#1) Be Passionate. You need to eat, sleep and breathe what you do! Best case is to be totally consumed with your passion! Do what you love to do. If you don’t love it, then why do it? If we build careers or continue in jobs that really aren’t our passion, we’re selling ourselves short. The takeaway here is that if you really do what YOU want to do, you will be more creative, more motivated, more tuned-in, and much more likely to be very financially and personally prosperous. Have a “passion project” that you can monetize!
#2) Work Hard. Don’t ever fool yourself—success comes from really hard work. And you might find that although you’re doing all of the heavy lifting, there is satisfaction in a job well done. But remember that you need to rely on others, so make sure that you surround yourself with colleagues that share your same work ethic. Also, and I can not stress this enough, there are going to be times where you’re working your ass off and nothing is happening. That is part of the heavy lifting…the Success Gods are grading you on your dedication and character. Keep your head up and keep chipping away at it. You don’t always get paid for your hard work right away…sometimes the big payout comes on the back of a lot of payless days!
#3)Be Good. And by that, I mean damn good. Being better than anyone should be the goal! Successful people strive for greatness, not mediocrity. So push yourself (and your team) to ensure that you’ve reached your ultimate potential. And be sure to celebrate your wins, that not only breeds confidence among your team, it will keep your colleagues engaged. If you haven’t read the book from Good to Great, grab a copy.
Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses."
-Kobe Bryant
#4) Focus. Focus always proceeds success—which is not possible without a clear emphasis on what matters most. And leaders constantly need to remind themselves of this vital truth. Focus requires the pursuit of a mission and vision…this is all directly attached to knowing and having a purpose. Without a purpose you can’t create a roadmap or a game plan
to achieve any type of success.
#5) Push the Limits. “Far too many people don’t excel in life because they are too afraid of taking the necessary steps to achieve their dreams. Some manifest fear as a safeguard from failure; others don’t even try, believing that they are restricted by limits;
while too many get caught up in the status quo.”
Don’t constrain yourself to thinking inside of the box and don’t allow fear to get in your way. Today, people expect more than ordinary so you need to be extraordinary to get noticed and build strong relationships with your target market. Whether you sell a product or service,
you must deliver the utmost experience.
#6) Create Ideas. In addition to service: ingenuity, authenticity, and forward thinking will ultimately drive your ideas for success forward. It is important to know what you want to do (in general terms) but you also have to create ideas on how to turn your ideas into a hard reality. It’s one thing to think about it…it’s another to execute on it. Be in a constant Idea Generation State. Create new ideas. Revisit your old ones. Refine the ideas that you have already turned into a reality. Aspiration is part of the creative process. As Steve Jobs said, You must always continue to innovate, especially in a competitive market space. Push the envelope when it comes to idea creation.
#7) Be Persistent. Puff Daddy once said “ Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop” That has to be your mantra…you have put in the work every single day! There will be time where it seems that things aren’t working, and you’ll want to give up. But you can’t. You have to be persistent! Business development and entrepreneurship should be built out of love—and any great love requires passion and persistence to capture your dream. Although you will experience setbacks and failures, you will also find success and triumph.
Life is composed of ups and downs. Learning to get through the downs is key to being successful. Without obstacles, difficulties, struggles, and challenges, life wouldn't make much sense. You become stronger, more compassionate, and more grateful when you strongly believe in your capacity to persevere!!
