My Somewhat Sad Million Dollar Insight
August 4, 2008 by Ryan
Let me first say that I am not a cynical person. In fact, I usually get frustrated by cynicism in people around me. But the other day something dawned on me about some of the most successful businesses out there:
If you want to be rich, find a problem in life that is difficult to fix and sell products & information that people can buy to fool themselves that they are actually doing something!
Get rich. Get out of debt. Lose weight. Be more productive. The list could go on, but the common thread is that these goals take considerable effort to achieve. That difficulty opens the opportunity for tools, tips and programs to help the individual to achieve their lofty aspiration. (Here is where my cynicism comes in) The key here is how the act of buying these products, etc. allow the individual to fool themselves that they are making progress to their goal. Let’s be honest, how many books, products, tools have we bought to help us accomplish our goals? How often has that purchase actually delivered? How many failures were more of a personal failure, or a failure to get down and actually use the product, than an actual failure of the product? It’s a sad realization that most people don’t follow through.
We all know people that will buy every diet book under the sun. It’s easy to get into the trap where we run around picking up this tool and that tool, all while making no real progress! I mean really, how many shovels does it take to dig a hole? People think there is a magic bullet that will do the hard work for them.
Most of the time, it doesn’t matter how good the product is, results ultimately come from effort. Hard work! (Hey there’s a niche, Get People Motivated to Work…oh wait, isn’t that Tony Robbins territory?) I’m not saying more thoughtful, more effective products are just as good as low quality equivalents, but for the customer that implements neither, the quality is irrelevant. (Backhoes make short work of some holes!) Fake gurus and hacks abound and I’m not saying to add to the trash. I am more making an observation of circumstances that provide an abundance of opportunity. So, to come away with something positive from this:
Think of something that is hard to achieve and put together the best tools, products and helps that you can…and realize that you might have repeat customers still looking for the magic bullet product that will do the work for them! 
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3 Responses to “My Somewhat Sad Million Dollar Insight”
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Hear, hear.
Plain and simple: there is no substitute for action. You can think about it all day long, but nothing’s going to happen unless you *do something*.
~E
But you see, Ryan, if you COULD find a way to get me away from the computer, and outside working out, it WOULD be worth a million dollars (to me.)
:-))))) Great post. Now if you could just get to work on my problem….
Wouldn’t it be cool to build a business around the idea of helping people avoid this bad habit in ‘deals’ they get spammed with? Something like a Better Business Bureau, only for schemes. We could call it the “Safe Scheme Service.” Our motto could be, ‘Better Living Through Safe Spam Selection’ or something. : P
Great blog, dude, can’t wait to read the rest of them.