Creating Your Own Internet
Marketing Success Story
Part Five: A Business Lesson From the Acorn Barnacle
© 1998-99, Marty Foley

You might be wondering "What does an acorn barnacle have to do with establishing and growing a profitable online enterprise?" You may also be wondering "What in the world IS an acorn barnacle, anyway?"

The answer to the first question is that Internet entrepreneurs like you and I can learn an important lesson from the acorn barnacle. For those of you that don't already know, let me briefly clue you in on this amazing critter...

The acorn barnacle is a little shelled animal that fastens itself to the hulls of boats. It has an incredible trait: It secretes an adhesive so powerful that a very thin film just a few thousandths of an inch thick has a shear strength of about 7,000 pounds per square inch! Ask anyone that has tried to remove them from a boat hull how difficult the task was!

Now you may be asking: "Okay, Marty. What's the point?" In a word, the point is: persistence. Just as the acorn barnacle has the unusual ability to stick to things, you must learn to persist in your business. Never give up too soon.

Yes, people are building increasingly profitable Internet businesses, but not everyone that tries, of course, succeeds.

As I've watched new online ventures come and go, and others - including my own - come and grow, I've noticed that persistence is a key ingredient missing from many failed ones. And some are right on the brink of success when they quit!

That's not to say you should continue banging your head against the wall in a losing proposition, or to continue to invest in a money pit. (Fortunately, as I've learned from personal experience, you can market and operate your business on a slim shoestring budget.)

It's just that persistence can turn many fundamentally sound ventures with good potential - but which may have just had a rough and discouraging start - into winning propositions.

In your case, you might need to take a different approach to something that isn't working as planned; or maybe what you're already doing is the best thing to do, and you just need to keep at it.

As one that would like to see you succeed in your own ethical cyberbusiness, I'm honestly telling you that if you believe some of the hype about Internet success coming without any effort, you're in for disappointment. Sorry if that comes as a letdown to some, but it's a fact. I'm telling you this like any close friend that really cares about you would.

This lesson about the acorn barnacle is as much of a pep talk as it is my usual "how-to" type of article. For a bit of added inspiration, I'll now share some quotes on the importance of persistence with you:

"Only those who do nothing make no mistakes."
-- Anonymous

"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
-- Thomas Edison

"The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work."
-- Anonymous

"We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough."
-- Helen Keller

Persistence, you see, is like the powerful adhesive that makes the little acorn barnacle so successful at what he does. If you apply it in your own online business, it can be a key ingredient in your success, too!