What is critical for success?
In my opinion there are two critical aspects to business success. For me, these two factors are critical to happiness in general. They are attitude and integrity. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? I feel simplicity is a sign of true wisdom. The truth is that you can spend you entire life perfecting and deepening your attitude and integrity.
Attitude seems like a simple and shallow concept. Many people have heard statements like “if you think you will fail you will.” If you study success books starting from the 1920s such as Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”, to Earl Nightingale’s “Lead the Field”, Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, Anthony Robbins “Unlimited Power”, all the way to the very recent release of Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” they all share a single common theme…attitude and they all explore it at great depth. I have learned that a few casual thoughts about your goals or dreams are not enough. You need clear goals and vision coupled with a deep belief penetrating to the core of your being that you will obtain them. If you achieve this, you will do far more than just change your perspective. You will change your reality. Before I opened my business I created a 2-3 year plan as commonly recommended. I had no formal training in marketing or business growth modeling. I had very little access to relevant market data. In other words it was a wild guess. My business came pretty close to my naïve projections. This was very surprising to me, and I can only think of one reason why. I held the projections in my head with a belief I would obtain them.
Depending on your definition of success, integrity may not be required. If all you require for success is money, then all you need to do is give people what they want. With that definition, drug dealers are easily successful. My personal definition of success involves happiness and the ability to enjoy my success. That type of success is impossible to achieve without integrity. A classic example of this is playing out in the media right now…Anna Nicole Smith. She achieved her dreams and got everything she wanted…fame and fortune. One slight problem…she doesn’t get to enjoy it. Owning a business creates lots of tempting situations and I try to remember what goes around comes around to help me keep my integrity in check. My primary concern for my business is helping people…my customers, employees, and suppliers. If I use the business to help them, they naturally help the business in return. Now I am human, and of course I will think of profits and what the business can do for my family and me, but I try to think about profits in terms of growing the business and keeping it healthy so it can help more people.
Cheers,
Mark
