Are you tired of people you love telling you to quit? Here's how to end the conversation without ending the relationship. 

I have always found it humorous when celebrities are called an "Overnight Sensation"; as if they just started singing, playing or acting yesterday afternoon.  Nobody realizes that this person has been perfecting their skill since they were 4 years old!  Literally NOBODY becomes a pro in one evening... that's just ignorant thing to even consider, yet, for some strange reason, people tend to think that if you start an online business you should be making a full-time wage in the first month.  Strange, eh?!

FACT: When you start selling online, you’re NOT going to become an “overnight sensation” because there IS NO SUCH THING.  You would have just as much luck becoming a unicorn, a Bigfoot or a winning the lottery as you will becoming a wealthy online seller after dinner tonight. In fact, it’s going to take you probably 5+ YEARS to be able to actually make "real" money and during those 5 years you WILL live in poverty and essentially “work for free” with nothing more than determination, motivation, hope and beautiful thoughts of one day having a better future. During the first couple years, you will most likely get (VERY hurtful) negative feedback from the people you love most. Your partner, friends, parents, coworkers, neighbors and relatives might tell you that you should “Quit and find a real job” because “You’re not making any money” and “you’re wasting your time” in addition to “you’re filling your house with all this junk that doesn’t ever sell!” You may even feel like literally NOBODY supports you in this venture. It’s painful. Its depressing. And it really makes your mind fill with doubt.

BUT… as I have said before and I’ll continue to say, if I can do it, so can you! (I pinky promise!) I can almost absolutely guarantee you that if you genuinely give it your all (every single day, no exceptions), you can and WILL be very well-to-do in 10 years and you most likely will join us in the millionaires club by your 15th year. BUT… before you can get to year #15, you have to battle through the first couple years, which are made even more difficult when everyone is begging you to quit. (Sigh!)  

So, when someone throws that negativity at you, here’s some rebuttals:

ARM YOURSELF WITH FACTS

When someone tells you “Nobody makes REAL money online” or “You’d make more working a REAL job”, here’s how you reply:

If you read our article called How Much Do Online Sellers Actually Make Per Year you have already learned that 26% of eBay sellers and 39% of Amazon sellers report making over $100,000 per year in sales! (Would YOU consider that a real job? I sure as hell would!) Even better; over 14% of Amazon sellers and over 3% of eBay sellers report bringing in over 1 MILLION DOLLARS annually! And if you really want to blow someone's mind; over 2% of Amazon Sellers claim to rake in over`10 MILLION, YEARLY. But that's a ton of numbers to remember, so let’s simplify it:

• Approximately 30% of eBay sellers (almost 1-out-of-every-3), report grossing over $100,000 every year.
• Approximately 56% of Amazon Sellers (OVER HALF!) report generating over $100,000 annually.

But if you only want to have to remember one number, you could average the two together and safely say that over 40% of major-platform / major marketplace sellers generate 6 figures yearly.

So let me ask you this (or you can ask THEM this), if you could apply for a job that had a 1-out-of-3 chance of making 6 figures a year, would YOU apply?  Because the odds of winning the lottery is only 1-in-175,000 and the chance of getting struck by lightening is 1-in-700,000... so a 40% chance to win is hard to argue with!

OPTIMINSM BASED ON HISTORY

However, you may have a naysayer in your life who replies to that, something along the lines of, “But those sellers have REAL businesses”

• “Those sellers have investors”
• “The ones that make that are very experienced professionals”
• “Those sellers aren’t working out of their home like you are!”
• “Well when you’re rich you can afford to buy all that inventory! YOU’RE NOT RICH!”
• “The people who make that have lots of employees!”

I can absolutely assure you that all of those claims are rarely ever true. Here’s your response:

“Everyone, even Jeff Bezos who owns Amazon, starts out selling from home. Jeff Bezos talks about how he would stay up late shipping books from his garage, by himself, back when Amazon was only an online book store! Amazon is now worth 156 BILLION/  But it all started with listing 1 book online.”

By this point you have likely shut down the negativity, but sometimes people are persistent. If you hear things like:

• “How are you going to get the money to buy the inventory?”
• “You can’t afford to do this right now!”
• “So you’re not going to work a REAL job?”

To respond to this line of questioning, it is imperative that you read our article called The 8 Ways Online Sellers SAVE $20,000+ a Year because this is also 100% FACT. Someone who works a “real job” (as the negative people refer to it), never realize how much money they really do SPEND to work. It’s seriously never occurred to them. When you tell them they spend well over $10,000 every year just to work, they will likely say “That's impossible!” but the data is REAL. Read it. Heck, let them read it. They might not admit it, but they will realize it’s true, even if they say nothing.

FINAL REBUTTALS:

Remember that the reason this person who is trying to stop you is usually doing it because they really DO care and they really DO feel like you are making a mistake. If they didn’t care they likely wouldn't be taking the time to try and stop you. So with that in mind: If all else fails and the person insists that you are not capable, financially able or simply “can’t” succeed as an online seller, here’s how to end the conversation without ending the relationship with your loved one:

SINCERE: I truly appreciate your opinion and I love you, but this is something I genuinely want to do and It means a lot to me that I have your support.

HONEST: This is something I am doing for ME. I want to give it a try. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. If it does, then GREAT!

HUMOR: I could have picked a way worse hobby. Would you prefer I knit sweaters while skydiving naked? *laugh* (sometimes a little laughter is all that is needed to diffuse a situation)

REDIRECTION: “When I make $10,000, dinner is on me! Where do you want to eat at? I know you love Sushi and we have always wanted to try Benihana!” or “Thanks for the advice! How’s Uncle Larry doing? How did his heart surgery go?“

FOCUS ON UPSIDES: “This gives me the opportunity to stay home with the baby. Plus, have you seen how expensive child care is? I really want to be a full time mommy to Nathan and if this works out, it will be a dream come true!” or “My Durango isn’t going to last much longer. By working from home I can easily keep it running for many more years while saving to get a new vehicle!”

I'M SO TOTALLY DONE WITH THIS CONVERSATION: “I really don’t want to keep discussing this. Let’s talk about something else please.” or “Look, you have voiced your opinion many times. I know how you feel but this is my life and I need to make the decisions that I feel are best for me. Let’s please stop discussing it.” or “I get what you’re saying, let’s drop it.”