Step by Step to your success

• Create a personal balance sheet - focus on positives
• Embrace failure - it is how you learn and grow
• Be forward focused - focus on the present, look to the future.
• Set the rules in your encounters - DO NOT LET the other person set the rules.
• Expect to win and develop a whatever it takes mentality.
• The HOWwhy is the difficult part. You are your own worst enemy. You will put yourself down more often than strangers will.
• Get a mentor - A REAL person having the skill sets you need. A real person will be the best BUT any mentor is better than NONE. Books, tapes, seminars, training sessions and life experiences can be a mentorship to you if you are willing.
• Develop your STRATEGY and perfect your TACTICS.

• Do whatever it takes.
• Plan the work and work the PLAN. Put in more effort than ever before.
• Make a decision and then make it right. Follow Business Think methodology and make better decisions. SO MAKE a better decision then make it even better.
• Keep your options open. If you enjoy what you are doing then you will do it until you succeed. Do not let status plan your life. YOU PLAN YOU OWN LIFE. This open mindedness applies to industries, location and mentorship.
• Surround yourself to overcome the weaknesses in your balance sheet from step 1. Hire individuals who complement your skills sets not duplicate your skill sets.
• Poor is only a state of mind. Stupid is forever. If you are poor then maintain the same humble attitude even when you succeed. Having an attitude of poor can enhance you ability to be frugal in business decisions.
• Do what you do best. After you have reached success then you can complement your core competencies BUT DO NOT DO SOMETHING YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE about.
• FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

• Learn your business from the bottom up. Walter Deming said that the janitor knows more about the losses than the comptroller. Remember the janitor is throwing out the shrinkage everyday.
• Be in control of your circumstances. If you are disciplined then you will be the one in the drivers seat. You must master mind, body and spirit by any means possible.
• Opportunity meets preparedness. There is no such thing as being “LUCKY” in business. The real definition of what people call “LUCK” is the results of a person who has prepared over a period of time and acted when the opportunity appeared.
• Revel in difficulties. They are your best teacher. The solution(s) can be another business opportunity.
• Bolster yourself. Believe that you are the solution and do not limit yourself no matter what objection might be manifested.
• Don’t follow conventional thoughts on your path to success. Small efforts can multiply when effectively repeated. Look outside the norm for unconventional financing. Maximize your profits by lowering the barriers for your customers to purchase and lower your expenses even more.
• Fail early in life. Most successful individuals can point to a single failure that was the turning point leading to their great success. Think and Grow Rich quotes that a person is more likely to succeed after 40 then before. It is related more to learning what not to do that it is related to one’s age.
• Give 2 days worth of effort for each day’s pay. Go the extra mile. Do more than is expected. You will ultimately be rewarded for your efforts not
• You are whom you hang around with. A way to calculate your net worth, your income, your value system is to average these from 5 of the individuals that you spend the most time with. You will be surprised to note your values are their averages. So pick your friends wisely. Friends and associates should enhance your goals and should be heading in your same general direction in life.

• Trust no one but yourself for insights, inspiration and belief in who you are and what you’re doing. Listen to others, network to enhance but look to yourself for the final decision concerning the right direction you are heading in life.
• If you don’t stand for something then you will fall for anything. If you have not clearly defined your vision, your dream, your value system then you will chase the latest fad. The failure of most businesses and leaders can be traced to them following the latest, newest, best theory. Success in found in proven facts. Discover them and you will be a success at anything you do.
• Become single-minded. Once you establish your “Game plan” then do ensure every action undertaken includes something to further your plan. Don’t let others steer interactions away from your “game plan.” Every thought, deed, action you perform must be geared towards the accomplishment of your plan or goals.
• You are your business. Your business is you. As Sam Walton said, “Mind your Business.” When people discuss your business they are discussing you. You need to do a makeover so you put the best face on you and ultimately on your business.
• Assume the liabilities as well as the rewards of your business. If you believe strongly enough in your business then be willing to sign on the bottom line for any liability of your business.
• Turn a no into a yes. As long as you keep getting a no then you’re still in business. You need to turn no to a maybe then into a yes!
• Take no prisoners. In business, take no partners. The only reason you should partner with someone is if you are unable to hire him or her for their talents necessary to complement your negatives from your balance sheet. Never partner with someone strictly as an investor in your business. Partner only if they have as much to lose and can contribute as much as you.
• Reward your associates well. Set high standards then richly reward those that reach or exceed those standards.
• The lowest price is not always the best bargain. People will purchase as soon as they perceive value for what they are giving in return. Convenience store are a perfect example of this principle. People will pay extra for a loaf of bread because it’s easy to get from their local food mart.

• Conation is defined, as the gut level will to win at any cost.
• Lack of planning is largely the cause of bad times. Everyone has an agenda. You will either work their agenda or yours. If you work their agenda then you will not be prepared for when you no longer fit into their agenda.
• You are the only cause of your failure. Success isn’t easy but success stories belong to all types of people; Persons of diverse gender, nationality and physical development. No matter how you stack up, you can succeed only if you know you can succeed.
• Your past does not dictate your future. Your future is based on the decision you make in the next moment. You are the master of your destiny. You choose to exercise the only powerful tool you have. That tool is the POWER of CHOICE.
• Your will to fight, to succeed, to accomplish can be stimulated at anytime in your life span. You can cultivate it to a “roaring-burning-gut-level” fire.

• You may not always know where you want to go but you usually know where you don’t want to be. Use it. Get yourself moving away from a bad situation until you can determine the real place you want to spend the rest of your natural life.
• Once you start moving then commit to stay moving. No matter if you’re going to or running from then commit to stay in motion. Don’t, ever, ever, ever stop.
• Some people cry for it, some people die for it, some people thrive on it. IT is recognition. Seek to be recognized and make sure you recognize the successes of others.
• To reach heights never reached requires a visionary. Be the visionary. Be the person in the lead. Be the charisma necessary for your business to succeed. If you feel ridiculous then remember the multicolored individual on TV selling books about FREE government money.
• Break down barriers between the “them” and the “us” clicks. Be involved on all levels of your business. Mingle with everyone on a regular basis. Present yourself as the “model citizen” of your business.
• Always remember your business would not exist if there were not people involved. Theses people include customers who are such only because of the associates you keep on staff. Honor and reward your associates constantly.
• Ally yourself with committed people who want to be involved in your projects.

• The A and B students usually end up working for the C students. Just because you did not do well in school doesn’t mean you won’t do well in business.
• Leaders are readers. Successful people never stop learning. Learning can be more easily obtained from reading. Reading can give you knowledge faster that experience.
• Knowledge can only be obtained when you set criteria, develop reasons, enforce discipline and make the student accountable for their level of learning.
• Give back what had been given to you. Be part of the solution. Once you have obtained success then give back to assist others in getting success.

• Do for others as you did for yourself. Remember your balance sheet? Focus on the positive and you will receive the positive.
• You can only do while in your natural life. We have no guarantees of tomorrow or the next moment. Now is the time for you to do whatever it is you have a desire to do. Don’t look back on any part of your life with regret and the “I wish I had.”
• We all have the right to freedom and the necessity to be taught a skill. If you teach a person to fish, you have fed them for a lifetime. If you don’t then they are likely to learn how to steal your fish.
• The path to success is grounded in the basics. Do the basics over and over and you will reach success. If you miss success it is because you failed to constantly repeat the basics.
• The standards you apply in you company will eventually influence the standards adopted by you industry.
• Make sure you surround yourself with those who believe in you and understand your vision. There will be times when you will rely on them to encourage you to take the next step.
• A prophet is never accepted in their hometown. Sometimes you will need to leave home to ply your trade. Knowing where and when requires doing your homework.
• Since this is your life then include your spouse or life partner. Since you will be working close together learn to stay out of each other’s way. Include your spouse as one of the people in Section 8f. Read and understand the “5 Love Languages” by Chapman.

• A Navy saying to ensure that you are making yourself better. You cannot make anyone else better. You can only encourage other to do their best. You can make yourself better. In other words, discipline yourself, which is commonly known as self-discipline.
• It is not natural to be critical on ones self. We tend to take the easy road. We must force our self to do what should be done and avoid what we want to be done.
• Imposing structure on yourself will ensure you succeed at any endeavor you attempt.
• Most people fail within sight of their original goal.
• To succeed all you need to do is win one time more than you fail.

• My uncle always taught me to live on half and save half. Great advise but in today’s business culture you can trust the saving to return an increase. Of the amount that you don’t use for living then you need to save a portion and invest a portion. You need to establish a business where your product or service will return more than it takes to invest in the product or service.
• Avoid buying anything on credit. Debt is not bad but buying on traditional credit is terrible. Debt can be good if it gets you a positive cash flow with an adequate percentage of return on your investment. This is the OPM (Other People’s Money) principle. IF used wisely, it can be great.
• Life may be a bowl of cherries but even cherries have pits. Put away resources for troubled times. You will have them so be prepared. Establish residual earnings to be greater than any possible cost of survival. When the hard times strike then you will not feel the sting nearly as bad.
• Teach your associates the methods that you have applied to gain the success of your business. They have an investment in the survival of the company. You may want to “pass” the baton on to your staff, someday.
• Be intimate with your finances. Become comfortable with every aspect of your money. Since you have built the fortune then it is up to you to protect the fortune for your family and associates.

• Establish and follow humanitarian rules of engagement.
• Never stop expanding your knowledge.
• Always believe.
• Always have a dream bigger than you and your last dream that came true.
• ALWAYS DARE.

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