Once during an interview, I was asked why I think so many online businesses fail. Why is it that online businesses with good product, services and infrastructures fail, while the 18 year old kid in his parents' basement goes from zero to tens of thousands of dollars seemingly overnight?

My answer:

There are so many failed Internet marketing businesses because everybody copies everyone; they don't have the courage to be original or to try new things because it’s like the blind leading the blind.

They just think if someone else is doing it that it must be working -- so there's very few people out there really playing the game and trying to be original.

And that's a shame.

I think this attitude hurts not only the people who have it, but society as well.

Why?

Because the fact is everyone has great ideas. They are just afraid to pursue them. They are afraid to fail. They want to play it safe. They discount their ideas -- especially the really good ones -- when their little voice inside them says, "nah, that’s not going to work", or they hear their mom or spouse or brother in law saying that’s a stupid idea and they bury it and they never go through.

I think the entire Internet marketing world would explode even faster than it is now if people took the same piece of advice I got from someone who was helping me out a while back.

And that advice is when you get an idea that pops in your head -- no matter how crazy, silly or outrageous it seems -- capture it. Write it down. And put it into a little database so won’t lose it.

Then, let it sit. Let all those ideas sit for a while and every once in a while look at them. Think about them. True, most of the ideas will not be any good, or realistic. But you will have some you can run with. And all it takes is one good idea to make things happen.

But you'll never know what that's like, what it's like to have a monster Internet marketing business, if you stifle your ideas and creativity and keep following the herd.

Instead treat those ideas like plants. Let them grow. Give them time to break out of their seeds. If they don't grow then leave them alone. But when you find one or two or three ideas that do grow, take immediate action on them and watch your Internet marketing business take off fast.