The Secret To Success And Achievement
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. – Oscar Wilde Have you ever felt confused about the direction your life is heading lately? I must admit I use to feel confused about where my life was heading until I discovered the secret to achievement and success in life. I recently had the rush of nostalgia, when I had a conversation with a colleague at work who told me about her plan to retire. What struck me in my conversation with her was…the feeling of confusion about what to do with her life. She gave me a one-liner “man purposes, God disposes” I had not heard in a long time. Why should a 67 year old nurse who had put in over 3 decades of her adult life feel confused?..The answer is lack of purpose and vision Lack of vision and purpose is the number one reasons millions of people spend their adult life working at a job they hate. It is the main reason many people never finding the work they truly love and would give their best effort doing. Lack of vision is the cause of premature death, depression, suicide, mental illness and poverty. The good news is you can easily overcome confusion, lack of clarity. In addition, when you have clarity about what you want for your life, you will experience greater success and accomplish more in life. Brian Tracy calls it living on the high road of life. Before you can understand the ways of success, it is important you understand… What is success? Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. This means you are successful, if you are doing what you want to achieve. In order to know what you really want from life, it is important you find out what are passionate about or interested in doing. The truth is for many, they do not know what they will love to do. There are many reasons for this…family background, environment, schooling and lack of knowledge The key to finding out what you will love to do is to understand yourself…that is your personality. River Person Vs Goal Person There are two types of individual when it comes to success and achievement in life. Earl Nightingale, bestselling author of, The Strangest Secrets recognised these individuals as river person and goal person. River Person – is someone who finds an area of interest at an early and pursues a career or interest for the rest of his or her life. A river person is not interested in accumulation of wealth. He is interested in his vocation because it gives him a sense of fulfilment. He continues to work in his area of interest as long as he lives. Most river persons are not be recognised immediately; some receive financial reward during their lifetime, and for the rest they may live in poverty. Here are some notable examples of river people; Steve Jobs (innovator), Thomas Edison (innovator, inventor), Wolfgang Goethe (musician); Mozart (musician), Pablo Picasso (artist) Albert Einstein The river person is happy as long as they remain in their field of interest For rest of us we may never know our river of interest or calling. # How can you achieve the same level of success like the river person? The key is to become a goal-oriented person. A Goal oriented Person is the kind of individual who has a dream, and sets goals to accomplish his dream. The key success and higher achievement in life is goal setting. Goal setting is the master key to success What is a goal? A goal is a dream with a deadline. The secret to enjoying happiness as a goal-oriented person is to set goals and achieve them. Then when you have achieved the goals you set goals, then you go ahead and set new and more challenging goals It is in the process of setting and accomplishing goals that a goal oriented person finds meaning in life. If the key to success is setting goals, why do majority of us not set goals? There are many reasons, why people do not set goals. The number one reason is the fear of failure. It is the number one reason many people underachieve and live below their true potential The good news is that, you can overcome fear of failure. There are many ways to success. I have refined and honed my success strategies. I would suggest you do the following if you are afraid of failure Let people see your results not hear your goals The best way to achieve a goal is to let people see your results. Anytime I set goals, I keep my goals to myself. I continue working on my goals until I achieve them. I only share my goals with people who care about me and will support me to accomplish my goals. Feel the fear and work on your goals The second way t overcome the fear of failing in your goals is to have courage. The late Steve Jobs in his legendary commencement day address at Stanford University, gave this advice to the graduating students and for those of that had a dream but were held back by fear;“your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life . Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown out your own inner voice. In addition, has the courage to follow your heart and intuition “. Are you a river person or a goal-oriented person? For those that identify they are river persons then congratulations. On the other hand if you have not found an abiding river of interest, realize that the key to your success and wealth in life is to set goals and work daily to achieve them. Moreover, when r you have achieved your goals, set another challenging goal. Success is the progressive realization of
Economic Recession-Why You Need to Focus on Your Economy
It’s the economy stupid – Democratic campaign slogan 1992 I remember breaking into night sweats a few years ago anytime I went to bed. I was breaking into these sweats and having nightmares because I had come under many financial pressures I was under pressure emotionally and it felt like I was having a bad dream because I had invested in a property that was sucking money from my bank account every month and pushing me towards bankruptcy. The kicker to the story was that it was at time when the property market booming. I had no reason to be in debt after all, the assumption was that when you invest in real estate you can’t go wrong. Unfortunately I was wrong and I was hemorrhaging cash to the banks, property Management Company and the local authority. And I was right in the middle of an economic prosperity. Flash forward to the present, my financial state is better and I am better off financially. However we are in the middle of a global economic recession. The Financial times reports the international monetary fund IMF, predict the global economy is entering into a prolonged period of economic recession. A global economic crisis of the scale being predicted could easily wipe out 40 million jobs according to a study by the organisation for economic coöperation and development (OECD) and the UN’s international labour organisation (ILO). The constant steam of bad news about the economy could easily overwhelm you. However I want you to look beyond the doom and gloom about the economy, and focus on the most important economy you have…YOUR ECONOMY. WHY YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON YOUR ECONOMY I believe you need to focus on your economy because that is the most important subject for you now, not the world’s economy. I am not saying you should not read the news but focus only on your economy. You need to ask yourself… How is your own economy doing now? Is it doing well or are you in recession? And the reason you need to focus on your economy is, because as a responsible adult you have financial obligations you have to fulfil. I believe the most important measure of the state your personal finances is your cash flow. Let me explain…. Your cash flow system tells you how money flows in and out of your pocket. You cannot do funny money accounting about your cash flow like the Feds, banks or central banks and politicians. The key to knowing how you are doing financially is to understand your cash flow system. What do I mean by your cash flow system? I mean movement of income and expenses. Here is how your cash flow looks like. You have: Income …money you earn from work, investing and other income producing activities Expenses…bills, and money you have to spend to meet your obligations Assets…items you own that earns you money Liabilities….loans, credit card debts you incur that generate expenses These four items I have just mentioned are the metrics you can use to measure the state of your economy. If you have more expenses than you earn then you have negative cash flow. In this case you need to take action, so you don’t end up bankrupt. On the flip side, if you earn more income than spend , you have positive cash flow. When you earn more than you can spend, you can save more and invest more. The same principle applies for liability and assets. Liabilities cost you money, assets earn you income. How does these metrics apply to you? It means you should focus on earning more income than incurring expenses. And you should buy more assets and not liability. If you are a subscriber to our newsletter you will notice we recommend you to spend time developing a rich mindset. A person with a rich mindset avoids liabilities and is averse to debt. The person with a rich mindset is always striving to earn more by expanding his means and acquiring assets. He knows that it’s in owning assets that ultimately makes him wealthy. The person with a rich mindset keeps his expenses and liabilities low. This is what we recommend you do develop a rich mindset-so that your own economy will ride through any economic boom or economic recession. Think rich and grow rich
Millionaire Mindset – How To Think Well And Become Wealthy
A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. -Mahatma Ghandi My cousin Mark has the millionaire mindset. His life history reads like one of the classic Horatio Alger rags-to- riches story line. Mark grew up in a poor background and he had a difficult childhood. He came to live with us in his teens. My father took him in like a son, paid for his tuition and upkeep through college and university. When he graduated from University, he applied for many jobs without success. He started a series of business ventures, many woeful failures. The last venture he started thrived for a few months before it went bankrupt because one of the partners had defrauded the company and vanished. However, good fortune smiled on mark when he became sales manager for an Italian furniture company. Using his network of contacts and street savvy, Mark exceeded his one-year sales target by 100 percent, within 6 months. Mark said this was his epiphany moment . Mark had a flash of inspiration to start his own business. He took action on his idea, creating a multimillionaire dollar business. In addition, Mark now has extensive real estate holdings and, enjoys the lifestyle of his dreams. How was Mark able to rise from poverty to riches in such a short time? The answer is this: He used on the most powerful secret to become wealthy-that is working on his mind-to think and act the way wealth builders do. Becoming wealthy is a matter of doing things in a certain way. However, before you can do and have what it takes to be wealthy-you need to understand how to make the mindset shift. The good news is that you already have the tool you need to make that mindset shift…I am talking about your mind. Your mind is where you can make all the changes you need to produce the outcomes you want in your life. The iron law of the universe-the law of cause and effect works with your mind. Your ability to use the power of your mind comes from having an understanding of how it work and how to use your mind effectively-to achieve your goals. This is what I am about to share with you… are you ready to make the shift? I am sure you do…Let me now take you through what I have discovered from study and how I think you should apply the understanding of this powerful concept to be a better investor and ultimately a wealth builder. Do you know your Stick Person? Several theories exist as to how the mind works. I have always been fascinated about how our mind works, in particular about why some people are rich and others poor. The stick person theory of the mind I found the most interesting of all. Developed, by Dr Thurman Fleet, founder of Concept Therapy, The theory states that your mind has two parts, conscious and subconscious. Your conscious and subconscious mind is where your personality emerges. Bob Proctor, motivational, speaker, and bestselling author you were born rich sums up the power of the mind: “you have a power within you that is far superior to any condition or circumstance around you. With your free will, your thoughts direct this power to whatever results you choose in your life time”. Here are the two parts to your mind, as explained by the diagram of a Stick Person: Conscious mind – this part of your mind thinks and reasons. This part determines how much money you want to earn. Your conscious mind can accept or reject any idea. The thoughts you choose eventually determine outcomes you get in life. The stimuli of pain or pleasure originate in our conscious mind. The thoughts you allow from your conscious mind become impressed on the second part… Your subconscious mind– is the power centre. It functions in every cell of your body. Every thought your conscious mind chooses to accept, this part must accept. It has no ability to reject .The subconscious operates in an orderly fashion. Any thought you consciously choose to impress upon the subconscious continuously, becomes part of your personality. It is at the subconscious level that habits form. Habits will continue to express themselves without any conscious assistance until replaced. Your subconscious mind is the godlike part of you referred to as your spirit. It knows no limits. In his book, The Power of the Subconscious Mind, Dr Joseph Murphy says whatever thoughts, beliefs, opinions, theories or dogmas you note engrave or impress on your subconscious mind, you will experience on the outside. Your thoughts become your experience. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Man is what he thinks about all day long”. What goes on in your mind manifests… Your body, is most obvious part of you, the material medium, it is merely the instrument of the mind. The thoughts or images that are consciously chosen, impressed upon the subconscious (every cell of the body), must move your body into action. The actions you take will determine your results. Why is it important to understand your stick person? I believe when you understand this element of your mind, then you can understand why it is crucial to work with your mind to make the change you want in your financial life Let me explain. Your mind works in this order: Thoughts…Feelings…Actions…Results In order words, your thoughts generate the feelings you have. How you feel determines how you act. Your actions produce your results. This concept of how the mind works explains why two individual-given the same opportunity, will produce different results-poverty or wealth When I understood that this is how my mind works, I started to do things differently. As a result, I have produced outstanding results many areas of my life- finances, health and personal relationships How to use your stick person I believe you have within you, the power to make the change you need to blast through any
The Millionaire Mind-Why You Need To Be A Leader To Be A Millionaire
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. –Ken Blanchard One of the secrets of the millionaire mind is-that in order to become wealthy you need to have leadership skills. This skill is very important to become a millionaire. Moreover, in my experience of interacting with wealth builders, one thing stands out they are great leaders. What exactly is leadership? Before we go on talk about this important skill, I believe it is important to define leadership. The dictionary defines of leadership as an act or instance of leading, guidance or direction. Michael Masterson, bestselling author, of Power and Persuasion: How to command influence in your business and personal life believes a leader’s primary job is to get people to do what needs done. To be a successful leader you have to know how to deal with people. There are many great leaders, who are not wealthy, who are successful in many areas of life. However, if you want to become wealthy you need to know how to get people to cooperate with you-to accumulate wealth. The key to being a great leader is the way; you get people to do things for you. There are two ways to get work done- you can bully people, or inspire them. These two ways have their own benefits. However, when you become a bully to get things done-you will ultimately diminish the power to influence other. People despise bullies and they will resist anyone who tries to violate their freedom in order to achieve selfish ends. Stories l of bullies in government, and business abound. They all end up in one place-the rubbish bin of history. The best way to lead is to inspire others to do what needs done. When you inspire others, you will spark and rouse their spirit. Our schools do not teach leadership skills. The media and our society have fed us with many myths about leadership and IQ. The reality: your ability to be a leader- is unrelated to your IQ. Leaders are not born. Leaders emerge. Dr Thomas Stanley, bestselling author, The Millionaire mind, disproves the myth that having a high IQ and SAT scores in school confers you the skill to become a leader. The results of the survey he conducted amongst real millionaires are revealing. : The majority of his respondents graduated with average grade point averages. It was only in the attorney and physician categories of millionaires that rated intellect or superior IQ high as a success factor for becoming wealthy. Dr. Stanley millionaire respondents are from the data collected from IRS and Census Bureau records. What traits do you need be a good business leader? I believe you need three critical traits to be a good business leader. The first trait is the willingness to take charge and get things done. The next trait, you need to have is the courage to believe that you can do better s in providing value to the market you serve. In addition, you need to be able to create and communicate a compelling vision that people can follow you to accomplish for your business. How does great leadership apply to becoming a millionaire? In order to achieve wealth you need leadership. Because, if you study the lives of majority of millionaires, and billionaires who made their fortune, you will see a common thread-they made their fortune through building or investing in businesses. The next thing almost all of these wealth builders do is -they sold either part or the whole of their businesses- to make a fortune. Now it takes a takes leadership to create a company with zero sales, with no prospects of surviving to become a multimillion-dollar enterprise. It takes the ability to communicate and lead people to accomplish this feat. It also takes leadership to create a company perceived as valuable by the marketplace, that investors are willing to buy. Richard Branson is an example of a great business leader that readily comes to my mind. Branson heads the Virgin group, a conglomerate of over 300 branded companies, employing approximately 50,000 people in over 30 countries. Global branded revenues exceeded $20 billion in 2006 according to a statement on the group’s website. How is Richard Branson able to run a successful multinational company? Branson is able to run a worldwide organization, because he is a leader that has an eye for seeing opportunities where others cannot see them. In addition, he has the courage to act. Richard Branson dropped out of college .His teachers rated him a poor student in his SAT scores. However, the school system could not identify Branson’s most important traits-his ambition and his ability to connect with people and inspire them- even though he had failing grades. These key traits – ambition, audacity and willingness to inspire, helped Branson build a fortune. When I read Branson’s biography and listened to his interviews, the whole idea of leadership as a success factor for wealth creation, made sense. Let me explain. If you are a man of ideas that can communicate your business in a clear and compelling manner, people will want to be part of your vision. As a result, you will attract the right people and capital to succeed in business. The good news is you can develop leadership skills like Branson. You don’t have to be audacious like him. All you need is to make a decision to commit to be a great leader. How to start to develop the leader in you I believe that becoming wealthy or successful is result of acting in a particular manner. You can learn and develop the skills you need to be a great business leader and become a millionaire in no time fast. It’s easier than you think to begin learning the skills to become a leader. In fact, the learning you need is right now close to you. The fastest way to develop your skill as a leader is to volunteer to take on more
The Number One Skill You Need To Be a Millionaire
People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them. -Dr Allan Fromme Becoming wealthy in America or any part of the world is not the result of luck, winning the lottery or having a high IQ, as the media, wants you to believe. In his book, The Millionaire Mind, bestselling author, Thomas J Stanley, tells of a survey of 733 millionaires he conducted. The survey asked them to rate the success factors for their wealth. The respondents from the survey, identified over 100 success factors for becoming a millionaire. The most interesting part of the survey to me was that it rated skills, often downplayed by the media as important. Most wealthy people portrayed by Hollywood are arrogant, risk takers who make their fortunes, at the expense of others on their way up the ladder of success. This is far from the truth. In fact over half of the millionaires (56 percent) in Dr Stanley’s survey, rated getting along with people as one of the top reasons for their economic success. This contradicts the popular idea that I.Q (high intellect) is a major factor for becoming wealthy. The survey showed only 20% of the millionaires rated having a high IQ as and only about 10 percent felt “attending a top rated college” was a critical success factor to becoming a millionaire. Why getting along with people is critical to becoming a millionaire It is rare to become successful without the help of others. Most of the affluent people I know never take credit for their accomplishments. This is because no man is an island whether personally, in business or whilst building wealth. You need people to succeed in any business. You need to be able to get along with your customers, your team members and your employees. You need your spouse’s cooperation when you have to work long hours at the initial start-up phase of your business. You need to go out of your way to attract, motivate, appreciate and nurture key advisers, suppliers and employees. In fact, the level of people skill you have will determine how far you can grow your business. Getting along with others helps you tap into the power of the mastermind There is another important reason you need to get along with people; you cannot get to tap into the genius of people around you. This is the act of tapping into the power of the mastermind. This success principle, the coordination of knowledge and effort of others in a spirit of harmony between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose-is what has accounted for the economic success of millionaires and billionaires. Richard Branson and Bill Gates have to get along with many people in order to achieve the economic success they have accomplished One common mistake I see investors do is not trusting and appreciating the ability of others. I think this is as result of what, I call the “intellectual blindside”. This is when you think you intellect makes you better than others. I realize that in order to achieve my goals to become wealthy, I need to get along with others. How to start getting along with other to build wealth I think the best way to make use of this idea is to bear in mind the following and take action on the following tips: Develop a positive attitude towards others because it will help you advance altitude in business, personally and at work Always remember, no one ever acquired wealth without the help of others Take the time to look for and develop relationship with people who are successful and can help you move forwards in life Learn to appreciate your employees, vendors and suppliers; they can make all the difference. Develop the habit of tolerating others and living in harmony with your spouse, friends, employers or partners so you can move up the ladder of success. Learn to give more than you receive. This one secret of the millionaire mind – getting along with people, will propel you to affluence and the millionaire ranks easily. To your success