Success: attitudes & strategies

Ask yourself, what does success mean to you or what is success to you? You could come up with more than one answer. Success for different people can mean different things. Success can also mean coping with unusual problems. Success is being able to look in the mirror and be proud of the person you have become! Success is noblest when it leaves you with the self-respect that you have been a good steward of the life, liberties, possibilities that God offered to you. Success is a process (not an event), that’s why it is never-ending…

“When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn.” — John Wesley

There are many ways to achieve success. Firstly, one must be purpose driven and focused. Next, one must do things that have never done before, see life through different eyes. People become successful to a great extent, because they see things differently from other people.

Also learn to make mistakes for success is the culmination of many failures. Do not fear the unknown and don’t let others discourage you. It is important to hold on to your vision. Your dream purpose plus your vision equals your mission.

When you are on a mission to succeed, it’s natural there will be challenges. No challenge is permanent and no challenge is unbeatable if you work through it. A look at some strategies that may help…

Clement Stone wrote, “There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” Your attitude will determine your altitude. Successful people practice ‘positive thinking’. Alfred Montapert said, “The environment you fashion out of your thoughts…your beliefs…your ideas…your philosophy…is the only climate you will ever live in”.

Overcoming failure

Successful people learn to ‘overcome failure’. Failure isn’t failure unless you learn from it. One of the best books I can recommend to you on overcoming the fear of failure is ‘Failing Forward’ by John Maxwell. Most of the great achievers in history were bitterly criticised, yet they chose to persevere. Learn to get over the fear of criticism, fear of taking a risk, fear of losing self-confidence, fear of getting a second chance. Learn to overcome failure to become a great achiever. It is important to learn to recognise failure for what it is, review failure in order to learn, recognise your weaknesses, readjust your effort, ignore or overcome discouragement and re-enter the game.

Have a vision

“A blind man’s world is bounded by the limits of his touch, an ignorant man’s world by the limits of his knowledge, a great man’s world by the limits of his vision.” – E Paul Hovey. The people who make things happen are those who have vision. So, successful people possess ‘vision’. Vision provides the creative spark that makes great achievements possible.

Set a goal

Ralph Emerson said “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” Success is the progressive realisation of a worthwhile predetermined goal. Goals are really the building blocks of success. All successful people set ‘goals’. Goals will motivate you, add value to your work, keep your priorities straight, channelise and maximise your potential, help you communicate, promote enthusiasm, help evaluate progress, force you to plan ahead and shifts your emphasis from activity to output. Some of the good writers who I recommend you to read on the subject of goals are Zig Zigler, David Schwartz, Brian Tracy etc.

Time management

Henry Ford said, “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste”. One of the most important strategies for using your time wisely is to drastically reduce the time you waste. The dividing line between success and failure is often associated with how well a person manages his time. Successful people get good at ‘time management’. Learn to get good at managing your time well and effectively channelising it into fulfilling your dreams.

Handle stress

A successful person learns to ‘handle stress’. Stress causes some people to break and others to break records. Stress becomes strain when it is continuous. “The punch that knocks you out is not so much the hard punch as the punch you didn’t see coming.” Says Joe Torres. Remember most of what we experience emotionally is a result of the way we think. Learn to handle stress.

Build relationship

Real success means including others. Relationships either make us or break us. Theodore Roosevelt writes, “The most important single ingredient to the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people”. Successful people value relationships. Learn to build good, lasting permanent relationships.

Hone communication skills

Successful people develop ‘communication skills’. The success of your marriage, job, and relationships with others depends on a great deal of your ability to communicate. Develop this skill.

Motivate

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it,” said Dwight Eisenhower. Andrew Carnegie says, “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” A successful person believes in ‘motivation’. Motivation is connecting with something inside of a person, which causes him to act. You must first be motivated to motivate others.

Leadership

Everything rises and falls on leadership. Leadership is empowering people and not wielding authority. The successful person demonstrates ‘leadership’. Learn the qualities of a leader. The best place to find it packaged is in two books by John Maxwell, one talks about the qualities of a Leader and the other about attitudes of a Leader. Also, Rudolph Gulliani’s book titled Leadership is a good one. Of course, there are others to read - Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welsch, etc.

Persistence

The secret to success and to wealth creation is really simple – the law of Cause and Effect says that if you do what the successful people do, you will eventually get what the other successful people get. But it is important for you to understand what success means to you, because you are going to get what you see and what you want (to have or to do or to become). Remember nobody is better than anybody when we start, but it is what we do after, that makes the difference. Almost 85 to 95 per cent of self made millionaires or significant people start as ordinary people, from ordinary backgrounds, ordinary education, circumstances and many failures. What distinguished them from the crowd is their dedication and ‘persistence’ to learning the principles (secrets) and strategies to success and apply them relentlessly. These are the people fixed on the vision of the result and not the process.

Dream big dreams

You need a dream to make dreams come true. Everything significant in this world was achieved only after somebody dared to dream it first. Read about inventions, the light bulb, the airplane, the telephone, the computer, etc. Read about Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. If you ever feel denied, remember you get what you ask for, because a man with a dream will never be denied. A dream with a deadline or date becomes a goal, a goal with a strategy becomes a plan, a plan with action translates into results. Read a book by David Schwartz called ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’, another by Larry Diangi called ‘The Resilient Power of Purpose’, another by Les Brown called ‘Live Your Dreams’, another by Steven Scott called ‘Simple Steps to Impossible Dreams’. You become what you think about most of the times. Successful people think about what they want most of the time.

Develop a clear sense of direction

A person with a clear sense of purpose will make progress on the roughest roads. So, follow the 7-step formula to setting and achieving goals. Write your goals down and declare them to those who will encourage and motivate you to achieve them. Learn the techniques to affirmation and affirm your way to your goals.

Be an entrepreneur

Develop the mentality of an entrepreneur, learn and work to make things happen, rather than waiting for them to happen. You must see yourself as self-employed (no, not the Robert Kiosaki’s way in S – Quadrant) Self-employed here is being employed by yourself in your life’s mission. That’s why learning to be highly independent, self-responsible and self-starting becomes important.

Do what you love to do

One of the greatest secrets in financial success is doing what you love to do. Brian Tracy writes, “When you start doing what you really love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life.” Most successful people say that they have never worked a day in their life because they have found something that has totally absorbed them in their endeavour that completely fascinates them and holds their attention. Perhaps the greatest challenge of the adult life is to find out what one really loves to do.

Commit to excellence

Vince Lombardy says, “The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field.” Successful people commit to excellence. You can resolve to be the very best at whatever you do. You can set a goal for yourself to join the top 10 per cent in your field. Remember your life gets better when you get better. Make a plan and work on getting better in that field everyday.

Successful people start early and work late. Work all the time you work, don’t waste time. Avoid straying from your work by saying, “I have to get back to work.” The harder you work, the luckier you will get. That’s why successful people work harder and longer.

Continuous learning

Doris Waitley, the famous writer says, “Continuous learning is the minimum requirement to success in any field.” Our mind is like a muscle. It develops only with use. Like physical exercise is to the body muscles, reading is to the mind. Success principled audiotapes can inspire you and help you overcome negative thoughts and surroundings. Attending principle-based seminars will put you among successful people and expand the horizon of your vision and belief in your mission. An hour of reading everyday will mean about one book per week or 50 books per year or 500 books in 10 years. Since the average adult reads less than one book per year this alone will give you an incredible edge. So, dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.

Speed and dependability

A double minded man is unstable. Determine your priorities and concentrate on them with unflinching attention. Successful people do things with speed and dependability. Develop a reputation for this.

Climb peak to peak

You have surely heard, ‘Life is two steps forward and one step back.’ Vince Lombardy says, “Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all time thing.” Successful people climb from peak to peak. Learn the peak to peak principle and remember there are valleys in between and let the excitement of the next peak help you negotiate the valley.

Pay yourself first

Successful people learn to pay themselves first. This is done by putting a percentage of your income regularly into your money accumulation account. This is the part that is yours to keep. Learn to pay yourself first. Robert Kiosaki who is a guru in the field of financial intelligence has written many books. Two of them that you should read are ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ and ‘Cash Flow Quadrant’. Do not think you know the subject of financial intelligence until you have read these books.

Self discipline

Successful people practice self-discipline in all things. Self-discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether or not you feel like it. It is important to have a long term perspective with the understanding of delayed gratification. Focus on pleasing results rather than pleasing methods. The more you practise this doctrine, your self-esteem will go up and with it the results you produce.

Dedicate to serving others

Zig Zigler says, “You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.” Large corporations talk of customer service, similarly successful people put others before them, so also you must dedicate to serving others. Success is in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do.

Honesty

Your success will be determined by the number of people who trust you and are either willing to work with or for you. The first key to integrity is be honest to yourself. The second key is be honest to others. Claude Bristol says, “Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions and all achievements.”

Creativity

It is important to realise you are smarter than you have ever imagined - that you are a potential genius. Your creativity is hidden inside you. Intensely desired goals, pressing problems or focussed questions can stimulate your creativity. Unlock your inborn creativity. Remember Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than facts.”

Get around the right people

Charlie Tremendous Jones says, “You will be the same person in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.” The GIGO computer jargon equals QIQO in life (Quality In, Quality Out). Our output in thoughts, actions, words or attitudes depends on quality input into our brain. The input only comes from the people who surround you and the books you read. Its important you get around the right people with positive attitudes, with those who are constantly working on their own goals with passion.

Be physically fit

A sound mind in a sound body is a key to happiness. Health, Nutrition & Wellness is a fast growing industry, understand the concepts of supplements (besides exercise) and their importance, take good care of your physical health.

Try, try, try…

Remember a plan with proper action translates to results. The key to triumph is try. Successful people try far more things than others and are very decisive too. So, become decisive and action oriented.

Learn from your failures…

Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM (and a high school dropout) says, “If you want to be successful faster, you must double your rate of failure. Success lies on the far side of failure.” Dare to go forward. Never allow failure to be an option. Setbacks are not failures, rejection can be someone’s opinion, being broke is not bankruptcy and can be fixed, health can be restored. Remember babies are born small but grow healthy and big, a student outshines the teacher, an athlete outruns his coach. In the same way you will succeed when failure is not an option for you.

Persist

Passing the persistence test will get you to the side of success. Persistence is the iron quality of your character. Epictetus, the Greek philosopher wrote, “Circumstances do not make the man, they merely show him to himself.” Every time you respond in a positive and constructive manner, you become stronger and better. Like a force in nature, irresistible. Persistence will make you a person who never quits. Quitters never win and winners never quit.

In conclusion

Remember, a designation is not success, a good ‘self employed’ situation (misunderstood for business) is not success, earning by unprincipled or unethical means is not success. Success is not success if it cannot be multiplied. If you are really successful you must plant of success and help others to grow. For beyond success is significance and significance is being able to touch other lives and make a difference. I will end by quoting you an extract from Les Brown’s book – Live Your Dreams.

“In his book An Enemy Called Average, John l. Mason writes of a tree in Asia called the giant bamboo that has a particularly hard seed. It’s so hard that to grow that you must water and fertilise that seed everyday for four years before any portion of it breaks the soil. And then in the fifth year, the tree shows itself. But the remarkable thing is that once it breaks the surface, this bamboo plant, like many of the species, is capable of growing at rates as fast as four feet a day to a height of ninety feet in less than a month! You can practically stand there and watch it grow!

Now the cosmic question here is, did the bamboo tree grow ninety feet in under a month? Or did it grow over five years? Over five years of course! Most people do not realise that if the grower had stopped watering or fertilising that seed at any point, the tree would have died.

When they don’t see instant results, many people become discouraged with their dreams and goals. They become impatient. And I believe many of them walk away from their dreams just as they are about to break through and flourish. You must have patience. Your time is going to come if you work diligently and meticulously. It doesn’t matter if no one else recognises that. It matters only that you see it and you have patience to wait for it.

The author Og Mandino said, “I will persist until I succeed”. Continue getting better and NEVER stop looking for ways to win. It doesn’t matter if friends or family abandon you, as some of mine deserted me. It hurt very badly, but I kept on pushing. I think giving up can hurt far more than anything that anybody else can do to you. When you operate out of that level of focused consciousness, a new order is established. You become master of your own destiny. Things materialise for you at a much faster rate.”