darkrache
Junior Member
- Mar 27, 2011
- 149
- 164
*THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN IN TWO PARTS. THE FIRST PART IS JUST MOTIVATION. THE SECOND PART IS THE COLD, HARD FACTS (NOT SO INSPIRATIONAL, BUT IT HELPS YOU REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FIRST PART). THE POINT IS TO REALIZE REALITY, AND STRIVE TO SURPASS IT! I ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ AT LEAST THE FIRST PART, AND IF YOU'RE UP FOR SOME NUMBER CRUNCHING, READ THE SECOND PART!*
Before you read this, I want you to get in a comfortable state of mind. I want you to reject any feeling that has you thinking that you can't and won't succeed in what you want to do. If there is any time to have this feeling, it is while reading this. I want you to forget any problems that you have right now. Whether it be the debt piling upon you, or your constant failures in Internet Marketing that seem to define you, or maybe a personal conflict in your life with another person which is ruining your emotions - let it go for the next ten minutes. Become as comfortable as possible. Go grab a nice warm cup of coffee, turn the lights down, whatever makes you comfortable. Then spend a minute releasing any stress from your life until you finish reading this article.
Are you stress free yet?
Great! So let me say this - we all have struggles in life. Everybody that you will ever meet has had to overcome struggles in their life. When you look at the "Internet Gurus" who are making top-dollars, note that they had struggles too! It's very easy to think "Oh, that guy who's making $2k a day, he has it easy." This is the wrong mentality though! Just know that he encountered $2,000/day worth of struggles to get to that amount. With this said, just keep in mind while you are reading, that there will be struggles in your efforts to succeed!
Let me hit you with a surprising fact (which actually might not seem surprising at all when you think about it). A majority of the people at this forum (I'd like to say over %97) have not made a single dime online! How is this possible though? Every time you get on this forum, you see someone posting "I made $x today", or you see internet wizzes promoting the newest products reflecting their success, or you see information being shared by people who have made their fortune. Seeing this probably frustrates you. You might think
Well that's because those engaged in this forum probably know a good bit about it. For example, you don't see "Newbies" who just signed up yesterday and have three posts boasting about how their newest SEO strategy just earned them a million dollars and right now they're sitting in paradise.
So what does this have to do with anything? Simple, this is the negative influence that is natural among humans - they feel inferior, as if they're doing something wrong, when others are excelling, and they are lagging behind. For example, if your opponents beat you tremendously in a race you've been training your whole life for, they might say "Why should I run? I'm not good at it. I should just quit if I'm going to lose like this." Sound familiar? Chances are if you're struggling to succeed, you feel inferior by the success of others.
So getting back to the question, "why can't I succeed?", the answer is quite simple: there is no answer. There is no reason you can't succeed! It's all in your head! Just because others are doing great and you're struggling to do even fractions of what they're doing doesn't mean you're losing!
Let me tell you a story. The main character is YOU. Imagine you're at the end of the line. You're past on debts. You're getting evicted from your home if you don't meet the next payment. Your children (whom you love more than anything) depend on you, and if you're kicked out, you have nowhere to go. Imagine you have no friends or family that will take you in, and you will have no money for food or water. This is the end of the line. If this happens to you, your life will become a wreck.
Frantically, you're doing everything you can to raise money for your situation, but nothing is bringing in results. It's the day before the payment is due, you've earned no money, and you've pretty much given up. Something draws you out into the city that last night before you have to move out, and as you're walking down a dark road, a mysterious man comes out of nowhere and says,
"I hear you're past the point of no return" of course you'd be scared, but in this story, you realize your defeat, and his words just break you down even more. But he continues, "Come here, I have something to tell you," so you move closer, and start walking with the man. "What if I told you son, that your problems could go away? What if I told you about a system that will have you earning hundreds of dollars within an hour?" You become curious, of course, but also understand that it might be a scam. He continues speaking, "What if I told you that you COULD NOT fail? That there is no possible way you can do anything wrong. That there is hope that by tomorrow, everything will be solved. As a matter of fact, by tomorrow, everything WILL be solved with this system. I will even give it to you for free. I guarantee that by tomorrow, you will have all the money you wanted and more." Remembering your children, you become filled with hope, and plead to the man. He takes you back to his place, and says "I guarantee this will solve everything! If it doesn't I'll personally give you all the money, but I have no worries because it will solve them." you become filled with optimism and confidence that your life will become better. You now know that no matter what, one way or another, your problem will be solved, and now you're eager. Getting on the computer, he now says "Great! Are you ready to make you first thousand dollars tonight?" After hearing the large initial amount, you are overwhelmed with feelings of
PAUSE
Now imagine yourself being that person. Truly imagine the feelings of grief, distress, and torture knowing you've failed at everything, and you can't do it. Now think about how you might feel as you're about to earn that first large sum of money. You're probably ecstatic! He knows you'll make the money and he has you thinking you can too. By now you're as optimistic as ever, knowing that this is the point where everything changes.
The key to success starts within yourself. This feeling that "this is it, I can do it. I can finally succeed" is the feeling that will ultimately succeed. It might sound like exaggeration, but this is the feeling you need to have before anything you ever do. Imagine someone says "If you can recite the first three letters of the alphabet, I will give you a million dollars." Take that feeling of "Wow! I can do this! I'm going to become rich!" and apply it wherever you want to, whether it's in internet marketing, or maybe it's in personal situations such as not being able to lose that extra weight, just apply the mindset of "There is no chance I will fail if I do this. This time, I am going to do it!"
Even after applying this mindset, chances are you will fail! As upsetting as it may sound, it's the pure facts. After all, all you've done is changed your mindset. Just because I say "I will NOT fail this time" doesn't mean you'll succeed the first time! The key part is that you continue to apply this mindset. Many people get discouraged after the first few times and say "No. I can't do this. They were right", and walk away. If you would have said "No, this time it's going to be different, I will make it this time! I can feel it! I'm super excited about this because I know I won't get it wrong!" Yes, I know, it's very hard to think like this with all the struggles that you might face when you're trying to reach your goal, but like I said, EVERYBODY encounters struggles. Those who are successful overcame their struggles. Those who were unsuccessful DID NOT overcome their struggles. They said "You know what. I've failed too many times. This time won't be any different. I should just quit this and give up". The successful individuals were the ones who said "You know what? Yesterday was yesterday! I can't change that I failed yesterday. It's done. It's over. But what I can change is whether or not I succeed today, and I know I will succeed today, so I'm really excited to get working! I can't wait!"
On that note, just note that before you ever do anything, make sure you have the right attitude! Don't give up! And I know you might be saying "Well, it's real easy to say "Just feel good", but after what I've been through, I can't feel good!" - Well that's the attitude of a quitter! I encourage you to try and make money with that attitude! It won't happen! Just go into everything feeling like the person who was just told "Yes! You cannot fail! By tomorrow everything will be solved! Your financial problems will be solved!" Get excited, get pumped! Get active into what you're doing! Feel happy when you're working! Feel eager! Say "Yes, I will not fail! This is it!" and even if you fail that day, the next day say the same thing. Say "Yes, I know. Yesterday I said I would not fail, but I did. I can't change that though. But today, I will succeed! I will not fail!" and continue this until you do succeed! That is the winner's attitude, and if you're aren't excited, happy, grateful, and eager before everything you do, then you have a slim-to-none chance of succeeding. Nobody said it would be easy, and you might spend weeks, months, even years having to practice this ideology by telling yourself "Today is the day I will succeed", but eventually, you will succeed! If you quit, there is a 0% chance you will succeed, and that's the facts!
This concludes the psychological aspect of success. Now let's get into some statistics
As I told you before, I can guarantee that somewhere around 97% of this community has not made a single penny! What's even more heart-wrenching is the fact that around .2%-.5% of the community at this forums makes more money than the remaining 2.5%-2.8% of the community. How can I tell this? I'm sure you've heard of a normal distribution. If not, take a look at this graph:
You've probably seen this graph before. Unfortunately, it's an outlining principle that PROVES that people give up! The idea is that in a normal distribution, around 68.2% of all data falls within one standard deviation of the mean. A painful 95.4% will fall within 2 standard deviations, and a magnificent 99.7% (painful to think about) will fall within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
This of course extends in both directions, but can you imagine that %99.7 of those earning money are within 3 standard deviations of each other (technically 6). This curve shows that the further out you go in either direction, the less likely it is that someone is making that much money. I have some theoretical numbers to demonstrate this property, and it'll amaze you to see how close we are to each other in earning, and how very few actually "free" themselves, and succeed. As much of a disappointment as this is, you should see it as motivation, and a goal to do well. You'll realize that those you see making tons of money are not everywhere like you think they are. Not everybody on this forum is making a ton of money like it might seem. Those who you do see making money are probably very active, and you're seeing that slim fraction of the community. Know you're not the only one having a hard time! It comes with struggles, but if you overcome them, you can make your way towards the upper elites! Just don't give up!
So here I have some example data. This is how much people are earning per month. Of course these numbers are made up, since I don't have time to ask EVERYBODY on this forum, but I at least hope you can acknowledge that these numbers are entirely fair, and do accurately portray that a majority of this forum is NOT making money! The numbers sampled here will NOT include people making no money at all per month. It will only show people who ARE making money.
Ok, here are the numbers, which I have condensed into tight sections to save time (so I'm not listing hundreds of random numbers). I will pull the average from each group, and will keep them small to improve consistency. The total size of the theoretical population being sampled is 5,235. Also, in some categories, I will change the amount of people who earn that amount just to show that errors will not throw off the end result by much, and that most people will still end up earning not far from each other.
Ok, now for each group, we will take the average. So for the $.01-$.05 per month group, we will assume the average is $.03 per month, for $.06-$.20, we will assume it's $.13, etc.
Now, we will multiply the average of each set of money, and multiply by the amount of people in that group. We will add the results together, and divide by the total amount of people. This will give us the average amount of money being earned by the people.
The format is $average amount begin earned * amount of people = $total being earned
$.03*300 = $9 | $.13*200 = $26 | $.355*250 = $88.75 | $.755*200 = $151 | $3.005*500 = $1,502.5 | $7.505*600 = $4,503 | $17.505*700 = $12,253.5 | $37.505*400 = $15,002 | $75.005*500 = $37,502 | $300.50*400 = $120,200 | $750.5*500 = $375,250 | $1,750.5*300 = $525,150 | $3,750.5*250 = $937,625 | $7,500.5*100 = $750,050 | $17,500.5*25 = $437,512 | $37,500.5*10 = $375,005
Great, so now we add all those numbers up!
$1 + $26 + $88.75 + $151 + $1,502.5 + $4,503 + $12,253.5 + $15,002 + $37,502 + $120,000 + $375,250 + $525,150 + $937,625 + $750,050 + $437,512 + $375,005= $3,591,621.75
Wow, so altogether, the 5,235 people sampled generated $3,591,621.75! Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Well, it is, but take a look at this! Let's divide by the total number of people, and you will find out that $686.08 was the average amount made per month! Sounds great doesn't it! Well that's what math wants you to think! It means if you go to the $501-$1000 per month group, and draw a line, altogether, the people below it make as much money as the people above it. Saying that 100 people in the group make between $501-688.07, this means that 1,085 people are making as much money as the previous 4,150 people! This is a common number! You've probably heard of the 20-80 rule. 20% of the people make 80% of the money, 80% of the people make 20% of the money.
This is most likely true, but since we're taking averages of groups, and we're normally distributing it, the only 80-20 that we can create would stem from the middle numbers (For example, the $937,625 group makes 1/3 of the money, and would be classified as part of the %20, but the $375,005 group which individually makes more money than the $375,250 group, collectively has a smaller sum, and therefore would be part of the %80) so we can't apply that to this data without skewing it, but it does hold true in an aspect.
So as you can see, 20% of the people are making as much money as the other 80%. If you split that 80% into another normal distribution and repeated the process, you would see that around 80% of the people in that group would generate as much money as the upper 20%, and by continuously splitting the 80%, you would see that the majority of the money is coming from the upper 20%, while the majority of the people fall in the 80%, proving that that data would skew towards those earning less money! Hmm! That means that if you pick 5 people at random from the forums (assuming they make money), the combined sum of the 4 lowest earning people would just be around the total the highest earning person! (Assuming you repeated this an infinite amount of times, rather than adhering to one or two test, it would generally hold true)
Back to normal distribution though! Let's find the standard deviation of this data! To find the standard deviation, we will take each number, and subtract the mean from it. Then we will square that number. We will add the squares of ALL the differences up, divide by one less than the total amount of people, and take the square root of that number. That is our standard deviation. However, since we used averages, we will take the average for each group, find it's value, then multiply it by the number of people in the group, so essentially, we're just putting the average number in x amount of times to this equation
Our mean is: $686.08, let's get started
$.03 - mean = -$686.05^2 = 470,664.60*300 = 141199380 (yes, we are going to get VERY large numbers)
$.13 - mean = -$685.95^2 = 470,527.40*200 = 94105480
$.355 - mean = -$685.73^2 = 470,218.78*250 = 117554693
$.755 - mean = -$685.33^2 = 469,670.36*200 = 93934071
$3.005 - mean = -$683.08^2 = 466,591.46*500 = 233295727
$7.505 - mean = -$678.58^2 = 460,464.03*600 = 276278418
$17.505 - mean = -$668.58^2 = 446,992.53*700 = 312894771
$37.505 - mean = -$648.58^2 = 420,649.53*400 = 168259812
$75.005 - mean = -$611.08^2 = 373,412.66*500 = 186706327
$300.5 - mean = -$385.58^2 = 148,671.94*400 = 59468774
$750.5 - mean = $64.42^2 = 4149.94*500 = 2074968
$1,750.5 - mean = $1,064.42^2 = 1132989.94*300 = 339896980
$3,750.5 - mean = $3,064.42^2 = 9390669.94*250 = 2347667484
$7,500.5 - mean = $6,814.44^2 = 46436592.51*100 = 4643659251
$17,500.5 - mean = $16,814.44^2 = 282725392.51*25 = 7068134812
$37,500.5 - mean = $36,814.44^2 = 1355302992.51*10 = 13553029925
Great, so now once we add up all those numbers, we get 29,638,160,873! Now we divide this by 5,234, so we get 5,662,621.48! Still a pretty big number! Now we take the square root of that, which leaves us with $2,379.6! Wow, what a number! Let's take a look at it! If we take our mean ($686.08) and add or subtract that number, you will get a range of $0 - $3,065 in which a majority of the values will fall. Now, obviously our data is NOT normally distributed, therefore we will not have exactly 68.4% fall between these margins. As a matter of fact, it shows how not normally distributed my data is! It proves once again that there needs to many more numbers on the lower side to even it out. By equally changing the first group to a higher number, and modifying every other group corresponding to the inverse of the normal distribution graph! This proves we need to add more people in the lower 80% (scaled by a distribution) to create a normal distribution as it would be in the real life. For example, we might have to add 20,000 people in the $100-$500 group to get the desired statistics, or with that same respect, we might only have to add 1,000 to the first group to even it out. Of course we'd have to respectively change the rest of the values to fit the graph if we did that, but that's another class for another day.
What is the point of all this? The point is to show that even statistics say that there is a high chance due to the rep that people have, that you will not succeed! It shows that people tend NOT to succeed! This might sound horrible. You're probably wondering "Why are you telling us this then?! This is supposed to be motivating!". Well assuming from the data that we said "Okay, we're now adding a new set of data, you can now lose money!", it shows that one would be just as likely to lose around $2,500 as one is to gain around $3,000! Of course we can't just throw that in there after using only positive numbers and not using any negatives, and people are not likely to keep going to that much
but it shows that there is almost just as much chance that you will fail as you will succeed (assuming that you tried infinite times, you would lose $2,500 I know it sounds strange, but this is all based off an infinite amount of trials. We can't base it off just maybe five trials that lost $10 because the person would probably stop realizing he lost money, and not continue until you lost that amount)! And remember, this just used positive numbers! If we used negative numbers and 0, it would show that there is a LARGE chance that it's just as likely for you to fail and lose money as it is for you to make maybe $100 a month!
The point is you are going to struggle! I'm sorry to tell you! There's great news though! You can affect whether or not you actually lose! If everyone who did IM here just said "You know what! It's ok! I'll get it this time! Let's try again! I know I will succeed!" then there would be nothing to worry about. These types of negative stats wouldn't exist! The new question wouldn't be "Can you make something?" - it would be "How much can you make?" If I can stress anything to you guys, it's to NOT give up! Do not accept defeat! This proves that a majority of people do fail, and so you shouldn't feel frustrated if you fail! It's going to happen! Just because it seems like everyone and their mother are making a boatload of cash, it doesn't mean this is true! As you can see, not a lot of people are making the top dollars from this sample. Only a few "elite" people are making it! That's what makes your head say "Well, if all these people on these forums are saying they can do it, then why can't I?" It's what makes it seem hard! The fact that everybody else BUT you can do it. It's in your mind though! It's alll in your mind!
Don't think like that! Think that you can! Think that you will!
I'm going to leave you off with this phrase. Thank you for reading this, and I hope it has revealed some information to you that this isn't easy, but if your mindset isn't right, you'll never get it! You're going to have to work hard, but it WILL pay off if you don't give up!
Keep trying. Keep working. Don't stop. Don't doubt yourself. You'll do great things! I hope nothing but the best for everybody! God bless.
If you ever need some advice, or need some inspirational advice, or feel as if you just can't do anything, or just want to talk about something, feel free to PM me. I hope that this inspired you to a degree, and I hope it may affect how you perform in the future.
Psychology
Before you read this, I want you to get in a comfortable state of mind. I want you to reject any feeling that has you thinking that you can't and won't succeed in what you want to do. If there is any time to have this feeling, it is while reading this. I want you to forget any problems that you have right now. Whether it be the debt piling upon you, or your constant failures in Internet Marketing that seem to define you, or maybe a personal conflict in your life with another person which is ruining your emotions - let it go for the next ten minutes. Become as comfortable as possible. Go grab a nice warm cup of coffee, turn the lights down, whatever makes you comfortable. Then spend a minute releasing any stress from your life until you finish reading this article.
Are you stress free yet?
Great! So let me say this - we all have struggles in life. Everybody that you will ever meet has had to overcome struggles in their life. When you look at the "Internet Gurus" who are making top-dollars, note that they had struggles too! It's very easy to think "Oh, that guy who's making $2k a day, he has it easy." This is the wrong mentality though! Just know that he encountered $2,000/day worth of struggles to get to that amount. With this said, just keep in mind while you are reading, that there will be struggles in your efforts to succeed!
So what is wrong? Why can't I succeed?
Let me hit you with a surprising fact (which actually might not seem surprising at all when you think about it). A majority of the people at this forum (I'd like to say over %97) have not made a single dime online! How is this possible though? Every time you get on this forum, you see someone posting "I made $x today", or you see internet wizzes promoting the newest products reflecting their success, or you see information being shared by people who have made their fortune. Seeing this probably frustrates you. You might think
Well that's because those engaged in this forum probably know a good bit about it. For example, you don't see "Newbies" who just signed up yesterday and have three posts boasting about how their newest SEO strategy just earned them a million dollars and right now they're sitting in paradise.
So what does this have to do with anything? Simple, this is the negative influence that is natural among humans - they feel inferior, as if they're doing something wrong, when others are excelling, and they are lagging behind. For example, if your opponents beat you tremendously in a race you've been training your whole life for, they might say "Why should I run? I'm not good at it. I should just quit if I'm going to lose like this." Sound familiar? Chances are if you're struggling to succeed, you feel inferior by the success of others.
So getting back to the question, "why can't I succeed?", the answer is quite simple: there is no answer. There is no reason you can't succeed! It's all in your head! Just because others are doing great and you're struggling to do even fractions of what they're doing doesn't mean you're losing!
Let me tell you a story. The main character is YOU. Imagine you're at the end of the line. You're past on debts. You're getting evicted from your home if you don't meet the next payment. Your children (whom you love more than anything) depend on you, and if you're kicked out, you have nowhere to go. Imagine you have no friends or family that will take you in, and you will have no money for food or water. This is the end of the line. If this happens to you, your life will become a wreck.
Frantically, you're doing everything you can to raise money for your situation, but nothing is bringing in results. It's the day before the payment is due, you've earned no money, and you've pretty much given up. Something draws you out into the city that last night before you have to move out, and as you're walking down a dark road, a mysterious man comes out of nowhere and says,
"I hear you're past the point of no return" of course you'd be scared, but in this story, you realize your defeat, and his words just break you down even more. But he continues, "Come here, I have something to tell you," so you move closer, and start walking with the man. "What if I told you son, that your problems could go away? What if I told you about a system that will have you earning hundreds of dollars within an hour?" You become curious, of course, but also understand that it might be a scam. He continues speaking, "What if I told you that you COULD NOT fail? That there is no possible way you can do anything wrong. That there is hope that by tomorrow, everything will be solved. As a matter of fact, by tomorrow, everything WILL be solved with this system. I will even give it to you for free. I guarantee that by tomorrow, you will have all the money you wanted and more." Remembering your children, you become filled with hope, and plead to the man. He takes you back to his place, and says "I guarantee this will solve everything! If it doesn't I'll personally give you all the money, but I have no worries because it will solve them." you become filled with optimism and confidence that your life will become better. You now know that no matter what, one way or another, your problem will be solved, and now you're eager. Getting on the computer, he now says "Great! Are you ready to make you first thousand dollars tonight?" After hearing the large initial amount, you are overwhelmed with feelings of
PAUSE
Now imagine yourself being that person. Truly imagine the feelings of grief, distress, and torture knowing you've failed at everything, and you can't do it. Now think about how you might feel as you're about to earn that first large sum of money. You're probably ecstatic! He knows you'll make the money and he has you thinking you can too. By now you're as optimistic as ever, knowing that this is the point where everything changes.
The key to success starts within yourself. This feeling that "this is it, I can do it. I can finally succeed" is the feeling that will ultimately succeed. It might sound like exaggeration, but this is the feeling you need to have before anything you ever do. Imagine someone says "If you can recite the first three letters of the alphabet, I will give you a million dollars." Take that feeling of "Wow! I can do this! I'm going to become rich!" and apply it wherever you want to, whether it's in internet marketing, or maybe it's in personal situations such as not being able to lose that extra weight, just apply the mindset of "There is no chance I will fail if I do this. This time, I am going to do it!"
Even after applying this mindset, chances are you will fail! As upsetting as it may sound, it's the pure facts. After all, all you've done is changed your mindset. Just because I say "I will NOT fail this time" doesn't mean you'll succeed the first time! The key part is that you continue to apply this mindset. Many people get discouraged after the first few times and say "No. I can't do this. They were right", and walk away. If you would have said "No, this time it's going to be different, I will make it this time! I can feel it! I'm super excited about this because I know I won't get it wrong!" Yes, I know, it's very hard to think like this with all the struggles that you might face when you're trying to reach your goal, but like I said, EVERYBODY encounters struggles. Those who are successful overcame their struggles. Those who were unsuccessful DID NOT overcome their struggles. They said "You know what. I've failed too many times. This time won't be any different. I should just quit this and give up". The successful individuals were the ones who said "You know what? Yesterday was yesterday! I can't change that I failed yesterday. It's done. It's over. But what I can change is whether or not I succeed today, and I know I will succeed today, so I'm really excited to get working! I can't wait!"
On that note, just note that before you ever do anything, make sure you have the right attitude! Don't give up! And I know you might be saying "Well, it's real easy to say "Just feel good", but after what I've been through, I can't feel good!" - Well that's the attitude of a quitter! I encourage you to try and make money with that attitude! It won't happen! Just go into everything feeling like the person who was just told "Yes! You cannot fail! By tomorrow everything will be solved! Your financial problems will be solved!" Get excited, get pumped! Get active into what you're doing! Feel happy when you're working! Feel eager! Say "Yes, I will not fail! This is it!" and even if you fail that day, the next day say the same thing. Say "Yes, I know. Yesterday I said I would not fail, but I did. I can't change that though. But today, I will succeed! I will not fail!" and continue this until you do succeed! That is the winner's attitude, and if you're aren't excited, happy, grateful, and eager before everything you do, then you have a slim-to-none chance of succeeding. Nobody said it would be easy, and you might spend weeks, months, even years having to practice this ideology by telling yourself "Today is the day I will succeed", but eventually, you will succeed! If you quit, there is a 0% chance you will succeed, and that's the facts!
This concludes the psychological aspect of success. Now let's get into some statistics
Statistics
As I told you before, I can guarantee that somewhere around 97% of this community has not made a single penny! What's even more heart-wrenching is the fact that around .2%-.5% of the community at this forums makes more money than the remaining 2.5%-2.8% of the community. How can I tell this? I'm sure you've heard of a normal distribution. If not, take a look at this graph:
You've probably seen this graph before. Unfortunately, it's an outlining principle that PROVES that people give up! The idea is that in a normal distribution, around 68.2% of all data falls within one standard deviation of the mean. A painful 95.4% will fall within 2 standard deviations, and a magnificent 99.7% (painful to think about) will fall within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
This of course extends in both directions, but can you imagine that %99.7 of those earning money are within 3 standard deviations of each other (technically 6). This curve shows that the further out you go in either direction, the less likely it is that someone is making that much money. I have some theoretical numbers to demonstrate this property, and it'll amaze you to see how close we are to each other in earning, and how very few actually "free" themselves, and succeed. As much of a disappointment as this is, you should see it as motivation, and a goal to do well. You'll realize that those you see making tons of money are not everywhere like you think they are. Not everybody on this forum is making a ton of money like it might seem. Those who you do see making money are probably very active, and you're seeing that slim fraction of the community. Know you're not the only one having a hard time! It comes with struggles, but if you overcome them, you can make your way towards the upper elites! Just don't give up!
So here I have some example data. This is how much people are earning per month. Of course these numbers are made up, since I don't have time to ask EVERYBODY on this forum, but I at least hope you can acknowledge that these numbers are entirely fair, and do accurately portray that a majority of this forum is NOT making money! The numbers sampled here will NOT include people making no money at all per month. It will only show people who ARE making money.
Ok, here are the numbers, which I have condensed into tight sections to save time (so I'm not listing hundreds of random numbers). I will pull the average from each group, and will keep them small to improve consistency. The total size of the theoretical population being sampled is 5,235. Also, in some categories, I will change the amount of people who earn that amount just to show that errors will not throw off the end result by much, and that most people will still end up earning not far from each other.
Ok, now for each group, we will take the average. So for the $.01-$.05 per month group, we will assume the average is $.03 per month, for $.06-$.20, we will assume it's $.13, etc.
Now, we will multiply the average of each set of money, and multiply by the amount of people in that group. We will add the results together, and divide by the total amount of people. This will give us the average amount of money being earned by the people.
The format is $average amount begin earned * amount of people = $total being earned
$.03*300 = $9 | $.13*200 = $26 | $.355*250 = $88.75 | $.755*200 = $151 | $3.005*500 = $1,502.5 | $7.505*600 = $4,503 | $17.505*700 = $12,253.5 | $37.505*400 = $15,002 | $75.005*500 = $37,502 | $300.50*400 = $120,200 | $750.5*500 = $375,250 | $1,750.5*300 = $525,150 | $3,750.5*250 = $937,625 | $7,500.5*100 = $750,050 | $17,500.5*25 = $437,512 | $37,500.5*10 = $375,005
Great, so now we add all those numbers up!
$1 + $26 + $88.75 + $151 + $1,502.5 + $4,503 + $12,253.5 + $15,002 + $37,502 + $120,000 + $375,250 + $525,150 + $937,625 + $750,050 + $437,512 + $375,005= $3,591,621.75
Wow, so altogether, the 5,235 people sampled generated $3,591,621.75! Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Well, it is, but take a look at this! Let's divide by the total number of people, and you will find out that $686.08 was the average amount made per month! Sounds great doesn't it! Well that's what math wants you to think! It means if you go to the $501-$1000 per month group, and draw a line, altogether, the people below it make as much money as the people above it. Saying that 100 people in the group make between $501-688.07, this means that 1,085 people are making as much money as the previous 4,150 people! This is a common number! You've probably heard of the 20-80 rule. 20% of the people make 80% of the money, 80% of the people make 20% of the money.
This is most likely true, but since we're taking averages of groups, and we're normally distributing it, the only 80-20 that we can create would stem from the middle numbers (For example, the $937,625 group makes 1/3 of the money, and would be classified as part of the %20, but the $375,005 group which individually makes more money than the $375,250 group, collectively has a smaller sum, and therefore would be part of the %80) so we can't apply that to this data without skewing it, but it does hold true in an aspect.
So as you can see, 20% of the people are making as much money as the other 80%. If you split that 80% into another normal distribution and repeated the process, you would see that around 80% of the people in that group would generate as much money as the upper 20%, and by continuously splitting the 80%, you would see that the majority of the money is coming from the upper 20%, while the majority of the people fall in the 80%, proving that that data would skew towards those earning less money! Hmm! That means that if you pick 5 people at random from the forums (assuming they make money), the combined sum of the 4 lowest earning people would just be around the total the highest earning person! (Assuming you repeated this an infinite amount of times, rather than adhering to one or two test, it would generally hold true)
Back to normal distribution though! Let's find the standard deviation of this data! To find the standard deviation, we will take each number, and subtract the mean from it. Then we will square that number. We will add the squares of ALL the differences up, divide by one less than the total amount of people, and take the square root of that number. That is our standard deviation. However, since we used averages, we will take the average for each group, find it's value, then multiply it by the number of people in the group, so essentially, we're just putting the average number in x amount of times to this equation
Our mean is: $686.08, let's get started
$.03 - mean = -$686.05^2 = 470,664.60*300 = 141199380 (yes, we are going to get VERY large numbers)
$.13 - mean = -$685.95^2 = 470,527.40*200 = 94105480
$.355 - mean = -$685.73^2 = 470,218.78*250 = 117554693
$.755 - mean = -$685.33^2 = 469,670.36*200 = 93934071
$3.005 - mean = -$683.08^2 = 466,591.46*500 = 233295727
$7.505 - mean = -$678.58^2 = 460,464.03*600 = 276278418
$17.505 - mean = -$668.58^2 = 446,992.53*700 = 312894771
$37.505 - mean = -$648.58^2 = 420,649.53*400 = 168259812
$75.005 - mean = -$611.08^2 = 373,412.66*500 = 186706327
$300.5 - mean = -$385.58^2 = 148,671.94*400 = 59468774
$750.5 - mean = $64.42^2 = 4149.94*500 = 2074968
$1,750.5 - mean = $1,064.42^2 = 1132989.94*300 = 339896980
$3,750.5 - mean = $3,064.42^2 = 9390669.94*250 = 2347667484
$7,500.5 - mean = $6,814.44^2 = 46436592.51*100 = 4643659251
$17,500.5 - mean = $16,814.44^2 = 282725392.51*25 = 7068134812
$37,500.5 - mean = $36,814.44^2 = 1355302992.51*10 = 13553029925
Great, so now once we add up all those numbers, we get 29,638,160,873! Now we divide this by 5,234, so we get 5,662,621.48! Still a pretty big number! Now we take the square root of that, which leaves us with $2,379.6! Wow, what a number! Let's take a look at it! If we take our mean ($686.08) and add or subtract that number, you will get a range of $0 - $3,065 in which a majority of the values will fall. Now, obviously our data is NOT normally distributed, therefore we will not have exactly 68.4% fall between these margins. As a matter of fact, it shows how not normally distributed my data is! It proves once again that there needs to many more numbers on the lower side to even it out. By equally changing the first group to a higher number, and modifying every other group corresponding to the inverse of the normal distribution graph! This proves we need to add more people in the lower 80% (scaled by a distribution) to create a normal distribution as it would be in the real life. For example, we might have to add 20,000 people in the $100-$500 group to get the desired statistics, or with that same respect, we might only have to add 1,000 to the first group to even it out. Of course we'd have to respectively change the rest of the values to fit the graph if we did that, but that's another class for another day.
What is the point of all this? The point is to show that even statistics say that there is a high chance due to the rep that people have, that you will not succeed! It shows that people tend NOT to succeed! This might sound horrible. You're probably wondering "Why are you telling us this then?! This is supposed to be motivating!". Well assuming from the data that we said "Okay, we're now adding a new set of data, you can now lose money!", it shows that one would be just as likely to lose around $2,500 as one is to gain around $3,000! Of course we can't just throw that in there after using only positive numbers and not using any negatives, and people are not likely to keep going to that much
but it shows that there is almost just as much chance that you will fail as you will succeed (assuming that you tried infinite times, you would lose $2,500 I know it sounds strange, but this is all based off an infinite amount of trials. We can't base it off just maybe five trials that lost $10 because the person would probably stop realizing he lost money, and not continue until you lost that amount)! And remember, this just used positive numbers! If we used negative numbers and 0, it would show that there is a LARGE chance that it's just as likely for you to fail and lose money as it is for you to make maybe $100 a month! The point is you are going to struggle! I'm sorry to tell you! There's great news though! You can affect whether or not you actually lose! If everyone who did IM here just said "You know what! It's ok! I'll get it this time! Let's try again! I know I will succeed!" then there would be nothing to worry about. These types of negative stats wouldn't exist! The new question wouldn't be "Can you make something?" - it would be "How much can you make?" If I can stress anything to you guys, it's to NOT give up! Do not accept defeat! This proves that a majority of people do fail, and so you shouldn't feel frustrated if you fail! It's going to happen! Just because it seems like everyone and their mother are making a boatload of cash, it doesn't mean this is true! As you can see, not a lot of people are making the top dollars from this sample. Only a few "elite" people are making it! That's what makes your head say "Well, if all these people on these forums are saying they can do it, then why can't I?" It's what makes it seem hard! The fact that everybody else BUT you can do it. It's in your mind though! It's alll in your mind!
Don't think like that! Think that you can! Think that you will!
I'm going to leave you off with this phrase. Thank you for reading this, and I hope it has revealed some information to you that this isn't easy, but if your mindset isn't right, you'll never get it! You're going to have to work hard, but it WILL pay off if you don't give up!
I encourage you to take this pledge every day before you do work! It's the phrase above, with all the "You"s replaced with "I"s. Practice having a good attitude! I guarantee this will be the key to making your success!
Keep trying. Keep working. Don't stop. Don't doubt yourself. You'll do great things! I hope nothing but the best for everybody! God bless.
If you ever need some advice, or need some inspirational advice, or feel as if you just can't do anything, or just want to talk about something, feel free to PM me. I hope that this inspired you to a degree, and I hope it may affect how you perform in the future.
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