This site and my first book, iSucceed: secrets for the average joe and jane, were created with one purpose in mind: To help give people tools to achieve more.
I started off focusing on two major areas; self-development and business management. I thought that these two areas would give me the most bang for the buck.
I started out reading the big names in the industry, namely Tony Robbins, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki.
Once I had gone through a lot of their material I decided to expand my horizons and started reading some of the lesser known names and I was absolutely blown away with what I found.
The big names biggest contribution is spreading their word to the masses and I still do pick up their material, but these days I prefer to go with the specialists in their respective areas.
What many people might be surprised to learn is that Keith Cunningham is actually the most popular speaker at Tony Robbins Wealth Mastery. Rumor has it that Cunningham is supposedly the Rich Dad that Kiyosaki refers to in his landmark book – Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
So what started out as a study in business management slowly changed.
These days my focus is divided into 4 categories:
- Self-Development
- Marketing
- Investing
- Time management
It is my personal belief that self-development is the key to success in any field. In many ways it’s the glue that keeps things together.
It teaches us how to manage the single most important component: ourselves.
No matter how much you learn about management, sales, or marketing you are always there. Your emotions will come into play so our emotions must, as Jim Rohn once said, “go to school.”
That being said, one shouldn’t stop there.
To achieve success in business one must then venture out and learn sales, leadership, marketing and time management.
Just the other day I came across a good marketing book, but reading it I realized that many of the principles contained within it linked directly back to self-development.
The author talked about how to have a successful marketing campaign, there are some “~ents” to consider, but these can be applied to nearly every area of our lives.
- Have commitment
- Consistent
- Investment
- Confident
- Be patient
Regardless of what business you’re in to be a success we need to have commitment. Commitment could also be described as dedication. Commitment is doing something no matter what. Sick, you fight through it. Tired, you fight through it.
In order to do so, you need to have passion for what you are doing. Some people are in it for the money, this rarely works.
Passion is something customers feel. You can tell when someone loves their job because they have passion in their voice, in the actions, in everything they do.
Passion is also contagious.
Consistent refers to not trying to continually change. Customers like to know that if anything goes wrong that the company will be there for them. In essence, aftercare.
If one week you’re doing one thing and the next another, then people wonder what the heck you’re after and begin to lose trust in you. Once trust is gone, it’s almost impossible to get back.
Investment is being willing to put in the time, the energy and money into our efforts.
It’s one thing to say you’re going to be a success. It’s another to do it.
Saying you’ll do 100 push-ups a day is easy, but actually doing them isn’t quite as easy.
You must be willing to put your money where your mouth is.
If you want to achieve success at anything, then go full out. Even if you don’t succeed, you will have given it your best shot.
So many people do just enough, then wonder what went wrong.
They lay blame wherever they can when they should be looking in the mirror.
Confidence is in many ways the opposite of fear. The more confident we are, the less fear we have. We need confidence because time and time again our resolve will be tested.
Customers, friends, family, you’ll be amazed at everything you’ll have to overcome to achieve what you want.
The good news – it’s all worth it.
Patience is simply having faith that everything will work out. Despite the ups and downs of every business that if you just keep at it things will work out.
It’s easy when things are going well, but when things take a turn for the worse that tests our meddle.
There you have it – 5 “ents” to consider when building your better life.
Now all you have to do is put them to use.
Adrian Shepherd