Rich Schefren is truly a great writer, and his blog is first rate. He can really expand and illuminate an idea. Today I read his series about information overload.

The internet is so alluring that it can quickly suck up our time and leave little to show for it. We have easy access to the world’s best minds.

You know what Rich says is the root cause of information overload is for internet marketers? (this will surprise you):

“There is an underlying cause for our haphazard information gathering and it’s resulting information overload. Believe it or not, it comes down to self-esteem.”

What?

Lack of confidence. I know - not quite what I expected either. As my friend Nate Moller says: Focus, Focus, Focus. He’s a great example of having confidence to move forward without knowing all the answers. I see him do it regularly. He’s not afraid to ask or do something perfectly, he dives in and gets better by trying. I liked sitting across from him because he asked me a lot of questions. It made me feel good to share information with him. And at the same time I listened to his confident style and learned from him.

More from Rich: “…instead of trusting what we already know, we’re afraid of everything that we don’t know. It’s this fear that becomes the road that takes us off course (and, as he says, kills productivity). The net effect of the info-overload is that we diminish our ability to discern the great from the good and, in the process, make ourselves mediocre by measure.”

Confidence says you know enough and can learn what you don’t know. You can trust yourself. Most of us are self-taught. I often wondered if I really knew or if I was good at faking it. Then I decided to be honest about what I didn’t know even if it meant feeling stupid. I realized I knew more than I thought. I also realized that other people didn’t know everything either. I started to test what I thought I knew, made some mistakes but confirmed a lot too. Then I was more open to the many talented people I’ve met in this industry who are very generous with their knowledge.

Like Rich, I’m curious what you do to focus. How do you build self-esteem? And, how do you avoid information overload?

One Response to “The Root Cause of Information Overload”

1. NAte Moller Says:
   August 17th, 2007 at 10:02 pm

   Thanks Janet. You’re always a great one to ask questions to. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be blogging as much as I do. You’ve opened my eyes to a whole new area of effective internet marketing.

   I really think Confidence is the key to Success in anything. I love sports and the main thing I see that separates the best from the so-so athletes (besides performance enhancing drugs) is CONFIDENCE. Sometimes you do have to “fake it til you make it”. You have to “act as if” you are the best at something and really believe it; eventually, if you keep monitoring your progress, you become what you believe. I’m sure you’ve seen that in your blogging career.

   Again, thanks for the comment.

   Nate Moller
   http://mollermarketing.com
   “Small Success leads to Big Success!”

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