How NOT to build a successful WA Business

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I came across a great quote today on Twitter while I was doing a bit of traffic driving for my site. It's an old one from Abraham Lincoln and since I am trying to improve my Canva skills I thought I would turn it into a meme!

What Did Abraham Lincoln mean by this?

If you are given 6 hours to chop down a tree and an axe to do it, do you not just get stuck in and start chopping it down?

What if the axe is blunt? Using a blunt axe would undoubtedly be very hard work and you would probably expend an awful lot of energy without making much progress in your attempt to chop the tree down.

A blunt axe will fail to penetrate the wood and just bounce off again unless you use some serious effort. Even then you will probably only chip and splinter the wood rather than cut into it.

So even though you have 6 hours to complete the task you may well fail to chop the tree down due to either exhaustion from the effort or just the realisation that a blunt axe won't work for the task.

Instead of spending 6 hours trying to achieve the task with a blunt axe, Abraham Lincoln proposes to spend 4 hours - that's 2/3 of the total time allowed for the job sharpening the axe.

On the face of it, if your ultimate goal is a chopped down tree, then 2/3 of the way through the allotted time there will be zero progress made in achieving the goal.

However after four hours spent sharpening the axe you now have the perfect tool for the job. A sharp axe is going to chop through that tree like a hot knife through butter. Each swing of the axe takes a hefty chunk out of the tree and the task ends up being completed comfortably inside the allotted time and with the user still having energy to spare!

What's the difference?

The woodsman who prepared for the job by sharpening his axe and tackling the job with the right tool succeeds, while the woodsman who just gets stuck into the job without properly preparing fails

How does this apply to you?

How is your business coming on? If its doing great and you are seeing money come in then that's great! Congratulations and keep up the great work!

If things aren't working out as well as you had hoped then I need to ask you - "Have you properly prepared for the job?"

How do you make sure you are properly prepared for building your business? Simple - as a member of WA you have a comprehensive training course here which shows you step by step how to build an online business. Following the training - and actually putting it into practice - is the same as the woodsman who sharpens his axe.

I have seen a number of members - both old and new - saying that they are struggling to make any money with their business. There can be many reasons for this - from poor choice of niche - to poor writing - to poor choice of affiliate products. However, there are many times when I look at the profile of these people and see that they have completed very little, if any of the WA training.

It blows my mind!!

How on Earth can you build a profitable business if you aren't prepared to put in the time, learning how to do it? These people are like the woodsman who tries to chop down the tree with a blunt axe. They quit out of sheer exhaustion from untargeted effort which brings little or no progress.


Want To Make Your Business A Success?

Make sure you spend the time necessary sharpening your business axe. Doing so means that when you come to tackle the problems that will undoubtedly come your way, you will cut through them with minimal effort and achieve your goals of creating your own little profitable online business.

Happy chopping!

Dave

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Recent Comments

107

I love metaphors, and your post had a nice one!

Unfortunately, I might just get straight down to chopping the tree. Damned ADD, makes me so impatient sometimes.

But I have finished almost the whole OEC training. I'm on level 5. Yes, I have been slow with the training, but I have still taken it, so maybe I'm not as hopeless with the website business as with chopping a tree. :D

Hi Kirsti
The beauty of the WA training is that you can - and should - be building your business as you go through the training. It's not a case of hours/days of training before starting.
I reckon you are doing OK anyway - having read a lot of your posts it sounds like your business is coming on nicely!

Have a great weekend!
Dave

Yes, I liked that I could start building my website right away, when I signed up for WA.

Thanks, and have a great Sunday!

Kirsti

Dave ! Boy your story brings back a memory of being in sales for 30 years quite a few years ago .
I went to many seminars and the story of the axe reminds me of the story of the 2 lumberjacks, it goes like this.

There was this very large lumberjack that shows up at a camp for work when men use to cut trees down with an axe.
The first thing this big man asks the foreman is who is the best axeman here at this camp?

The foreman says that man there and he points to a rather short man with not the physique of his six foot five 240 pound body. No, he is a mere five foot nine 185 pound man with a fair build .

The big man asks so, how many trees does this man chop down in a day? The foreman says fifty trees a day and sometimes a few more! Ha, the large man laughs and says I can beat that, and off he goes into the designated area to start chopping trees.

By the end of the day the big man is stunned that he has only chopped down 30 trees? So, he tells the foreman tomorrow I won't be taking my lunch break, I have to chop more trees!

So, the big man works even harder and at the end of the day he is shocked that he has only cut down 10 more trees to make a total of only 40 trees still 10 short of the little axeman.

So, the big man tells the foreman tomorrow I will not be taking my one hour lunch break or my two 15 minute coffee breaks, I have to cut down more trees!

The next day the big man starts copping and chopping until he cannot chop anymore but somehow manages to make it to quitting time and amazingly he has cut down only 46 trees and the little axeman has cut 52 trees that day?

In utter exhaustion the big axeman asks the foreman how, how does he cut more trees than me ? I'am bigger and stronger than him, I didn't take my lunch or my 2 coffee breaks and I still can't beat him!

With a smile the foreman says well, the reason the little axeman cuts more trees than you is because every time he chops at a tree half a dozen times he sharpens his axe so that he does not have to expend that much energy like you !

So, make sure your axe is sharp and you will cut down more trees a lot easier.

The other story,


The other axe story is about an ad placed in a newspaper remember newspapers well we still have them and this was when people use to advertise in them daily more than now.

The ad says axeman needed will pay double! Many people applied but all quit after a few hours of working, why,? apparently this was based on a true story .
The reason why people quit so soon even when they were paid double is because they asked these men to chop the wood with the blunt side of the axe, yes, that's right not the sharp end with the blade the blunt end.

Almost every man said as they quit, nothing is happening there are no chips flying, no chips flying is very important. people need to see something happening or they will quit.

This is why credit cards were so successful when they started in the early 70's, anyone could get a credit card that's why you have to pay them a large % when you are late. They can afford to lose some money with that large of an interest rate.

I think a lot of people will quit WA if they don't see the chips flying !
They may have a bad niche like you say or not enough content which won't help your traffic apparently traffic starts after about 50 posts or maybe you don't have the right ads. Whatever it is you have to figure it out cause other people are doing it.

Water never gives up it wears down rock winds around mountains and can creep through the smallest cracks, well you get the idea, maybe you can be like water and figure it out, all the best !!

Great post Dave! some of us just need to wake up and like nike says just do it !!!

Hi John
Thanks very much for this epic reply!!
You should definitely turn this into a blog post of your own so that more people see it and learn these great lessons.
I agree with pretty much every word of it!

Have a great weekend
Dave

Yes i think your right i will have to make it a post thamks ๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ‘Œ

It helps to have the proper tools to do the job with minimal effort. Its true, there is probably a lot of people running around trying to cut that tree down with a blunt axe. I was one of those person, I will admit to that. Seeking help, going back and looking at the mistakes made, sometimes its best to step back and look at the tools and things needed to move forward. Sharpen axe definitely makes the job easier.
Thanks for sharing Dave!

Hi Jeff.
I think we are all guilty of trying to run before we can walk with our business. There lure of getting stuff done and earning money! Unfortunately reality tends to catch up with you.
The time spent learning the skills of the business (sharpening the axe) is definitely time well spent!

Have a great weekend Jeff

Dave

Dave, thank you for this reminder. I am still sharpening my axe but thinking about it, I think it will never stop, there is still so much to learn that the axe will never be sharp enough :)
But I love the process!
I think you have to love it, otherwise it is a struggle. If you love it you consider everything as another step towards your goals.
Have a wonderful and productive Friday!
Lenka

Hi Lenka
I can already see evidence of the sharpness of your axe in your excellent YouTube videos!
You are quite right about enjoying the process. When you enjoy what you do you never think of it as working.

All the best

Dave ๐Ÿ™‚

Hi Dave, great post, I like it and enjoyed reading this motivational post. However not entirely the same insight, the following quote from Martin luther King Jr. came to my mind reading your post as following : โ€œIf a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. I always like this quote. Have a great day. Jude

Hi Jude
I love this version of the lesson.
We should definitely all strive to do our job as well as we can.

Thanks very much ๐Ÿ™‚
Dave

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