There was this great entrepreneur who came up with a genius idea. He went and bought eggs; lot's of eggs and paid 5 cents per egg. Then he painted the eggs and sold them for 3 cents. While doing this he became a millionaire. How in the world did he do this?

Did he miraculously find a way to reproduce each egg? The numbers don't add up, but still he became a millionaire. He also has proof that he's officially a millionaire. Still puzzled about this? Well, here's the answer; he started out as a billionaire. Huh, bad joke! No quite. That's about how you must feel with all the business opportunities advertised day in and day out.

Everybody claims to make a fortune out of thin air and everybody claims to have proof that it works. If you're long enough in this business you will realize that most of these claims and corresponding proof are copies from somebody else's "success story". Ever so often there's a new email floating around that claims the same exact results than a similar email that you received a few weeks ago. Same content different product.

But still, there are thousands and millions who want to believe that the only thing they have to do is to go online and start making money. That's of course the message that all these clever internet marketers send out to a well responding crowd. These people are caught in the moment and act like deer in the headlights.

So what's the outcome of this? Those gurus are making more money and the opportunity seekers are getting milked until they can't afford it anymore. Now wonder there are so many angry and frustrated opportunity seekers out there.

My next question would be; are all these self proclaimed gurus just smoking mirrors and con artists? By all means NO! Everything they claim to be the next big money maker is possible for the most part of it. So why doesn't it work for me?

The answer is simple. They have all the web traffic they need and thousands of quality contact email addresses at their disposal. If you don't know it by now, it is one big numbers game! If you don't have the numbers, you don't make any money, period!

How do we win the rat race? So far the rats are winning and there's little or nothing we can do. Well not quite. The one thing you have to do is changing your mindset. It's no longer about winning; you need to get comfortable with the fact to be the runner-up.

Kiss the dream of a six-figure income goodbye and embrace the more realistic 3 and 4 figure margin; or even better, be happy to make at least some money. Most of your peers aren't making nay money at all and just depleting the hard earned funds to a pile of rubble.

Based on this outlook shouldn't you just close up shop and quit wasting your time? I hate to say this, but it depends. If you are able to learn from your mistakes and constantly tweaking your efforts and streamlining your products and services, you will have a good chance to survive. If you are a pure copycat and never ever invest a minute of your time to analyze your situation, sorry you have no future in this business.

I know I will stir up some heavy duty emotions with statements like these. However in my opinion it is the brutal truth. You have a choice. You can go out there and experience it first hand and most likely get burned or you can take a break now and analyze your situation. If you still believe you got what it takes, go for it. Everybody else, quit before somebody gets hurt.

Peter Dobler is a 20+ year veteran in the IT business. He is an active Real Estate Investor and a successful Internet business owner. Collect more free software and bonus content for your own web site at http://www.online-business-idea.com