There are those of us in this world that are competitive by nature. We are even competitive about being competitive. We are always thinking in terms of ‘winning’ or ‘losing’.

It’s important to be able to tell the difference between a competitive event and one where the winner is determined through cooperation. Although there’s nothing wrong with wanting to win, our desires can hurt rather than help if applied in the wrong scenario.

You see, when you are engaging in a competition, there is always a goal or a finish line. If you are playing a game of chess, for example, the object is to ‘check-mate’, if you are playing football the object is to get more points than the over team in a limited amount of time. Internet marketing, however, does not come with a finish line. There is no time limit and the game is never over.

Internet marketing is at its optimum when it works to research, test, share and act on new ways to do internet marketing better. It works best when working within a community to better itself. Competitive attitudes get in the way and progress is much faster through cooperation.

Everybody puts their shoulder to the wheel, so to speak, and pushes in unison in order to achieve the collective goal which is to move internet marketing forward. The joint effort is better for everybody concerned because everybody benefits.

As a natural competitor it becomes a case of seeing who can cooperate more than their competition. Who is able to help their customers more, whose customers are making more money and having more success than their competitors customers.

The only way competition can help cooperation is by making us reach out to help others more quickly than our competitors. This is the only way to be successful at internet marketing.

There is plenty of business out there for all of us. The supply of business isn’t limited. We can all benefit when any of us benefit. That is what the whole idea of cooperation is.

Leading on from this is my next point. Stop blaming the Guru’s..

There are a huge number of people out there who always have an excuse for their failures. In most cases they will tell you that their failure was not their fault, and caused by someone else.

When they relate their stories one common thread starts to shine through. They were the victims in their failed business. It wasn’t their fault that their business failed, they didn’t do anything wrong, etc, etc. It’s dangerous to believe them purely because it’s wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We all hold success and failure in our hands, and we actively choose one or the other via the decisions we choose to make.

When businesses do fail…and they do….they fail for many reasons none of which can be attributed to others. I have heard internet entrepreneurs lay the blame for the failure of their businesses squarely at the feet of what they mockingly call, ‘Internet Gurus’.

According to these people, an ‘Internet Guru’ sold them products they didn’t need, flooded their email inbox with so many emails that they couldn’t get any work done and just generally led them down the wrong path and made their business fail.

Successful internet marketers (‘gurus’) often send out recommendations to their client list, informing them about products which may be of interest. At no point in time do they say that you are REQUIRED to make a purchase.

These are merely offers of products that these successful internet marketers feel are worthy enough to be offered to their lists. The offer doesn’t mean that the product will necessarily help each and every person on those long and impressive mailing lists.

Every one of us is responsible for our own business. We should know our business well enough to know whether a particular product will help or hinder our progress. Sometimes we don’t know until we try. Sometimes there is risk, but it’s up to us to manage it so that we limit the effects of a bad outcome. That is effective decision making and risk assessment.

It isn’t an order that you must follow…it is only a suggestion. The decisions about your business are always up to you and you alone.