What if you struck oil and did not even know it because you did not understand the value of oil? I was thinking about this when I saw the movie, “There Will Be Blood.” In the very beginning of the movie, the main character was looking for gold or silver and “accidentally” struck oil instead. If he did not know the value of oil, he may have just walked away disappointed that he had not found gold or silver and just left it there. He may have thought it was just some kind of black mud.
I think something like this happens when you have been given valuable information or knowledge and you do not fully understand the value of it. You just think you struck mud instead of oil because you don’t understand how to use it in a way that is valuable. Our minds have a tendency to be negative. We are like a car that is out of alignment. If you let go of the steering wheel for too long, you veer off to the left and wind up in a ditch. You have to constantly grab the steering wheel and bring it back to the middle of the road. When you allow your mind to be taken over by your natural negative tendencies, you can look at something as mud instead of oil and lose the value that it really is.
As Certified Media Placement Specialists, our students have the opportunity to learn some of the very same powerful media placement techniques that we use to promote our business. We have a 14 step checklist to guide our students through each media placement technique. Some of the techniques may seem very simple. For example, we teach about setting up an e-mail signature. This is actually a very valuable tool. But some students put it in place, and in the beginning maybe the only people they e-mail is their mom and dad and a couple of their friends. It may not seem so powerful when it is used like this. Then they do not see the value of it. They do not understand that this is the same tool that big companies use when they send out thousands of e-mails to their subscribers. So, someone can think they have mud when they were really given oil.
But when you have used these techniques and found success and you have seen other people use them and you have seen them find success, then you know the value of principles you are being shown. They are not mud; they are oil. Our students can take these same principles they have learned and apply them to any business venture they might pursue. The entire purpose of our program is to teach these principles. It is a stepping stone from there to go beyond that. After our students have completed their certification, they will have an idea of how to do this on their own.
But understanding the value of information all comes down to your mindset. You can train your mind to see value in something or you can just let go of the steering wheel, allow yourself to fall into negative thinking and end up in a ditch. You can miss a great opportunity for success by just giving up on it. I say you should grab your steering wheel and stay on the road. If you allow negative influences from the world around you affect you, you might just be walking away from striking oil because you thought it was just mud.
