Internet Marketing Tips - Can You Learn All You Need From Forums?

I was really looking forward to writing this article after seeing this question asked at the Warrior Forum today.
The question put forth was this.
Can you learn everything you need to run a successful business just from reading forum posts? Well, here is my answer to that question.
Take it for what it's worth to you.
Certainly we need information.
Unless we are naturally gifted and extremely self motivated, we're not going to be able to run a successful business without getting some kind of information.
The problem is, where do we get this information from? How do we know it's reliable? With all the misinformation on the Internet, it can be a real crap shoot reading a post, accepting it as gospel and acting on it.
So because of that alone, my immediate answer would be no...
you can't.
However, I also need to qualify this statement somewhat.
There are certain people online who actually have reputations.
They have been in the trenches, have made money and have proven that they make money.
So, if one of these marketers were to make a forum post with some "how to" info, there would be a very good chance that reading it and acting on it would bring you some level of success.
But what level? Can you really learn to build a seven figure, or even just a six figure business just from reading a few posts? Somehow I doubt it.
So what does it take? Well, everybody has a different skill level.
Some people can read an outline of a business model and have enough smarts, maybe from former schooling, to be able to put together a business from it.
Others will need somebody to literally take them by the hand and walk them through every step of the process.
There is no one size fits all.
Ultimately, YOU need to figure out where you are in the process.
Can you read a book and succeed or do you need that personal one on one mentor? That's a question only YOU can answer.
To YOUR Success, Steven Wagenheim