Success secrets

Are you achieving your full potential in your business? There may be something that you do in your business that keeps you from reaching the level of success that is possible for you. Being in control of your money and creating wealth has more to do with the right mindset than anything else. Here are some steps that you may find helpful.

1. Desire. You have to want to be successful more than anything else. The enemy of greatness is good enough. Once you have determined what you want to achieve and you want it more than your next breath of air, you are on your way. This is the first step!

2. Belief. You must have the belief in yourself that you are going to do it. Success begins in the form of thought. It is only limited by your belief in your ability to achieve it and your ability to put your thoughts into motion. Your belief will remove limitations and allow you to succeed beyond obstacles.

3. Positivity. It is not enough to avoid negativity; you must focus on the possible. Surround yourself with positive people. Embrace what is good and cut off what is bad. Your mind will feed on its thoughts. Positive and negative thoughts cannot occupy your mind at the same time. One will be dominant.

4. Knowledge. Knowledge is power when organized and applied to life. You must gain the specialized knowledge needed to allow you to succeed. Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich”, says, “Successful people never stop acquiring specialized knowledge that is related to their major purpose, business or profession. Those who are not successful usually make the mistake of believing that learning ends when they finish school.”

5. Creativity. Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes. Don’t limit yourself. Dream about what is possible, then go for it!

6. Decisiveness. Successful people decide quickly, determine what they want, then take actions to achieve it. Unsuccessful people make decisions very slowly then change those decisions quickly and often. At the end of the day, making a bad decision is better than making no decision at all. A bad decision can be corrected, but with no decision, there is nothing to correct.

7. Persistence. Don’t stop until you get what you want. So few people possess the will power required to make it through to success. Endless distractions demanding your attention will easily lead you off track. Success does not respond to wishes. It only responds to definite plans, put into action and then followed through to fruition.

8. Mastermind. Surround yourself with the most talented and successful, high-caliber, friends and colleagues you can find and share your vision with them. This has the potential to expand your thinking and stretch your vision.

9. Sixth sense. You need to develop the ability to perceive appending dangers and avoid them, as well as, identify opportunities as they present themselves. The opportunity of a lifetime is around every corner, it’s just that most of us are not prepared to embrace it when it presents itself or we are completely distracted and looking the other way.

Hard work means everything. Almost every successful businessperson credits his or her success to hard work. Education is also important, not only a formal education but, an informal education as well. That being said there is no substitute for hands-on experience. Taking risks is also important and I don’t mean gambling but being aggressive, staying hungry, stretching yourself to achieve.

Becoming successful in business is the result of investing in yourself and others, doing the small things right, and then doing one big thing really right.

Jay Thompson is a Business Consultant with the CSU Bakersfield Small Business Development Center. The CSUB SBDC provides premium, one on one, no cost consulting to small business owners in Kern, Inyo and Mono Counties. For more information visit their website at http://www.csub.edu/sbdc.