Sometimes it seems like identifying why some businesses succeed while others fail is impossible. After all, if you could readily identify why businesses end up in one category or the other, then it would also seem to be fairly simple to decide the fate of your business. The fact that many businesses - online and off-line - fail would suggest it's not so easy to figure out.

This is something I have discussed at length with a number of very successful people over the last few months! It's also something I have actively studied as I constantly interact with people every day. At some point, the things that separate the successes from the failures became glaringly obvious. What became obvious is that you, the individual, decides whether or not you are going to be successful. Then you implement that decision.

As strange as it may sound to you, we decide how successful we are willing to be. History is full of examples of people who decided they were going to be big successes and how they made this happen. Most of the examples that I can think of were people who identified people who could help them achieve their dreams. They then attached themselves to these people. Alexander Graham Bell's assistant was such a person. Napoleon Hill was such a person... he used Dale Carnegie to make him a big success. Most of the online "gurus" that I know also did the same thing. They studied, modeled, and became understudies of those already successful.

Before you can become a huge business success you have to make that critical decision to do so. Once you have decided (emotionally as well as intellectually) that you will succeed, then you begin to make it happen. It's very important that you make that decision at the emotional as well as the intellectual level. If it's not an emotional decision to make it happen, you will give up too easily when the going get rough. You will give up too easily when the inevitable obstacles appear in your patch.

One of the big fallacies spread online is that it's easy to be a big online success. From those I talk to every day, and based on my own experience, I think nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of those making six-figure incomes put in many very long days. I have personally worked many 18-hour days as I struggled to complete a project. I have only recently reached the point where I don't feel compelled to do this. So don't let anyone tell you that it's easy, but do commit that you are going to make it happen.

As further evidence that it's not easy, consider that if it were, then everybody would be doing it. Why would the person struggling in a fast-food restaurant, or slaving at a factory job, keep doing it if he could easily make his fortune online. Thousand of people that he knew would discover how easy it was online, and this would attract that factory worker. The fact that millions continue in the 9 to 5 off-line job is evidence that this hasn't occurred.

However, there are some people who are making hundreds of thousands .... and some millions.... of dollars online. So obviously, it is possible. How did those who are doing well online do it? Some were lucky - timing is their secret. They stumbled upon a trend at just the right time and often were the first ones to present it to the market. Others went through a lot of trial and error until they hit upon a formula that worked. And the others all learned from someone willing to take them under their wing and teach them.

Of the above three categories, I fall into the later. I decided I did not like the hand that life had dealt me, and I decided to make a change. Then I searched until I found someone I KNEW was "walking the walk." Finally, I decided, much as Mr. Edison's assistant did, that I was going to make this person... actually these people, teach me the ropes. Part of that decision was deciding that I would not take no for an answer... as I broke into that inner circle. That's the decision you now need to make.

Finding someone who has discovered what works and how to really do it is the easiest and probably quickest way to succeed online. It's also the cheapest way. Many people use the trial and error method, experimenting and learning what works on their own. The problem with that is that by the time they start to figure it out, their competitors have often figured it out first. This makes their new knowledge much less valuable since it is now less rare.... many of your competitors now have this old knowledge.

Those lucky enough to stumble upon something that makes them an online success, really had no control over what happened to them. Fate just smiled upon them. You probably cannot afford to wait and hope this happens to you.

So now you are left with one choice - decided that you are going to allow yourself to succeed. Then locate someone who knows what you need to know and get them to teach you. Decide to do whatever it takes, and commit not to give up or take no for an answer. Once you've decided.... really decided to succeed, nature .... God... makes it happen. The whole key is for you to make that one decision and then help it to happen. Have you made that decision yet?