entrepreneurs – Page 55 – Success Strategies

20 Reasons Success Eludes Some

Why do some people succeed, while others don’t? It’s simple. Success means hard work, dedication, and the drive to achieve goals. Athletes, entrepreneurs, and high achievers do not just rise up and achieve success. No…they are products of resilience… that never-give-up attitude. In this season of Olympics pump, many are inspired by the stories of athletes around the world who have joined the ranks of the best of the best globally. Success Vista’s founder Ibibo Justin‘s invitation for guest post tugged at the reminder of the reasons success eludes some people.

Many have explored the paths to success to unveil the answers for those whose appetites long to devour its true meaning. To those standing at a crossroad uncertain of which way to go; and to those who hide beneath the Surface their feelings of fear, apprehension, and apathy, success seems distant.

Shane is not alone in her writings that success leaves clues, trails and signs. Whatever the goal …be it to achieve success in business, personal relationships, sports or more, we should strive through thick and thin. Most well-known successful people including my favorite writer Stephen King, never gave up when the going got tough. They stuck to it through thick and thin. That said, we reflect on success that at its core refers to the achievement of wealth, honors or the like. Failure on the other hand refers to the lack of success, or more specifically the omission of expected or required action.

So here are 20 insights into the behaviors and actions of people who Success seems to elude. These have been pulled from a few individuals including the likes of Kayiba Mpoyi, Stephen Guise, Deborah Shane, and my own book on Success Strategies as gleaned from phenomenological study. Ibibo revealed the top 6 Qualities of Successful People. Here, we look at the reasons people fail to succeed:

Underestimate time management.

Successful people learn how to say No. They know which commitments to take on to achieve great success in areas of their lives.

Have misaligned Goals. They mistake busyness for productivity. They want to be a part of everything and in the process do nothing that aligns with their goals. This undermines success.

Have self-imposed limitations

People who are not successful often say things like “I’m not good with numbers”; “I hate studying”; and “I can’t run a successful business”.

Have little social IQ.

They don’t know how to treat others and say things like “well at least I’m being honest”, or “this is just the way I am, deal with it”. It’s said that you can judge a man’s character by watching how he acts when standing in a very long line and is met with bad service; or by how he reacts when you ruin his expensive items.

Procrastinate.. Never take action

They think, and think, and think… a lot. They Dream big but lack the courage to go out and get things done. My mantra…Get up! Show up! Just Do Something!

6. Can’t face adversity

Overcoming challenges not only bring us closer to our goals but they turn us into someone we never imagined. Don’t be afraid to conquer your fears and embark on new terrains. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.

They don’t plan They do not have a complete vision of their intentions. They are not specific which goes a long way in the execution of our goals.

They always Give up

They get discouraged and apathetic when they fail. Essentially, they have a failure mindset long before they even started.

10.They are scared.

They freeze just like the deer that stands fixed before the car hits.

They are always in the wrong place.

Wrong job. Wrong state. Wrong country. Everything they do they complain is wrong. It is important for them to know when to to move on to something else. Mpoyi’s observation is for real….humans do not have the capacity to be successful at all things.

They don’t care

Apathy can infect any area of our lives and when it strikes it produces failure. The scariest part is how contagious it is. It spreads to other areas of our lives. Beneath the surface, apathetic friends can also infect us.

14. They are unwilling or too slow to change

15. They become irrelevant.

16.They have a bad attitude

17. They have skill gaps.

18. They have not developed a unique personal brand.

19. They lack discipline, focus and balance.

20. They lack a deep sense of belief in themselves

People who success eludes are more numerous than we can imagine. More importantly, it’s sad to see people with amazing potential …give up. Really it is. But not so obvious are individuals who internalize things and therefore their true feelings may not always be evident. As Myopi said very well, sometimes it is the guy in the cubicle with the $90K salary, who accepts misery because it comes with a fat paycheck.

Today, make a change. Be inspired. Stop thinking. Take action. Then success…how ever you define it… is highly guaranteed. Make that move right now.

Cheers!

World’s Top 50 Greatest Leaders

Surprise, surprise. Fortune released the annual list of World’s Greatest Leaders and it makes an interesting read.

Time Out…

Peace, quiet, calm, serenity. That’s what weekends, holidays, vacations are for. To reboot, unwind, and get back in the game.

As workaholics, we don’t often do it. We feel it’s a Luxury that we cannot afford. Still, we spend time wishing, hoping, even complaining at times. But we can do anything that we put our minds to. And …relaxing is one of the most important things to do.

So plan a getaway! Or a Staycation! It will work wonders for your mind, your work, your business, career, and your life.

Breathe.

To Lead. To Wade. Darkness

To lead, to Wade…Darkness. Life’s unexpected changes often knock us off our feet. Business fail. Sudden job loss, relationship spiral, sickness, accidents, natural disasters, tragic losses. These changes knock us off our feet causing darkness in our souls, our lives, our all. We look around and all we see is gloom and doom.

Questions abound often going unanswered. Why? Why didn’t we listen? Why weren’t we forewarned? …Then how. How could this happen? How could we have not seen, or heard? How can they not care?

Enter the example of the ‘sudden’ departure of Basketball’s Icon Dwayne Wade from the Miami Heat . The why’s, the how’s, and the blames reign. Answers provide little comfort as he walks behind the heels of those gone before.

That’s how it is with change. It throws us off balance and causes alarm, cries, and sighs. We want things back the way they were!

But often there are warning signs.

So today activate your senses. Keep your eyes wide open…see. Keep your ears attuned. Look around. Listen. Often the signs are very evident if only we are in tune.

Stay healthy. Stay alert. Stay focused. As darkness draws nigh, we always see the sun setting.

Peace.

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/darkness/”>Darkness</a>

I Write Because….

I now write with that sense of urgency to get what’s inside of me ….I write because I have learned from the mistakes and mishaps of others.

I write because…hmmm…I don’t know (smile). I have never really given much thought to it. Maybe it’s because it’s in me and I love doing it! I’m at peace when I write. I write because maybe there’s a Focused sense of urgency. Throughout my life I remember my mom ‘writing‘ her book. Her story. She wrote in hardcover note books, pieces of paper, typewriter. Then years later she died with her story still inside.

I write because my sister too wanted to write her story. Ravished by cancer, she was hardly able to concentrate. A teacher by profession, she wrote in journals, in her phone, computer, anything she could get her hands on. Then as death drew near, she voiced her writings.

But for me as I reflect on this prompt, I now write with that sense of urgency to get what’s inside of me ….what I’m pregnant with… to give birth to the dreams, and thoughts of those who gave something deep inside of them, but wasn’t able to share. I write because I have learned from the mistakes and mishaps of others.

I gave my writing a push-start with my first common entrance exam for placement in high school back when I was only 10 years old. Even now I can remember clearly how much I enjoyed writing that short story; that essay. For me it didn’t seem like an exam. Staring at my past as I journeyed, this passion seemed to have followed me throughout life as a HR expert when I wrote policies. As a health administrator, I did all the writings for the medical practices, rummaging through those ceilings of state and federal business applications for practice management came so easy to me. Later, as I gleaned over my doctoral research, not only did I write my research but I published it my first book on Success Strategies.

With renewed zest, I now write not only for enjoyment but to encourage others that they too can accomplish whatever they want to achieve in life. I envision a world where everyone can be successful, however they define it…., whatever ‘it’ means to them. That my dear readers is why I write.

Thank you WordPress team for refining my skills to my audience. One love!

Cheers!

Bricks to Success

…… Life is a learning process and you have to try to learn what’s best for you…. life is not fun when you are banging your head against a brick wall all the time”.

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Brick means to block. Figuratively speaking, it means to eternally preserve what is inside. It can be good; it can be bad. It all depends on your perspective.

We all have dreams and aspirations we would love to become reality. But life’s challenges such as financial constraints, sickness, job loss, failure, and other agonizing surprises often hit us like a ton of bricks, and we are thrown off balance. These brainy quotes appeal to our senses. Take what you wish from these quotes … again, it all depends on your perspective.

…… Life is a learning process and you have to try to learn what’s best for you…. life is not fun when you are banging your head against a brick wall all the time”. -John McEnroe.

I just go with the flow. I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it”. -Grace Jones

TO THOSE WHO ASPIRE… ENTREPRENEURS

A closer look at the goals of aspiring entrepreneurs who may experience stumbling blocks along the way. Jeff Haden (INC) shared Ryan Robinson’s interviews with successful entrepreneurs. These individuals revealed their thoughts and ideas on the devise of reinventing the wheel on the road to self-employment.

guy_kawasaki_3 — Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist, Canva

Focus on the prototype”. No matter your background, skill set, or passion in life, starting and growing a successful business can be done with the right combination of hard work, determination, and seizing the opportunities that come your way. Having and not allowing your excuses to hold you back are major steps down the road to success.

sophia-amoruso — Sophia Amoruso, Nasty Gal…Online Vintage Clothing Line

Refuse to accept failure.

Chase Jarvis, CEO of CreativeLive

Scratch your own itch.” Go after solving a problem that you have. When things get hard if you’re not going after something near and dear to your heart, you won’t have the fortitude, and passion to stay with it.

John Acuff, New York Times bestselling author

Success takes hustle”. Hustle is an act of focus, not frenzy. Hustle is about subtraction and addition. It’s not about doing more, it’s about focusing on the things you need to do, in order to move your business forward.

Luis Howes Author of the School of Greatness. Professional athlete turned entrepreneur. Suffered injury and was forced overnight to discover a new way to live with purpose.

Follow your heart”.

Nir Eyal, author of Hooked.

Certainty is more dangerous than ignorance”. It’s up to us to see the world as it should be. When you’re sure of the way things are, that’s when you get passed up and you don’t see the opportunities real entrepreneurs envision.

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/brick/”>Brick</a>

Survival: Stories of the Rich & Famous

We often fear failures. The struggles in life are real. We have to be strong to survive. The stories of famous leaders provides food for thought. Thomas Edison developed thousands of prototypes of the light bulb before he found the one that worked. Albert Einstein was unemployed for two years after he graduated college. Like Edison and Einstein, modern day luminaries like Mark Cuban and J.K. Rowling were able to use their setbacks to push them forward. Here are several examples of extremely successful leaders who learned from their failures including a few from Aaron Taupe discussion on success and failure.

Steve Jobs had a natural ability to lead. He started his business in his parents’ garage. The company developed and grew. It attracted a board of directors that in the end fired him. Devastated but not to be deterred from his dream, Jobs started another company which focused mainly on software. Today the world enjoys his innovations ranging from Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, iMac and more.

Oprah Winfrey learned that failure is only an illusion after her cable network started off poorly. She said the worst time in her professional life came when the Oprah Winfrey Network’s (OWN) ratings plummeted a year after launch. Later, in a Harvard commencement speech, Winfrey said that she told herself repeatedly that failure is an illusion. She said “there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. When you’re down in the hole, when that moment comes, it’s really okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost—but then here’s the key; learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more of who you are. Winfrey was able to get OWN moving in the right direction, and the network gained a profit in 2013.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban prior to starting his first company, worked as a bartender, a short-order cook, and a carpenter. Cuban later told CNN that on multiple occasions, he would come home with a date only to find the electricity had been turned off by the utility company. Cuban decided to have a positive outlook about his failures and made sure to learn something from his mistakes. He told Smart Business “I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how many times you failed, you only have to be right once”. I was an idiot lots of times, and I learned from them all”.

Jay Z learned that his success needed to come from within after his second album flat-lined. Jay Z’s first album “Reasonable Doubt” is considered by many to be one of the best rap albums of all time. His second album “In My Lifetime”, wound up not being as successful commercially as his first, and he was not happy. He said “I tried to make these records that were bigger and would be more popular, which was a failure. Going for that success really messed up that project and set a bad tone. It was a huge learning lesson for me that if I was going to be successful, I had to be successful with myself. I couldn’t be successful doing what other people were doing. I had to do what I believed in and what felt real to me and true to me”.

Failure gave J.K. Rowling the freedom to pursue her art. In 1993, the Harry Potter author was an unemployed single mother who saw herself as a failure. She later said in a commencement speech at Harvard, that the experience actually helped her by getting rid of her fear of failure—which allowed her to focus on writing the stories that would ultimately become the Harry Potter novels. “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea”.

So we gather from these examples of success that if you want to be successful, you must follow your heart, your passion. If you strongly believe something in your ability; Go for it! Reach for the stars! More than likely you will achieve with dedication and hard work. To lead yourself, you must believe in your ability.

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/survival/”>Survival</a>

Fake? No! Top 100 Companies to Work for

google pic google pic2

Imagine having virtual doctor’s visits, second-opinion services, in-house breast cancer screenings; 3 organic meals prepared a day; unlimited snack plus coffee and tea; free personal fitness classes, health clinics, on-site oil change (say what??!!); haircuts, spa-truck, bike-repair-truck, nap pods, free on-site laundry rooms, and much more! Way cool right?!! It sure is! And yes, we are talking about the top company to work for …Google! Wouldn’t you just love your company to offer even a few of these awesome benefits? Here are 8 more from Fortune’s 2016 list that captured my attention.

Baptist Health South Florida

baptist health
Just imagine leaving your company, and having the ability to return within 5 years if you have a change of heart! Not only that but boomerangs are able to take advantage of a policy that allows employees to retain their seniority status and preserve their benefits! This includes retirement vesting, and paid time off-accrual. Way cool right?

Stryker

Stryker (medical device company), encourages employees to observe surgeries, attend trade shows, ride along with sales reps during customer meetings, and listen to patient stories. One employee shared “I see the face of someone who is alive because of our product, and that’s amazing”.

Southern Ohio Medical Center

Spouses, dependent and adult children of employees qualify for up to $10,500 in tuition reimbursement. Employees spend over 40,000 hours volunteering in the local community. Great example of giving back.

Workday

Celebrates Bring-your-Parents-to-Work day. Also, new employees receive a new laptop, a branded license plate cover; workday baseball game jersey, and a pair of red socks that they wear on the last day of each quarter as part of their company tradition.

Publix Supermarkets

publix

The largest employee owned company offers healthcare for part-timers, and tuition reimbursement. They automatically dump shares into stock accounts at the end of each year. Talk about ownership!

Adobe

Values giving workers time away. Employees get a paid 6 week sabbatical every 4 years! Coupled with that, Adobe celebrates weeklong shutdowns twice a year.

The Cheesecake Factory

Has a long history of promoting from within! 100% of general managers, executive kitchen managers, and area field leaders were hired internally. Not to mention that they all started in hourly paid entry level jobs.

JM Family Enterprises

Colin Brown, Chairman and CEO says a healthy culture is about taking care of one another sharing in successes, and building trusting relationships. Achieving business results and preserving the organization’s culture are not mutually exclusive objectives. At JM Family, they focus on integrating the two in everything they do. Great example of when the company does well, employees also benefit.

So give your team a boost by implementing an additional strategy or two this year. It will boost your bottom line, your organization’s culture, and have the best workers in the market knocking on your doors to come in when you’re ready to hire!

Career On The Move…Job Relocation

Moving! It’s one of the most stressful things to do! But moving for desired personal reasons including new job, new spouse (yikes!), education, and more makes the end result more gratifying! We get that Adrenalin rush because it’s something we desire. Packing those boxes, suitcases, and rummaging our belongings into trucks to go away , to Relocate…makes the journey worth the while (well at least through the honeymoon stage). I have done my fair share and have also helped many career transitioners relocate in my HR consulting role.

To make things easier, Tor Constantino shared five things to ask for when relocating for a job. These are:

1. Take a scouting trip.

Purpose: To see your new home environment of course! Look for permanent housing

while you’re at it.

2. Ask About Temporary Housing

This helps offset the burden of security deposits, and helps in finding the best option for a more permanent home without the pressure.

3. Whole house pack and transport

Some companies provide this but it is cautioned to read the fine prints. Know what it

entails and by the way, some things are tax deductible. So save receipts for gas and more.

4. Storage of Home Goods.

Some transportation companies provide storage which can be an advantage until you find your ideal home.

5.Cash Stipend for Miscellaneous Expenses

And they do come in many forms, from airfares, car rental, family dislocation (some here, some there), and the like.

Moving! Relocation! It’s hard but sometimes it cannot be helped especially when the grass seems greener on the other side. Get organized! No need to be scared, it’s not such a bad thing.

Need help? Let’s Connect!

Cheers!

Re-Energize! Where the Sea Meets the Sky

sea and sky

What’s more relaxing than being on the beach watching the line where the sea meets the sky. Listening to the sound of the waves gushing against the sand. Watching kids play.

Takes you faraway from life’s cares…doesn’t it? Tis Beautiful.

Superstitions, worries, cares of the world aside, everyone needs this time away. It makes life perfect. Meaningful. The serenity of the seaside provides a pause to life’s challenges, workflow, heartaches, sorrow, and pain. It quiets our hearts and instills the comfort needed for life’s cares, joys, goals, dreams, and aspirations.

Staycation, vacation, or whatever you wish to call it, give yourself a boost. Reinvigorate. Re-energize. It will work wonders for your goals, faith, thoughts, and aspirations. Plan your getaway soon.

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/superstition/”>Superstition</a>

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/faraway/”>Faraway</a>

I Hear Footsteps…

I hear Footsteps. It’s getting louder. It’s calling. Now shouting for some well needed time to relax.

I hear Footsteps. It’s getting louder. It’s calling. Now shouting for some well needed time to relax. Time to rejuvenate. Time to listen to the waves. Time for quiet, peace, and serenity. I hear Footsteps.

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/footsteps/”>Footsteps</a>

Fearless! Greatness!

What if I fall? Oh but my darling, what if you fly?

What if I fall? Oh but my darling, what if you fly?

Fear has crippled many. Often our dreams, goals, aspirations, and desires remain stuck by the realities of life. Yes, they may be valid concerns but it’s when we step out in spite of our fears that we achieve great things. Years ago I decided to do a tandem jump-16,000 ft in the air! Boy was I afraid! But I did it anyway. I have always encouraged my girls to be Brave. To step out inspite of their fears. I encourage them to feel the fear but do it anyway. And despite my apprehension…, despite my fear…, I jumped! and I survived with the lasting memory to feel the fear but do it anyway. That’s how I approach my life goals.

Here are a few quotes from people who have achieved great things from different walks of life. My hope is that it will encourage someone today to step out in faith and achieve your dream, your hopes, your aspirations. Go ahead, Express yourself

I think fearless is having fears but jumping anyway.

I tend to think you’re fearless when you recognize why you should be scared of things, but do them anyway.

natalie cole

Natalie Cole

My father was a pioneer in so many ways. He was fearless, and I think that I kind of picked that up from him as well.
janelle monae I feel myself becoming the fearless person I have dreamt of being. Have I arrived? No. But I’m constantly evolving and challenging myself to be unafraid to make mistakes.