Here is something that I believe is truly important when it comes to owning your own business, especially if you’re trying to start an internet or home based business.

There are two things you can possibly do and become successful. One is to simply trial & error your way through until you find the right path. This is something that definitely will require you to be dedicated and not give up. You also must realize and accept that you will fail many times before you are successful.

The other and easier way is to follow in the footsteps of someone who has already become successful. Copy what they did to get where they are, and do it yourself.

Now there are many ways of executing this possibility. There are countless books out their that give you step-by-step instructions of how the author became successful, and they tell you how you can too. Then there are websites that will lay out plans of how their affiliates are achieving success, and give you ways to copy that success.

Something I’ve seen in a lot of these types of books however (not all of them, some are very good) is that they don’t give the right information for the majority of the people. And it’s for these people that I’m writing for today. The type of people that can pick up an e-book that teaches you how to be successful, and become successful from reading it, don’t need or already know this information.

Now this is a fine and dandy way to follow in somebody’s footsteps to success, however these footsteps go through a sandy desert. And while the footsteps can show you the general direction, they might be covered up or hard to make out the farther you get, or someone else’s footsteps come along and misdirect you. Imagine however if you weren’t just following in that persons footsteps, but you had your hand on their shoulder so you wouldn’t get lost. If you were separated, all you have to do is call out and they will be there to yell back to keep you heading in the right direction. Now this is just an analogy but at the same time can be taken literally.

What I’m getting at is a better way to get to success, to copy somebody else’s success, is to be right their behind them, letting them walk you down the right path. How is this done you ask. By having a personal mentor. Have someone you can give a call and email whenever you have a problem or question. Someone that can see your situation and tell you how you can modify what they did to make it work for you. Ask this person about things they’ve done that worked and didn’t work.

Having somebody you can have a personal relationship with and have actual contact with, whether just by emailing consistently or talking on the phone with, or sometimes even getting together in person to go over plans, will be a great benefit to have in any business you are going after.

One thing I do want to tell you though is to make sure you are following in the right footsteps. If you are part of a downline I recommend not just going to who ever recruited you, but ask them if there is a manager or someone higher up that is achieving real success. Sometimes your recruiter will actually be the one who is very successful, you just want to be sure.

A recruiter that is also just starting out or worse yet has actually been in the business for some time but still isn’t successful, pass this person by and find a leader above him you can learn from. They might be telling you the same thing that was told to them that was told by someone else that was told by the leader, but the message is usually distorted by the time it reaches you. Hearing how to be successful always sounds different coming from someone who is already successful, and will usually give better results.

But one thing about this method I want to point out because I know I don’t like to hear it. Leaders who are successful do not want to be called or contacted every day hearing about you hitting a brick wall if the brick wall is you aren’t trying. Successful people tend to value their time a lot, and don’t want to try to teach people that aren’t willing to learn what they’re teaching.

Owning your own business and making it successful is going to take time and hard work. It’s just a fact of business. And when that person tells you to do something and you don’t do it or finish it because you realized it was going to be harder than you realized or take longer than you thought, that is when you need to hang the towel. Realize and accept you don’t really want success, tell that leader you don’t want success, and don’t waste any more of his/her time.

I know that may seem harsh, but not everyone can make it owning their own business. And if you’re not willing to work hard and spend time working your business, all you are doing is wasting your time because you will fail every time. If you don’t believe me then let me ask you how many businesses have you started and tried, but they didn’t work out. Chances are very good that they didn’t work because you didn’t put in the effort to make them work.

While there are more business opportunities out there that I think are bad than there are good ones, I haven’t seen one yet that someone who was determined enough wouldn’t make money off of. Even many pyramid schemes which are now illegal and I would never consider a business could be very profitable for those who were dedicated to them.

So if you can make your self dedicated for your business, find a business with good support that will give you someone to learn from and don’t give up until you’ve reached success.