The Best You

Over a period of five years I have interviewed several successful people to uncover the secrets to their success. One of the many questions that I ask is “in your opinion, what is the formula for success?” Another question is “What are some lessons that you have learned so far?” I culled 10 formulas for success and 15 lessons learned to share, since learning from others, helps to shorten the learning curve.

Formulas for Success

1. I take care of myself as well as my company. When I am happy, healthy and refreshed, my business thrives!
2. Know who you are, what you are good at and what you want to accomplish. Then play to your strengths and never give up
3. Determine what success means to you personally and professionally, have a vision of what it looks like, celebrate it and maintain the energy to achieve it
4. To become successful, you have to be able to experiment and try new things. When something doesn't work out the way you expected, do not view it as failure, but as a learning experience. You learn from trial and error and by how you reshape things
5. You have to have a sense of humour and grit. Grit is the ability to keep going. When you run your own business you have to keep putting one step in front of the other, and do all the small bits of your business model, and then surprisingly, you really do win the large contracts
6. Remember where you started, who you met along the way, who helped you and who you helped, while not letting success inflate your ego. After all we are all human beings who deserve to be respected. The next step is keeping your human side in check. Make sure that you have undertaken your market research, followed by a good business plan and solid financing before you embark on your venture. With good planning, and solid financial backing you will find that all the time spent being a solid human being will pay back in spades
7. Being guided by a core set of principles creates the context for your success
8. Tenacity! People often give up too quickly. If you're focused and committed, you can weather any storm
9. Recognize a need, have a solution and understand where the customer/prospect is going to find the money to pay for the solution. There is a shortage of money. Governments create a scarcity of money. If a person doesn't have something that is less wonderful they are not going to buy your solution because they simply do not have any spare money
10. If you love what you do, the rest falls into place. Work harder than most but make sure you find time for fun to energize your creative and professional pursuits

Major Lessons Learned

1. Resentment and negative thinking harms you and prevents you from being the best you can be
2. Listen hard
3. Learning never stops
4. Staff will always leave but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't train them to do their jobs better
5. There is always another hurdle to overcome
6. It's important to understand how your business runs at every level - from the strategic to the operational
7. Know what you're passionate about, know what you can do that can beat the world, and know what metrics drive your business. The better you get at doing this, the better you became at solving crises
8. Business success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent discipline. You have to work in pursuit of your goal
9. We, and not other people, define who we are
10. Nobody gets through life on a scholarship. You have to adjust and adapt
11. You have to believe in yourself and stay positive
12. Everything costs more than originally budgeted, so keep a tight control on expenditures or you may drown before you finish
13. Ensure that your partners/staff actually have the level of expertise they have presented to you
14. Ensure that all legal documents are signed and sealed, trust unfortunately only goes so far when issues develop
15. Be true to your moral compass

Which of the formulas for success and lessons learned can you apply to your work and life to become the best you?