The Core Beliefs of the Delightfully
Successful
Success is based on action, but
actions are the result of beliefs – so what do the delightfully successful
people I know almost all believe?
1. They believe they don’t have to
wait to be “selected.” They can simply select themselves.
Once upon a time most people had to
wait: to be accepted, to get funded, to be promoted – to somehow be
"discovered."
Not anymore. Access is nearly
unlimited; social media allows you to reach out to almost anyone. (Whether or
not you actually connect is up to you and how you craft your approach.) Anyone
can publish their own work, distribute their own music, create their own
products, and attract their own customers.
You can do almost anything you have
the desire and skills and drive to do; you don't need to wait for someone else
to discover your talents. You get to discover yourself.
The only thing holding you back is
your willingness to take the leap and try.
2. They believe being the first
matters less than being the best.
Success is often the result of
perseverance. When the first person to the game stops trying, stops striving,
or starts compromising their principles and values, the person who relentlessly
seeks perfection is the person who wins.
Other people may be smarter, better
connected, more talented, or better funded. But they can't win if they stop
trying.
Don’t worry about being the first
one in. Focus on being the best one still in the game.
3. They believe success seems
predictable only in hindsight.
Read all the stories of successful
entrepreneurs and it's easy to think those people have some intangible
entrepreneurial something: some talent, or skill, or idea, or level of
creativity that you don't have. (Or maybe they were just born lucky?)
They don’t. Success is never
inevitable. It's easy to look back on an entrepreneurial path to greatness and
assume that every vision was clear, every plan was perfect, every step was
executed flawlessly, and tremendous success was a foregone conclusion.
Incredible success only seems
inevitable once incredible success has been achieved.
"You can't connect the dots
looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to
trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future." ~Steve Jobs
Success is never assured. Success is
never predestined. If you're willing to work hard and persevere, who you are is
sufficient – because when you work hard and persevere, who you become is
definitely more than enough to do something significant.
4. They believe personal success
comes from service, not selfishness.
I don’t know anyone who has
accomplished something amazing on his or her own. Great leaders focus on
providing the tools and training to help their team do their jobs and achieve
their goals. Great consultants put their clients' needs first. Great businesses
go out of their way to help and serve their customers by solving for the
customer.
And by so doing they also reap the
rewards.
Your odds of success are
proportional to the number of people that want you to succeed.
When you're in it only for yourself,
initial success is always finite — and fleeting. When you're in it for others,
they succeed – and so do you.
5. They believe in doing a few
things no one else is willing to do.
Only do what the crowd does and your
career success will be no greater than the average of the crowd.
Every time you do something, think
of a few extra things you can do that others aren’t willing to do. A little
more research. Another look at something others have ignored. Another shot at
salvaging a failed customer relationship. One more call, one more email, one
more attempt to connect and build a relationship.
“There are no traffic jams on the
extra mile.” ~Zig Ziglar
The best opportunities often lie
waiting in fields other people can’t be bothered to cultivate. Find those
fields and start cultivating.
6. They believe that the depth of
their network is more important than the breadth
The downside of the ease of social
media is that building a network can become a numbers game.
Few people need numbers. Every
person needs real connections: people they can help, people they can trust,
people whom they care about and who care about them.
Forget amassing a huge network.
Reach out to the people whom you really want to be part of your professional
life for a long time.
7. They believe ideas are important…
but execution is everything.
Ideas are not a product. There are
notebooks, binders and computer files filled with ideas and high level plans
that were never implemented.
Have an idea? Great. Craft a
strategy. Set up a basic plan to implement it. Then execute, adapt, execute,
adapt, and build something useful that wort of works.
Success doesn’t come from ideas.
Success comes from executing ideas.
8. They believe leadership is
earned, not given.
Leaders don’t just bring in venture
capital or negotiate a big customer contract
While certainly examples of
leadership, those actions typically indicate a kind of leadership that is
situational and short-lived.
Real leadership involves people.
Real leaders consistently inspire, motivate, and make their employees feel
capable and skilled and respected. Real leaders are the kind of people their
employees follow not because they have to but because they want
to.
How? They make people feel they
aren’t following – they’re on a journey together.
And that means their team has given
them the permission to lead, a permission they’ve earned over time.
9. They believe in paying it
forward.
Ever heard a colleague say, "I
would be willing to work harder if I got a raise”? Or, "We would do a
better job if the customer paid us more"? Or, "I would be willing to
make a bigger sacrifice if I knew it would pay off”?
Successful people don’t wait to get
a raise; they work hard to earn a raise. Successful businesses don’t wait for
higher prices to deliver greater value; they deliver greater value to earn
higher prices. Successful entrepreneurs don’t wait for a payoff to give their
all to a startup; they give their all so they can earn a decent payoff.
It is common for people expect to be
compensated more before they will consider doing more. Successful people see
compensation as a reward for exceptional effort, not the driver.
10. They believe they will make
their own history.
Few people summit the Mount Everest
of career success. Few people become household names.
But think about the past 20 years.
Technologies, industries, and ways of doing business that were once science
fiction are now commonplace.
The next 10 to 20 years will be no
different. We can all be a part of whatever the next waves might be. We can all
make a change in our industries. We can all make a change in our professions.
We can all stand at the forefront of
a minor or major change, even if only in our niches or communities. When we’re
willing to try something new, someday we will look back with pride on the part
we played in history. Someday we will look back in pride on the part we played
in making life a little better for others.
And isn't that the best kind of
success? The delightful kind?
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