What Does Success Mean to You?

If someone could give you the secrets to success, wealth and happiness, would you take them and make good use of them right now?

At the beginning of The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club Barnabas asks Simeon if he genuinely wishes for his life to change, with the words;

“Do you wish to become wealthier than you can currently comprehend, with success you cannot yet possibly dream of?”

Simeon thinks this a rather strange question, but plays along with his Uncle and is then told to imagine his personal interpretation of success and wealth.

So, before we go on;

What is your personal interpretation of success?

Don’t just skip by that question - it’s much more important than you might think.

Take a minute and attach a few names and numbers to what success actually means to you – does it include money, property, a particular job title? Does it need to be seen by other people (and if so, who?) – or is it all about how you spend your time and who you can spend it with?

Once you’ve got some answers, take the same amount of time and care with this next question;

What is your personal interpretation of wealth?

You might be wondering why those questions are so important – but the ranks of the unsuccessful are teeming with people who have never worked out what those two words really mean to them, and so never build a definitive plan to achieve either.

More importantly though, is what happens next in the book.

After imagining his version of success, Simeon is asked by his Uncle if he definitely wishes to continue to learn the secrets of success.

Which seems odd, but now that you have imagined your personal interpretation of success and wealth, if you were given the opportunity to chase them – would you?

You might be sitting there thinking of course I would, but tell me, what’s that based on?

Can you really be bothered to put all the effort into becoming extremely successful?

Are you truly up for it?

If you are – and it would be a terrible disappointment if you decided to read three paragraphs of text about becoming successful and then just gave up – then put some answers to the next couple of questions and think about the difference being that successful would make to your life – and then have a think about what’s been holding you back all this time.

• What would the new you look like?


• How would being that successful make you feel?


• If your success story would show someone from your past, that they were completely wrong about what you would one day be capable of achieving - who would that someone be? (And why is their opinion still bothering you?)


• In twenty year’s time – when you look back at your journey to success - What 3 things will you have changed, given up or missed out on to make sure you became so incredibly successful?

• If you changed those things tomorrow – which do you think you’d rather have in 20 years time - the 3 things you had to give up or your success? (it’s OK at this point to decide you don’t really think success is worth it after all)

You can read more about the seven rules of success in The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club– recently heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople here.