When one such entrepreneur was asked about the hardest decision he ever had to make, he answered that he didn’t know what a hard decision was.  An entrepreneur trying to make moolah will approach decision-making with the idea that there’s a strong likelihood that he/she will be wrong.  This doesn’t dissuade them – to the contrary they just do the best they can and worry about handling obstacles as they arise.

Another way of looking at it is to realize that you will make mistakes, so make them as quickly as you can in order to learn from them.  A good leader doesn’t view making mistakes as negative or irrevocable, he/she feels free to press on and try something new. There is the belief that something useful has been learned, and hopefully not at a high cost.

Let’s face it; if you’re going to live this life you’re going to make mistakes.  Make use of them as learning tools and don’t make the same ones twice.

Entrepreneurs also know the value of “intuition”.  While you shouldn’t act on the results of tossing a coin, there is something to be said about your “gut” feeling about the situation.  Very often business people become so involved with systems and checks-and-balances that they forget about that “gut” instinct they had when they started.

While not strictly logical, intuition does draw on a combination of experience, knowledge, and analysis as well as a lot of “gut” information you may have forgotten that you have.

You become a strong leader in your business by “practicing” being a leader.  It’s not a course you can take at a business college; it’s learned in the school of life as you’re doing business.

As a leader, you have to set standards and higher standards for your own behavior.  You must do this because appearances are sometimes more important that facts.

Consider for a moment that as an entrepreneur with a small business you’re planning on approaching a bank for a loan.   You know that you must present a well thought out and concise Business Plan, with all the projections for the use of the capital you’ll borrow and the repayment of the same.  You learned that from all those seminars you attended when considering becoming an entrepreneur, but is there something that you weren’t taught in seminars?  What about “presentation”?

I don’t mean the presentation of the Business Plan, we all know that must be well done and attractive.  What I’m talking about is YOU!  Do you maintain the appearance of leadership?  Do you project a confident appearance of a successful entrepreneur?  You may not have the faintest idea today how you’re going to pay for that advertising bill coming due on the 15th, but you’re not going to give that banker that information.

Presenting yourself as a confident entrepreneur, filled with the excitement of your business idea, and a strong leader of your team (whether it’s 1 or 10 employees) is what will make you a winner and add untold weight to your Business Plan.  After all, you are your business to that banker so you’d better look good and confident.

To protect that faith that your people and your customers have in your organization, always ask yourself these two questions:

1. Could this be interpreted by anyone in a way that would shake their faith in my leadership?

2. Could this be misinterpreted and held against me or the company?

Strong leaders know that leadership is a lifelong learning experience, and when they make a mistake they simply continue to move forward.  The ability to bounce back is a quality that every entrepreneur I’ve ever known has in abundance.

When you blunder, get up and try again quickly.  As one high-tech CEO  I knew put it, “Our strategy is to fail forward fast.”

Need instructions for fixing a flat tire … a copy of War and Peace … a map of the Paris Metro? You can find all of it — and so much more — online.

But the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming. Much of it is useless. And sometimes finding what you need can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

People have never been so well informed … yet, so confused.

Lots of entrepreneurs go around thinking “Access to information is what separates the winners from the losers.” And “The smartest person in the room should be the most successful.” Not true. If it were, whoever bought the most “how-to” products or read the most books would be the richest. And we both know how ridiculous that is.

That’s not to say getting the right information isn’t important. But it’s only a tool. When it comes to being successful in business, there are a few easily overlooked factors that are absolutely vital.

So, what are these deciding factors?

1. Being Action-Oriented

Taking action is the main difference between the super-successful and the wannabes. When successful entrepreneurs get good information, they act on it — as soon as they can. Wannabes simply absorb information and, at their best, react to it.

The reason so many wannabes don’t take action is because they are paralyzed by the prospect of failure. Add to that their mistaken belief that the next information nugget they come across could make the difference between success and failure, and it becomes obvious why “waiting” for it has them stuck.

If they press on, they become more confused by conflicting facts. At the same time, they become increasingly frustrated that they still haven’t found the magic they’re seeking.

If that sounds like you, here’s my advice: Stay focused!

Take a deep breath and ask yourself, “What do I have to get done today to further my success?” Not tomorrow or next week or even next month. Today! Not “What do I have to learn?” but “What do I have to DO?!?”

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It’s easy to lose your focus on today when you are thinking about tomorrow. And it’s tempting to believe that the next pearl of wisdom you come across is going to make all the difference. But it won’t. You’ll never reach the level of success you crave without taking the specific DAILY steps that get you there.

It’s pretty straightforward. To build a successful business, you have to train your brain to crystallize a future vision, break it into small details, and organize those details into daily tasks. After that, all you need is the courage to commit to the completion of those daily tasks — despite any obstacles that get in your way.

Sounds easy enough, right? So what will sabotage your success? Fear! Fear is your enemy. That little voice whispering “What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m wrong?”

Look, some self-doubt is natural. But when it prevents you from achieving the success you deserve, it’s a problem. Which leads me to the next crucial success factor …

2. Rising Above Your Fears and Doubts

You have to get far enough above your doubts to keep going, or you’re doomed. What works for me is to get lost in the project at hand. It works for me, and it’ll work for you. Just throw yourself so deeply into what needs to be done that you forget about your fears. Every successful business owner learns how to do this. What makes it easier is knowing that experience will always be your best teacher.

You are going to make mistakes. We all do. Even the Intels, Microsofts, and Googles of the world mis-step from time to time. Building a successful company is complex, and there are always things beyond your control.

The trick is to learn from your mistakes. Just do your best to limit your risk. Keep trying. Learn what works. And don’t torture yourself when you take a wrong turn. Just acknowledge it … and change your approach.

And since we are talking about mistakes … do you know what’s at the root of most of the mistakes you’ll make? I see it over and over again. And practically everyone who struggles in business is guilty of it. It’s this …

For some strange reason, people want to make things more complicated than they need to be. It’s as if they are fascinated by the overly complex. So, instead of keeping things simple, they burden themselves with too much to do and too little time to do any of it right. Which leads me to …

3. Avoiding the “Stupidity Tax” by Keeping Things as Simple as You Can

The “stupidity tax” is easily avoidable. But, for some reason, almost everyone trying to make a success of an online business seems to walk right into it.

Here’s an example of how this flawed approach plays out …

Instead of picking one way to drive traffic to your website, mastering it, and then moving on — you do the opposite. You want to learn about pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and every other method under the sun. All at the same time, and without developing any level of expertise in any of it.

Yet, the most successful online businesses I know concentrate on one method at a time. Agora Inc., for example, focused primarily on pay-per-click advertising to get to its first $50 million in online sales. My company focused on joint venture/affiliate launches — and in nine months, we did over $7 million in sales.

When you pursue multiple directions in your business, you end up making very little progress. And it doesn’t matter how smart you are or how hard you work, because you are spread way too thin.

With an Internet business, this mistake can really kill you. Here’s why: In online marketing, your results are directly related to how your skills stack up against those of your competitors. If your competition is better than you at using Google AdWords, for example, they’ll pay less than you to get traffic to their website and will convert more of it to sales. If they’re better at search engine optimization, they’ll rank higher than you. If they’re better at affiliate marketing — converting better, selling more — they’ll be able to pay their affiliates more, and lock you out of the market.

It doesn’t work this way with an offline business. You don’t pay more if your ad or commercial sucks. You might not get as many responses as your competitors — but you’re not locked out. And you’re not forced into paying the “stupidity tax.”

Isolate the fewest activities you can be successful with. Then knock them off, one at a time. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do too much and, thus, marginalize your results. As Confucius said, “Man who chases two rabbits catches neither.”

If you follow my advice, you’ll get to take back quite a bit of the time you’re currently wasting by trying to learn too much about too many marketing tactics at once. Plus, you’ll get back the time you’re wasting by trying to execute strategies with a superficial level of knowledge. What you do with your newfound free time leads us to our fourth and final success component …

4. Knowing Where the Money Is

It takes time to know your market. But it’s time you must invest if you’re serious about your business’s success.

The first step is quite simply to open your eyes and look at what’s going on around you. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of your market to know what’s “hot.” But that’s only half the equation. The second step is to do your best to understand WHY it’s hot. Until you understand your market at a deeper level, you’ll keep scratching your head and wondering why you are making less than your “dumb” counterparts.

The good news is that once you get it — once you fully understand the psychology of your market — your results will improve immediately. From promotional e-mails to pay-per-click ads, your results will multiply, because you’ll know your prospects better than any of your competitors do.

So there you have it.

If you’ve ever wondered why you make less than others even though you are smarter than they are, now you know. And it’s up to you to change that. Are you going to keep plodding along in frustration? Or are you going to embrace the four elements of business success that I shared with you here and decide that, once and for all, you are going to do what it takes?

Only time will tell …

P.S. Taking action is the only way your Internet business will go from dream to reality. At Early to Rise’s Info-Marketing Bootcamp this November, I — and a dozen other experts in Internet marketing, social media, copywriting, search engine optimization, and more — will help you do just that. We’ll remove your fears, help you determine the hottest niches, barrel through trial and error, and, most important, teach you how to become action-oriented. You can find out all about Bootcamp here.

The businesses I’ve coached have done over $500 million every year — piling up more than $1 billion in sales every two years. Visit my blog to learn how to streamline your business while skyrocketing profits.

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More from Masterson…

The Almighty Dollar?

Investor’s Daily Edge Investment Director Bob Irish has a great suggestion for protecting your wealth from the falling U.S. dollar.

The dollar has lost more than 90 percent of its value since 1913. That’s when the Federal Reserve Bank was created, notes Bob. Since 1987, it’s lost 50 percent. That’s the year Alan Greenspan came on board.

Bob expects this downtrend to continue.

Based on that, his advice is to look into bond plays, select dividend stocks, and hard assets. That includes gold, silver, oil, and the companies that pull these natural resources out of the ground.

And he’s got just the man to help you. Investor’s Daily Edge natural resource expert Dr. Russell McDougal identifies the best of the best companies in this sector. In the last year, 15 out of 17 of his recommendations have been profitable. His readers have seen gains as high as 241 percent.

Diet Soda Makes You Fat

Avoid sodas … even diet sodas, says Total Health Breakthroughs Editor Melanie Segala.

They will make you fat. And they lead to other health problems.

A recent study showed that drinking just one can of diet soda a day increased the risk of metabolic syndrome by 34 percent. (Metabolic syndrome is a condition that leads to diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic diseases.) That’s almost 10 percent higher than the risk associated with a diet of fried foods, says Melanie.

Melanie recommends purified water. For a little flavor, add orange or lemon slices … even raspberries. You can even try a splash of natural fruit juice. If you crave sweetness, try stevia. It’s a natural calorie-free sweetener that you can find in any health food store.

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