14 Excellent Bits of Advice for Success
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Written by Jimmie Burroughs Email to a friend
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Most of us receive our share of advice from parents, and friends, and sometimes from those who aren’t our friends. The easiest thing to do is just to ignore it all, and do our own thing, and that is also the most unwise thing to do. Of course, not, all advice is good advice; wisdom tells us which to keep and which to discard. Parental advice is usually good, but not always. If Bill gates had accepted his parent’s advice, there would have been no Microsoft Corporation, at least by Bill Gates. Jim Rohm, an expert on success, said, “We attract success by becoming an attractive person.” The best advice for successyou will ever getis the advice that helps you to become a more attractive person. Below are 14 excellent bits of advice for success:
1. Don’t be afraid to try.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better; the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat,” -Theodore Roosevelt. When surveyed, a group of retirees was asked what they regretted most about their life. The most frequent reply was being afraid to try new things.
2. Learn to trust
”You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life,” –Steve Jobs. Responsibility means doing the things that generally bring the right results. This often requires trust. Your knowledge, experience, and confidence forms the foundation for that trust.
3. Be objective
”The problem is one of opposition between subjective and objective points of view. There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality. But often what appears to a more subjective point of view cannot be accounted for in this way. So either the objective conception of the world is incomplete, or the subjective involves illusions that should be rejected,” -Thomas Nagel. I was discussing a particular product with a lady, and she was telling me that she would never buy that particular product and therefore didn’t think anyone else would either. That was right after the product was first introduced to the market. Her response is a prime example of subjective opinion. She mistakenly judged others response by her own. She was wrong; the product became a great hit. Success is a result of being able to see things objectively, being able to measure others response without being swayed by one’s own opinion.
4. Expect to fail often
“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it,” -Oprah Winfrey.
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly,” -John F. Kennedy.
“I didn’t fail the test; I just found 100 ways to do it wrong,” -Benjamin Franklin.
A fear of failing keeps many from ever succeeding. Failure often paves the road to success. Everyone fails at some time or the other, but it those who refuse to let failure stop them that are the successful ones.
5. Don’t be afraid to be yourself…stand out from the crowd
“Don’t dare to be different, dare to be yourself; if that doesn’t make you different then something is wrong. All progress occurs because people dare to be different [by being themselves],” -Harry Miller. God made each of us a unique person. Our uniqueness is what sets us apart from everyone else, and by being our authentic self, we become attractive to others. By becoming attractive, we attract success.
6. Make friends first…business later
We all have an “aversion” to being sold to by a salesman, but we all want to buy. To distinguish yourself from your competitors, you must have a unique approach based on established relationships that you have nurtured who will want to buy from you when the timing is right. When making friends becomes more important than business, we know that success is right around the corner.
7. Learn how to be a conversationalists
“Remember that the first goal of any conversation is to earn the right to have a next conversation!” Having the next conversation and the next one etc. builds relationships. Relationships are what give life zest and meaning. Success follows when others needs become more important than our own needs.
8. Success is about finding ways of addressing a customer’s needs better than your competitors and then addressing it. When supplying the needs of others becomes our objective, the rest is easy, the checks arrive, and success flows easily and natural. Be concerned about what would make a customer happier and better off, and you will also be happier and better off.
9. Find a valuable product that many want and need.
The reason why Facebook, Microsoft, Myyearbook, and many others are so successful today is because they are products that a lot of people wanted and needed. If you can’t create one, find one that someone else has created and bring it to others.
10. The essence of business is finding prospects and connecting with them.
No prospects, no relationship, no business. So, building successful businesses is a matter of learning how to find prospects, and then building a relationship with them. Learn to relate with people where they are. Be genuinely concerned about them.
11. Show interest in others first. They are the main attraction, not you.
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” -Athony Tjan. When others see that you are interested in them, then they become interested in you, and it is never the other way around.
12. Cultivate a strong work ethic; this is a gift that my parents instilled in me
“Thousands of people could have done the same thing that Bill Gates did, at the same time. But they didn’t…How many of them changed their life plans–and cut their sleep to near zero, essentially inhaling food so as not to let eating interfere with work–to throw themselves into writing Basic for the Altair? How many defied their parents, dropped out of college and moved to Albuquerque to work with the Altair?” -Jim Collins. Laziness and apathy are the enemies of success. Hard work alone does not necessarily bring success, but success rarely comes without it.
13. Have a pay-it-forward attitude…the best kind of gratitude
You would think that more would have discovered this excellent advice by now, but the truth is that few have. Gratitude remains the rarest quality of the human race. If you develop it, you will be miles ahead of your competitors.
14. Be alert to all that is around you
“…People miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner, and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through the newspaper determined to find certain job advertisements and, as a result, miss other types of jobs…People [who] are more relaxed and open… see what is there, rather than just what they are looking for,” – Richard Wiseman. It’s possible to be so focused on one thing until we miss what is the most important. Jesus once said, “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.” It’s easy to gain everything but lose all purpose for living. The joy of life is more important than the things of life. Nevertheless, things in their proper perspective can enhance joy.
Conclusion
All of us are products of what we have learned from others, whether it is our parents, teachers, bosses, mentors, etc. What separates the prosperous individual for the looser is the driving desire to learn as much form others as possible, and never refusing the input of others. If you want to be successful at something, learn from someone who is already successful in that area. A know it all attitude restricts a person to their own limited little world of knowledge and restricts them from the growth that can excel them.
Determining the good advice from the bad advice requires wisdom which takes time and experience to gain. Sometimes we do take bad advice and fail. When that happens, we learn from it and continue on, and become a little wiser.
About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a motivational speaker and author who has been involved in teaching Christian Personal Development for more than 30 years. There are hundreds of articles to help you on this website (Website Contents ) in your personal growth.
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