Article by Mike Anderson (NSBC Founder & CEO)
Often, I come across some great stuff that stands out and makes good sense in managing our daily lives and our quest to get ahead.
Why drag out the process when we can make things happen by doing them more effectively and with bigger results now. Importantly, don’t just settle for a good life, aim to live more of a great life.
Before we move onto the success factor, we need to know what causes slow progress, a mediocre journey and often failure. Let’s summarise what we must STOP doing now, so we can move to a more positive conversation.
Think about it.We must STOP:
- Meeting those we don’t need to
- Doing things that are not results-orientated
- Focusing on things that are urgent as opposed to concentrating our energies on the important stuff
- Worrying about the bad things that are never going to happen
- Procrastinating – I’ll do it tomorrow
- Saying yes to everyone, when in most cases, we should be saying no
- Exposing ourselves to negative people
- Not seizing opportunities because of the fear of failure
- Losing opportunities due to indecisiveness
- Doing the same things over and over that don’t work
Now, let’s look at how we can speed up the success process:
If we can model the success traits of the zero-to-hero mega-entrepreneurs, there is no doubt that we will experience fewer difficulties and less failures, and that our road to entrepreneurial success will be shorter.
Most of the working world never realise success, in fact only 5 % are successful and 1% are super successful. Plenty of time, effort and sweat is needed before seeing things come to fruition and yes, we become successful because we choose too and by the actions we take.
Whether or not you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out on your journey, there are particular traits you’ll usually find operating within the exceptional entrepreneur.
Most businesses do take time to achieve success. Many entrepreneurs give up when there’s no immediate success. If you speak to any successful person, you would quickly realise that things don’t always go as planned. Most successful people have been through a series of disappointments and failures before they became who they are.
Because success usually happens as a result of the accumulated experience people collect from their failures it doesn’t make any sense to assume that you will make it fast. Yes you can succeed from the first attempt but generally most people never make it before they have failed many times. You need to understand and prepare for this. Always keep it in your mind that quick success is a bonus.
I strongly encourage you to aim for fast success but don’t assume that this is how life works. Slow and gradual progress is the way most successful people have followed until they have made it. Yes in some rare cases you might find a chance that pushes you forward quickly. The general rule is that you have to be patient and persistent until you make it. Take a step everyday even if it was a small one and eventually you will make it, that’s as long as you keep moving and never give-up.
Let’s highlight what the most successful entrepreneurs do to achieve enormous success quicker than most:
- They get up insanely early
- Before sunrise, they re-evaluate their short term, medium-term and long-term goals, and plan their attack for the day. They start their day laser-focused
- They keep promises no matter how small
- They permanently search for a better way of doing things
- They live their journey with persistence, passion and perseverance
- They have unshakable self-belief in whatever they do and have supreme confidence in their ability to triumph
- They always look at the bright side of life. In this way they encounter fewer obstacles on their success journey
- They continuously express gratitude and always have a positive outlook
- They follow their heart and intuition – passion is what drives them to succeed
- They thrive on risk and don’t think about failure
- Their customers love what they do
- They are willing to put in never-ending hours of work themselves
- They constantly challenge the status quo which gives them the seeds of vision and opportunity
- They don’t wait for the perfect conditions; they thrive on risk and act quickly.
- They seize opportunities before the tipping point of evidence
- When they do fail, they bounce back quickly, change direction and move forward positively
- They demand excellence from themselves
- They soar with the eagles that fly high, only surrounding themselves with the positive, big thinkers and achievers
- They take responsibility for everything thrown at them irrespective of what happens
- They only focus on what’s important. They have the ability to say no to almost everything
- They move faster and set tough deadlines
- They visualise and feel their success until they live it
- They focus on what they do best and outsource the rest
- They don’t throw in the towel – they just keep going and never give up
- They eliminate people or things that delay or stop them from moving quickly