eBay Secrets?  What Is The Real Secret To Success on eBay?

I am often asked what is the secret to success to selling on eBay. What is the secret product that will make me money? What are the secrets of the real eBay PowerSellers? Where are the secret wholesale sources that no one else has? The truth is that none of these are secrets --practically everything about eBay is known.

Are their new ways of doing things and clever things that sellers discover? Sure, these happen all the time. You could call these secrets, but on eBay, once someone discovers a new secret for selling on eBay, they are quickly unearthed by everyone else and the secret doesn't last very long.

There is one secret that top eBay sellers have however, that most people don't know. And it's very simple. You have to believe in yourself, believe in your business and seize opportunity that comes your way. Mostly don't listen to the naysayers and non-believers. If you doubt the truth of that statement, here is a great article from the folks at Magniphy.com that should convince you.

I'm a Believer! Leaving Doubt and Seizing Opportunity!

Why do some people triumph against the odds in business? One of the reasons can be summed up in this phrase: “I'm a believer.” Much of what we can accomplish depends on whether or not we believe we can do it and then create opportunities for ourselves to accomplish our goals.

Take Mrs. Fields' Cookies, for example. The critics said:

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say Americans like crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
— Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

If Debbi Fields had not persevered when the going got tough, if she had not believed that she could make a business out of her idea (despite the skeptics), and if she had not moved forward without letting herself get hindered with self-doubt, she would have missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

What's Just around the Corner?

To be open to the possibilities that may be just around the corner, you have to believe that something is there waiting for you. This means keeping your eyes open and your mind active. It's having the skill, confidence, creativity, and discipline to seize opportunities the moment they arrive.

"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
— English scientist William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, 1899.

Enterprising people are always developing, following, and revising a plan until it works. They are extraordinarily resourceful, never letting anything get in their way. They do not understand the word "no" when it applies to their vision of the future. And when posed with a problem, they say, "Let's figure out a way to make it work."

Self-enterprising people see the future in the present. They find a way to take advantage of a situation, and not be burdened by it. They're hard working and they don't wait for opportunities to come to them—they go after the opportunities. Self-enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your goal—toward your dream.

"The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most."
— IBM to the founders of Xerox, 1959

Leading Yourself Forward

What could you do if you had more skills? If you read the books, listened to the tapes, took the classes, went to the seminars, and stayed up late and burned the midnight oil? What true value could you develop? Once you can see how valuable you are, understanding self-worth is a whole new experience.

Self-worth plays a major role in self-enterprise. Your self-worth is the difference between being lazy and being active—being self-enterprising. Enterprise is always better than ease. Every time you choose to do less than you can, it effects your self-confidence, your self-worth. If you keep doing a little less, every day that you keep doing a little less, you are also being a little less.

By doing a little more each day, you'll develop a new habit of doing rather than neglecting. Days and weeks and months of doing a little more will ultimately increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity, and your self-worth.

In the end, it's how you feel about yourself that gives you the increased courage and creativity for self-enterprise. Your feelings about yourself provide the greatest reward for self-enterprise. It's not what you get or what you accumulate that makes you valuable; it's what you become.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." — Gary Cooper, after turning down the lead role in "Gone With The Wind."

Success is in the Doing

Success isn't in the having; success is in the doing. It's the process of doing that brings value. It's the activity that transforms our dreams into reality, which converts ideas into actuality. Self-enterprise is found in the activity, for without activity you'll miss the opportunity.

"Space travel is bunk." — Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, 1957, two weeks before the launch of Sputnik.

If You're a Believer, Despite the Odds, You're in Good Company!

No matter what generation or age, the world has always had doubters. But, nay-sayers notwithstanding, individuals continue to excel in the face of incredible odds. Here are just a few examples:

"With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the US market."
— Business Week, August 2, 1968

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
— Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"Television won't matter in your lifetime or mine."
— Radio Times editor Rex Lambert, 1936

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of not military value."
— Marechal Ferdinand Foch, French Professor of Military Strategy

"There will never be a bigger plane built."
— A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that carried ten people.

"Can't dance. Can't act. Can sing a little."
— Notes from Fred Astaire's screen test.

"You ought to go back to driving a truck."
— Concert manager, firing Elvis Presley in 1954

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
— The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

“This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
— Western Union internal memo, 1876

"Forget it. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel."
— MGM executive, advising against investing in "Gone With The Wind."

"It's a bad joke that won't last. Not with winter coming."
— Fashion designer CoCo Chanel on the miniskirt, 1966

"We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."
— Simon Newcomb, astronomer, 1888

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
— Admiral William Leathy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project

"It's only a toy."
— Gardiner Green Hubbard, Alexander Graham Bell's future father-in-law, on seeing Bell's telephone in 1876

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
— Decca Recording Co., rejecting the Beatles, 1962

"An impractical sort of fad, and has no place in the serious job of postal transportation."
— Second Assistant U.S. Postmaster General Paul Henderson on airmail, 1922

"I think that there is a world market for maybe five computers."
— Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"It's a great invention, but who would want to use it anyway?"
— President Rutherford B. Hayes, after a demonstration of Bell's telephone

"The phonograph has no commercial value at all."
— Thomas Edison

"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first 6 months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."
— Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, 1946

"The radio craze will die out in time."
— Thomas Edison, 1922.

Copyright, Magniphy.com, ©2007

So don't listen to the non-believers. there is an old saying in business that "The pioneers are the ones with arrows in their back." Believe in yourself and keep believing. That is the real secret to success on eBay or almost any venture in life you attempt.

Skip McGrath