Which Is Best?

The key here is "which is best for you" with the emphasis on YOU. I often see posts from people asking, "Which is the best FTP program?" or "Which is the best shopping cart?" or "Which is the best web design program?", etc. There are a lot of each of these (and many others) to choose from and certainly one of them must be best, right?

Nope! There are lots of good choices in most of these areas. Just look around and see what USERS of the various programs are saying. Typically they either love, or hate, the program they have chosen. And some people love the same one that others hate. How can this be? If it is good, shouldn't everyone love it? If it is bad then everyone should hate it, right? But that's not the case. The old phrase "different strokes for different folks" was never more true.

There really is no "best" in this regard. There is only what is good, or best, for YOU. But that's the biggest problem. What is best for you is different than what is best for me. And if you ask me what is best, or even best for you, it is difficult for me (or anyone) to get beyond what I (they) like and, in the end, be objective about the whole thing. Most people will recommend what is best for THEM, not YOU.

One of the things I often talk about with my clients is knowing where they are first, before they start on their journey of improvement or change. Like any journey you need to know where you are before you can determine which way you need to go to get to where you want to be.

I worked for a strange fellow one time. He was strange, but very smart, and I learned a lot from him. His place of business was north of a small town named Bolton. It isn't important where that is, just that the office building was north of town. He used to say, in regards the direction or process you needed to take to accomplish some task, something like: "Sometimes you need to walk north to get the car in order to drive south to Bolton!"

That may sound strange until you learn that the the office parking lot was north of the office building itself. So, you first had to walk north, out to the parking lot to get your car, before you could drive south along the road to get to Bolton which was where you wanted to go in the first place. Sometimes your first steps have to be by a different mode, and go in a different direction, than you might think in order to get to where you want to be, which often appears to be in an entirely different direction.

All that is just a strange way of saying you need to know a few basics in order to get started with any bigger choice.

If you are serious about building YOUR OWN business then you need to learn how TO DO some things and you need to learn ABOUT other things. If you accept someone's pitch that THEY will do it all for you then it becomes THEIR business and not yours. You become the customer; THEIR customer. You pay a very large amount for a very long time.

I am not suggesting that you need to learn how to do EVERYTHING nor that you should have to do everything yourself. Hiring some things done is the only practical way to build a successful business that is going to exceed your own skills and time. But the key is knowing which things to hire done and which things to do yourself. The best way to know which things to hire done is to learn enough about each so you can know which ones you can't do, which ones you don't want to do, and which ones would be better done by someone else, so you can do what you are capable of, interested in, and that best makes you money in your business.

The OSA site seems to me to be a great place to learn about those things. There is already a lot of great stuff to read here; great stuff to learn, and as it grows there will be much more. Just don't be afraid to ask questions. You won't look stupid or foolish. Really!

Something I often tell people is that they are more computer literate than Einstein, who may well have been the smartest person who ever lived. If you have enough skill with your computer to connect to the Internet, find this site, and read this article, than you have MORE skill with computers than Albert Einstein ever did. That's a fact! If you don't believe me ask about it in the forums and I'll explain it to you there.

You see, it's not about being smart. By getting here, and reading my long winded rticle this far, you have shown you have enough intelligence (and patience!) to do anything you need to do with computers. The only problem may be that you HAVEN'T LEARNED everything you need to know yet. But that's okay. What you have learned so far proves that you CAN LEARN. All you need to do is find the right information, the right teachers, and, with a little time and effort, it will all come together.

Hang around here a bit and I think you will find that one to be true too. And then it will be possible for you to judge which is BEST for YOU!