Would You Invest a Year a Training and Programs to Make a Million Dollars?

Written by Debbie Turner on Dec 25, 2008 8:27 pm

Read More: Discipline | Personal Development

When I was in my young 20's, I baby sat 4 other children full time so I could be home with my two toddlers. However, as my two started school, I wanted to go to work.

My choices were to get a job where no formal training was required or go toward a career where some training was necessary. I opted for some training and went to school to become a legal assistant. I spent 8 months and a couple thousand dollars to be able to apply for a starting position at a law firm.

I was hired on at an entry level position and for the next year I worked hard, continuing my studies at night to become more efficient and confident in my career. There was an uncomfortable learning curve, I was nervous about goofing up and wanting to do things right.

After year 3 I had earned my way to the top of my pay scale. At year 6, I realized I was in a dead end position if I wanted more income.

At this point, I had a decision to make. I could stay at a dead end job, go to law school plus get my undergraduate degree (I never went to college), or look for something where I would have no income cap yet was still qualified. I choose real estate.

I invested the next four months with learning and school as getting a real estate license required a whole new set of learning skills. I paid money for the courses, licensing fees, testing fees, and didn't get much sleep for those 4 months because I was still working full time. But I wanted it bad enough so I paid the price.

I quit my legal career the week I received my real estate license. I was now a fully fledged Realtor and was ready to conquer the world. But in reality, it was dog hard work. I had to learn to market myself. Here I had to compete for buyers and sellers against long time and well know agents in my town. I was a newbie and didn't know much.

I sat open houses every weekend, spent tons of money on magazine ads, mailed out postcards, knocked door to door, adopted a neighborhood and delivered goodie bags to everyone once a month, ran TV commercials, bought calendars, and the list goes on and on and on. I spent thousands and thousands of dollars marketing.

I didn't have tons of business the first 6 months of my career, but I was up and out the door every morning, determined that things would break for me. By the end of the year, I had earned 6 figures. Good thing I didn't give up and kept a positive mental attitude.

I continued with a successful real estate career until the end 2005 when the market turned sour. Again, I had choices. Go work at a department store or find something else to replace the income. I was very independent and the idea of punching a clock for minimum wage made me ill so I looked online for a business.

My first online business was a disaster. I look at it as a $35,000 learning experience in what not to do. After that, I decided I better get some training. New skillsets, new business, I needed new training. So I spent probably $15K over the summer of 2007 to learn how to be a business person online.

My second business was a winner. I made better decisions all the way around, but this time I knew more about what to do. The value of an education is worth its weight in gold.

Sometimes the lack of education costs us more than paying the price to get one in the first place.

As you continue down your road of online marketing, you will want to purchase courses in areas you're weak in, attend seminars, tune in to programs and continue to learn.

Some of the mentors I've learned from are Mike Dillard, Dennis Karganilla, Jeff Mills, Mark Hoverson, Steve Renner, Mike Klingler, Matt Bacak, Ann Seig, Pat Lovell, Alejandro Reyes, Dani Johnson, and Jeffrey Combs just to name a few. I've Ann Seig, invested in their programs and products. I'm always in the learning and discovering mode.

At the same time, I'm an implementer. Knowledge without implementing is just knowledge.

If you were to call your local university and find out what a marketing degree would run you in terms of time and money, you'd find you’re much further ahead by simply investing into your business and training programs to become efficient in internet marketing.

Yet sadly, it is my own experience that many newbies totally refuse to invest in training programs as well as they're the first to quit because they never treated their business like a business to begin with.

I have people coming to me who have spent $35,000 and more on trying to develop their home based business but some of them shriek in horror if I even suggest they pay a few hundred bucks for some excellent marketing training and development.

The point in investing in any form of education is so that you are able to achieve a positive return on your future. By spending a few thousand dollars on excellent online marketing training programs I am now able to earn many more times that amount each year for life should I so wish.

Conclusion:

I wanted to be a legal assistant. It took time, money and a learning curve before I began generating the income I wanted. But I stayed at it because I wanted it bad enough. I accomplished my goal.

I wanted to be a Realtor. It took another year, lots of money and a huge learning curve with heavy big hitter competition. It was hard to conquer but I stayed at it because I wanted it bad enough. I accomplished my goal.

I wanted to be a network marketer/internet marketer. It took a year, several thousands of dollars, a failed business and lots of education, but I'm now generating income that replaced my real estate income and more. I accomplished my goal.

Education, time, sweat equity, determination are all part of taking your business seriously. The ones who do, make it. The ones who don't, don't.

What is it that you want? Will you get the education, put in your time, money, sweat equity and bring a concrete determination that you will succeed come heck or high water? If it were easy to make your first million dollars, everyone would be doing it. Making the first takes a little learning curve, making multi millions is a piece of cake because now you have the skills to do it.

I think this is where the saying, "I paid my dues and now I'm successful" was coined.

I wish I had available to me what I make available to my new business partners. I would have been at least a year ahead and another $100K a year ahead. Oh well, live and learn. I share my mistakes so hopefully others don't have to.

http://www.MentoringWithHeart.com You will receive these weekly mentoring notes by subscribing to my ezine. I'd love to have you. This whole website came about because of DK (Dennis Karganilla).