We are going to come upon CRITICAL TRUTHS, with we will call AXIOMS. These are the inevitable truths, which with we must deal in order to arrive at a SUCCESSFUL journey.
Axiom Number One – THE SINGLE MOST CRITICAL TRUTH ABOUT SUCCESS
If both in your Mind, and in your Heart, you do not Believe that you are entitled to SUCCESS, you will NOT achieve SUCCESS.
Let’s first define SUCCESS. Our definition of SUCCESS for the purpose of this course is that you MET or SUCCEEDED the goals that you set for yourself. We will soon talk about setting goals, and working on a program to achieve them. But for right now, let’s talk about where SUCCESS BEGINS.
Any guesses? I told you that you’d be tested! Think about it for a second. WHERE does SUCCESS BEGIN?
SUCCESS BEGINS in one and ONLY ONE PLACE:
BETWEEN YOUR EARS. IT IS A UNIVERSAL TRUTH THAT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS STARTS WITH A THOUGHT.
You’ve probably heard the saying “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
I have seen SO MANY people FAIL because SUCCESS literally scares the heck out of them. Many people are just as afraid or MORE afraid of success than they are of failure.
However, pointing this out is virtually worthless, if we don’t stop right now and work on identifying what is going on in YOUR head.
Believe me, trust me, and do not doubt this for ONE second. No matter WHAT YOU DO, if you do not FIRST AND FOREMOST have your head in order, everything else that you do will be a half-hearted effort to prove to yourself what your internal self-image really is.
This is a CRITICAL, CRITICAL, CRITICAL area. Don’t skip this part!
Let’s talk a little bit about how we may have been raised because it is the tapes of our childhood that form the adult that we make the transition into becoming.
First, let’s talk about school. Have you ever been taught that it’s okay to fail? Or was your goal from the very first day to get good grades on every exam? This is a double-edged sword, because while you are striving to achieve, which is good, you’re also being taught that failure is unacceptable. And while failure is NOT the desired goal, obviously, there is a valuable lesson in having the self-confidence to TAKE A CHANCE, even though that chance might not bring the desired result.
If you feel that failure is one step closer to success, you’ve got a healthy attitude. Because there is a saying that goes: “The only time you fail is the last time you try.” But if you have a deep-seeded fear of failure, such that if you fail you will feel like you are less of a person, this is UNHEALTHY and will hinder your efforts to be SUCCESSFUL.
Think about this for a second, because there are plenty of things you can do to change your outlook on this issue. But for CERTAIN, if it is the case that you are desperately afraid to fail, SUCCESS will be MUCH MORE DIFFICULT to achieve.
The reason for this is that you cannot REACH FOR SUCCESS without RISKING FAILURE. They go hand in hand. They are not mutually exclusive. You have to feel OKAY with the possibility of failure NOT to proceed based on FEAR. Otherwise, you will lack the frame of mind necessary to make good, objective decisions at critical points in your business evolvement.
Okay, we’ve spoken about school. Let’s talk about our childhood because it is from our childhood that we get our “parental tapes” that helped mold us into the person that we are today.
Did you grow up with SUPPORT? “Johnny, you are a wonderful, valuable, special person. I support you 100% in anything you decide to do and I believe in you 100%.” If you did, then you probably feel this way about yourself: Confident, whole, ready and willing to take a chance, to rise to a challenge, to come out victorious, because that’s how you perceive yourself.
If on the other hand, you grew up with criticism, ridicule, indifference, or abuse, to name a few, you might not be in touch with the Self-Image that you need to have in order to step up to the plate and hit that home run.
There’s an old saying that goes: “If you don’t like the cookie, change the recipe.” I can’t be clearer that WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE DETERMINES WHERE YOU ARE IN LIFE. I have seen SO MANY people with talent, banging their heads against the wall wondering why they aren’t making it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they aren’t making it because THEY AREN’T LETTING THEMSELVES make it.
Now this is heavy but CRITICAL. If a person who doesn’t have a Clear, Confident Vision of themselves being Successful, gets CLOSE to being Successful, this is UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY to that person and it’s apt to scare the heck out of them. After all, they are fighting a LIFETIME of how they feel about themselves.
Does your little voice inside say “I am not a confident person? I am afraid to take chances. I fear failure, I am NOT the guy with the fancy cars or the big house or the extra cash?” If you are, then getting close to achieving those things forces you to decide if you are the guy that you thought you were, or if you are the guy that you are becoming. This struggle for your own self-identity is something that needs to be identified and worked on NOW because of its CRITICAL RELATION TO YOUR SUCCESS.
Axiom Number Two – ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
Well, I am here to tell you that this is 100% TRUE. I have seen this many, many times through the years. Some folks have less talent than others, but Truly Believe that Personal Success is part of their Reality, and these folks wind up being Successful- some Incredibly so.
Others, while sometimes possessing far more talent, do not possess that which is MORE IMPORTANT THAN TALENT – A POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE.
We’re going to talk about the nuts and bolts of everything that goes into making your business a SUCCESS, of course. There are many tangible things that you can do to help your Business to be Successful, including specific Marketing, Sales and Operational aspects of your Business.
But FIRST and FOREMOST:
Axiom Number Three – THE THREE CRITICAL BELIEFS:
• You MUST have the CONFIDENCE that you WILL be SUCCESSFUL,
• You MUST feel that you are ENTITLED to be SUCCESSFUL, and
• You MUST feel that NOTHING can PREVENT your ULTIMATE SUCCESS
You, and ONLY you can address these 3 critical points. If you haven’t ever thought about them in these terms, you may not immediately know the answers. So, let’s take these one at a time and make sure that we Clearly Understand Exactly what’s Necessary so that we are Building your Success upon a Solid Foundation.
You MUST have the CONFIDENCE that you WILL be SUCCESSFUL.
Think back through your life when presented with a final exam in school, or your driving test, or a job interview. Did you BELIEVE in yourself? Having Self-Confidence is a CRITICAL Element to Your Success because by believing that you can MAKE it happen, you do not stand in your own way. There are exercises that you can do to improve your self-confidence if it is lacking. We’ll talk further about these soon.
Only you can answer whether or not you have the confidence in yourself to make the decisions that need to be made when challenges arise. I CAN tell you that beyond the shadow of a doubt if you don’t have confidence in yourself, you will have a MUCH MORE DIFFICULT if not IMPOSSIBLE time being Successful in Business. It is one of the KEY ELEMENTS necessary toward your Success.
You MUST feel that you are ENTITLED to be SUCCESSFUL
This point is really at the heart of whom you feel you are. And this question that is being raised is CRITICAL to your Success. WHY? Because if you don’t feel that you deserve Success, you will sabotage your own chances to prevent yourself from becoming someone that you don’t see yourself as being.
We ALL know people that do this. They get a job, then they get a promotion, things seem to be going well, and bam, they’re out of work for a reason “beyond their control”. Or they put their mind to accomplishing something, they start to get close, and then something always happens to derail it.
This is because you need to have a POSITIVE SELF-WORTH in order to feel that you DESERVE to feel good about what you set out to achieve. You may feel for example that anyone with money is doing something illegal, wrong, or immoral, or that having money will change you in such a way that you will become a snob, or that your family won’t like you. If ANY of these “negative tapes” are playing in your head, you will sub-consciously prevent your own Success because of your concerns.
Feeling good about who you are, and that you are ENTITLED to SUCCESS, is a CRITICAL ELEMENT to your overall success. In the next section we will talk about some of the things you can do to strengthen your own feelings of self worth.
You MUST feel that NOTHING can prevent your ULTIMATE SUCCESS
DETERMINATION is a character trait that is fundamental to achieving any goal that you ever set out to achieve. Imagine how many times your first attempt at something was unsuccessful. And why wouldn’t it be? If it’s your first try at something, by definition you are inexperienced at it.
The likelihood of succeeding at ANYTHING your first time out is certainly not as good as after you try, try again. Yet so many people try something, fail, and give up. Remember the saying, “The ONLY time you fail is the last time you try.”
This is BOTH CRITICAL AND TRUE. WE DEFINED “SUCCESS” EARLIER AS ACHIEVING THE GOAL THAT YOU SET OUT TO ACCOMPLISH. We did NOT say “achieving your goals on the first try,” or “achieving your goals with no difficulty, tough times, obstacles, or challenges.”
The reason for this is that as the saying goes: “SUCCESS is a JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION” and this is true from the perspective that when you embark upon a journey to achieve a goal, like ANY journey, you are going to encounter difficulties, tough times, obstacles, and challenges.
At any point in time, you can decide to abandon your goal. Again, only YOU know yourself. Do you quit easily? When you want something, does NOTHING stop you? Or do you try once and give up?
DETERMINATION is one of the MOST CRITICAL ELEMENTS of SUCCESS because it is only by learning from the past, making key adjustments, and TRYING AGAIN, that you can help yourself to Insure Your Success.
Take a minute to think about whether or not you are a determined individual. The reason you’re reading this Course was because you wanted to achieve your goal, which is to be SUCCESSFUL in BUSINESS. In order to do so, you need to know your own strong points and weak points, so you know what to lean on and what to work on as you Build Your Business. In the next section we’ll talk about some of the things you can do to help yourself in this area.
Remember this quote from the great football coach Vince Lombardi, who said:
“Ultimately our success will come not from never failing, but from rising every time we fall.”
Remember that ANYBODY can give up. That’s easy to do. Bearing down, making adjustments, and trying again, and again, and again – now THAT’S what you need if you’re going to be SUCCESSFUL in Business, or for that matter, in ANYTHING that you desire to achieve!
Keep in mind that for many of us, this is a lifelong process. Childhood may have been particularly damaging to our feelings of Self-Confidence, Self-Worth, or Self-Determination. Perhaps you were brought up being told that you’ll never amount to anything, or that you always make bad decisions, or perhaps you were discouraged from an activity that was important to you because someone felt that you weren’t “good enough.” If so, you may have scars from your childhood tapes that you need to work on in order to be able to Touch the Strength that is inside of you.
But make NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT. EVERYONE, and I will emphasize this, EVERYONE, HAS THE ABILITY TO BE SUCCESSFUL. The reason why many are not is because while we go about trying our best, we often don’t go about working on Self-Improvement. A lot of times we either are not aware that we are in need of Self-Improvement, or, we are aware but we don’t know what to do about it.
There’s nobody that I know of that doesn’t have one or more issues that they can be working on to improve. I think that this is part of life’s journey. What I have pointed out to you thus far is that being SUCCESSFUL in BUSINESS is a result in large part of WHO YOU BELIEVE you are. SUCCESS STARTS INSIDE OF YOU, WITH HOW YOU PERCEIVE YOURSELF.
If you have finished this section feeling that you are “good to go” in these areas, then more power to you. I suspect that you’ve been given some food for thought. In thinking about some of the things in life that you have wanted to achieve but did not, be honest with yourself as to WHY you didn’t achieve them. If you have Confidence, Entitlement, and Determination, then what stopped you from Achieving Your Goal?
In the next section, we will talk about some of the easier things you can do to set yourself on the right path. There have been volumes written on Self-Improvement. There’s no feasible way to summarize all of the information on this subject into one Course. But I feel that it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to impress upon you as CLEARLY AS POSSIBLE that BEFORE we ever start talking about the nuts and bolts of business itself, that we need to start with ourselves.
Too often, the assumption is made that each of us is ready, willing, and able to build a Successful Business. It doesn’t work that way. Being Successful MUST FIRST be a STATE OF MIND. There’s a saying that goes “If you can conceive, and you can believe, you can achieve.” Conceiving the idea is the first part, and it’s an easy part. We’ll get to identify ideas and what their chances of success are. And the third part, “you can achieve” is a result of the part that goes: “And you believe”. That’s the WHOLE thing, right there. You’ve got to believe. You’ve got to believe in your idea, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, you’ve got to believe in who you are and that you are entitled to achieve your goal and that you are determined to do so.
Before we leave this section, I want to quickly tell you a story to demonstrate this point because the point of this story is so Very Critical to Your Success.
The New York Mets are a Baseball team that was established in 1962. Out of 160 games in their first season, they lost 120 of them! They were worse than bad. By 1969 however, they won enough games to squeak into the World Series against the mighty Baltimore Orioles.
At that time, man for man, the Baltimore Orioles were giants in comparison. Virtually nobody gave the Mets a chance to beat the Orioles in the best of 7 series.
Nobody EXCEPT the METS, and their loyal fans in the City of New York.
Their slogan was simple: “Ya gotta believe!”
The Mets lost the first game of the series. But then rising to the occasion, the Mets made miraculous plays on both offense and defense, as it became clear that something very special was happening right before our eyes.
The Mets went on to SWEEP the Baltimore Orioles, winning the series 4 games to 1.
There is NOTHING MORE POWERFUL than your belief in yourself. NOTHING!
Every Chapter in this course is important because it relates directly to YOUR SUCCESS.
But NO CHAPTER is MORE important than this one, because without having a SOLID FOUNDATION, you’re not going anywhere.