When you first start trying to build an online business, following someone who’s already done it seems perfectly sensible.
And it is.
There’s an enormous amount you can learn from people with more experience than you.
The problem comes when you stop learning from their business and start trying to recreate their business.
That’s a distinction I didn’t always understand.
For a long time, I assumed that if someone successful told me what had worked for them, the sensible thing was simply to follow the same path.
Use this business model.
Build this type of funnel.
Post on these platforms.
Use these tools.
Promote these products.
Do enough of the right things and eventually you’ll get the same result.
Except there’s one fairly important question missing:
Is that actually the business you want to build?
Following a System Isn’t the Problem
I’m certainly not suggesting beginners should ignore people with experience and make everything up themselves.
That would be equally foolish.
A good system can save you years of trial and error.
Training can teach you skills you don’t have.
A mentor can help you avoid mistakes they’ve already made.
But there’s a difference between using someone else’s experience as a guide and treating their business as a template you must copy exactly.
Their circumstances aren’t yours.
Their skills may be different.
Their audience may be different.
Their personality is almost certainly different.
And perhaps most importantly, what they want from their business may be completely different from what you want.
Success Doesn’t Have One Definition
This is something I’ve come to appreciate more over time.
Not everyone wants to build a huge online business.
Not everyone wants employees.
Not everyone wants to become a coach, create courses, run webinars or spend their days on social media.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Someone may simply want to build a modest additional income.
Someone else may want to eventually replace their job.
Another person might want something that gives them a useful income without consuming every hour of their week.
They’re all legitimate goals.
The important thing is knowing which one is yours.
Otherwise, you can spend an enormous amount of effort climbing somebody else’s ladder.
I’ve Been Guilty of This Myself
I’ve followed programs and explored business models because they seemed to be the logical next step.
Sometimes I was concentrating so much on how someone else had built their business that I wasn’t asking whether I wanted mine to look the same.
That’s an easy mistake to make.
When you’re struggling for direction, certainty is very attractive.
Someone says:
“Here’s the roadmap. Follow these steps.”
That’s reassuring.
But eventually you still need to make your own decisions.
Which parts suit you?
Which don’t?
What are you actually trying to achieve?
And what sort of business are you prepared to keep working on long enough to give it a chance?
Borrow the Lessons, Not the Life
These days, I think that’s a healthier way to learn from successful people.
Take the lessons.
Learn the skills.
Study what works.
Use good systems where they make sense.
But don’t assume you need their exact business, lifestyle or definition of success.
A strategy that works brilliantly for someone who loves being on camera may be a terrible fit for someone who prefers writing.
A coaching business might suit one person perfectly and be the last thing another person wants.
There isn’t necessarily one correct model.
There needs to be enough alignment between the business you’re building and the person who’s going to have to keep building it.
That’s you.
Your Foundation Comes First
This is why I now think Foundation is the first of the five pillars of a sustainable online income.
Before worrying about traffic, content, funnels or the latest tools, it helps to have some clarity around the basics.
What are you trying to build?
Why are you building it?
Who do you want to help?
What kind of business suits you?
You don’t need absolute certainty.
Your answers will probably change as you learn more.
But having some direction makes it much easier to judge every opportunity that comes along.
Instead of asking:
“Does this work?”
you can ask:
“Does this make sense for the business I’m trying to build?”
That’s a far more useful question.
Final Thoughts
There’s nothing wrong with learning from people who’ve already achieved what you’re trying to achieve.
I’d recommend it.
Just remember that their roadmap is supposed to help you build your business.
Not turn you into a copy of them.
Take what helps.
Learn from their mistakes.
Use the systems that make sense.
But keep coming back to what you’re actually trying to create.
Because there’s not much point successfully building an online business if, at the end of it, you’ve simply built somebody else’s dream.
Are You Clear About What You’re Building?
My free Business Clarity Check looks at five key areas of an online business and can help you see what’s already taking shape, what may need more attention, and where it makes sense to focus next.