Top 13 Reasons Why People Fail

Now we come to the scary part. Don’t worry! These things will not happen to you. Why? Because you are going to be aware of those critical mistakes that cause people to fail. 

One can work as hard as they want for as long as they want, yet still make absolutely no progress. Then most will either blame the system or fate, but rarely themselves. How can we move forward without taking accountability for our actions? The answer is we can’t. So if you make a mistake, always take accountability for it and learn. Whether or not you feel it’s truly is your fault is irrelevant. You chose the action and are therefore responsible for the outcome. Unless you were forced down that path at gunpoint, you only have yourself to blame. If you get into the bad habit of blaming everyone else, you are just standing still as the world flies by you. Here are the common reasons for failure when starting a home based business. 

1) Lack of Knowledge 

Let’s face it, trying to start a landscaping business without knowing anything about landscaping is guaranteed to fail. Seems logical right? Well the same goes for working from home. Many people follow a single system and try to make money without truly realizing how it works. They never try to learn either. That’s the real problem. Good news for you is that by using this book as a guideline, you will equip yourself with enough knowledge to get started. However, don’t stop there. Continue learning and growing through experience.  

2) Unrealistic Expectations 

As mentioned before, falling prey to unrealistic expectations can lead to a huge disappointment. In order to be successful, you will need to turn to your list of realistic expectations (the one you wrote down earlier). Working from home is not a get rich quick scheme (those never work by the way). It’s a path to the future and will take time to get the ball rolling. Most people expect results after a month and when they don’t see them, they simply give up. 

3) Lack of a Plan 

This is huge and goes hand-in-hand with unrealistic expectations. Everyone needs a plan – whether it’s for business or just day-to-day life. A plan can be something as simple as a list of goals. Track these goals. This is the only way you will be able to see your progress. Without a plan, you will not be able to see your efforts leading to progress.  

4) Lack of Self-Discipline 

In other words, being lazy and procrastinating when one should be working toward achieving a goal. Of course, most who fail never have a goal in the first place. How would they even know which direction to go? Procrastination will kill a home-based business before it gets started. You want to be your own boss? Then you have to manage your time accordingly. There’s no longer anyone to hold your hand and tell you what to do next. That’s what your plan is for. 

5) Poor Time Management 

It takes time to start a home based business. That’s not saying that you should quit your regular job immediately. It simply means that whatever time you have should be dedicated to meeting your goals. The most common excuse that people make as to why they don’t start their own business is that they just don’t have the time. Here’s a fact. If someone wants something badly enough, they will find the time to make it happen. Trust me when I say that time is one thing you likely have an abundance of.  

6) Falling Prey to the Words ‘Get Rich Quick’ 

I hate to be a bubble buster but here’s the truth. Working from home is not going to instantly make you rich. If you want that, play the lottery. People waste precious time surfing the web for ways to get rich when they could be setting up their future. So many fall prey to this that it’s truly disappointing.  

7) Trying “Secret” Tools 

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous mistake. There are no secret formulas for gaining an edge over competition. If there were, do you really believe that the one who found it would tell you? Of course not!  

In reality, there is only you, your knowledge, and your commitment. Trust me, those are the only tools you need. The fact is that many fail because they try some kind of secret tool without learning about it. These so-called tools are often black hat techniques (breaking the rules for an advantage) and in the end, will cost you everything. If something seems too good to be true, it often is. 

8) Always Using Free Solutions 

Sometimes free can be a good thing, other times it can be outright devastating. Sacrificing professionalism in order to use a free service will actually cost more in lost profits than it would have cost to use a paid service. The way to avoid this is to always research and test anything that is free before letting it be seen by clients. One example of the absolute worst free solution on the internet is free web hosting. These so-called free services will place ads all over a website, usually not even matching the niche. Imagine how your potential customer would feel if they were visiting your website and got bombarded by adult advertisements! There are some things that cost money. Nothing is ever truly free. 

9) Poor Investments 

This can be directly linked to a lack of a plan. If an individual has no idea where they are headed, they are likely to binge shop. Having a plan in place will avoid this. Only spend money on things that will help accomplish your overall goals.  

10) Frustration 

Now we are starting to get deeper into effects of previous mistakes. Frustration is caused by having unrealistic expectations and no plan. If one is working hard and can’t see results, they will start to stress themselves out. Don’t join the roller coaster ride. Start out on the right track and you will avoid frustration altogether. Contrary to popular belief, working hard does not automatically lead to success. Working smart is the true path to achieving success. 

11) Shifting Blame 

One bad habit that I mentioned in the previous section is shifting the blame to another source. Some go as far as to bash books, media, even politics in order to shift the blame for mistakes that were really their own fault. This leads to another mistake, not learning from a mistake. Like dominoes falling in a perfect line, mistakes can quickly compound. Shifting blame leads to lack of learning. Lack of learning leads to repeating the same mistake again – the cycle continues. Each revolution leads to more stress and frustration. Never shift blame. Even if you feel that it was not your fault, go ahead and take responsibility anyway.  

12) The ‘Broken Record’ Syndrome 

There’s nothing more annoying than someone who constantly pitches their business. These people never talk about anything else. I’m sure that you’ve met them at one point in your life. Don’t become one of them. Build relationship through value, not repetitiveness. Learn when to pitch and when not to.  

13) Under Marketing 

For most home based businesses, marketing is the key to future success. You will have to spend most of your time marketing. Marketing leads to long term success. Therefore, those who under market often do so because they don’t see immediate results.  

These are the biggest mistakes that are made and will lead to failure. However, you shouldn’t be afraid of them. Learn from others and avoid these mistakes at all costs. Upon doing so, you will be one step closer to successfully generating a home based income.