But the Gurus Don’t Want Me to Succeed
I hear the complaints all the time.
“Gurus don’t want you to succeed, so they can continue to sell you their rehashed crap.”
“Gurus are people who would never succeed in any type of business besides selling products to Internet marketers.”
Well, in some cases, it may be true. But you know, I prefer to live in a world where people are mostly good… and surround myself, where possible, with only good people. I simply choose to forget about the rest.
If a guru got you down, banish him from your inbox and your life. No need be dramatic about. Just click unsubscribe and move on with your business.
I’ve written about clearing your Inbox before here and here.
I’ve also written about finding your guru or teacher in the past (just can’t find the link right now).
But somehow, people get into the same traps of information overload and overwhelm. You sign up for a free offer here and buy a product there… and soon enough your inbox is crammed.
But let’s go back to the complaints and the subject of this blog post. If you gurus don’t want you to succeed or are duping you in some way, it’s time to take control of your success and your business.
Because after all – Who is responsible for your business?
Yep, that’s right. You. The CEO. The head cheese.
You call the shots and are responsible for the ramifications of your decisions. So don’t make decisions based solely on what someone else tells you.
No matter how good the guru or adviser, they don’t know your business like you do. So what may be a perfectly acceptable product that they are promoting, may not be the right thing for you.
Your business.
Your decision.
Your responsibility.
About: Alice Seba
Alice Seba earns a full-time online income as an entrepreneur and loves to help others achieve the same. With a focus on using content to create relationships, loyalty and results from the written word, she co-owns both a ghostwriting service and a private label content business. To get more tips for your content marketing, visit Contentrix.com - your free resource with plenty of tips and strategies.Freebies
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Melissa Ingold
Twitter: imsweetie
This is so true. A lot of people do blame “gurus” for the success, or lack of, of their business. The thing is, most “gurus” are good people and they’re good at what they do. But when a subscriber or customer isn’t finding the success they desire, they play the finger pointing game instead of being honest about where the blame lies.
A guru can teach you and provide you with the tools you need, but at the end of the day, you have to decide to do with it all and take action.
Regina Baker
Twitter: reginabaker
First let’s define what guru means:
1. Hinduism. a preceptor giving personal religious instruction.
2. an intellectual or spiritual guide or leader.
3. any person who counsels or advises; mentor: The elder senator was her political guru.
4. a leader in a particular field: the city’s cultural gurus.
(dictionary.com)
2, 3 and 4 would fit into the scope of what ‘online marketers’ define as guru…
… hence the reason I don’t really care for the term used in online marketing [excuse the rant - it's a pet peeve of mine
.
The problem (IMHO) is that as marketers who educate newbies on internet marketing -- might want to reconsider not using the word - period.
The only reason that people complain [blame] is because they don’t see results — then they look for any reason (other than themselves) to attach that excuse to – the ‘guru’ who’s been [sometimes not always] promoted to the hilt just to generate [affiliate] commissions.
‘We’ (internet marketers, authors of ebooks, reports, memberships, etc.) should take on the responsibility of educating our readers with why they should download a freebie or why they should consider buying a report – not because the person is a ‘guru’ – but because the information pertains to a solution or better yet, meets their need — NOT because he or she is a ‘guru.’
* As marketers, we should at some point accept (if applicable) blame for the referring and edification of these ‘guru’s.
Yes, we are responsible for our businesses and yes we are the CEO’s however, people buy information and/or subscribe to information because they’re seriously seeking REAL help, in hopes that when they do — the person on the other end providing that help is genuine to meet the need instead of seeing them as another paypal receipt.
No one (including guru’s) should ever be made responsible (or blamed) for the lack of someone’s success… but if that’s all they read or hear over and over again then that’s what they begin to believe.
Now to get off my soapbox, LOL!
I can honestly say that’s one of the reasons you (Alice) have been in my inbox (since 2004)… do *I* perceive you as a guru? Nope, I refer you as someone who provides various solutions (based off of your experience/results) when it comes to internet and affiliate marketing.
I’ve used several of your strategies and can give a true recommendation based on the products you provide not because I perceive you as a ‘guru,’ but because they provided the ‘how to’ of what I needed to achieve a result(s).
I’ve learned who qualifies for space in my inbox (and * teach my readers how to do the same
With that said, hope there’s enough room for additional comments, cause I just wrote a book, LOL!
Sharon McMillan
I couldn’t agree with you more Alice. It drives me nuts when some people refer to the mysterious group of people who gather in places like the bank, the grocery store, the local school the government, etc. to plan their strategies for ruining the lives of only certain people.
It’s not that easy to get so many people on the same page, including “gurus.” We each are responsible for our own businesses, families, etc. Bad advice, service, products will come our way throughout our lives, hopefully with all this practice we can learn with increasingly greater success what to take, what to discard and what to do to serve ourselves and our businesses well.
Alice Seba
Thanks for your feedback guys. And Regina, books are always welcome…but seriously, tell us how you really feel.
You mentioned the use of the word guru and like you indicated, it’s meant to be a very positive thing. But what I don’t know is WHO uses the word guru. I don’t necessarily think it’s the so-called gurus. I think it’s often the people who are bitter and who want to place blame that use it like it’s a bad word.
Nell
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/casualeveryday
I rarely let anything get to me in a personal way. If a “guru” turns out not to be the type of person I want to learn from I simply stop following them and their advice. Silly for anyone to get worked up about it.
Nell