20 Reasons Why Most People FAIL To Build A Successful Online Business

I have created a new and improved version of K Money Mastery which is called, Mastering Book Publishing!

WHY do people struggle and fail to build a successful online business?

Is it because of a lack of information?  Money?  Time?  Resources?

NO!  From my experience, the reasons why people fail to be successful in their business has nothing to do with any RESOURCES… it's more of a lack of RESOURCEFULNESS.

Your psychology and mindset are going to determine your success more than ANYTHING.

After working with thousands to help build their own online businesses, I've seen all the patterns of success and failure.

I've worked with people that have gone on to make millions of dollars online… others that have made thousands and been able to quit their jobs, create more freedom… and then also many that have struggled, failed and given up.

It makes me ANGRY when people fail, as I work so hard to help people create success in their lives.

I recorded this video blog to help PREVENT people from failing in their pursuit to building an online business, but also to motivate and inspire you to KEEP GOING.

Watch this video and IDENTIFY the biggest things that are stopping you.  I list 20 of the most common reasons why most people fail to build a successful online business that I've observed over the years.

While you watch it, WRITE DOWN whatever the reasons or struggles you have… and then COMMIT YOURSELF to actually do something about it and make a change.

Without further adieu, here's the video of the 20 reasons why most people fail…

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Do you want my proven step-by-step system for publishing books on Amazon? CLICK HERE to purchase my new and improved Mastering Book Publishing course!

Video transcript

Hey, everyone. This is Stefan from www.projectlifemastery.com. In this video, I'm going to share with you 20 reasons why most people fail to build a successful online business. Now, before I jump into things, I got a little warning for you guys. I'm going to be shooting you straight in this video. I'm going to be totally honest, totally authentic, totally real, and I'm not going to hold anything back.

I'm going to tell what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. So if you're someone who's easily offended, I recommend you turn off this video and you look somewhere else, because in order for me to effectively communicate what I'm going to share with you in this video and share these 20 reasons why most people fail and prevent you from failing in your business, I need to communicate with a level of intensity, emotion, caring, and honesty, that's unlike anything else.

I've worked with thousands of people to build a successful online business, and a lot of people that have gone on to be very, very successful and a lot of people that failed, a lot of people that struggled. It frustrates the hell out of me. As you guys know, my whole mission in life, everything that I do in my business, is because I want to make a difference in your life and other people's lives as well.

I've dedicated my life to this and I take my business and my time very seriously.  I want you to succeed. I want to see people succeed. I want to see people have success and achieve what they want in their lives, so when I see people that fail, it really bothers me. I get emotional about it because I worked so hard to help people succeed. I'm hoping you guys get that, I'm hoping you guys see the caring that I have behind everything that I do.

I want to make a difference

Right now, I'm recording this on a Sunday, not because I have to do it, but because I want to do it. I want to make a difference. That's why I put out hundreds and hundreds of videos on YouTube. It's because I want to help you succeed in your life. That's why I create training programs and products and might recommend different courses and products to you. It's because I want you to succeed.

A lot of people that I've worked with have gone on, changed their life for the better, made a lot of money online, six figures, seven figures, eight figures even. I'm very proud of that, but I've also seen so many people that fail and struggle, people that are watching here on YouTube, or on my podcast, or on my blog. Seeing people struggle, people that maybe even invest in my training programs. I see a lot of people struggle. People that are in my Facebook groups. I'm just seeing a lot of different post and messages and I'm just seeing so many mistakes that people are making.

I've made these mistakes myself. If you guys don't know my story, I failed for years. I struggled for years. It was not easy for me in any way. I struggled more than most people did. I was always very slow. It took me a long time. I had a lot of barriers that were holding me back, a lot of the things I'm going to share with you in this video. It wasn't until I was finally honest with myself and got to the truth and looked at myself in the mirror that I was able to make changes in my life.

Part of what I'm going to share with you guys, I want you guys to be honest with yourself. That's the only way you're going to make a change. It doesn't feel good, to be honest, that's why a lot of people, they cover things up. They come up with reasons, or stories, or justifications on why things are okay. Why things are acceptable the way they are. Why they're doing okay, instead of getting to the truth, because the truth doesn't feel good.

Facing the reality, it's uncomfortable. It might mean that you have to admit that you're not enough, or that you're failing, or you're coming up short. I get that, but I'm going to ask you, in order to change your life, you have to have courage. That's what it takes, man. It takes courage to change your life. It takes courage to build a business to be successful.

It takes looking yourself in the mirror and being willing to be vulnerable with yourself. Put aside the ego. Be vulnerable. Have an open mind and be one to admit that you could be doing more. You could be doing better. You could face this. You could overcome this in your life and then just go for it. That's what you've got to do.

So, I want you guys to be honest with yourselves based on what I'm sharing with you. Reassess yourself, really. Identify, “Okay, what's stopping me?” I'm going to list 20 reasons here. Which ones are stopping you? If you guys can do that and have the courage to face yourself head on, look yourself in the mirror and admit to yourself that you're coming up short, you need to work on this or that, and then actually take action to overcome it, you can break through and create whatever kind of success that you want for your life.

I'm often reminded of something that I heard from Tony Robbins that I preach on my YouTube channel and you guys probably already know this, “80% of success in anything is your psychology, 20% are the mechanics.”

That 80% that's psychology is what I'm sharing with you right now in this video. Because the how-to, the strategies are there. I've got great training programs, I've got my Mastering Book Publishing program, I've got training that I've recommended to you guys. It's there for you. The training, the step-by-step is there. It's available for you to create the success that you want. You follow the training, you follow the formulas, you work hard.

You apply the psychology that I'm sharing with you, you'll create whatever kind of success that you want. Again, most people fail, because they're missing that psychology. Hopefully, I can communicate with you guys in this video, the importance of this and help you make that shift so that you can break through and create the success that you want. All right? With that being said, let's jump into the 20 reasons why most people fail to build a successful online business:

1. Lack of belief, confidence, and certainty in themselves

Number one, reason number one, and none of these are in order of importance, they're just random reasons that I came up with. Looking at the thousands of people that I've worked with. I've identified the patterns of success and the patterns of failure. Number one reason is a lot of people, they fail because they lack belief, confidence, and certainty in themselves, and in the process, and in their business.

A lot of people, they lack confidence. They lack belief. You can't be successful if you're not confident. Show me someone that's massively successful that doesn't have the confidence to go along with it. You have to believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, then you're not going to take action. You're not going to do what's necessary to build your business because you don't believe in yourself. You don't even believe that you're going to be successful.

So, how can you possibly create success if you don't have that belief if you don't have that confidence, that certainty? If you're uncertain, if you have doubt, then you're going to do a little bit here and there, but you're not going to be all in. You're not going to commit yourself fully. You have to have confidence and belief in the business, in the opportunity, in the process.

If you don't believe that your business model is going to create the success that you want or help you achieve your goals, then you're not going to take action either. I see this time and time again with people that invest in my training, but they didn't even believe fully that the training is going to work for them. They're kind of like, have one foot in and one foot out. They dabble with it a little bit. Then, sure enough, they look for reasons to reinforce why they're not going to be successful. Right?

They publish a book or they do something, start a business and it doesn't work out their way. They reinforce that belief and say, “See? I told you. I told you that you're not going to because successful. I told you this wouldn't work. I knew that other people, my family, or my friends said that you're not going to be successful. It's not going to work.” Then, you justify that belief, because you're holding onto that story.

That's stopping you and holding you back. You've got to overcome the limiting beliefs that you have and believe. You got to have faith. Faith is a stronger level of belief, that's believing even when there's no reason to believe. That's what faith is. You have to have a delusional belief in yourself that you will be successful no matter what. That this business will work.

I know for myself, I had that belief when I was younger. I just knew that I would be successful. I had no doubt whatsoever. I knew that I was going to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. I just knew it. Once I discovered Internet marketing, online business, there was no doubt in my mind, because I saw all these other people that were successful. I knew that as long as I work my ass off and do what it takes, then I'll be successful as well.

I had that unrelenting belief in myself even though there were no reasons in my life to believe. I was a failure. I was a loser. I had a lot of issues, a lot of limiting beliefs. I was living in my friend's living room. I was struggling. I was in debt. I had no reasons to believe that I was actually going to be successful, but I had faith that I was. That's what faith is, guys, and you need that to be successful.

I can give you a few tips on how to build and develop that belief. A lot of what I share on my YouTube channel can help you with that, but number one is feed your mind. Feed your mind with stories of people that are successful. When you see other people that went from failure to success, that shows you in your mind that you can do it as well. If they did it, you can do it. Find role models.

Maybe I'm a role model for you, great, but find more. Find other people that failed and then created success, because that will reinforce to you that you can do it, that you'll be successful. If your entire role models in your life are people that are failures around you that have a negative attitude and they're all broke and struggling in it, that doesn't give you any hope. That doesn't give you any belief that you're going to be successful as well. So, you've got to change that.

You've got to find people that are more successful than you and feed your mind and surround yourself with them. Read books, or invest in training, or maybe from my YouTube, whatever it is. Learn from people more successful than you. I try to interview people and share them here on my YouTube channel, hoping that you guys get that.

You could see other people that have done it, other people that are successful. That's showing you the way of success, that you can do it as well. Anybody can do it. It doesn't matter who you are, where you live in the world, what your circumstances are. I've never encountered a type of person that doesn't have the potential for success, but you have to believe in yourself. All right?

I believe in you without a doubt and I might not even know you. I probably don't even know you, but I still believe in you. Because I know that if you're here watching this video right now, you have the potential to change your life.

If you're someone that subscribes to me, follows me in some way, you have that courage. You have that faith. Because to follow me, to invest in my training, to invest in one of my courses takes courage, takes faith, takes trust. Maybe it might not be consistent for you, that belief, but I know it's there. You got to cultivate it. One of the best ways to cultivate it, that you guys know I'm huge on, is a morning ritual.

Taking that time every day, you've got to condition your mindset, your belief system, every single morning, to prepare you for the day. You've got to start the day with that belief. If you don't have it, you've got to work on that every day. Affirmations, incantations, reading books, doing everything that's necessary, that prepares you, that gives you the confidence and determination to put yourself in that state of doing what's required to build your business every day.

It starts with a morning ritual, guys. Again, if you guys want my training program, what I've created on creating a morning ritual, then check out morningritualmastery.com. It's helped thousands of people now. I'm very proud of that program and it will share with you how you can make that shift in your psychology, your mindset, your belief system to be more productive, to achieve more success in your life.

Create a morning ritual, that's one of the best ways that I know of that I did for myself since I was 17 years old to condition myself, to make who I am today. Because everything that I am today, everything I've created, I created years ago through repetitively doing my morning ritual every single day to condition myself to be who I am today and who I'm going to be in the future. All right, so believe in yourself and the process.

2. Lack of patience

Number two reason why a lot of people fail is they don't have any patience. They focus on the short-term, not the long-term. Listen, if you want to build anything that's meaningful, anything that is a success in your life, whether it's a business or anything, it takes time. It's not going to happen overnight. You have to be patient, you have to trust the process.

I don't know anybody that just invests in a training or starts a business and then all of a sudden, just like that, they're a success. Doesn't happen that way. Most people fail, most people go through setbacks and adversity along the way, but because they're focused on the long-term, they're patient. They're willing to get through those adversities and get through those little speed bumps because they're focused on the horizon.

You've got to focus on the horizon, you've got to have a vision for what you want. Then, work hard and be patient along the way, but the problem is there are a lot of people looking to get rich quick. They're looking for a loophole, a gimmick, they want to press a button and make all this money. That's a surefire way to fail in business. You might make a little bit of money here and there, but it's not going to last, it's not going to be sustainable.

You have to give up the short-term thinking. Focus on the long-term, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on not what you're going to get a month from now or three months from now, or six months from now, but a year from now, five, ten years from now. That's how far you have to think. You've got to prepare and take action today, knowing that what you're doing is going to benefit you five years from now to create the life that you want. So focus on the long-term guys, have patience. Don't make that mistake.

3. They're not willing to do the work

Number three, people fail because they're not willing to do the work. They're not willing to fully commit themselves and put in the work that's required to create the success that they want. Success is not easy, guys. It's a lonely road. There's a lot of work. That's why a lot of people don't achieve success is that they're just not willing to do the work.

You have to want it so bad, that doing the work it is just something that you understand, that you're willing to do, because what you want is so important for you. I mean, if you guys had any idea how much I work every day and how much I've worked throughout the years. Most people wouldn't even be able to relate or fathom the amount of work that I've put into my business and myself.

If you guys follow me on Snapchat, which I recommend that you guys do. There will be a link in the description, but my username is stefanjames1. You guys will see every single day, it's a Sunday, it's a Saturday, I don't care what day of the week it is, I'm working my ass off to build my business. I'm in a position where I don't need to be working as much. I've already made millions of dollars online.

I've already created a lot of success and I'm living the life that I want, but I want to create more. I want to make more of an impact. I want to make more of a difference. I want to grow and become more. I love the process of it. I'm focused on my goals, my vision, five, ten years from now. I've never lost that hunger. You've got to have that hunger if you want to have success and you have to be willing to hustle and grind and do things that most people are not willing to do.

If you want to have in your life, what very few people get a chance to have and experience, you've got to work your ass off. I can't tell you how many days and nights that I've worked, from morning till midnight, beyond midnight. I remember one time I was in Bogota in Columbia, struggling back in 2012. I was, at the time, just building Project Life Mastery. I remember one time, I stayed up two days straight. Did not sleep, two days straight.

I was renting this little place. I didn't go out at all, I hardly left, except I went to the store to buy a loaf of bread and like sandwich meats and mustard. That's all I ate for like a week. I just had bottles of water. I just couldn't even, I didn't even want to spend any time to grocery shop or even think about food because I wanted all of my focus, energy, and attention going towards building my business.

I was operating from a place of desperation. People are driven by desperation or inspiration. Often times, desperation is a much more powerful motivator, but that's what it was for me. So, working hard guys, that goes without being said, but you can't be lazy. I see people, they just don't have the work ethic. They're lazy. They'd much rather watch TV and play video games than spend that time to grow a business or achieve their goals.

They're not going to achieve anything being a lazy person. You've got to overcome procrastination. You've got to change your habits. You've got to change and develop discipline in your life. I can't go into all the how-to's of everything but, guys, check out my YouTube channel, my blog, my podcast. I've got videos on all this stuff that can help you guys make these changes, but that's another common reason why a lot of people fail and don't have success. All right, so look at yourself.

Write this down, guys, Hopefully, you guys are writing this down. Is this where I'm coming up short? Do I have the work ethic? Am I doing whatever it takes? Am I working hard? My habits that are holding me back, am I procrastinating? Am I focused on the short-term too much? Am I focused on the long-term? I don't have any patience. Is that what's holding me back?

Is it the belief? Is it the confidence? All right, I want you guys to really think about it. That's how you're going to make that change. It's not just by listening to me, but actually asking yourself these questions. Look at yourself in the mirror, that's how you're going to make that change.

4. They try to do things on their own

Next reason why people fail. This is a big one. They try to do things on their own. Man, trying to do things on your own is just stupid. It's just stupid. If you're someone that's watching this, I warned you that I might offend you. If you're trying to do things on your own, you're an idiot. Trust me, I'm not pointing the finger because I've been stupid before too. I've been an idiot before myself.

I remember I spent years trying to just learn how to build a business from looking at message boards, forums, Google and stuff. Trying to put together these pieces of these unverified sources of people that were out there on the Internet, sharing different articles and stuff. Trying to put everything together, and as a result, I'm spending all this time and making so many mistakes along the way.

I was so stupid that I didn't realize that I should have found a training program, a product, a course and invest 100 bucks or less, whatever it cost. Even if it's 1,000 bucks, whatever, invest that money to invest in something that could help me, that has the structure, the step by step, that can guide me a long the way to make it a seamless process to get to where I want to go. That didn't occur to me at the time.

It took me a long time before I realized that, because I was too stuck in the mentality of, “Oh I can just figure it out on my own”.  I had too much ego. I was closed off. I was too proud to invest. I was just trying to be a know-it-all. I was afraid to invest the money or do what was necessary to get to where I wanted to go. It was just stupid for me to think that way.

Eventually I realized, I'm going to spend years trying to do it this way and the time that I'm spending is much more valuable than the 100 bucks or even 1,000 bucks that I can spend, because that 100 bucks or that 1,000 bucks I can earn that just working a few weekends doing car washes and working at a temp agency or getting some extra work doing construction.

I can earn that money in a much shorter period of time and use that money to invest in a training that can get me there a lot faster and save me the time, save me the money, the stress, the failure, the mistakes that I would make along the way.

It blows my mind, how many people don't think that way. They'd much rather spend so many hours of their life and time. They don't realize how valuable their time is, instead of just investing in something that will get them there much faster. That's how I think now. If I want to get anything in my life, I think about where's the training, the product, the resources, the people that I can learn from, that can show me the way. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. I'm going to learn from other people and model them and get there much faster.

That's another huge mistake that I see people make time and time again, I can't tell you how many people, they eventually invest in my product or coaching or whatever it is. They always say I wish that I got this from the start because now they've made so many mistakes and they realize how many mistakes they made. They have to go back and I have to work with them to fix all those mistakes that they made, all those bad habits that they made and all those screw ups they made in their business.

When they could have just gotten the training from the start, from the beginning and created the success that they wanted, and much faster. That's been a core thing that has helped me be successful in my life today is I learn from other people. I don't have any ego. I will learn from anyone who is more successful than myself. Even people that know things that I don't know, I'm obsessed with learning from them. I'm not afraid to invest the time, the money, whatever it takes, even if I didn't have money, I still did this.

Back when I was broke and struggling I realized that I needed to invest in training, because what I was doing wasn't working and if you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to keep getting what you've always gotten. Things have to change, and you can't do the exact same thing, expecting a totally different result. It doesn't work.

5. They have crazy, unrealistic expectations

Another reason why a lot of people fail is they have crazy, unrealistic expectations. This kind of goes back to #2 that I mentioned, and #3 is lacking patience. People get caught up in this short-term thinking mentality, the get rich quick mentality. As a result of that, they think that “I'm just going to start this business, or whatever, and I'm going to make millions of dollars. I'm going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

If it was that easy, then everybody would be rich and successful. It's not that easy, guys. Often times, I've done videos on this, what I recommend for people is your first goal is always to make $1, $1 online. That's it. If you can make that $1 it gives you confidence. It verifies for you that this works. It's supposed to give you that belief in the process and in yourself. If you can make a dollar, you realize, oh my god, I can make $10, I can make $100. You start to see the vision of what's possible.

Understanding that you've got to have realistic expectations if you're brand new, if you're a newbie to something, you can't expect to get the results of somebody that's more experienced than you. Someone that's maybe already been building  businesses or already has a background or has more experience with computers or technology. They've already been through different businesses before, or different training before. You can't compare yourself to other people.

What's most important is you've got to have realistic goals for yourself. So make it $1, then after that, maybe $100. At the beginning, you're not going to have these amazing results, but you work away at it, the real results are long-term. They're six months, a year, five years from now. That's when you're going to be able to create the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the millions of dollars that you want to create in your business. All right, so make sure that your expectations are realistic.

There's no program, there's no business that you just invest in, you don't have to do any work and you're going to make all this money – it doesn't work that way. It takes a lot of work, it takes time, patience, everything that I'm sharing with you guys.

6. They're afraid to invest money

Another reason, I'm going to try to move through these a little bit for you guys. Another reason is, they're afraid to invest money. Listen, to build a successful business, you've got to invest money. I can't tell you how many people, that are afraid to invest a little money here and there in building a business. You need to invest in technology. You need to invest in maybe a graphics designer and a product.

People are looking to cut corners, they're afraid to invest here and there. They're trying to save $10 here and there, it's just crazy to me. Often times, I'm working with people publishing Kindle books and stuff, and they complain about a service that costs an extra $10. I'm like, “Dude, what are you talking about, man? It's an extra $10, you're going to get a better product and you're too focused on saving money and you're not focused on making the best product that you can have, that can help people.”

They're getting a cover for their work done, or something like that, a graphic. They're going to go with the cheaper option of $5 or $10 rather than spending the extra the $5 or $10 to get a much better quality cover and product. That's going to make the difference in your success.

I mean, it just drives me insane when I see this. I don't know what to say. You have to spend money in your business to grow it. You have to invest money. When you make money you have to invest it as well. Any business you want to start requires an upfront amount of money and capital that you invest. You're always going to be running at a deficit at the beginning. Show me a business that doesn't operate that way.

You want to start a restaurant. Okay, great, you know you need $50,000, $100,000 to start that restaurant. Maybe you've got to take a loan from the bank or whatever. You have to put money aside and save up and do that. You're going to make money from it and you're going to have to pay off that deficit that you're operating at.

That's what's required to start a business. You're going to have to invest money to create a product, to create a book, to create whatever. You're going to have to invest a little bit to market it and the tools, the resources that you need to help support you to grow your business. At the beginning, you're going to be operating at a loss. That's just how it is. I mean if you don't understand that, then don't be in business. Business is not for you if you're not willing to invest some money in starting your business.

It blows my mind, how people are just, they don't realize you've got to invest money, not just in the training, but you've got to invest money. If you want to build a website, you need a domain name, you need hosting. You're going to need a logo, you're going to need some graphics, you're going to need some things. If you want to start an Amazon business, you're going to need to invest in some inventory.

You're going to need to get a logo and labels done. You're going to have to ship the product. It's going to cost you some money before you start making some money. You want to build a publishing business, you're going to have to order the book and get a book written. You're going to have to get the graphics. You have to spend some money to market it. You might have to hire an employee, someone that can help you build your business.

These are all things that prevent people from success, is they don't realize these sort of things. If you don't have money, then go out there and make money. I don't know what you're doing with your day and your life, but there are seven days a week. You can get jobs out there. There are many opportunities. There are 24 hours in a day. You can work eight hours a day, you can spend your weekends. You can work construction.

You can work at a temp agency. You can be resourceful. You can do some extra work on the side or whatever to make some extra money that you can invest in your business. Sometimes that's what you've got to do. You've got to work hard and make some of the capital from your job and what not, then use that money to help your business grow and support it. That's another reason why people fail, and again, look at yourself. Is that you? Are you one of those people that are held back by money or one of these reasons?

7. They try to cut corners and find loopholes

Next reason, they try to cut corners and find loopholes. Again, that may make you some short-term money. It's not going to last. Look at the long-term sustainable strategies, not the short-term loopholes. People are always obsessed with that. They're looking to get rich quick, again, they're focusing on the short-term.

For me, there's a lot of short-term loopholes in my business. There are short-term loopholes I can use to rank my YouTube videos, to attract more people in the search engines, to make more money, but I ignore those. I said, I'm not going to do those things because I'm focused on the long-term sustainable strategies.

I don't want to cheat the system for the next six months and make some money and then have that go away. That money that I was depending upon or risk my accounts in some way or my reputation. I'm not willing to do that. So don't look for the short-term shortcuts and the loopholes and the gimmicks. Focus on the long-term solutions to strategies.

That's a really important one. I'm not going to go too much deeper into it. I've shared some other videos on that before, but again, it comes down to focusing on the long-term.

8. They learn from the wrong people

Next is people learn from the wrong people.  I see this time and time again as well. A lot of people that I work with, they invest in my training and I'm trying to help them create success. They're learning from someone that's done it, that's created a lot of success. I've built many different businesses, success in different businesses, I've made millions of dollars now online.

Then they start learning from other people that I mean, have made a couple hundred bucks, a couple thousand bucks, they start listening to them. I'm like, “Dude, what are you doing? You're trying to learn from someone that's making a little bit of money, and you're going away trying to do all these different things that are not from the right person that you should be learning from”.

I think a lot of people, again, it comes down to a lot of things I've already shared. People looking for short-term results, not having patience and what not. So they start to get frustrated and they start to look for other answers. They start to look for other people that can short cut them the process and get them there a lot faster. They end up going down this totally wrong path.

I can't tell you how many people that I've worked with that hire me for coaching or other people that I've worked with as well. They've gone to my training, they're doing it, but then they start doing all these other things. I'm like, “Dude, what are you doing here? Where did you learn this stuff from?” They're like, “Oh, I learned from this guy. Here who's making $500 a month and I want to try and learn from this guy.”

I'm like, “Dude, I made, I built a six-figure publishing business and I've made millions of dollars online from my businesses and you're learning from this guy who's making $500 or $1,000 a month? You're doing something that's totally different?”

Again, that comes down to not trusting the process. Learn from the right people. Learn from people that have created the success that have the results and the business and that have the reputation, they have the success stories of people that they've worked with. Learn from those people, not from the people out there on the Internet. The keyboard jockeys that know all the theory, but they've never actually built a business before. You want to avoid those people.

9. They don't listen to advice from successful people

Another reason is, they don't listen to advice from successful people. This is where people have an ego, they're close-minded, they're too proud, they think they know it all. I've encountered people like this. They're the keyboard jockey guys that know all the theory and they've done all the research, but they're not doing it. They have a closed mind and they think they know it all and that their way is the right way.

That is another important reason that people fail. I've worked with people, coached them, and I'm trying to help them but they're arguing with everything I might tell them. You can't help someone like that if they don't have an open mind, if they don't trust you, if they don't trust the process. So if you're going to learn from someone that's more successful, listen to them, listen to what they say.

They have the experience, they've been doing it for years. They've created the results, not just with themselves but countless other people.

I see this time and time again with people, even when they invest in my training.  I have certain things that I say, “Okay, do this, do this, do this, do that”. I guide them step-by-step how to do things and how to grow their business. I'm blown away by how many people that don't even listen to it. I recommend, “Okay, you're going to need this to grow your business”, and then they go out there and they get this.

Or, they just end up doing totally different things, the opposite things of what I'm trying to teach them. You can't have success if you don't trust the process and the training and actually, listen to your coach or the mentor or the role model that you've invested in.

If you're going to invest in something, if you're going to learn from people that are successful, listen to them. Do what they say. There's a lot of things that I share with you guys on my YouTube channel and my blog, and things that I can help you with. If you guys just did what I share with you guys, you'll be able to have success.

You'll be able to create it, but most people aren't willing to do it. I remember one thing for me, I struggled with, for a period of my life. I remember learning from successful people, you've got to give away a certain percentage of your income to charities and organizations. You've got to give back.

For me, I was like, “I'm not going to do that.” Because I didn't have the money, I was in a scarcity mentality. They said, “That's why you have to give because the scarcity, the fear that you have right now in your life is preventing you from attracting and making more money”. So I looked at myself, I decided, “You know what, they're right, if I'm listening to these mentors, these role models I'm learning from and I'm not doing what they say, which is to give away 10% or a certain percentage of my income to charities, then I'm not even listening to what they're saying, what they're trying to teach me. They have the success. They have the proven track record.

I can't think that I know it all and let all these things, my ego, get in the way because I just got to trust this person who I'm trying to learn from. They have the best intentions for me. If I listened to them, I'll create the success.

I started doing it. I started giving away 10% of what I make supporting charities, organizations, giving to homeless, giving to my church. Sure enough, what I found is that it got me out of that scarcity, that fear-based mentality, opened me up to new opportunities and making more money, It really changed my life. So that's just an example, but you've got to be willing to listen to what people, especially that are more successful than you, what they're trying to teach you. Just do what they teach, it's really as simple as that.

Another reason that I have here, my battery or my memory card is going to die in about four minutes. So I'm going to have to clear it. Maybe I'm going to have to do a part two or pause the video for a second here.

10. They don't focus on one thing

The next one that I have here is people don't focus on one thing, they easily get distracted by what I call the “shiny objects syndrome”. So there are so many opportunities out there to build a business, to make money online. Often people get distracted, they're doing one thing, they're building their business and there's this other opportunity and they totally get sidetracked. They jump from one business to the other. Again, this comes down to people not seeing results fast enough.

They're focused on the short-term. They're not having patience and focus on the long-term, but you have to focus. I tell people when you sign up for my course, my training, unsubscribe from everybody else because that's only going to distract you. It's only going to do you a disservice. You don't need to be on 100 people email lists because they're going to market and promote the different opportunities. There are always going to be things that come up.

You've got to focus on what you're doing and say no to everything else. You've got to learn to say no and focus. Say, “I'm doing this”. I get opportunities all the time, every day. They're sharing this business opportunity. They want to partner with me, They want to do this or that. I've got to ignore all that because I've got my goals. This is what I've committed to.

It's there on my blog. It's there on my YouTube channel. That's what I'm committed to this year. Anything that's not in alignment with that, I'm saying no to. Maybe next year, when I set my goals again next year, but for now, this is what my focus is on and I'm not going to be distracted by any other shiny objects out there. So don't fall into that trap.

11. They can't deal with failure and adversity

Another reason why a lot of people fail is they can't deal with failure and adversity. Now listen, show me a person out there that's massively successful that hasn't failed. Doesn't exist. Everybody that's successful today has gone through failure. They've gone through challenges, adversities, set backs. Part of the process, you've got to realize that.

A lot of people, it might be their first time starting a business. You've never encountered failure, because when you have a job, there's no failure when you have a job. You have that security. You just show up, eight hours a day. You get paid for your time. Doesn't matter what you're doing. You're not getting paid on the results, you're getting paid for your time and the hours that you're putting in.

So when you have a business, you don't get paid for your time. You get paid based on results that you produce. The only way that you learn is through failure. It's by making mistakes, having setbacks, going through adversity. A lot of people don't have what it takes because they're so sensitive, they take failure personally. They can't deal with it when it comes up. They create a negative meaning and association to failure and they end up giving up as a result of that.

Listen, you have to have a core belief and understand that failure is expected. It's part of the process, but failure's a good thing. Failure is feedback. Failure is an opportunity for you to learn and to grow and help improve your business. I failed thousands of times. I can't even tell you how many times I failed in my business, but I don't view them as failures.

That's the difference between someone who's successful and someone who fails. The failure lets the failures in their life define them. They get discouraged, they give up because of those failures. The successful person still fails just as much as the failure does. The difference is, he doesn't view them as failures. He just views them as opportunities to learn and he actually sees them as a good thing, so don't be afraid to fail.

I see a lot of people who are afraid to try different things. To invest money on this, and maybe it doesn't work. I've invested money on different marketing things, and all that. It doesn't work, I lose a couple thousand bucks, whatever. That's okay, that's how I learn. I invest in training, sometimes I don't get as much value from it as I expected. That's okay. I invested in an Instagram training the other day.  It was like a $60 program, I didn't learn anything from it. I was like, “All right, that's fine”.  It helped me reinforce what I already knew so there's still some value in that because it helped me internalize what I already knew at a deeper level.

So I still find the good in everything. I don't believe in failure whatsoever. I think every experience has value in it. You've got to find where that value is. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to pause this and continue this because my memory card's going to die here. We'll resume this in a few seconds.

12. Fear of rejection

All right, I'm back. Reason #12, why most people fail, is that they care too much about what other people think of them and they have a fear of rejection. Now listen, in order for you to create success in your life and your business, there's always going to be people that disagree with you. There's always going to be people that make fun of you, that are going to doubt you, that are going to be negative and try to hold you back from creating success.

If you think that once you become successful that that's going to go away, you're deluding yourself, because the more successful that you become, the more people will dislike you. There's a lot of people that will like you, and love you, but also what comes with that is a lot of people that dislike you.

The haters, the people that are going to be negative. They're going to try to pull you down because they feel insignificant.  If you want to have the tallest building in the city, you can build your own, it takes a lot of hard work, sacrifice, faith and belief, a lot of the things that I'm sharing with you.

Or, you could tear down every other building and then you can have the tallest building in the city. Most people focus on tearing down everyone else's. So understand, if you're starting a business, you're going to have people in your life that aren't going to believe in you. Maybe it's your family, maybe it's your friends.

People are going to make fun of you. I had plenty of that when I started back in 2012 even, back with Project Life Mastery. I shared my YouTube videos and I was enthusiastic and passionate about my goals and all that stuff. A lot of people made fun of me. They didn't believe in me. They thought what I was doing was stupid or silly.

They just thought it was ridiculous for me to put myself up there on YouTube and do what I was doing. They didn't believe I could make any money from a blog. They didn't believe that YouTube was a viable career or this Internet thing, right? A lot of people in your family, they might think, you've got to go to school, you've got to get an education, you've got to get a 9-5 and all that sort of stuff.

If you buy into that, you're going to have to settle for a similar life as them. You have to ask yourself, “Do they have the life that I want”? That's where it comes down to the belief in yourself again and having that faith. You have to believe in yourself and the process. You can't let other people, what they think, their opinion, hold you back or stop you.

Like I said, there's going to be plenty of that along the way. When you become more successful, you're going to have to deal with a lot more of it. Trust me. A lot of people out there, that don't know me, but there's always some negative opinions about me or assumptions or accusations or whatever it is, of people who really don't know who I am or what I'm about. That's totally fine.

I don't focus on that, you can't focus on and care about what other people think and let them define you. You have to have confidence and decide for yourself. I decide I dictate who I am, nobody else. I know who I am. I can look in the mirror and I feel proud of myself. The shadow that follows me, I'm happy with that shadow, because it's never going to escape me for the rest of my life.

As long as you know in your heart of hearts, that you're doing the right thing, that you're building something. You have your vision, you believe in it, that you're not willing to give up, and you don't care what people think. You'll be successful. Again that takes courage, I'm not going to lie. It's not easy. If you can have that courage, you'll be able to, again, create the life that very few people get a chance to create. Then, when you have success, there will be people that hate you, while a lot of people will love you.

A lot of people are going to say, “Hey I want to learn from you and find out what you're doing.” That's what happened to me when I started having a lot of success with the Kindle publishing. All of a sudden, my family, my friends, my cousins, all of them wanted to know what I was doing. I started teaching my sister, I taught my brother, I taught my cousins, I taught friends of mine as well.

They went on to have success also. It's kind of funny how that is. At first, they doubt you, but eventually when you have the proof, it really changes how people perceive you, which is a pretty interesting thing. You can't have that fear of what other people think. You've got to believe in yourself and the process.

13. They have limiting beliefs or negative mindset and attitude

Another reason why a lot of people fail, is they have limiting beliefs or a negative mindset and attitude. Very important. This kind of goes back to what I already shared. Low self-esteem, a negative attitude, I see people like this. They're just negative about everything. If you're always looking for what's wrong, you're going to find it. You're going to find what you look for. You look for what's good, you're going to find the good.

In every situation, there's good and there's bad, it's all how you interpret it and the meaning that you create. This goes without being said, you just can't have a negative attitude about things. You have to be positive, positive in your process and your business, in the journey.

You're going to work on yourself and work on that attitude and mindset. Again, part of that comes down to the morning ritual. I've encountered customers and people that just have a horrible attitude and often times, those are people that I don't want to work with. I really don't want to help those people. I'll say to them, “Listen, you've got to work on your attitude, you've got to work on your mindset. You've got to be more positive”.

Here are some free videos that I have here on YouTube, my blog. Go through those. Right now, you're not ready. You're not ready to build a business. You're not ready for my course, my training.” I'll actually refund them and kick them out of my program because I don't want negative people. I don't want to deal with those customers. I've got a Facebook group, communities that I manage. I don't want negative people in that. I have no tolerance for that whatsoever.

I found for myself, if people have that attitude, they need to work on their attitude first, their mindset before they're ready to build a business. If that's you, your attitude, your mindset is negative, then I recommend you read some books, that you start to feed your mind with some more positivity. Work on that part of yourself, because you're going to need it to be successful.

Another reason why a lot of people fail, going back to that, limiting beliefs was part of that. You've got to identify the beliefs that are stopping you. A lot of the beliefs that you have are self-sabotaging your success. If you have a belief that you want to be successful, but you have another belief that says that you don't want to put in any work or you want short-term results.

That's what's called an “inner conflict”. One belief is positive and one's negative. They counteract each other and they're going to pull you in two different directions. So you've got to really identify your limited beliefs and address them. Again, morning rituals are one of the best ways to do that.

14. They're not committed to learning a constant, never-ending improvement

Number 14, I think I'm at right now. This is a big one as well. A lot of people fail because they're not committed to learning constant, never-ending improvement. If you want to be successful, you have to learn. You have to keep working on yourself. The more that you learn, the more that you earn. So you have to continue learning, you can't just learn and do something one time and expect to have all this success afterwards.

A lot of people even invest and start their business, they invest in training but they don't keep investing in training. That's part of the process, because whatever training you learn, understand that it's only going to get you to a certain point. As Einstein said, “The level of thinking that's gotten you to where you are right now is not the same level of thinking that's going to get you to where you want to go. It requires a different level of thinking”.

You always have to be looking at how you can improve things and become better. How you can improve yourself, how you can learn more about your business or industry. Learn the latest of what's working, how you can improve your products and always making those better and better. That's one core thing that's really helped me get to where I am.

I'm always looking to improve myself. I'm improving my products, everything that I put out and sell, I'm always making it better and improving it. I'm always improving my YouTube videos, my blog, my channel. Everything that I do, I'm improving it.

I'm improving myself. I'm investing in training. I'm investing in coaches. I'm investing in all these things. I don't have to be because I've already created a lot of success, but I still am, because I realize what's gotten me to where I am is learning, growing, and improving myself. I need to keep doing that to get to where I want to go. I just signed up the other day, one of my goals for this year, is to go to Tony Robbins' Business Mastery $10,000 seminar. Invest $10,000 for a seminar. People are like, “Why would you do that. That's a lot of money. Why would you spend that money on a seminar?”

Because what I'm going to learn from that seminar is going to help me make millions of more dollars over the next few years and the rest of my life. I can't afford to not learn the latest and to learn things that can help me grow and improve my business.

I'm going to be missing out on the money.  If I invest in the training, there's a lot of money I'll be missing out on, if I don't gain the skills and the knowledge that I need to gain right now, early on in my business career. So I'm not afraid to invest in myself. Back when I didn't have money, I remember I invested to go to Tony Robbins' Date with Destiny seminar, which is a $5,000 seminar.

I remember I invested in coaches when I didn't have any money. Thousands of dollars on coaches. That's what helped me get to where I am today. So I'm going to keep doing it, and I'm going to keep learning, evolving and improving myself. I'm investing in training all the time. I'm going to tons of different seminars and doing different things like that. You always need to be learning, evolving, and improving yourself.

15. They fail to anticipate changes and adapt

Another reason why a lot of people fail is they fail to anticipate changes and adapt. The Internet is always changing. The world is always changing. It's changing at a much faster pace than ever before. If you don't anticipate the changes, you're going to be left behind. You're going to end up failing. There's going to be things that are going to happen and if you don't prepare for them now, and get ready for them, then you're going to pay the consequences.

So you have to be able to anticipate, see the road ahead. I was able to anticipate changes with Amazon. That's why I started teaching, changing my strategies and my model because I knew things were coming that were going to change. I wanted to change early so that I could get an advantage over everyone else and it wouldn't effect me as much.

A lot of people react when changes happen. They're not anticipating. You've got to anticipate and see the road ahead. You always have to be willing to adapt. I've always been adapting as changes happen. Facebook changes, I'm changing my Facebook strategy to adapt. There's a new technology coming out and there's Snapchat. Okay, I need to adapt, I need to get on Snapchat.

Amazon just released video on demand, or Amazon video direct or whatever. Okay, I'm going to test it out. I'm going to adapt, because who knows what's going to change with YouTube. Who knows what's changing with Google. You always have to stay one step ahead and anticipate and adapt. Be flexible. Very important.

16. They lack creativity or basic intelligence

This is a really important one. A lot of people they just look to copy someone else. They just want to follow the formula and not use any creativity or thinking for themselves. You might have some moderate success with that, but in order to be successful, you have to use your creativity. You have to have some basic common sense and intelligence. Often times I get frustrated with people that just follow things exactly.

I have templates and stuff. They want my training. They follow things exactly the same. They're not realizing there are other people doing the same thing. You've got to think outside the box and use your own ideas. Come up and use your own brain and creativity and do things differently than everyone else if you want to be successful.

You learn from people that are successful, but then you also enhance things. You do things better. You're going to have to have some creativity and intelligence if you want to have success in your life. There's a lot of people that I see that are just, honestly, they're just lacking intelligence. I don't know how to fix that.

I think just learning and improving yourself and a lot of experience can help you, but you're going to have to have some basic intelligence and improve your creativity if you want to have success. Work hard on yourself, improve yourself and just become a smarter person is all I can really say. Very important, though.

17. They don't have clear goals or clear outcomes for what they want

Another reason why a lot of people fail, is that they don't have clear goals or clear outcomes for what they want. You guys know this. I preach this all the time on my blog, my YouTube channel. If you guys still don't have goals, I don't know what to say. I mean, if you don't know what you want, you're not going to ever get what you want. I remember I put out a YouTube video, I think it was one of my monthly goals reports.  

Someone left a comment. He's like, “Maybe I should start setting some goals”.  Yeah, I've been sharing goals setting for years, How can you not have goals? You've got to have goals, guys. I share this with all my products, my Money mastery course, my new course that's coming out.

First thing, you've got to have goals. You've got to have realistic, attainable, smart goals. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic. Having a timeline. You've got to set goals for yourself. You've got to know what you want. Have that clear outcome. If you don't know what you want, you're not going to get there. It's like you get in your car, but you don't have a destination. You're just going to drive around in circles. You've got to have goals, that's a big one.

18. They don't have compelling reasons for why they want their goals

Also, # 18, you have to have compelling reasons for why you want your goals. You've got to have hunger. You've got to be hungry and want it bad. Again, that's another big part of the 80% of the psychology, is why you want it. 20% is how. You've got to have a strong “why”. You have to have strong reasons and you have to have reasons that are your reasons, not anyone else's.

You can't be doing it because what your parents want you to do, or your friends or society. They want you to do this or that. That's not going to drive you, long-term. You've got to have reasons that drive you and motivate you to create the success that you want, the life that you want.

For me, every moment that's created my success is because I have these reasons, I have this hunger, this motivation, this drive that pushes me every day. That wakes me up early, that keeps me up late, focusing and working hard towards creating a life that I want.

Your reasons can be positive or negative. Maybe it's to create a better life for yourself, to travel the world, to make more money, to be financially free. To be able to take care of your family, your friends, or to give and make a difference. Or, it could be more pain-related reasons, to avoid pain.

Like, you're tired of settling in your life, you're tired of being broke and struggling and working at a job that doesn't fulfill you, building someone else's dream and not fulfilling your own dream, your own mission in your life. You're tired of being a slave to someone else.

Whatever those reasons are, you've got to identify what they are and associate with them. Then, have them drive you and pull you towards where you want to go. If you just have a reason to make a little bit more money, you're not going to be driven. You're not going to be motivated enough. It's too tough of a battle. The war's too tough. You're not going to survive. So, you've got to have reasons that really drive you, that are really emotional for you, and will keep you going over the long-term.

19. They don't surround themselves with like-minded successful people

Another reason why people fail, #19, is that they don't surround themselves with like-minded successful people. I've already mentioned this one a little bit, but who you spend time with is who you become. I remember reading a study or a stat, that the income that you make right now is similar, or like 10 to 20% off of the five closest people that you surround yourself with.

If you currently make 50,000 a year, then my guess is the five closest people that you spend time with also make around 50%, maybe $50,000, $60,000, $70,000. Maybe 10-20% less or more of the amount that you make. If you want to get ahead, it's not going to serve you being around people that are making the same amount of money as you. You've got to be around people that are more successful than you are.

You've got to surround yourself, at least with people that are like-minded. People on the same path, the same journey that are just as committed as you are. That's why I created communities, Facebook groups for my courses. So that you can interact and meet people, you're not going at it alone. The friends, the peers you have, they don't want you to change. It's the truth, it’s the reality of it, because they're afraid that if you change, what is it going to mean for them?

They're going to lose your connection, the love that you guys have together. That's going to make them feel insignificant or not enough. So they want to be comfortable. Everybody wants to stay in their comfort zone. Part of their comfort zone is having you be just like them, the same way that you already are. So you have to recognize that in a subconscious, unconscious level, your peer group is actually holding you back. Not intentionally. But because it's human nature.

If you want to have a great body and get in amazing shape, but your friends are all overweight and you are as well, then they don't have any bad intentions for you, but just being around them, their belief systems and their actions and habits are going to hold you back from creating the body that you want.

You're going to start to eat healthier and try to go to the gym, but then they're going to say, “Let's just go watch TV tonight, or let's order this. Let's go to McDonald's or whatever it is”. That's going to hold you back, that's going to influence you in some way. You need to be around people that are more successful than you, that are at least like- minded and positive, on the same path, on the same journey. Surround yourself with that.

20. They give up

The last one, just to wrap this up, because this has been a long video. Thank you, guys, for sticking with me, but all these reasons are very important. Last reason why people fail is they give up. They give up. They quit. If you quit, there's no chance of success. They just decide that this is too hard. I'm just going to go back to having a job. A job's much easier. I get short-term money from it. It's secure. I don't have to deal with the failure.

I don't have to deal with the hardships and everything. They settle, but there's a part of them that's never fully fulfilled and satisfied, because they know that they've given up. They know that there's a greater life out there that's possible for them, that's waiting for them, that they got a glimpse of. It'll haunt them for the rest of their lives, knowing that. Every time they look in the mirror, they're always going to wonder, what if?

What if I just went at it? What if I just committed myself? What if I overcame these 20 reasons and I stuck at it long-term and I created that lifestyle? So you can't give up. Giving up, quitting, can never be an option. It never was for me. One thing that often inspires me is this story of Sylvester Stallone, when he started his path of being an actor.

He was struggling and broke in his life. He wanted to be an actor, that was his mission, that was his dream. Everybody said he should give up. He got turned down at over 1,000 different agent offices in New York. All saying that he looked stupid, he sounded stupid. He just believed in his vision, his dream, and would not give up.

He refused to get a job. He believed if he got a job then he would lose his hunger. He would be seduced back into being comfortable. So he refused to go back to get a job, even though he was so desperate he had to sell his wife's jewelry and his wife left him after that. He got so desperate that his best friend, his dog, he needed 50 bucks so he went to the liquor store and tried to sell his dog. Eventually, someone bought his dog for like $30.

It was the worst day of his life, but he would not give up. Sure enough, he got the idea for Rocky. He wrote the script. Rocky became this big success. People said an overnight success, but they didn't see the years of struggle and hard work that he put in, and the rejection and the failure. Everything that he went through. All of a sudden, all this success, fame and money. He got the life that he wanted because he wouldn't give up. He kept at it. He believed in himself and his vision.

You do that. You have that belief. You have these reasons here. You overcome these reasons here that I shared with you so far. You're going to be able to create the life that you want. I can't promise you guys that'll happen overnight. I don't believe in that. It takes time. Everybody has their own path to success. Some people are faster than others, it doesn't matter how long it takes to get there, as long as you finish.

What matters is that you finish the race

Man, it's like you start a race a marathon.  It doesn't matter how long it takes. Other people are faster, other people have been training longer and are more experienced. What matters is that you finish the race. You make it to the other side. You don't just give up and throw in the towel, wondering “what if”, later. One of my favorite quotes from Jim Rohn is that “discipline weighs ounces, regret weighs tons”. You don't want to have regret.

So, that's it for the 20 reasons, guys. I want to thank you for sticking with me for this, I want you guys to look at yourself, ask yourself, be honest with yourself, “Where am I coming up short? What's holding me back? What do I need to do to overcome it and commit even more to your success than you ever have before?”

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this video. Make sure to leave a comment below. Let me know what you guys thought. Thank you guys immensely for sticking with it. Hopefully you guys received some value today. I want to thank you guys for everything. Make sure to Like the video as well. Subscribe for more. I'll see you guys in the next video. Take care.

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