Success is Easy… When You Know HOW
I received many requests following last week blog post about what successful people DON’T DO to follow it up with what do they DO.
I believe success is easy… when you know HOW. I believe that success leaves footprints if you look at those people that are successful in your opinion. If you follow them, and I don’t mean stalking them, but learning from them what they did, how they think, what was their mindset, you will be able to create similar success in your life, if not bigger.
Success is easy… when you have role models that you can learn from. They would show you the way. You would still have to walk it, but it would be easier as they have already created the path for you. This is why role models are so important.
So let’s have a look at some of those successful people and see what can you learn from them.
1. Solve a Problem
The definition of an entrepreneur is “someone who solves a problem for a profit”.
Peter Guber, former CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, was in his mid-twenties as a new hire at Columbia Pictures when he realized that the way the studio heads were selecting directors was based on an old mode of thinking instead of real data.
He then decided to find a solution for this old problem. His solution was so simple that very fast it created a buzz that everyone was talking about it.
All he did was get a corkboard and create a matrix where on one side he wrote down all the directors in Hollywood and next to it horizontally all the relevant information about them. You need to remember, that was before the days of Google and Wikipedia…
Guber says that his motto is: “You are in the ‘problem solving’ business—always. That’s the way it works.” This was a key trait that allowed Guber to go from being a new hire at Columbia pictures to the studio chief—in just three years.
What problems do you solve with your product or services? What opportunities can you create to add value to the people that you help? This mindset would bring you faster and closer to the success you are looking for.
2. Focus
One of the main problems entrepreneurs and business owners have is having too many ideas, too many projects that they love to do, too many directions to follow and certainly too much interruptions and distractions from the outside world.
In order to be successful you need to choose and focus on one thing at a time and get that working.
J.K. Rowling didn’t have an easy time getting the first Harry Potter book published.
One publisher advised her to get a day job, because she had little chance of making a living as an author.
Instead of taking this advice and letting a day job sidetrack her efforts, she stuck with what she really felt was important. She focused on that ONE project that was her passion and she believed in.
3. Do Whatever it Takes
Most people would like to be successful. However, not many would be willing to do whatever it takes to reach that success they dream about. Most people prefer being comfortable than being successful.
Sugar Ray Leonard who was a six-time world champion boxer knows what it means to do whatever it takes. He shares that as a child when all his friends and siblings would step up to the schools bus and go to school, he would run behind the bus all the way to school.
“The other kids thought I was crazy,” Leonard says, “because I would run in the rain, snow—it didn’t matter. I did it because I didn’t just want to be better than the next guy, I wanted to be better than all the guys.”
Sugar Ray Leonard did whatever it took even when others thought it was irrational. At the end it turns out irrational commitment leads to irrational success.
Are you doing whatever it takes to get to your success?
4. Don’t Follow the Herd
If you were following me for a while you probably know by now that I am a big believer of not following the herd and using UN-Common sense in business.
One of my heroes is Tim Ferris, who is a great example of doing it in the UN-Common sense. In his early twenties, Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, was running an online sports nutrition company and realized that he would be risking his businesses’ survival if he followed the industry standard of accepting payment up to twelve months after the product was shipped.
“Everyone followed those rules,” Ferriss says. “I realized I was inviting disaster and financial ruins if I risked my cash flow that way by following the standard protocol, so I insisted on prepayment.
Ask yourself what rules in your industry you accept as fact. Why do you follow them?
5. Turn Strangers into Friends
At the end of the day in order for you to become successful in your business you’ll need to follow the cycle of marketing. Turning strangers into friends. Turning friends into clients and turning clients into ambassadors.
The first step is turning strangers into friends. No one did it better than Steven Spielberg. “Steve knew at that early age that filmmaking is not just filming—it’s a people game. And he played it well,” said producer William Link.
He would directly approach directors and Hollywood stars on the studio lot and ask them to lunch. And keep in mind—Spielberg was only nineteen years old at the time.
While he definitely had talent on his side, so did handfuls of other aspiring directors. What helped Spielberg become the youngest director signed to a long-term studio deal was his focus on building relationships. This has nothing to do with “networking”; this has to do with making friends and focusing on people.
Now I’m curious….
Which of those points would you implement in your business to make it more successful?
Share it with us in the comment box below – what steps would you take to make your business grow?
Those that would share with us their steps will get from me a gift… an Audio program to reprogram your mind to success
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Have a magical week! Vered
