According to eBay, there are thousands of sellers who rely on the auction giant to make a full-time living. However, at the same time there are thousands who tried to make money on eBay, but ended up at the top of a very large pile of failed sellers.

Look with an analytical mind and you’ll quickly discover several patterns: one common set for those who have failed and another set for those who are succeeding. If you’re working on a doctoral thesis in psychology, you could probably get a book published on it. But for our purposes, we’ll just keep it simple.

There’s a common saying in the business world that basically says success is obtained by doing the things that the unsuccessful aren’t willing to do. And that is pretty much what separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest.

There are some out there that I like to call “bouncers,” because they bounce from one money-making scheme to another, all the while stating an excuse from their big bag of excuses for why they couldn’t make every previous scheme they participated in work. They half-heartedly try each out before deciding that they can’t do it, then jumping ship for the next scheme.

I once consulted for a new entrepreneur who was working with a well-known eBay drop shipper. This person was having difficulty finding products he could sell. So I took a look at the drop shipper he was using, researched several products, and found a few that were selling well on eBay.

After offering up one of the products as an example, he couldn’t tell me fast enough that there was no way he could sell that. And that’s pretty much where my involvement ended. It came down to the old business saying about success. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, but that he wouldn’t.

Reality check: No successful business got there the easy way. Want easy? I’ve got a great pyramid scheme for you. Just send me $5 and I’ll put your name at the top of the list. True, the only return you’ll get is a lesson in life; but hey, it’s easy!

If you want to be successful, you will need to work. Can you succeed on eBay? Of course you can! Will you succeed? That’s for you to decide.

As a former eBay employee and PowerSeller, Stuart Lisonbee teaches others how to make money on eBay via his free informational website where he discusses eBay tips, tricks, and strategies, including eBay HTML tips.