Basics of Success

Be Proactive
To live a reactive life is to live waiting for something to happen in order for us to take the next step…to react. This is the typical lottery mentality, of waiting for that special moment, for that ship to come in, or that windfall to arrive. And I don't deny that those moments do come but they are few and far between. A successful person mustn't live reactively.

And if you were to look at these lottery moments you would see that after a momentary appearance of success the person falls into a deeper hole of failure, unless they have already instituted one of more of these foundations of success.

Make goals, and follow through. Set your eyes on things far ahead of you ad don't settle for second best.

Be A Leader
Help others find success. Help others on their journey. Initially you might find this a waste of time but in fact what you are doing is investing in your own future. No of us were born successful. We may have been born to a successfully family but that doesn't mean that we are automatically successful as well.

It takes the time and effort of someone else, in our lives, which propels us into the success we desire. Be that force in someone's life and you will see that what you sow you will reap.

Don't Let Fear Stop You
Fear is a daunting force that can make even the greatest men falter. As a police officer I was told from the first day in the academy "Don't hesitate.” When a person doubts (ie fears the outcome) and hesitates it does several things. It causes everyone else in the room to doubt you, and worst of all it causes you to double doubt yourself.

I am not advocating doing things haphazardly. Do your homework. Research the matter and make a decision. If the decision was the wrong one then there will be a time to reassess and correct. But if you fail to move you will sink in the water, and signal to those around you that you don't know what you are talking about.

Take Responsibility
Failure can be a building block if you aren't afraid of admitting them.

Edison failed more than he succeeded with the light bulb. But do we call him a failure? Of course not. I believe that the secret to his success was that he owned up to his failures. He wasn't afraid of failing or what others thought of him. On the contrary he took responsibility of them, and took them apart to identify what it was that produced the flaw in the light bulb design.

If you don't take responsibility you will stop trying.

Don't sit on your laurels…never stop moving forward
After Fear, I think Success is the greatest cause for failure. So many people who have achieved a form of success fail to continue or follow through. I believe that success is a continual journey. We will never truly reach the end, but we will continually build on our past accomplishments to reach higher levels.

In other words success is not passively achieved. Take the shark, for instance. It doesn't have a passive breathing system. It must continually move in order to force water past his gills in order to breath. If for what ever reason the shark were to be immobilized it would die. Success is the same way. We can't sit idly by and wait for it to happen, or for it to continue.

We must continue to look forward, accomplishing bigger and greater things.