By Wayne Wilson
Most owner/CEOs are control freaks. They started businesses and became successful because: they were tired of working for someone else; they had a great idea; or they just wanted to do their own thing. They like being in control of what they do and when and how they do it. They like to control their own destiny.
An instinctive grasp of some key principles of success drives many owner/CEOs’ business achievements. A more explicit understanding of these success principles and how to apply them can lead to even greater success and control of your destiny.
I have experienced this phenomenon first hand. [1] Looking back on my business career, I have seen the tremendous positive impact of these principles at work, especially when they have been consciously applied.
What are some of these universal success principles [2] and how do they work? For me, these principles fall into three groups or phases: preparation, process, and power.
Here then are the five principles of preparing for
success. [3]
1. Desire / hunger is the great motivator.
Great success always begins with desire – a burning, all-consuming passion to achieve or become something. This desire or gnawing hunger is the rocket fuel, which propels you forward, enabling you to “leap tall buildings and break through walls.” [4] It drives your willingness to take chances, work long hours, and do whatever else is necessary to achieve your goal. [5]
To be effective, your desire must also be specific, tangible and quantifiable. It only works when focused like a laser beam on a specific worthy objective or goal. [6] Focused desire concentrates your energy, leverages your skills, and draws resources to you.
Your desire / hunger for success is the foundation on which great accomplishments can be built.
2. Your beliefs empower you.
After hunger must come belief. You must believe that you can and will achieve your goal, that you are worthy of achieving it and that it is your destiny to achieve it.
Strongly held beliefs empower you to take the actions necessary to achieve your success. They enable you to overcome the natural fear, uncertainty and doubt, which exist any time you attempt to do something that you have not done before.
Belief is the platform from which your success will be launched.
3. Brainwash
yourself (before someone else does).
Brainwashing usually has a negative connotation, as in a forcible indoctrination or persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship. As used here, self-brainwashing is training your mind to think in a certain productive way by staying focused on your own goals lest you be overcome by the propaganda or distractions of others.
Self-brainwashing is using auto-suggestion or affirmation to regularly and intentionally think about, repeat, and affirm your beliefs and goals in your own mind so that they become firmly implanted.
Think of it as programming your mental computer (your sub-conscious mind) to seek out the resources and perform the tasks necessary to accomplish your goals.
4. Dream big dreams.
Your imagination is the greenhouse in which the seedlings of your vision grow and mature until they are ready to be transplanted to your life. Dream small and the results will be small; dream big and the results will be big.
Big dreamers are the architects of great innovations, new technologies, and powerful ideas. They imagine and visualize what the world would be like if only…. Big dreamers constantly demonstrate the power of mind over matter with a steady stream of new ideas and creations.
Most people dream – if they dream at all – passively or reactively. Big dreamers dream consciously with passion and purpose to change the world, as well as their own lives.
5. Multiple minds matter.
You have probably heard the expression “two heads are better than one.” Andrew Carnegie called it his mastermind alliance. Carnegie claimed to personally know very little about the steel business, but “in his employ were men who knew everything there was to know about the making and marketing of steel.” [7]
Few people become successful solely as a result of their own efforts. Successful people receive help from many other people either directly or by building on the work of those who came before. The truly successful have a regular group of confidantes and advisors who support them while also challenging their ideas and plans, thereby sharpening and strengthening those ideas and plans. [8]
The power of a mastermind alliance is in the verbal and mental give and take of the group interaction and debate.
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Employ these five principles and prepare your mind for the great success that will enable you to control your own destiny.
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Wayne
Wilson is
the Principal of Wayne Wilson & Company, a business advisory services firm
providing executive coaching and advisory services on growth-related issues to
owner/CEOs of middle market companies. For more information, visit http://www.waynewilson.com.
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Notes
[1] I first became consciously aware of these principles listening to audiotapes of Napoleon Hill’s The Science of Personal Achievement, published by Nightingale-Conant Corp. A renowned writer, speaker, and lecturer, Hill was the author of the seminal work, Think and Grow Rich, originally published in 1937.
[2] Among the many other authors who have written about the principles of success and personal achievement, one of my favorites is the late Earl Nightingale, a successful radio personality, author and lecturer. Nightingale published a fascinating distillation of the core underlying principle of success in The Strangest Secret, originally recorded in 1956 for the associates at his insurance company.
[3] This article is the first of a three-part series. Subsequent articles will address the Success Process and the Power of Success.
[4] With apologies to Superman.
[5] Someone once questioned me about an unusual client project. My response was that I would do anything a client asked me to do – as long as it was not unethical, immoral, or illegal AND they paid me!
[6] Some people may have goals or objectives that many of us would not deem to be worthy or honorable. Whether these principles should or do apply to such endeavors is beyond the scope of this article.
[7] As quoted by Napoleon Hill in The Science of Personal Achievement.
[8] Mastermind alliances may include your spouse, a partner, a kitchen cabinet, an advisory board, a formal board of directors, or a group of like-minded individuals who meet on a regular basis to discuss common problems and challenges.
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Copyright © 2008 Wayne Wilson & Company. All Rights Reserved.
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