The great thing about reading articles is that every once in a while you will practically trip over one that shares something useful that you can take forward to change your business or life forever. I hope this is one such piece.
Success is easy, now that I have figured out the secret. How did I come about this secret? Mostly through a recipe of reading constantly and implementing new ideas, failing incessantly, and taking risk day in and day out. Some people get their adrenaline rush jumping from airplanes. I get mine by trying out new ideas, buying more businesses, and anteing up when I know in my head I can do it, even though everyone else says the risk is too high.
Contrary to popular belief, I can tell you that success is a road, not a destination. I have narrowed down to three the most significant tools to best navigate the terrain as I hope you will take these with you on your own journey to greatness
Act - The number one strategy to building a successful business and life is action. You need to do something. Those people that do not achieve their dreams are the ones that are in a perpetual state of getting ready to do something. Stop preparing and just do. Acting is far more important than perfection. Of further importance, make sure you narrow down the most important things to "do" in order to stay on your success track. Then just do those few things every single day, no matter what. That means "doing" even when there are no results. For example, I own a fairly large real estate firm with 300+ amazing associates on my team. One of the most important things I need to do in my business is call ten potential recruits daily. It is a practice I got into seven years ago, and it is one I continue to do today. As the firm grows it would be easy to make excuses as to why I no longer need to make those important ten calls every day, but I know that the act of making those calls is one reason why I own a successful business. It is also absolutely vital that you continue to act even when there are lulls in your results. For example, there are often weeks that go by where my recruiting calls lead to no appointments. What do I do about it? I keep making the calls.
Stretch - I was recently speaking at an event in Connecticut and to prove a point I asked all the attendees to stand up and raise their right hand as high as they possibly could into the air. I told them to push as hard as they could to reach to the sky. I then asked the audience to confirm for me that they were reaching as high as they could, which they did. I then said, "Ok, now reach one more inch." The entire audience reached even further. The point is, elite performers, the most successful people and businesses in the world, live within that extra one inch of stretch. Success is stretching yourself so hard to limits you could not even imagine, and then reaching even further. Success requires a constant state of uncomfortable. The antithesis to success is your comfort zone. I look at all the things I hated doing ten years ago; flying, public speaking, networking, cold calling, asking for what I want, and today those are all second nature. Do something daily that makes you uncomfortable and you will always remain on the path of success.
Wobble - Did you ever play with Weeble Wobbles growing up? I did. They are these little egg shaped people that can never fall down because of their weighted egg shaped bodies. "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down." Success requires that you wobble a lot. On the path to your dreams you will get kicked down, pushed, shoved, and stepped on (not literally of course...hopefully), but just like the Weeble Wobbles, success requires you to drift back up. I have made so many mistakes in twenty years of growing businesses. I have trusted people that I should not have. I ventured into businesses that failed. I made decisions based on false promises by others. In the end, this all made me, my businesses, and my relationships stronger. Weeble's do wobble a lot, but they absolutely never, ever, completely fall. Neither do those navigating along their road of success.