Lauren – my daughter was having her school holidays and as is the custom for the “spoilt kids of these days”, I had to therefore take her on holiday (she likes Caravans so we went to a Caravan park near Poole, in the South of England). The park hardly had WIFI.
Success begins with the right mindset
The other week I shared what I consider to be one of the most important pieces of advice you will ever get on marketing – FREE marketing strategies from Chris Cardell a millionaire and one of the world’s leading marketing experts – who I subscribe to.
I do not usually repeat messages I provide but this is so important.
Did the link work okay? If not, let me know. Did you write down the strategies as you listened? Are you applying some of them now?
The link to the audio seminar is here again. Please remember as i mentioned at the time, once you finish listening:
- Do something now.
- Speak to us if you need to fine tune your strategy.
Now onto this week’s subject…. Luck and success?
If you are of a certain age, you will most likely be well conversant with this man… Dirty Harry.
For the record, that is the younger Clint Eastwood in his iconic role from the 1971 movie which started the iconic Dirty Harry series and of course the famous quote:
“You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
I sometimes get “hate mail” – particularly of people who say I shouldn’t give this “nonsense of business success” as it’s all luck or more-so: “in the hands of God”.
This I believe is simply an excuse for “punks” – to be lazy and not act, hence blaming someone else – in this case God for withholding blessings or their “bad luck” etc.
Just to clarify – it’s true that there are many aspects of success that are outside our control (hence luck, fate or God’s blessings) BUT that is no excuse to sit back and wait for this luck to: “pour like manna from heaven.”
We can actually start doing things today to Prepare and hence achieving success (and God will add to it) – but we need to start somewhere – by freeing our minds – like Neo in “The Matrix”
Small changes
I was reading the American blog of Mr. Money Mustache – a man who retired at the age of 30 after saving $1million dollars – FROM SAVING 50-75% OF HIS SALARY over a 10 year period. I was very inspired because he suggested simple stuff like:
- Start living closer to your work (and walk or cycle there to save fuel)
- Cut out your pay TV/cable bill
- Stop buying expensive coffee from the Starbucks of this world.
His logic was simple:
Little cost savings add up, and then when you start seeing savings add up on small things, you start saving even more, at an accelerated pace until it reaches a “tipping point”.
Well so I started my own expense cut backs, very little changes (like buying cheaper food or eating at home instead of ordering takeaway) and guess what, I STARTED FEELING INSPIRED TO MAKE GREATER CHANGES – including those unconnected to saving money.
One of the things, I always wanted to do (but had been lazy) was get fitter/trimmer in certain areas (again as you get to a certain age, the weight piles on try as hard as you can).
So, with my new found saving enthusiasm, about 3 weeks ago, I started walking – about 10 – 12 km, almost every day!
Don’t believe me? Check out my recent walk statistics from when I was in the little town of St. Helier, Jersey.
Just to put this into perspective, the Olympic record for walking (20 km) is 1 hour 17 minutes and 16 seconds. That averages 3.858 minutes per Km.
So if you look again at my walk statistics, I have averaged 5.06 minutes per km already – just from 1 week!
Meanwhile just 2 days before I was doing 9.08 minutes per km, an almost 100% improvement!
And that is just from the strategy I learnt from Mr. Money Mustache which is based on the concept of “The Magic of Thinking Big.”
There is something else which contributed to my significantly improved performance – my walking partner – Aileen
You see when I walked on my own, I did okay – hence the 9.08 minutes per hour, but when I walked with her, almost the same distance, there was a tremendous improvement!
Aileen is a walking champion and so she acted like my mentor during that week. It was her who told me when I was sometimes lazy or too tired to walk – “No man, it starts in the mind”.
What does this have to do with business success?
The two success principles which I have applied in my life, can be applied in business. They go as follows:
- Start making small changes – they add up and help you achieve bigger ones, the ones you are scared of.
- Get a mentor – someone who believes in you and can inspire you to achieve great things than you thought possible.
It is these success principles that need to be learnt and it’s only when they are, that another element can kick in to take you even further – Luck or if you prefer, God’s blessings.
[related_posts]So you gotta ask yourself this question (hopefully after you apply the success principles)
Do you feel lucky? Do ya?
Kind regards Dickson E Wasake
P.S: Lauren doesn’t wear spectacles – she just wanted to look “intelligent.”
Aileen is Irish – perhaps it was her Irish luck that helped my walk? I kid of course. But please note, I needed to protect her identity, Aileen is not her actual name – but the picture portrayed is a true representation of her.
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