3 PRINCIPLES FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS #1 – Belive

I was fortunate enough to recently attend a seminar by Jack Canfield (Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul) called One Day to Greatness. We spent the day reviewing some of his 67 success principles. During that seminar, I started thinking about which of the principles were the most aligned with business success and came up with a top-three list. These three can give you a wonderful foundation to work with, a reminder to reinvest in your business and a way to measure what is working. I want to break down my top-three principles for business success based on Mr. Canfield’s list of 67 Success Principles. Here is Part 1…

Believe

“If you can dream it, you can do it!” Walt Disney

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are a different breed for sure. When faced with the knowledge that over 85% of their peers are going to fail in the first year, they do it anyway. The secret they know is that the 15% who succeed believed wholeheartedly in themselves, their business and in the team around them. They know they can do it and they persist through the tough times and celebrate the victories along the way. The people who fail is not necessarily due to a lack of skill, rather they fail because of a lack of belief and they quit too soon. Most of the time, the most successful people are not the ones who know the most, but instead the ones who didn’t know it could not be done, so they did it anyway. Did Steve Job know we all needed a computer in our pocket or did Mark Zuckerberg know Facebook would become the most visited social network on the planet? Nope, they just had a belief they could change their world and in turn, it changed ours. The best part about this principle to success is that you have complete control over it and can make it your everyday attitude, it requires no special skill. You just have to act as if you are a successful business owner and persistently work towards your vision of success daily. The best way to do that is to remove the most powerful negative force in the universe from your vocabulary “I can’t”. Also, remove the near-fatal cousins of “I can’t” in “I wish” and “I’ll try”.

Let me share with you a quick exercise we did to illustrate the power of “I Can’t”. First, write down a list of all of the things you constantly tell yourself you can’t do. I can’t lose 10 lbs. I can’t win that school contract. I can’t afford the top of the line heat press, etc. Then, think about how those make you feel by reading them aloud. You feel disconnected and hopeless to do those things. Now replace those same “I can’t” with “I won’t”. Read those aloud and see how you feel. Now you feel in control, but most likely ashamed and knowing that you are choosing those actions. Finally, replace “I won’t” with “I will”. Again, read them aloud and notice how you feel. You now are empowered to do those things regardless of if you know how you are going to or not. If you can always say ‘I will’ when the timing is right, the answer of how will come to you.