I am self employed and I must admit I sometimes avoid any topics that have to deal with what I do for a living (successful self employed programmer and online marketing). Sometimes someone else brings it up though…. like today innocently my friend introduced me to one of her guy friends and everything was cool. Then later she mentioned to him that I run a successful online business and such, then suddenly the guy is like “wow man I been trying to do that I will get your email and phone number from your friend and we can talk!”.
I get that a lot and I find it annoying that when someone finds out what I do, they expect me to reveal all of my secrets and help them become successful for free? No one helped me at all, I learned from losing money, coming up with new ideas, and spending a lot of time and research to become successful. No one just told me all of the secrets and made me make more money. When I meet someone with a good job I never ask for free help, I just think it is rude. Do you consider this normal?
Categorized | Affiliate Marketing 101
People Who Ask For Business Advice?
Posted on December 20, 2010.
Best advice I can offer … gather the titles of a few “start your own business” type books and when people like this impose themselves upon you, simply state, “seriously, there is really not a lot I can tell you, these books helped me, outside of that, it’s all just perseverance, trial and error and long hours” and move on to another topic and do not allow them to persist … if they do, look at your watch and remember a meeting/appointment you have to get to.
It is rude of them (also of any friend that introduces them with the intent of you giving them free advice).
Yes, I am like that too. I personally hate mentioning it and then some is like I wanna do that too and what not.
Please answer mine:http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…
I do think it’s normal to feel that way. Just make sure that you’re hearing what they’re saying and not assuming that they’re asking for free help (which may start to happen when enough people ask for it). Sometimes people will ask questions about how you became successful simply because they look up to you. I have a relative that owns a multimillion dollar business and I love to ask him questions about how he got started, not because I want to know ‘secrets,’ but because I know he came from nothing. It’s very inspirational to hear. It reminds some of us ‘unsuccessful’ people that it is still possible to make something of yourself even if you weren’t born with a ‘silver spoon…’ that with the right attitude and a whole bunch of determination, you can do anything you put your mind to.
… and people do ask for ‘secrets’ a lot, maybe you should write a how to book. That way you can make money off your knowledge – and the idiots that ask all the questions. 🙂