The Six Rules of Personal Success

Of all human abilities, one stands out, the ability to see the Big Picture, the things that are important in life, and not to be distracted by small, trivial, and irrelevant things; the intelligence to separate the message from the background noise.

‘The Big Picture’ is about the grand goals; the big dreams and aspirations people treasure in every stage and aspect of life. But how can you grasp and hold on to the Big Picture? What does it take?

Six rules that have been successfully tested in business and everyday life:

1. Get your Priorities Right

Setting priorities right is about making intelligent choices, deciding what goals to pursue in which order, which takes vision and foresight. Intelligent people rise over the hills and valleys of the present to gaze over the hills and the valleys of the future and see the invisible and the challenges it holds. Renowned entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg had such vision and foresight; they could see how technology could change the lives of everyday people; and came up with products and services that will turn their vision into reality.

Getting your priorities right is about choosing whether to go to school, start your own business or working for somebody else; whether to get married or stay singled; whether to have children or not; whether to stay married or get divorced; whether to remarry if widowed or divorced; and you have to choose how to spend your money.

2. Use Resources Wisely

Using resources wisely is also about making intelligent choices. It is about deriving the most value out of limited resources; shopping around for the right merchandise by asking three simple questions: Do I need this piece of merchandise? Is the price right? Is this merchandise the best use of my money?

In some cases, using resources wisely means more than shopping around for bargains for the right merchandise. It also means paying the least interest and finance charges for the things you buy on credit. Shop around for the lowest interest rates on a home mortgage; refinance when interest rates fall sufficiently; and stay away from consumer debt and finance charges that add to the price of the merchandise you buy.

3. Stay Focused

Staying focused means sticking with your priorities and goals; focusing on the message, not on the background noise; and executing. Take the right steps to reach your goals. That’s all that matters in the end.

It takes patience, persistence, and discipline to stay focused. Patience to overcome the hurdles that stand between you and your goal; persistence to overcome the failures, setbacks, and temptations that may take you off course; and discipline to play the game right, to comply with all the rules: know what you are doing, be punctual, and work out all the details.

4. Develop the Right Relations

Reaching a certain goal requires moral and psychological stamina.  It takes skills and resources no single individual possesses. This means that in pursuing personal success, people need friends and partners to overcome the many obstacles that stand between them and their personal goals. At school, friends can provide the moral and psychological support to endure and overcome the pressure that comes with class lectures, homework, exams, and term paper deadlines. Partners provide the information and expertise to go over complex concepts and to complete coursework projects, sharing of class notes, participating in discussion groups.

At work, friends provide the moral and psychological support to endure and overcome workplace-related stress, meeting project deadlines, handling customer complains, and dealing with internal politics. Partners provide skills and expertise to complete complex projects that require cooperation among several parties.

Friendships and partnerships is a trait shared by many successful company founders, including HP founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

5. Don’t be Greedy

Greed is the idolization and relentless pursuit of something that lets people distinguish and set themselves apart from others—money, power, status, and so on; the feeling that they never have enough of it, and nothing can stop them from amassing and accumulating it.

Greed is an obsession that—like alcohol—numbs people’s senses, blurs their vision, and makes them lose sight of the Big Picture. Greed leads people to live a life of imbalance and disproportion, a life of reckless and dangerous behavior. People who want everything in life fail to negotiate with others and compromise, and end up losing everything. People, who want everything from personal friendships and partnerships and become selfish and arrogant, end up destroying them.

6. Don’t be Complacent

Complacency is the opposite of greed. It’s the idolization of things people have accomplished, the feeling that they have reached the telos (ultimate destination).

This may sound contradictory to what was argued earlier about staying focused, but success isn’t an entitlement. It cannot be taken for granted. Successful people cannot afford to be complacent because good times do not last forever, especially in a rapidly changing world. That’s why complacency is dangerous. People who are complacent with their accomplishments fail to catch up with the rest of the world and are left behind.  At school, students who are complacent about their performance at the beginning the semester eventually lag behind their peers and end up failing the course. At work, workers who become complacent and take their jobs for granted fail to keep up with the demands of the marketplace by upgrading their skills and are the first in line to be laid off in an economic downturn. In marriage, people who become complacent about what they have accomplished and take each other for granted, end with apathy and indifference for each other.

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Small Business is Failing

Let me guess. You began your small business with a bottomless pit of hope, enthusiasm, and energy, right? You were downright unstoppable. Then, one day you woke up and realized that “it” should have happened already. You and your business should have already “made it.” Perhaps you’re running out of capital or maybe your passion for your business is fizzling fast. Whatever the circumstance, it’s time to pull yourself up by the bootstraps if you want your business to have an iota of a chance of taking off in spite of your utter faithlessness and negativity. That’s right; it’s time for some tough love. Brace yourself because with all due respect, here are the top 10 reasons why your small business is failing, and they’re all about you:

1.   You Blame the Economy

So the economy has seen its better days, it’s true. But, guess what? You don’t have the power to single-handedly change that. The only choice you have is to accept it. That means one of two things—you can roll over and take the beating or stand up and fight back. You may not be able to save the world, but you can save your own business. It just means you have to work harder and smarter than ever before. Tall order? Yes, but that’s the price of success these days. Deal with it.

2.     You Blame Other People

There’s nothing worse than a leader who can’t take responsibility. That’s sort of the definition of being a leader after all. If the people on your team aren’t doing things to your liking, then it means you either hired the wrong people or you didn’t train them properly. The key word there is “you.” Stop blaming others, and focus on righting the ship.

3.     You Can’t See the Forest

Business owners who can’t see the forest for the trees are so busy working on the small details within their business that they have little time or energy left to work on the business. Take “detail-oriented” off your resume and start delegating the small stuff so that you can focus on the visionary aspects of your business, like where you want to be in 5 years, 10 years, etc.

4.     You Can’t See the Trees

If #3 doesn’t describe you, that doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods entirely. Oh, no.  Big-picture people like you often go overboard. If your head is in the clouds all of the time, or if you’ve failed to properly delegate the “menial” tasks of managing day-to-day operations of your business, then you’re still missing the mark, and believe me, your business is suffering for it.

5.     You’re a Control Freak

Entrepreneurs tend to think they’re right a lot. They also tend to be real go-getters. Often their motto is “If you want something done right, you’d better do it yourself.” Not so fast, though. You may be a business owner, but you’re not a super hero, and you can’t do everything it takes to run a successful business on your own. Even you have limitations, so stop trying to do it all and learn how to lead others.

6.     You Do What You Want

You finally have your own business. No more working for others, so you can do what you want now, right? Sure, if you want to fall flat on your face. Even if your business is based on your passion (and let’s hope it is), there will still be things—and lots of them—that you have to do to run your business that you won’t really enjoy doing. In fact, these things will be mind-numbing, anxiety-provoking, and torturous. Do them anyway, or accept your inevitable failure.

7.     You Waste Time

Oh sure, you stay at the office all day and work tirelessly through evenings and weekends on your business. You pride yourself on being a workaholic. But, let’s be honest. How productive are you, really? Rationalizing 8 hours a day on Twitter in the name of networking isn’t going to cut it anymore. Let’s just leave it at that and focus on finding a time management tool to help you prioritise the really important tasks you’re responsible for carrying out each day, week, month, etc.

8.     You’re Arrogant

You feel self-entitled, and you think you deserve success. Even worse, you don’t listen to your team because you think your ideas are the only good ones. It’s time to open your ears and roll up your sleeves. You won’t make it alone, and you won’t make it without working your ass off. Period.

9.     You’re Insecure

Think you can’t be arrogant and insecure at the same time? Think again. Underneath that big head of yours is a tiny little voice that’s constantly telling you that you’ll never make it. To combat that gnawing feeling of impending failure, you overcompensate with pseudo confidence. Instead of talking a big game to everyone around you, start talking yourself up in your own head. Your team and your ego will thank you for it.

10.  You Can’t Make Decisions

You’re super smart, which has a lot to do with #8 by the way, but your thoughts swirl through your head at lightning speed. Instead of flowing in a logical pattern, they spin into chaos, making every decision excruciating. You can see the pros and cons of every choice so clearly, and you spend precious time arguing with yourself over trifles. Get yourself a team of consultants and learn how to call the shots. You’re in charge, remember?

5 Critical Skills for Entrepreneurs

These are 5 essential skills that every entrepreneur needs in order to be successful and effective. The world’s best CEOs are masters at these skills. You should aim to master these skills also.

1. Sales

When you are first starting out on your own, being able to sell will be the single most important skill that can determine whether your business will succeed.

You will need to sell to consumers on the internet, to businesses on the phone, to corporations in person — you are always selling, selling, selling. When you are networking, you are not just making contacts — you are selling yourself. When you are presenting your idea to venture capitalists, you are not only selling your concept. You are also selling yourself. The venture capitalists will be thinking to themselves:

Can this person deliver?

Can this person execute?

Is this person passionate?

Does she have what it takes to make this thing succeed?

Rarely does an idea by itself get funded. A great sales person can make even a terrible business idea get funded if it’s pitched right. A brilliant idea that’s terribly presented will not typically be considered.

So it goes for any product or service you may have to offer. As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. You are CEO of sales, advertising, administration, website, recruiting, customer service. The single most important hat that you will wear is sales. This will determine whether you will bring in revenue.

The art of selling is not to hit people over the head and get them to buy from you. It is not about being pushy. It is much more subtle. It is about asking the right questions. Communicating your viewpoint persuasively.Listening. It seems counterintuitive but some of the best sales people are the best listeners.

Practice:

Look for opportunities to sell yourself or an idea. Look for opportunities to persuade people. You can stop people on the street and persuade people to do a ‘quick’ survey for you. Doing simple things like this will teach you a lot about selling.

2.   Communication

Writing

The ability to write effectively is essential to succeed. This is as true as it has ever been, especially in the online world with search shifting to high quality content. Great writing can bring plenty of qualified traffic that convert into millions in revenue. Top copywriters charge $10,000 for a single sales page.

You will be writing content on your website, blog, newsletters, emails. You will write persuasive sales letters and proposals. You will write magnetic headlines. You will write advertising copy that sells. You will write emails to website owners to get back links. You will write press releases to try and get media coverage. You will write letters to venture capitalists to try and get a meeting. You will write proposals to business executives to hire your firm. No matter what industry you are in, you will need to write. It pays off handsomely to write well so invest in your writing ability.

Remember that you are not writing for yourself. You are writing for an audience. Never lose sight of that fact. The audience you are writing for should always be on the back of your mind. You will find the worst kind of writing on large corporate websites and press releases. They’re impersonal, confusing, and self-promoting. Nobody reads them because they’re not written to be read. Don’t make the same mistake.

Practice:

• The best way to improve your writing skill is consistent practice. Use 750words.com — Go to this website and make a goal to write at least 750 words a day. You can write about anything you want and whatever you write remains private. Doing this consistently will improve your writing skills.
• Read Stephen King’s On Writing — Even though this book is written for novelists, it is a great book for anyone that wants to write in an engaging content
• Read The Elements of Style– This is an essential book for writers. I keep this one within arm’s reach.

Speaking

The ability to speak in public will make you an expert in your industry. It will win you trust and credibility. It will open doors to many opportunities. You may find yourself having to present your case to investors or a board of directors. Develop your ability to speak in front of an audience and you will deliver a more powerful presentation.

Speaking at conferences and industry events are the best way to promote your service or product in the market place. As your business becomes more successful, the need for you to speak at public events becomes even more crucial.

Public speaking can of course be a scary thing. People are reportedly more afraid of public speaking than they are of death. But like all skills, you can improve your ability to speak in front of people with practice. And that’s the key — to keep at it. Can you imagine the CEO of a billion dollar company being afraid to speak in public? I can’t. In fact, if they weren’t able to speak in public, they wouldn’t be selected to be the leader of any organization in the first place. But these CEOs weren’t all natural public speakers to begin with. Many simply practiced, over and over again. Some still aren’t great at it. But they all do it. And you can also.

Practice:

Take a Public Speaking Course such as the Dale Carnegie one. Join Toastmasters, a debating club or any other organization which will allow you to speak in front of an audience.

3.   Desire to Learn

You need to be constantly learning. About business, about the industry you have chosen, about your customers, about your own mistakes. To be master of your trade, you need to know as much about it as possible.

If you want to be in the finance industry, you should be reading all of the top finance books, read the FT, the WSJ, the Economist, follow the experts. If you want to be in the software industry, read the best software blogs, attend software conferences, keep up to date with the latest technology, read hacker news.

When you are reading, you should not necessarily read only about your industry. You should read widely and with an open mind. This will allow you to explore different ideas and come up with new ones.

Never stop investing in your own learning and development.

This will help you write better content, write better speeches, sell more intelligently and push your business to new heights.

Practice:

As an entrepreneur, start by reading the best sales, marketing and business books. Read publications that are relevant to your industry. Follow bloggers and experts in your industry. Aim to be an expert.

4.   Focus

The most successful people in the world are the ones that focus on doing one thing well. Warren Buffett, the world’s richest investor, once said that absolute focus is the single most important element in determining a person’s success. The focus of his own life has been dedicated to investing, in finding great companies at good prices. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, has gone from $8 per share in 1965 to over $153,000 a share. Not bad, right? Bill Gates says that it’s ‘maniacal focus’ that got him where he is today. And it’s that same laser focus which will allow you to be the best in your game.

Do you have 7 things all going on at the same time? Then stop.

Choose one thing and make a conscious decision to do it well.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that trying to execute multiple business ideas will maximize your chances of success. It’s doesn’t. It’s exactly the opposite.

You will do a mediocre job, or more likely, a poor job at all of them. You will stretch yourself thin and none of your business ideas will get the time and attention they deserve. Further, you will find yourself stressed out and a lot of your business ideas will remain dead in the water without ever seeing the light of day.

Be the master of one trade, not the jack of all trades. Focus your efforts on one idea. If you don’t know which idea to focus on, I recommend the book ‘The Lean Start Up’ by Eric Ries. You will learn how to test concepts and ideas with minimum viable products (MVPs) on the market. This concept is applicable to most business ideas and it is well worth reading no matter what industry you’re in.

Practice:

Write a list of things that you are working on. Apply the 80/20 rule to it — identify which 20% of your tasks will give 80% of the result. Focus on those tasks.

5.   Time Management

The best entrepreneurs and CEOs are effective time managers.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners have a reputation for being extremely busy people and working excessively long hours. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough time in the day. CEOs that manage hundred billion dollar companies with hundreds of thousands of employees have the exact same amount of time as we do. The only difference is in the way we manage our time (and the system that we use).

We are constantly responding to distractions which really doesn’t help us focus on the tasks that matter. We respond to emails as they come up, read articles here and there, go on Facebook or YouTube, and we end up losing track or interest of what we were working on.

To be effective, we need to work smarter and be more proactive about time management. To do this, we need to focus on the 20% which brings 80% of the result.

6.   One More Critical Skill: Persistence

As an entrepreneur, you will inevitably have ups and downs. Not everything you try will work out. In fact, a lot of things you try will not work out at all. It’s just the nature of the game. Don’t get discouraged if an idea fails. You just get up and keep trying again, and again. James Dyson famously created 5,126 prototypes for a vacuum cleaner whilst drowning in a sea of debt. But his 5,127th design was the breakthrough he needed and with it came the start of the Dyson company. The Dyson company today earns over 1 billion in sales annually.

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