that your lacrosse (football/hockey/chess/etc.) coach used to win games:

1. Develop a clear goal (You want to win, right? Let’s get out there and DO IT!)
2. Set things up in the right way (Wu; you’re forward, Murphy; midfield, and uhh… Regan; why don’t you play goalie this time?)
3. Perform the steps that move you towards your goal (Okay, let’s move that ball downfield! Execute play: beta-phosphate!)
4. Outsource as much as you can (Pass! Pass!)
5. Quickly solve obstacles as they arise (Block their pass! Regan, block that goal!)
6. As your goal nears, continue focusing on those things that were successful (Great job, we’re almost there. Let’s run beta-phosphate again and sew this up!)
7. Celebrate that you’ve successfully achieved your goals (Great win! Who’s up for pizza?)
8. Review what worked and what didn’t and start over, iteratively (Let’s swap Murphy and Regan for the next game, and focus on using the beta-phosphate and alpha-karetene plays to beat Pope Lick next week!)

And yes, this is much the way that project strategies have run for thousands of years (“I want you charioteers to rush their lines on the flank before our khopesh squad attacks in a frontal assault.”), and it works great.

It works great for the “create a business” gurus and educators (the distinction between the two will have to wait for a future post) as well, especially as a sales tool. The system above provides an exciting and emotional story that can pump the reader/student’s emotions all the way through. There’s the beginning: formulate an emotionally-charged goal and start setting things up. The middle: do those things that move you towards your goal and do the things that surmount obstacles (create this part right and the reader will feel like they’re the freakin’ karate kid). And the end: finish doing things that are successful and figure out how to do it again at a higher level.

The problem with this narrative is that there’s a part that’s out of order. And worse, for me, is that putting the steps out of order leads me to feel like I’m discouraged because I don’t see expected results.

Now, someone may point out that many online entrepreneurship teachers will discuss the many opportunities for working collaboratively with the “other team,” and that’s true, and an effective play to execute in the middle of the game. However, that’s not what’s missing.

What’s missing is: practice.

Practice As The Missing Piece

Practice is what happens before the game. It’s about learning the rules and mastering the skills. With practice, that the skills the game needs are second nature, they are muscle memory. With practice, the game becomes dealing with the situation in competition as it unfolds.

In almost every other significant study, there is no huge goal, or if there is, it’s so vague as to be little more than a dream. Consider, “I want to be a rock mega-star, a rock god! That’s why I need to learn the guitar.” or “Riding a bike looks fun and convenient. I could sure use that kind of freedom.” The end result is pretty vague, and hardly a “well-defined goal,” as we’re asked to pick out in online entrepreneurship instruction.

Most classes (at least what I’ve read so far, if you’ve got one that includes learning the basic skills as the first component, let us all know in the comments) start with the “emotional laser beam of knowing your purpose and the goals that arise from those” or “focus on the passion” rather than the boring “if you haven’t done this before, you’re going to need to learn some new skills.”

Granted, they do have the “learn new skills” part in their learning materials, and most of them are forthright about how this part isn’t a cakewalk. The problem is that they have you doing it after you are focused on the possibilities and how your passion will be the magic carpet that bridges the gap from where you are now to where you want to be.

If you’ve achieved anything larger than a single project, you know that it’s the practice, or if you’d rather; the multiple smaller projects, that little by little end up getting you to where you need to be.

Practice Gets You There

Recent research as shown that there are levels within skill that are tied largely to the amount of time that those skills are practiced. It is suggested (most famously in Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers) that it takes 10 years (or 10,000 hours) of determined practice (practice that one actually pays attention to) to reach expert status (and a mere 2000 hours to become an accomplished amateur!). The suggestion in these reports is that the act of practice allows people to combine their skills into groups or chunks so that they can get past the limit of the human brain of roughly seven pieces of information at a time. In general, you’re practicing to get your brain out of the way of what you’re doing so that in the moment it can focus on the greater achievement.

And getting the brain out of the way, that chattering little monkey, is a great way of getting past the emotional turmoil that happens when things don’t turn out as planned. Performing as planned is a great antidote when elsewise the plan seems FUBAR’d.

The Tactic Of Practice and This Fumblers’ Site

There are a bunch of things wrong with this site: our SEO is lacking in keyword optimization and placement, we haven’t started taking advantage of possible affiliate opportunities, and we suck as writers.  That’s because, at least in these beginning days, our focus is on the practice.

We’re working on practicing the little steps on the big path of internet business. We write posts. We aim for an aggressive posting schedule. We build up our online socialization chops. We work on learning and on training our brains. And we do all these things here, where we have also given ourselves permission to fail at any of those things so that we might better learn from our failures and incorporate them into our learning.

Failing and learning from failures is an important part of the whole practice concept for us. And for that, we need your help. If any of this resonates with you, or even if it doesn’t, getting your feedback in the form of comments helps us know what went right and what went wrong. You don’t have to be nice, you don’t have to be good. If you need a place to practice your engaging with other communities, this is a great place to put your oar in.

And speaking of oar, we’re all learning on this boat, but we’ve got champagne, and we celebrate each lesson. Join us, won’t you?

Photo from the Flickr Commons and used with the understanding that there is no copyright claim upon it.