A Healthy Ride to Wealth


Challenge the Learning Curve and Put Time on Your Side

Having completed another turn around the sun, it’s time again for new resolutions to start 2024 on the right foot!

What’s more important to begin the year than finding ways to free up time for ourselves and the family? Ha Haaa! I picked your curiosity right?!

This one is all about learning at doing our tasks efficiently, i.e. correctly the first time.

You want to be on the path to success this year? Then follow-me. Don’t rush, I’ll go slowly.

Like my teacher at University used to say: “We have to hurry-up! Let’s slow down!”

It’s a fact that being in a rush to do something brings us often in front of a blank page. We panic, and our brain freezes or acts as if it wants to go everywhere at once, so we make bad decisions, we leave projects unfinished promising to return to them later, only to end up taking longer to achieve our goals.

We must learn to be patient. One must take the time to learn, go hands on, repeat, then get the job done.

Practice makes perfect! Then faster we are.

The challenge is not in the hurry of completing a milestone for the next one. Rather, it is to learn at doing our tasks correctly the first time.

Once a project is satisfactorily completed, only then can we proceed to the next milestone on our roadmap.

Focus on the process, not the end results.

Avoid distractions and procrastination, they are bad habits that we want to get rid of.

Remember La Fontaine’s fable “The Hare and the Turtoise”?

“Slow but steady wins the race”

The Learning Curve

I often hear that affiliate marketing is the perfect business model for everyone to begin with, but it doesn’t mean it has to be simple.

Yet for me, it’s far from being simple.

As you may know, I’m a beginner. This means I’m actively learning to become proficient at doing my affiliate marketing tasks.

As an engineer in my day job, experience taught me that it’s frequent to feel inefficient in the first times of doing something new. But for us engineers, this feeling of being not so good at doing a new task is not a show stopper anymore.

The fact is, we can’t know what we don’t know. We’re not born with science at our finger tips. Rather, we had to follow a long learning process involving many years at University to finally culminate in really just the basics!

I’m placed in front of new technologies almost every week. Furthermore, I’m myself involved at transferring and developing new technologies. I know what it means to put learning efforts at something because it’s part of my daily activities.

This is not a secret for anyone: new competencies necessitates learning efforts and it’s not just applicable to engineers.

Performance increases and tasks are completed correctly the first time as new skills develop.

It’s universal!

It is called “the learning curve“…

Basically, the learning curve tells you that it takes less time and effort in theory to complete a task after you have done it for a while.

There are many variations of this curve that exist today, depending on the application and the parameters you want to study.

However, the principles remain the same.

In the following, I’m applying the concept of the learning curve to affiliate marketing. Interestingly, you will be brought to observe a fundamental behavior you surely want to know and exploit for your benefits.

Continue to read.

As a beginner, when you first start in affiliate marketing, you don’t have the skills required to make your business profitable. Your learning efforts are therefore more important at this stage but little by little, things become easier, learning efforts decrease, and your performance increases.

At some point, the learning curve levels up because you’re getting in control of the things you’re doing. Somewhere along that line, your business becomes profitable, and all that’s needed now is some fine-tuning efforts to maintain a sustainable income.

The above reasoning may be represented on a graph like this:

This is the learning curve as I see it applied to affiliate marketing. It takes less time and daily effort to run your business when you have done it for a while, and less time and overall efforts if you learn effectively from the start. For the same amount of starting efforts, the person on the left curve has achieved the same goals as the person on the right curve but in less time, with increased profitability, and with less overall efforts than the person on the right curve, simply because daily efforts were spent more efficiently.

The vegetable garden analogy

Suppose you want to build a vegetable garden in your backyard. You want to start soon in spring, expecting to have your vegetables ready somewhere in the fall season.

First, you need to decide which vegetables you intend to grow and come up with a plan to divide and lay out your garden accordingly.

Then you search for a bright and sunny spot, well protected from the winds. Once you find it, you work the ground and remove unwanted vegetation. 

The next step is to cover your garden with the proper soil thickness. You go to the nearby market and buy bags of nutrient-rich black soil. You bring those bags to your location and you start to empty and spread their content all over your garden area.

Once finished, you continue by sowing the seeds in rows at evenly spaced locations. Now it is time to add water including the right amount of fertilizer if needed. Days later, the efforts you did start by giving results.

Unfortunately, you realize your baby plants are being eaten by marmots, rabbits and other little animals. You construct a fence around your garden and put a net against birds and squirrels.

Your tomato plants are getting too tall, you install stakes to strengthen them. Insects become a nuisance? You spread natural insect repellent around.

At this stage you have acquired all competencies required to take care of your garden in a daily manner. You no longer need to dig the ground like you did before and lift heavy bags of soil.

All you need now is to put the smaller efforts required to ensure your plants grow and produce vegetables in time.

This means you have more time doing other activities because your garden requires less care and attention.

When fall arrives, your efforts have been well rewarded by all the vegetables your garden produces. You are proud of it and your neighbors envy you.

That’s where you start to help them prepare for the next season.

Get the Advantages of Mentorship

This is what affiliate marketing is like to me. Efforts are required at the beginning and gradually, as the basic things are learned and done, you catch with proficiency and in time you achieve a profitable business, with sustainable gains. You can quit your daily job to become your own boss, and finally you got the time you need to enjoy life as you wish.

However, the learning curve is not exactly the same for every one.

Some people, for whatever reasons, doesn’t put the required and committed efforts at the beginning.

Some get distracted by the next shiny object they see on the internet, so they deviate from their proven plan until they realize they have lost enough time and money, and they get back on their initial track.

Hence, many will never reach their goals.

But some will succeed faster than others and with less overall efforts why?

The answer is quite simple: they were smart enough to ask for help!

Someone taught them how to avoid the many pitfalls online and they took advantage of it.

They got mentorship.

They were coached by an expert, someone who already did the journey before.

Their learning curve was drastically affected by this, dropping faster with increased performance. They learned to put their efforts where it counts.

Those people were taught, straight from the start, to do the right things at the right place. They learned more effectively.

The learning curve is not solely about becoming proficient at managing your business, but it is also about learning to free your day time for eventually do things you love.

If you love your business so much that all you want is to re-invest your excess efforts to make it grows to the next level, then you can! If you want to use the time you freed up for you and your hobbies, do it! It’s up to you, you are the BOSS!

Thanks to my mentor Dean Holland, I’m on the accelerated curve.

Now I’m here to tell you that you too can do it.

You too can dream having the life of your dreams and known with confidence that it could be possible.

If you have read down to here, then you deserve to see THIS.

The Internet Profits Accelerator program, the exact one I subscribed myself and that allowed me to build my knowledge, start my own business online as a complete beginner, get mentorship, daily coaching, and much more!

Start by learning effectively. Get on the Accelerated learning curve.

Which one are you? The hare or the turtle? 😉

Martin

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Comments

27 Responses to “Challenge the Learning Curve and Put Time on Your Side”

  1. Denny Medeiros Avatar

    Hi Martin,
    Great post about the learning curve! I love the analogy of the garden and your description of how it relates. It paints a clear mental image of the message you’re sharing. looki6forward to your next post. All the best!

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Thank you Denny. Just wanted to illustrate the fact that it requires efforts and commitment, especially at the beginning of a project, to achieve results. An affiliate marketing business is not different no matter what gurus in this industry could tell you.
      Martin

  2. Nakina Lawson Avatar

    That learning curve can be tough! I’m at the point where I’m learning how to write follow-up emails frequently. Yikes! I find it so intimidating! But I know, if I keep at it, the task will become just a small part of my day. I like your analogy to gardening. I’m at the planting stage in this aspect. I’ve got a lot of work learning the skills. It’s similar to all that work prepping the soil and planting the seeds. Soon it’ll be as easy as simply watering and pruning the plants. I’ve found your post very encouraging! Looking forward to the next one 🙂

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Thank you Nakina, we are in the most difficult phases of our businesses. We have to keep committing to our tasks, following-up with ourselves. I’m confident that slowly but surely we’ll get results.
      Martin

  3. tony simms Avatar

    Your analogy of the vegetable garden is perfect (though I am happy to say we have no marmots here!) It beautifully illustrates the patience and consistent effort needed for growth and success in online marketing, you hear of so many giving up before they make it.

    I guess it was inevitable, what with you being an engineer, that there would also be a graph!” But the perspective, you bring regarding the learning curve and the advantages os having a mentor was very clear (and the graph did help me get the point)

    I really struggled this week, producing a magazine for the first time, using new software.

    Your post encourages me to remember to embrace the learning curve with patience and determination.”

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Thank you Tony, you catch-up everything beautifully. Yeess! I wanted a graph somewhere! hehe! Next time I’ll put equations with least squares regression curves! By the way, I like your magazine, it’s worth reading with great content for the digital marketing industry!

  4. Alan Lim Avatar

    I wish someone had told me about the learning curve before I started affiliate marketing many years ago.

    But then again, even if someone had told me about it back then, I may not be in the right frame of mind to listen.

    I agree that slow is fast.

    Now that I’m pressing the reset button for affiliate marketing, I’ve decided to take my time to lay the proper foundation and not try to rush things.

    Thanks for your post.

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      We are not always in the right mood to learn or concentrate on something so we need to get back to it later. This is just normal and does not necessarily delay our goals. But if we decide to go over it and never come back to integrate at least the basics, then our incomplete lessons will just be like a pile of facts, and our goals will be affected. “Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks: but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house.” (Henri Poincaré)

  5. CJ Avatar

    Martin,

    There is a learning curve in everything in life. The affiliate marketing business is no different. There are going to be ups and downs and moments you second guess if you can do this. The question is will you keep getting up an trying till you succeed? Like the kid on a bike has to learn to ride but will fall and scrap a knee but gets back on the bike and continues to learn. Through these ups and downs it’s vital to take advantage of a GOOD mentor.

    Thanks for pointing out these critical that are needed to succeed.
    CJ

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      This is the point: finding the energy, perseverance, and discipline to commit to what we have to do and pursue on the curve. Thanks we have Dean to help us in this way. Like I said on another comment, did you notice my learning curve was actually a down slope? Why we don’t just slide down on it then? 😉

  6. Marc Avatar

    Great post Martin!
    I think about how everything can come together when you have a plan AND… take it slowly… one step after another!
    There are so many things to understand and learn that yes, you’re right, we need to take it slowly and as you mentioned, the learning curve can also have its ups and downs!

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Step by step we’ll get there! Thank you Marc. I thought it was better to illustrate the learning curve as a downhill instead of steep rising slope. It’s more encouraging.😁
      Martin

  7. Tom Avatar

    Hi Martin,
    Practice makes perfect is my favourite motto. Very true for public speakers and webinar hosts.
    Also, the timing must be right. You wouldn’t start planting your garden in autumn.
    I didn’t know I was on the right path a few years ago but did not want to learn. So I jumped from one business idea to the other to eventually realise that what I want, I can only achieve with affiliate marketing. You mentioned it in the first paragraph- more time for family. I also value location-independent business.
    So I am like your turtle, steadily doing my tasks every day while still working later in the afternoon. Learning and implementing at the same time. Also learning to be patient.
    Excited for the next post!
    Tom

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Thank you for your comment Tom. Sometimes we need to make our own experiences to finally decide which one is best for us. Trial and error when you can afford it can be a valid way to make a clear decision.
      Martin

  8. David Roper Avatar

    Martin, I very much enjoyed your post. I had never thought about the process that you go through with a vegetable garden and how that compared to business, it was great! It also shows how the Hard work is at the very beginning and the rewards come at the end. Keep up the great work!

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Thank you David for your comment! I appreciate you found in this metaphor some parts of what affiliate marketing looks like.
      Martin

  9. Steve Moore Avatar

    Hi Martin. Enjoyed your post its a good read. Like the analogy about the garden in particular, Agree 100% with the mentorship advice. It makes a big difference in any type of business. Look forward to your next post

  10. Atif Perwiz Avatar

    Martin, a great post full of value. Thank you. The garden analogy is so true. The other point you had as a subheading was , they got mentorship. That is the key I found too. We have teachers and coaching all our lives. You are taught by people who have done it before in sport, work, even God sent Prophets down to teach us. When it comes to Affiliate Marketing people suddenly think they can do it alone. You can but why would you want to?. Many thanks looking forward to what happens next. Thanks, Atif

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Thank you very much Atif! We prove our intelligence when we ask for help.
      Best regards,
      Martin

  11. Brigitte Bergeron Avatar

    Yes Martin, slow and steady wins the race! The learning curve in any new area of our life or learning does take time. I believe that when in comes to online learning, a lot of people assume that it is faster! As you mentioned, it isn’t necessarily the case and just like a garden a lot of time and care needs to happen in order to harvest at the end of the season.
    Keep at it!

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Hi Brigitte! Thank you for reading my post. I greatly appreciate! Learning is also having our hands at work. Let’s get that job done!
      Martin

  12. Sherri S Pulcino Avatar

    Hey Martin, I totally think there’s a learning curve in pretty much everything in life, don’t you? I loved that analogy about the garden – so spot on! It’s all about putting in that effort upfront to learn the ropes, and once you do, everything starts to flow more smoothly. It’s awesome that you’ve got a mentor; having someone to guide you is key and super beneficial. Cheers to your learning journey! 🌱

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Right! We live on a learning curve. 😃 I’m glad you enjoyed my garden story. I came with this idea last summer in fact. I started a vegetable garden on the side of my house and I must say that I completely missed my shot with it. In a few days, everything have been eaten by small animals as soon as the young seeds were getting out. I did a lot of work to start everything, but, due to my lack of information and knowledge, I didn’t know how to protect against small animals, and consequently, I lost all my vegetables. Lesson learned.
      Martin

  13. Acasha Klewe Avatar

    I love your statement on focusing on the process versus the end state. So many of us get in our own way and overwhelmed by how far our current state is from the finish line that we give up before we start or chicken out at the smallest of struggles, convinced of our inevitable failure. But life is lived, stuff is learned, and ultimately, happiness is found along the journey.

    Best of luck to you this year!
    AK

    1. Martin Lefebvre Avatar

      Right! The most important is not the final destination but the journey. Thank you Acasha!

  14. Jon Wesley Bowman Avatar
    Jon Wesley Bowman

    I really enjoyed your analogies as well ,I kind of got a chuckle when I thought about my situation .My learning curve looks like a roller coaster and the ground opened up and ate my garden haha. Joking aside mentor ship is the way to go. Look forward to your next post.

  15. Robert Klein Avatar

    Salut bon homme! Yes, patience makes perfect – I like it. And I like that how you illustrate what our learning curve as an affiliate marketer might look like with or without coaching.

    And what a great analogy of growing a vegetable garden to a point where your neighbours are envious and you start helping THEM prepare for the next season.

    You also do a good job of driving home the point of getting mentorship early on in your endeavours. Wel done!

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