New “evidence” has emerged this weekend which suggests that Princess Diana’s driver, Henri Paul, was not drunk at the time of her fatal accident. Well, at least that’s what the Daily Express says anyway. Apparently, he was “set up” by the French authorities in a botched bid to end her affair with Dodi Fayed. The Express is reporting the contents of yet another book on the Diana “death mystery” which it claims presents a “tidal wave” of evidence showing that the autopsy was rigged.
Well, you can decide for yourself whether or not you believe this story. Regular readers of the Daily Express will know that Mondays are the days when it carries it’s latest missive on the Diana car crash. For some unknown reason, the editors at the Daily Express are not convinced that it was an accident. You will doubtless have heard the conspiracy theories, you may have even read one of the many books that suggest Diana was killed by the secret services, or indeed that the Royal Family itself “arranged” her death. Indeed, I have been personally told about the agent who closed the tunnel in Paris so that the “crash” could be arranged without witnesses. But, it’s bunkum.
Sometimes, human beings don’t like accepting the simple explanations. We are designed to look for the complex, for “secrets” to things; it is part of our natural curiosity which helps the species survive. Hence, when something as simple as an accident occurs to such a well-known individual, we tend not to believe it. We find it difficult to believe – especially with the “no smoke without fire” clause we keep in the back of our minds.
The sad fact is, Diana died in tragic accident caused by a drunk driver.
The problem is, the Diana story reflects so much of what goes on with the Internet. Everywhere you look there are conspiracy theories about how Google is planning to take over the world. Or there are “secrets” on how to circumvent search engine rankings so you can get to the top of the pile. If that’s not enough for you, there are plenty of ebooks you can download which purport to show you how you can make a million dollars within a month, if only you were to follow the “secret rules” of website success.
Like the conspiracy theories of Diana’s death, these “theories” about online success are mere bunkum. Even though we want to believe that there is more to it, online success comes down to two things: taking action and hard work. Simple.
Instead of sitting there thinking “I must write a blog one day”, the successful bloggers just get on and do it. And they do it again and again and again. The unsuccessful bloggers are those looking for some kind of “conspiracy theory” on blogging, whiling away hours on end searching the web for the “secret” to blogging.
Similarly, those who are concerned about the benefits of social networking are busy trawling the web for the “secrets” to doing social networking “quickly and easily”, or in “ten minutes a week”. They believe the conspiracy theory that it’s easy to do, if you do it the “secret” way and you can then spend the rest of your day on the beach. Tosh. Effective social networking takes time and effort. Get over it.
Whatever aspect of the online world you consider, the companies that have mastered success have done just two things. They have done something and they keep working at it. That’s all.
So, rather than looking for the secret to online success, just do something – whether it’s writing a blog post or spending some time on LinkedIn – and then do some more and some more and some more.
Otherwise you are going to end up like the Daily Express, forever looking for some “secret” simply because you cannot accept the truth. And do you really want to end up like the Daily Express?
