I have to let you in on a conversation Hans and I had with our 18-year-old son the other day. You see, when Cabe was a junior in high school, a great pressure settled on him. Not from us, but just from society, school, and teachers. What was he going to do with his life? Would he go to college? He also put an enormous amount of pressure and high expectations on himself that he had to be a successful professional right away.

Cabe has always had a natural talent for writing, but he always insisted he hated it. At one point I asked him, “Do you actually hate writing? Or do you just hate what they make you write about? You’ve written in the school newspaper before, and you really enjoyed writing about controversial things.” So during his senior year, he took an online copywriting course. And he was blown away! After the very first day of this course, he announced, “I figured out what I want to do with my life. I want to be a copywriter!”

So now here we were in our living room, one year later. Cabe has been studying copywriting, and even has a job in our company writing promotional emails to help hone his craft (you’ve probably received one or two from him). In our office, our employees track their own work to see what is getting the best results. During this conversation, Cabe expressed disappointment because his results weren’t to his liking. He just wasn’t gaining the numbers he wanted.

My husband, with all of his beautiful wisdom, said to him, “Cabe, you’ve only been doing it for a year. You’ve got to pay your dues. What if it takes you 5 years to produce results? Will that be okay? When I first got started in copywriting, I wasn’t any good at it either. In fact, every copywriter that exists was terrible at it in the beginning. Do not have a false expectation for yourself. You’re paying your dues. As long as you’re learning and you keep moving forward, you’re going to advance in your career of copywriting.”

This is where you could learn a thing or two to apply to your personal career or business. Because maybe you have picked up a hobby or new business, and like Cabe, you weren’t seeing the results you wanted right away. So maybe you just dropped it. But you have to understand that everyone has to pay their dues.

To go from amateur to professional grade, I can promise it takes much longer than a year. If you expect to be the best and to make the amount of money you’ve always dreamed of right off the bat, you’ll be let down. And man, you’ve got to save yourself from that unneeded self-pressure!

What happens is, you try out one or two cheesy learning programs and when they fail, you give up. True professionals are born when they learn from those failures and push through it! When we told Cabe this, his eyes just lit up. The pressure was lifted! Because Cabe is exactly where he should be in the learning process. And he is lucky enough to have a stable job that will help him hone his skill.

Some people ask how we’ve managed to maintain a stable internet company for the past decade. Most of the old so-called ‘gurus’ or ‘experts’ in internet marketing aren’t around anymore, because the internet is always changing. Do you think after so long in this business, we’ve ever thought “Well, the internet changed, guess we should stop this.”? NO WAY. That is exactly why Hans is always advancing his knowledge and staying caught up on what is working and what isn’t.

What’s funny is Hans tells me how similar the processes are when he learns new things. When Hans and I first met and partnered for business, he had to learn a lot about business and sales and presentations very quickly. He said, “You know, I didn’t realize then that process would be the make-up of the rest of my life.” He’s had to relearn new processes, new business techniques, and he has even been learning copywriting, himself. And while the context or subject is different, the learning process is always the same.

And there is never a cheap or easy way out! Even the cheat sheets are no replacement for real professional grade knowledge worthy of the big paychecks. If you are starting and stopping, you will not make progress. You will only make it by pushing through the failures.

If you’ve been pursuing a new career or home business that you’ve become unsure of, I just want to encourage you today! No matter what career you’re interested in, everyone has to pay their dues. Everyone has to undergo the full learning process to reach the professional level. Today I want to encourage you to push through your failures. If you want to reach the next level, learn from your mistakes and pay your dues, and you will get there!

You probably know someone in your life that is dealing with self-pressure to immediately succeed, and they could really use the extra encouragement. Or, maybe you have a teenager who is deciding what to pursue or considering what to do with their life. Today would be a great to share this message with them! Make it the topic at the dinner table or print it out to give to a friend, coworker, or business partner. Also, please leave me your comments here below. I would love to know your thoughts about today’s Daily Fix.

In great faith,