It was a warm Friday night.  Summer was in full swing and so was I.  Had this been the 80′s, there would have been the sweet sounds of Whitesnake or Def Leppard playing in the background (on CD).  But it’s 2011 and we get Jessica Black. Hooray. My hands were sitting on the keys of my laptop trembling as I typed the following email.

Suggested music for reading this post: Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)

The email was, in fact, a question to several online entrepreneurs who have been successful in so many amazing ways. These are people who are doing phenomenal work, and they all have my highest respect so I wanted to share their wisdom so that you too could benefit.

Here is the question I asked of them:

“Out of the many things you have done for your online business endeavors, what is one thing which stands out in your mind as the greatest contributing factor to it’s success/growth?”

I then hit send and the following 12 replies graciously came back.  Oh yeah, there were bribes in the email so I could assure responses:

• For Ash Ambirge, I offered a bottle of Whiskey (the really good stuff).
• For Chris Garrett, I promised him a real light saber at Christmas.
• Johnny Truant.  I told him I would send him every cheesy 80′s cassette I still own. Even Tiffany.
• Penelope got a pair of pigmy goats for her farm.  Named Bonnie and Clyde.
• James Chartrand gets a new pen….they do use pens on MWP, right?
• Corbett Barr was tough. I had to offer him a full ride to Mexico this Winter.  He drives a hard bargain.
• David Risley wanted higher taxes.  I just could not swing that.  He replied anyway.
• I offered Jonathan Fields a trip to Japan for Hot Yoga – he accepted.
• Lisa Barone.  She got nail polish.  Lots of it.  The 99 cent naughty kind.
• Chris Ducker. I offered him a virtual trip around the world. Glad he took that.
• Tyler Tervooren drove a real hard bargain.  I had to offer him something totally risk-filled.  So I got him tickets to Disneyland.
• Robb Sutton got a brand new Huffy bike.  He loves it but the nostalgia wore off quickly.  Especially the banana seat.

I am thankful for their time and thoughts. Just look at all these amazing responses.  If this doesn’t pump you up to get out there and make a dent in the Universe, I don’t know what will.  As a point of interest, I paid $25,000 for an MBA and didn’t get advice like this.

And so, for everyone that wants to work for themselves and gain success – here are the responses I got from these 12 highly influential entrepreneurs:

Chris Garrett, The Business Of Blogging And New Media

“I think networking is the one thing that stands out as the biggest long term contribution. “Getting started” was the biggest thing initially, people have to start somewhere and I am a bit of a worrier so get stuck in analysis paralysis, but over the years I think my network contributed most and most consistently. I always say “No blog is an island”, we NEED other people, for help, opportunities, partnerships … but also that connection makes everything more fun”.

Lisa Barone, Outspoken Media

“This is going to sound super lame but the biggest thing I’ve done to help my business is decide who I was.  All the experts talk about the importance of “authenticity” and “transparency” and “engagement” and I honestly don’t think I had a clue what that meant when we first formed our Outspoken Media.

What helped me was realizing that being “authentic” didn’t mean I needed to give people everything or all of me. It just meant that I needed to decide who I was and then be true to that in everything. It meant I needed to create, for lack of a better word, a “character” that emphasized the parts of my personality that help me run my business and diminish those that do not.

I’ve written about this idea of “creating a character” a bunch over at Outspoken Media but I really think it helped me to solidify who I was online, while giving me natural guidelines (you don’t share content that doesn’t go with the “character’) for interacting and the distance I needed to grow Online Lisa without being (too) affected by online criticism or haters. Cause let’s be honest, haters gonna hate, right?”

Tyler Tervooren, Advanced Riskology

“Doing my damnedest to live the message. From a business standpoint, Advanced Riskology is about going all in and learning to make a living doing things that you love even if you don’t know exactly how it will work out in the beginning. That’s why I’m probably the last one responding to you on this question—because for the last 11 days, I’ve been on a mountain in Russia with no internet access working on my next project.

The idea that an approach like that could even work is preposterous to most, and I’m happy to admit that I didn’t get as much done as I would have if I’d stayed home, but then I’d have nothing interesting to say, and I wouldn’t be living up to the message I try to send out.”

Ash Ambirge, The Middle Finger Project

“The one thing is definitely swearing and surveying. I know that’s two, but can I cheat?  Swearing, on the surface, is superficial and it isn’t the swearing itself that has made me successful, but rather, it’s my ability to be real online, garner trust, be relatable, and give people something that they actually want to read.

And the surveying?  Huge. Best business decision I made in all of 2011.”

Jonathan Fields, Jonathan Fields.com

“Align who you are and what you’re capable of doing with the deep needs of who you want to serve. Do that right and everything else flows with much more ease.”

Penelope Trunk,Penelope Trunk Blog

“Getting out of bed in the morning when everything I’m doing seems stupid and useless and I’m running out of money. The only special thing a successful entrepreneur does is to keep trying way past the time a normal person would have quit.”

Corbett Barr, ThinkTraffic

“Personal connection. In prior online business attempts, I never focused on connecting personally with potential customers. This time around, I have connected with as many people as I possibly can. The personal connections have led to more opportunities and discoveries than I can possibly take advantage of.”

Johnny B. Truant, The Internet Made Awesome

“Without a doubt, perseverance is the most important thing. Many different mechanical “tactics” can work or fail for different people in different businesses, but nobody gets anywhere if they expect everything to be perfect or easy and lack the fortitude to push on and gut it out when things are tough. If you want to travel 100 miles, you start moving and don’t stop until you’ve gone 100 miles. Business is the same. You need to constantly analyze, adjust, and find the will to keep going.”

James Chartrand, Men With Pens

“Never giving up. I strongly believe that the key to success comes from facing adversity and overcoming it. Business is a journey with obstacles, and you need the perseverance to find ways around them, over them, under them… sometimes you even need to smash your way through them.

Of course, along with perseverance comes some good ol’ common sense. You need to know when the obstacle you face is too big for you to take on right now. So you step back, think a bit, figure out what you need to know or do, and try again later. Or, you look at the alternatives and options – sometimes a different path is the better and smarter one to choose.

The point is that you need to keep going, no matter what. And you learn and grow along the way, improving as you go so that you come out victorious at your destination in the end.”

David Risley, Six Figure Blogging

(1) I “loosened up” and stopped thinking small…. and (2) I started networking with others of like mind.

I think these two things are, by far, most responsible for a mindset shift on my part which led to huge expansion and, ultimately, a whole new direction to my business starting around 2007-2008. By “loosening up”, I meant that I stopped trying to get everything for free, and I started investing in solutions and training. If you want to be in the same position as others, then learn from them. And, if they’re smart, they WILL be charging for that knowledge. Instead of acting resentful about it, recognize that what they’re doing is valuable, it IS worth money, and if you’re serious about expanding your business, you respect that, learn from them, and busily apply the same to YOUR endeavors.

Secondly, networking is HUGE. Masterminding is HUGE. Again, so many beginners refuse to hop on a plane and travel to a conference. They don’t want to spend money, they don’t want to upset their routine. Well, dammit…. NOTHING will happen if you’re going to keep yourself locked up in a hole. So, when I started regularly networking IN PERSON with successful people, things took off like crazy.

Mindset is so important. And, if you think small and keep yourself small through scarcity-based decision making, you’ll never expand. And nothing will happen.“

Chris Ducker, Virtual Business Lifestyle

“Without a doubt, the biggest ‘move’ I’ve made online is to network properly. Of course, I’ve created what I believe is great content, over written, audio and video mediums, and I continue to do so. I’ve also produced great services with a huge focus on customer service. But, its those relationships I’ve made with other successful bloggers, online marketers and web entrepreneurs that easily stand out as the number one contributing factor to ‘getting shit done’ in a big way online. Go and do likewise, everyone. Network. You can begin by adding me on Twitter – @chriscducker - and good luck!

Robb Sutton, Blogging Labs and Bike 198

Hard work and dedication. There are so many people in this world that want success but aren’t willing to work for it. It is not an easy road building up something that is actually worth having. No one is going to hand it to you and there are going to be big bumps in the way. The willingness to keep pushing forward, the ability to learn from your mistakes and the awareness to capitalize on your successes are traits that make success in the long run. This is not a sprint…it is a marathon and if you are not prepared to go the long haul…you might as well not even start. It is a 24/7 mental battle…not a 2 hour a day hobby.

File this away and refer to it often.  This is some amazing and sustainable advice you can use over and over again, either as encouragement or as guidance.  Remember, “hard work makes luck.”

Unwired Worksheet:  For this worksheet, write down some of the advice you found most useful to you and leave it in comments below with your thoughts and your next steps.

I’m on your side,