Success

Success does not just happen. Success is the result of hard work. Nothing you would call a success is just handed to you. Something that is handed to you is called a gift. Success is something you earn. It is something you work for. Here are 9 keys to earning success.

Dissatisfaction

If you are satisfied with the way things are then you are settling for the good enough. Good enough is never good enough. The status quo is simply good enough. The status quo is the biggest obstacle you will have to over come in order to achieve anything worthwhile.

"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure."

Thomas Edison

Believe

You have to believe in yourself, but not just yourself. You must believe in your product and your company. If you can't believe in your product do something else. If you can't believe in your company either change it or work somewhere else.

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

Theodore Roosevelt

Goals

Goals are like determining you destination on a journey. If you don't have goals you will still accomplish something, like watching television - you have accomplished wasting time. A good goal is specific, measurable and bound by time.

`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

`I don't much care where' said Alice.

`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Planning

Setting goals is important but with out a plan you really don't have a goal. A goal without a plan is only a dream. Develop a plan of how to attain your dream and then it will become a goal. A plan is nothing more than a set of intermediate goals which when aggregated fulfill the final goal. Goals should be long term, mid term and short term.

To create a plan ask yourself, “What will you have to accomplish before you will be able to reach your final goal.” Those are your intermediate goals. Break your intermediate goals down until you have small tightly define near term goals. These intermediate goals are your road map to success.

"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."

Tom Landry

Determination

Most people fail for one of two reasons. They have decided to fail by not even trying or they give up just before reaching their goal. Goals that are easy to attain are not very worthwhile goals. If you really want to accomplish something it will be difficult and require hard work. When you are struggling and about to give up remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it. It's the fact that it's not easy that it'll be called it a success.

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." Colin Powell

Vision

Often having vision is equated to having a dream. But having vision is not the same as having an hallucination. A true vision is seeing things in their true essence, not necessarily in the form they have currently taken. It is not even seeing them as they can be. Vision is seeing things with the facade stripped away only then can you realise the true potential. Think big, dream big.

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision."

Helen Keller

Attitude

Maintaining a positive attitude is fuel to the engine of success. A poor attitude is like putting bad fuel in your car. It won't allow your engine to running properly. It get and maintain a positive attitude, hang around the right people. Create a supportive environment. The right home and work environment will encourage you. A supportive spouse, family members and co-workers will make the engine of success run smoothly. But, it is up to you to create the right environment.

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

Thomas Jefferson

Knowledge

You need to be constantly learning. If you aren't learning every day you can bet your competition is. New information is essential to success. Knowledge makes you valuable. The more valuable you become the more the marketplace will reward you.

"Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes."

Peter Drucker

Give First

Become know as a resource, not a salesperson or business person. Be known as a resource for others. The more you solve problems for others the easier path you will have.

"You give before you get."

Napoleon Hill