I saw somebody post a rant on Facebook about the “Merch by Amazon” program.
Now, if you’re not familiar with the Merch by Amazon program, it’s a fascinating and amazing program that has to do with Print-On-Demand T-shirts.
Basically, you get to partner with Amazon.com in the Print on Demand T-shirts business. It’s making a lot of people a lot of money, including myself, and it’s very exciting.
Anyway, this guy posted a rant about the Merch by Amazon program. Now keep in mind Merch by Amazon is a new program and it was originally designed for app developers to be able to offer T-shirts to their people who bought their games or their apps or whatever.
It was really originally designed for a very small community of people who might want to offer merchandise to their customers. But what happened is, Amazon opened it up to lots more people and to basically anybody who wanted to design t-shirts.
Once people got wind of it and they found out how incredible this opportunity was for building an ongoing, passive income and they started to see people making $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 a week with the Merch program, tons of new people started flooding into the program.
Then, what happened is Amazon got flooded with new applications. They weren’t quite sure how to handle it because they had this massive influx of people and so they started having problems with being able to have the capacity to fill the demand that was coming in with the flood of people coming into the program.
Because of that, Amazon had to make changes.
They had to throttle back sales and they had to do a lot of things to balance out this massive flood of people coming in to this program, which was a brand new program.
I started reading this guy’s rant and I was like, “Wow, man. This guy has to go to get it together.”
First of all, he doesn’t know enough about the program to know that it’s brand new.
Amazon got caught off guard. They had no idea there was going to be this massive flood of people and here he is, expecting things to be fully developed like if you were to go to Amazon.com and start selling as a merchant fulfilled seller or as an FBA seller. You know, that program has been around forever, right?
Selling on Amazon is a very mature process, a very established process; you come in and everything is all set. The rules are set, everything is decided. There’s no guessing, right?
However, when you’re talking about a brand-new program, one that is 1 or 2 years old?
I mean, there’s so much that’s still being developed and there’s so much that they’re trying to catch up with and there’s so much that they need to do, that you’ve got to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt. I mean, who knows how small their team is that is handling all this stuff?
I mean, I’ve heard so many rants and complaints online about online business - and I’ve heard this from a lot of different people, not just for Merch by Amazon but also for Udemy where I teach online. I’ve got 50 courses published on Udemy and we get tons of instructors ranting and raving about, “Udemy changed this! Udemy changed that!”
Guys, you’ve got to understand that the Internet does not owe you a thing.
In fact, online business is tough and it can be brutal.
It’s not a place for whiners and it’s not a place for complainers.
It’s not for the weak, in other words.
You’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to be tough to be able to make it and you’ve got to be able to ride with the waves. There’s turbulence in any new business. You’ve got to understand that.
Today if you want to sell on Amazon, the rules of the game are laid out very clearly, because it’s been around since let’s say 1996 or 1997-ish.
If something is fairly new like one to five years old, it’s going to be going through some turbulence or what we call growing pains.
Either they are trying to develop an entirely new industry from scratch, so they’re learning the ins and outs and they’re learning the hard way, whether they should do this or do that. You’ve just got to be able to roll with it.
You’ve got to be able to roll with the punches. You’ve got to be able to be tough enough and flexible enough to just go with whatever happens, go with the changes.
But most importantly, do NOT take on the victim mindset.
This is the mindset that says, “Woe is me. Why aren’t they doing this the way I want to do it? Why aren’t they doing this, because this is important to me? Why don’t they see me and why don’t they hear me? Why don’t they listen to me?”
Listen, they don’t owe you anything. They don’t even owe you a platform. Most of these opportunities are incredible opportunities! They are incredible opportunities to make big money, passive income and you’re complaining about it. I mean some of these opportunities didn’t exist even a few years ago, even a year ago. I mean the Merch by Amazon opportunity came along and I was blown away by the opportunity.
It took me a few months to adjust from my online teaching business to the Merch by Amazon opportunity and then to be able to balance both. Now I’ve got it balanced and now I’ve been able to focus the right amount of time on each.
As a result, we’re making a fantastic residual, passive income.
Learn to be grateful.
Learn to be excited.
Learn to be positive about anything that comes along.
And, by the way, also learn to ignore the negatives that come along, that you have no control over.
Look, if you have no control over it, forget about it.
Don’t think about it.
Don’t talk about it.
Don’t post about it.
Whatever you don’t have control over, guess what? You don’t have control over it!
Forget about it. Don’t think about it. Like it doesn’t even enter your mind.
The only thing you should focus on is what you CAN control and what you CAN work on.
The two most important things that you’ve got to work on are your attitude and your level of activity.
With attitude, it’s how you protect your mind from negativity and how you can focus on positivity and motivation and inspiration.
With activity, it’s how you work; how do you work in a focused, in a defined, in a specific way to do the most productive thing possible and the most profitable thing possible at any given point?
Those are the two most important things that you’ve got to focus on.
Whenever you see changes that appear to be negative to you or hurt your business or whatever, don’t even think about those things.
Let those roll off your back. Because focusing on those is a huge waste of time. It’s a huge negative energy that affects your ability to produce and your ability to focus and move forward.
By the way, another tip - don’t waste any time answering those people on Facebook or on different forums, or whatever.
If somebody posts something really negative and they post a rant, what I do is I look at it and I go, “Wow! This person doesn’t get it. They’re lost.” I mean, they have no appreciation for what they have here. It’s amazing. It’s an incredible opportunity.
You see that? What I do is kind of treat it like you would a car wreck where the emergency responders are already there. They’re already on the scene.
What I do typically when I see a car wreck is I pray for the person that’s in the car wreck. I know that it’s being handled by professionals, of course. If not, then obviously I want to run in and help them, right?
I treat it that way. I treat that rant, that negativity, like that. Say a prayer for that person.
Hope they get it at some point, hope they learn to appreciate the opportunities that are in front of them.
Because man, let me tell you something especially in 2018, there are going to be huge opportunities coming along and your ability to, number one, discern that it’s an incredible opportunity and then, two, take massive action on that opportunity, is going to determine whether you win or lose in that opportunity.
Let me give you a case in point.
One of the top Merch by Amazon sellers is my friend and co-instructor, Daniel Caudill.
Daniel is a young man who saw the Merch opportunity, got on to it and jammed on it.
He just went to town, uploading tons and tons of designs and getting himself moving up in sales.
Now he’s making an easy six figures with Merch by Amazon.
By the way, this is a passive income that comes in from sales that Amazon does on his behalf.
He got on it as soon as he saw it and he went all out with it. That is a key to success.
As other opportunities come along (maybe new opportunities for passive income like Merch by Amazon) your ability to be able to see that opportunity, recognize it and then jump on it and ride it for all it’s worth, that’s what’s going to determine your success.
By the way, there are already opportunities in your lap right now that qualify.
Whether you’re an Amazon FBA seller, whether you’re an eBay seller, whether you’re an online teacher, whether you’re a freelancer, whether you’re helping small businesses with their online marketing, no matter what business you’re in, there are already opportunities in your lap to seize the opportunity and jump on it and take it all the way, work hard and focus.
Be sure you recognize those opportunities for your own sake and be sure that you learn how to focus and you get yourself jamming on those opportunities. It’s going to be to your benefit and to your family’s benefit.
You’ll see amazing results financially, as well as with freedom in your life.