A Shovel Only Has One Gear
Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin
My wife really gets the credit for the title.
Here's how it happened.
Years ago, she and I were both truck driving instructors for a
major national carrier at their Dallas training facility. Every
week, we got a new batch of about 30 people to train, most of
whom had never driven a truck (that's a big truck, semi,
tractor-trailer). Our trucks had 10 forward gears spread between
two ranges, had to be double-clutched (if you don't know, don't
ask - it takes too long to explain), and all shifting had to be
done at specific engine RPM's. Upshifting was a different
technique from downshifting, and we threw in tricks of the trade
such as skip-shifting, speed-shifting, and rolling into second
(don't ask, I told you).
Needless to say, many of our students, most of whom were bright
and willing to learn, had difficulty learning the shifting
techniques. My wife ran a tutor room at night at the motel where
the students stayed, and students could come and ask questions
about almost anything to do with the course, including shifting.
It was a popular place. So popular in fact, that one night she
tutored a guy for half an hour before she realized he was
training with another company! We'll save the story about the
night the Dallas SWAT team had a shootout there for another
time, but just for the record, yes, she did throw a full grown
man to the floor.
Anyway, one night a student kept complaining about how hard it
was to learn to shift all those gears. She sympathized with him
for a while, and gave him some tips and pointers, but he just
wouldn't shut up! She politely responded for a little longer,
but finally her patience snapped, and she uttered those fateful
words,
"Well! A shovel only has ONE gear."
I said that most of the students were willing to do whatever it
took to learn everything we threw at them, because they realized
what the rewards would be. Without dwelling on the trucking
industry too long, they had the chance to earn over $30,000 in
their first year, and after that, they could double or even
triple their income if they handled it right. For people with no
formal training in other fields, or with only experience in
areas where income potential was limited, this was the way up,
and my wife and I got to help a lot of these people get their
start.
However difficult the training was, the reward was usually worth
the effort to most of the people we trained. We saw our share of
the others as well. The ones like the guy who was actually
asking why the company didn't buy trucks that were easier to
shift, when my wife shot him down.
I've been in and out of network marketing since 1994, and
regularly active in internet marketing since about 1999, and I
have seen my share of people who wanted the program to be
easy...to do the work for them. Just a few weeks ago, in fact, I
got an email from a gentleman asking about a business
opportunity I was involved with. He wanted to know what kind of
income he could expect the business to "earn him". He even went
so far to say that if he couldn't be told how much to expect to
earn and how soon he would begin earning enough to replace his
current income, he would consider the business to be a scam.
The earnings anybody can expect to realize from any internet or
network marketing endeavor, and quite often the average job,
will depend on a lot of things, including how much effort
someone is going to put into their new business or position, and
how long they intend to expend that effort. As a matter of fact,
if I had to pinpoint one major factor of success for most
network or internet marketers, I would just have to say such
seemingly simple things as, "Stick with it no matter what."
"Don't give up." "Try, try again."
Honestly, if the business, product, or program is good, and if
there is a market for it, sustained effort on your part, not
only in selling the product or program, but in learning about
the benefits of the product or program to the customer as well,
will be one of the deciding factors in the success or failure of
your venture.
I very often mention two friends of mine who became millionaires
simply by handing out a brochure to everyone they met or came in
contact with for three years. They never sold anybody anything!
Or I can use myself as an example. Even today, although I make a
very good living on the internet, I am not a salesman, and have
only what I consider to be a basic skill at internet marketing.
However, I also have dozens of websites, most of which are
simple as simple can be, that I built (after teaching myself
html) and promoted regularly for almost three years before I
began receiving regular income from the internet. As I have
continued to build more and more informational sites, I have
made more and more sales of more and more products, and my
income has grown.
It's probably never going to be completely easy, but if you are
willing to study, to learn, to practice, and to make the
required effort and not give up, someday you will succeed.