Studying Success

Get over the hurdles.

2007-07-24T09:55:00.000+02:00

It happens to all of us. Obstacles. They get in our way; they block our planned path to success. They are everywhere. The trick to get over and passed them lies in your view of them.

How do you perceive them? As mountains, or as hurdles?

Imagine yourself standing at the base of a mountain. You look up, and you see nothing BUT the mountain. You cannot see past the mountain. This might be frustrating if you are not a big fan of mountains!

Now imagine this. You are on a track. You can only occupy a single lane and the lane is littered with hurdles. You know you have to cross them. Standing upright, you can look over the hurdles to see the finish line. Crutch, and you can peer under them and again, also see the finish line. The point is, you see where you have to go: You'll head to the finish line, compensating for the hurdles.

The trick lies in your perception of the obstacles. Mountains seem daunting, so picture them as hurdles, mere barriers that can be jumped over, pushed over or be crawled through (if you do not believe in your jumping abilities!). See the goal, and plan for the hurdles.

Image courtesy of Getty Images.

Quantify your goals

2007-07-21T11:17:00.000+02:00

Pie-in-the-sky goals are a waste of your time. Make sure you can quanntify all your goals.

Example: Do not say: "I would like to loose weight". Rather say: "I would like to loose 20 pounds before Dec 31, 2007."

This gives your mind a clear direction and destination. Now you will know how much and by when: The most important equations in actually reaching your goals.

How much and When.

Weekend exercises to success

2007-07-14T08:57:00.000+02:00

It's the weekend baby!

Okay, although your weekends are sacred, "your time", but it is also the perfect opportunity to write down goals or review old ones. During the week you should be "Working the Plan", but weekends should used for "navigational" purposes. Take stock of what you did during the past week (Did you move closer or further away from your goal?) and plan for the week to come.

Use 20 minutes of your Saturday or Sunday to do this.

Getting into a habit - First rule in perseverance

2007-07-12T16:06:00.000+02:00

Have you ever heard someone say it takes 21 days to get into a new habit or break down an old one? Well, they are right. However, studies show that you are eight times more likely to succeed in creating a new habit if you do the action (habit) for four consecutive days.

Example: If you want to get into the habit of exercising regularly, start by going to the gym for four consecutive days. Don’t skip a day. After the four days, you may skip a day, but persevere for the first four. You are now eight times more likely to create a habit of exercising regularly!

Getting solutions to problems while sleeping!

2007-07-11T09:06:00.000+02:00

One of the odities in life is the old adage:

Seek and ye shall find

Try this tonight. Before you go to bed, write down a question to which you are seeking an answer. Phisically write it down in a small notepad and leave it, with the pen on your nightstand. Repeat the question in your brain. Try to come up with the answer. Chances are you won't have it. Now go to bed.

The next day, when you wake up, look at the notepad and start writing down what you think the answer is. Strangely enough, 6 out of 10 times, ou come up with a meaningful answer to your question!

While you were sleeping, your subconsious did not. It kept on working on the answer to your pressing question, giving you the answer when you wake.

Note. The subconsious can only give you good answers if you feed your brain with new info quite often. If you are an accountant, don't expect your brain to come up with the answer to a nuclear Physics question, and visa versa. But if the answer is within your abilities, but you just do not seem to get to it while thinking about it: Use this metod. You might just be pleasantly surprized.

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Success Factor no1

2007-07-09T11:09:00.000+02:00

To succeed, you have to burn with a desire to succeed! You have to envy the things you want and with a burning passion in your veins, go for it.

Be specific in what your needs are. Write it down. Read it often.

Warren Buffett - Success and Integrity goes hand-in-hand

2007-06-11T15:04:00.000+02:00

I have my favourite Billionaires: Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Sheldon Adelson and George Lucas. All of them have made their fortunes doing what they love: Whether through software, the Internet, great branding, conferences or great movies. They each had that one thing that they became the best at. However none has got success down to an art like mr Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett, the world’s best investor and second richest man has made his fortune of being, 1, smart and 2, patient. When buys stock as an investment, he does so for the long haul. In his words:

“You should invest like a Catholic marries – For Life”

See it like a football game: His team is a great running team without a field goal kicker. He rushes to get to first down, without ever needing to kick in the fourth play. He does not go for the long, risky Quarterback throw, he moves slowly forward with his offence. And his team is always in the final.

His books are filled with lessons in success: He tells in one of his books that integrity and reputation is everything. That you can build your reputation for twenty years and loose it in five minutes: Therefore do not ever be greedy just to make an extra buck. He prides himself that he has no regrets. Every transaction he made seemed the best at the time and he never compromised his integrity in any of them.

If you ever want to read a good biography, read his. (I think there are three different biography titles out for him). He led an interesting life, making his first investment of $38 at the age of 11! I’ll keep quoting him, since I believe his life is a life worth modelling your own after.

Chase testimonials and the success will follow.

2007-06-05T12:08:00.000+02:00

If you are like me, you love to get compliments, right? Well I got a couple yesterday. I've started my own business recently and the purpose of this blog is to keep a journal of what (if any) aspects make my business successful. That is where copliments come in: It kinda shows you what you are doing right.

FACT! Testimonials are THE best form of marketing message you can use. 95% of us are followers and the other 5% are innovators. People are eight times more likely to use a product/service if they know someone else that had to make the same decision, were eventually satisfied.

For that reason, I use a REAL testimonial in all my ads. Since I've been using it my responses on all my ads have increased dramatically. But to place a different testimonial in my ads every week, I had to start chasing testimonials.

And what did you thank happened? I started treating every client like a person that may supply me with my next testimonial. Service quality improved and I have a whole lot more happy clients. And happy clients tend to tell other people about your product/ service. And it all snowballs on you.

I cannot wipe this huge grin from my face!

Provide value to every person you meet. Study Success. And ask questions.

Happy Testimonial hunting.

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Talk and get Rich

2007-06-01T12:25:00.000+02:00

Sometimes just merely verbalizing a goal is the first and most important step in achieving it. So go out and tell someone about it. Get someone that will listen. Tell them the details of the plan. You will realise that by verbalizing it, you will yourself fill in the blanks of your plan. You will start to visualise the destination. The clearer the visual mind image, the easier it is to work towards it.

Do One Thing Everyday - Reaching your Goals

2007-06-01T10:22:00.000+02:00

It sounds so simple, but it's probably the best piece of advice I've ever heard. Do one thing everyday. If you would like to become succesfull, the first step is to know where you are going. Visualize the end destination. Whether it's a lifestyle, a bank balance or the security of a balanced lifestyle: Know the destination...

... and then...

Do One Thing Everyday

Nike said it best: "Just Do It". By taking one step, no matter how insignificant, towards the end destination is the key to getting there. After a while the one thing you did that day will start building on all the things you did previously and you will start to get momentum.

Momentum is the prequal to success. I'm loving life right now, because I've reached that momentum.

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Success comes after you move yourself outside your own comfort zone

2007-05-30T09:02:00.000+02:00

Unless you try to do somethingbeyond what you have already mastered, you will
never grow.
- Ronald E Osborn
You probably are in a comfort zone right now: You know where your next checque comes from. Most of the time, success only came to the successful after they have been kicked out of their comfort zone and they were forced to create their own destiny.
Neccessity creates creativity

Who is Rich?

2007-05-30T08:59:00.000+02:00

Who is Rich? He that rejoices in his portion

Benjamin Franklin

The Ultimate Measure of Success & The ULTIMATE GOAL

2007-05-11T15:59:00.000+02:00

What is the ultimate measure of success? What is the one thing the ultra successful spend more money on? Charity.

You know you’ve reached the pinnacle of success when you can devote a large part of your time and money on charity. Bill Gates and his wife Melinda can say they’ve reached the pinnacle. So can Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man and best private investor. Oprah Winfrey is living the enchanted life as so many ultra successful people have been doing before her.

After devoting your life to success in a field, there is no better reward than giving back to people less fortunate. Warren Buffett has created such a successful career, that today he can give away 85% of his income every year! THIS is what I’m going to refer to as the ULTIMATE GOAL. I have decided to make it mine. Yes, I would like to own most of the things I profile in my other blog, Lifestyles of the Rich, but I would like to, at the end of my career give away in abundance. Don’t you? It’s the most rewarding expense you can make. Don’t you agree?

Let me tell you: The one secret to success is to always give. Give and you shall receive. If you have a blog or your own web site, you will know this. If you want a good ranking in Google or any other search engine, you have you have outbound links in order to get traffic. Promote someone else’s site and the favour will be retuned. Not always from the site you link to, but from places like Google. Life works the same. If you are willing to give away a small portion of your wealth to a good cause, life will reward you with so much more. Not always in the way you’d expect, but it always does.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are funded by the Gates family and secondary by donations from Warren Buffett. Above is a photo of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (The world’s two richest men). The foundation supports causes such as education, HIV/ Aids, public libraries and science.

Above is a photo of Oprah Winfrey with South African children for whom she has built a new school.

I'll bet you that these three individuals derive more pleasure from making these donations than from making the billions! This is success’ ULTIMATE GOAL!

What it is all about...

2007-05-11T15:19:00.000+02:00

Welcome to Studying Success.

“If you surround yourself with success stories, some of that success might just rub off on you!”

I do believe this is true: If you keep reading about success, you will be able to learn to identify opportunities that could lead to success. Why? Because learning what the ONE event was that changed successful people’s lives/ careers, the CATALYST event, will help you concentrate to find your own. In the blog I will share my research with the world, so that we all could go for more, more often. Read profiles of people I find to be successful and inspiring.

The blog idea was a natural progression from my other blog, Lifestyles of the Rich.

How do you become Rich? How did people become rich? Does wealth necessarily equate to success? Could you be successful and not be wealthy? How does personal growth equate into business success? These are just some of the questions I am going to try to answer.