Success comes in a variety of ways. A lucky few, bred with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths, have success thrust on them by heritage. The greater majority achieve it the old-fashioned way, through "sweat, blood, and tears." Ever noticed something unique about the latter group? Observe carefully and you'll find the following four distinctly defining traits: Business Ownership: Most successful people have their own business. The popular saying that you cannot get rich working for somebody else is true today more than ever. A recent survey puts the proportion of authentic business ownership at only 5%. Granted that entrepreneurial trend is reported to have reached an unprecedented peak in this generation, still far too many new businesses are of the fleeting kind and the survey refers only to abiding business ownership. With business ownership estimated at only 5%, it means that the rest of us are content with our "jobs" mentality and content with faithfully enriching the already bulging coffers of a select few. Consider this fact the next time you hear how the economy is booming, and how many more new jobs it has created. An outstanding 95% of us provide the impetus for that boom. They offer a good product/service: Find a need and fill it, and your success is assured. One of the greatest difficulties in starting a business is determining a need to meet. The typical consumer's needs run the gamut from desired products to services of different variety. A good product/service is one that is brimming with customer benefits. These benefits may take the form of saving people money and time, or helping them stay healthy, youthful, and vibrant. It is not hard to think of examples that fit these categories. Why do you suppose, for instance, that e-commerce has soared to incredible heights so quickly? Because it offers stress-free shopping from the comfort of the prospect's home, a welcome relief from our much-harried lifestyles. What about those ubiquitous nutritional supplements? They too, promise something people crave - health, youthfulness, and longevity. The thing to remember though, is that promises alone are not enough to foster success. To truly succeed, you must deliver them. They yearn to help others succeed: Ray Kroc revolutionized this idea and in time others followed. I'm referring to the idea that success is more quickly attained by helping others succeed. Look around you today, and you'll find a McDonalds on just about every block, because that man hit upon the notion of setting up franchises as a way of inviting others to share his good fortune. Notice too, that the businesses that succeed the most are those that have embraced aspects, if not the whole of Ray's model. I recently read an interview by Tom Monaghan where he credited precisely such a model with the bulk of his success. Much contemporary network marketing philosophy is an offspring of this model. My grade school teacher used to say: "One good turn deserves another." The evidence is compelling...successful people have discovered the immutable secret that one good turn does not merely deserve another...it strides forth and boldly invites another! They dare to dream: The Bible's Book of Proverbs, acknowledged by many as the repository of profound wisdom, has this to say: "Without vision, the people perish." Without a dream and the insight to visualize your dream, most business endeavors falter and success stays elusive. As a poor young boy, Tom Monaghan's dream was to become wealthy so he could invest significant resources on his passion for religion. Guess what...his dream came true, just as he had visualized it! Not very long ago, Tom decided he he'd had enough of the trappings of wealth and sold his interests in Dominos Pizza, pledging his time and vast fortunes to the Catholic Church. Of immense significance in making dreams come true is faith, easily the most potent ingredient necessary to nourish dreams. Faith is of course the confident assurance that the ends we desire are inevitable. Faith emboldens us to picture those ends vividly in our minds' eyes, long before they become real. In the absence of faith, dreams are a mere fantasy, a wistful, idyllic longing for the things that can be. Faith gets a hold of our dreams and unleashes an action-producing force that transforms them from fantasy to concrete reality. Throughout human history, sages have emerged to point us to the incredible power of faith. "If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes." With those words, the good master himself attempted to launch us on a great excursion through faith. How often have we said to ourselves: "I will believe it when I see it?" Motivational writer/speaker, Dwayne Dwyer says we've got it all wrong. "You will see it", he insists, "when you believe it!" Want to be successful? Start your own business. Offer a good product or service with customer satisfaction at the core. Help others succeed. Build a dream, and dare to believe in that dream. |
