Success Secrets People Doing Business
At Home Should Know
By Susan Ford Collins
Most people complain about how the companies they work for are
run, but when you’re running your own, there’s no one to blame but
you. You’re the visionary, the secretary, the manager and the janitor.
You’re the one who gives out bonuses and who holds back your salary
or disbursement. So, the truth is, you need to know far more about
success and leadership than most people.
As a researcher at the National Institutes of Mental Health years
ago, I kept waking up in the night wondering what we could learn
if we started studying healthy, successful people instead of ill
ones? Weeks later, I proposed my idea in one of our high-powered
weekly conferences and my colleagues all laughed. Red-faced, I decided
to agree with my dream instead of with them. I spent the next 20
years shadowing “the greats” of the planet. Since then I have been
teaching to individuals and teams in business, education and government
the skills they were consistently using… but didn’t always know
how to pass on.
Take a few minutes to answer this Success Quiz.
Then I will share with you how Highly Successful Entrepreneurs answered
these questions…
1. How often do you acknowledge yourself
for what you accomplish?
Circle one: daily weekly monthly annually
2. How often do you fall asleep thinking about what you
didn’t get done or you’re afraid will happen? Circle one: rarely
sometimes frequently
3. Are you able to maintain your confidence when obstacles
and failures confront you? Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
4. Do you pride yourself on doing “more-better-faster”?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
5. Do you make time to learn the basics of new skills before
you start using them?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
6. Can you stand up in a meeting and say you don’t agree?
Circle one: Yes No
7. How often do you push so hard that you can’t slow down
to rest?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
• Do you start more things than you finish?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
8. Do you share your dreams with others or keep them to
yourself?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
9. Do you spell out the details of outcomes you delegate?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
10. Would you rather (Circle one)
Ask an expert for input or figure it out yourself
11. Do you need to know how you’ll reach your goal before
you take action?
Circle one: Yes No
12. Can you comfortably move into the unknown when you
have a clear outcome in mind?
Circle one: Yes No
13. Do methods and solutions come to you out of the blue?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
14. When you are stressed, do you spend time away from
the task?
Circle one: rarely sometimes frequently
So now let’s compare your answers…
1. Highly successful entrepreneurs (HSEs) make time each
day to acknowledge themselves for the successes they’re having.
But the successes they have in mind aren’t just the usual ones.
For them, success goes beyond finishing “business to dos.” It includes
things that keep their lives in balance… like eating a good breakfast,
exercising, spending time with family and friends, dropping off
the dry cleaning and remembering to pick it up. Most people don’t
acknowledge themselves for doing these things, but what happens
to your productivity when you leave them undone? For HSEs, success
also means saying NO to actions that violate their values and dreams.
Deletion Successes can be the most important ones of all. Too bad
the higher ups at WorldCom and Enron didn’t know this!
2. People who “succeed big” know the last few minutes of
their day are most important. Your brain is in the Alpha
State then so it’s the perfect time to think about what you want
both tomorrow and long term. And the worst time to beat yourself
up over failures and oversights. Plan how you’ll make corrections
instead. What you think is what your brain creates… so as you fall
asleep, focus on what you do want instead of what you don’t want.
That tiny change will enhance your ability to move your business
ahead.
3. If you are Success Filing, that is acknowledging your successes
each day, you will have the confidence to keep moving ahead when
obstacles besiege you, when everything goes wrong and everyone disappoints
you. Remember… When your Success File is full, you feel Success-Full.
But when it is low, you feel dependent and needy, at the mercy of
other’s opinions and in need of their agreement. Outstanding
entrepreneurs are willing to put off low priority items, but making
time to Success File is a number one.
4. Constantly priding yourself on doing more-better-faster lands
you in The Success Trap, working longer and harder and raising the
quantity-quality bar higher and higher. And it can also land you
in the hospital. For staying power, you also need to pride yourself
on slowing down to learn new skills and technologies, and on allowing
your mind to wander into future possibilities. Creativity
and innovation may be more important than productivity in today’s
business world.
5. It is essential for you come to a complete stop from
time to time. Why? Because unless you do, you can’t gear
your mind back enough to learn and you will slip behind. Highly
successful entrepreneurs schedule time to learn the most efficient
tools available, rather than slogging along with equipment, programs
and procedures that weren’t designed to do what you need to do now.
It is essential that you master the basics before you attempt to
gear up into production. Otherwise the mistakes you make will trip
you and your clients up later on and take more time in the end.
6. You have to be able to disagree with the pack to stay ahead.
For some people, getting others’ agreement is more important
than getting their result. Not so for HSEs. They can stand
up, disagree and then so powerfully communicate the details of the
scenario they see, hear and feel, that other people take on the
details of their vision and team up with them. They lead the way
by inspiration, not perspiration.
7. When you push so long and hard that you can’t slow down
to rest you’ve gone over the edge. HSEs use this feeling
to signal that they’re overusing the 2nd Gear of Success. Yes, Success
has three gear-like phases and unless you know precisely when to
shift, unless you can use all three Success Gears as circumstances
require, you’ll burn out your transmission… and that means your
body. And the time lost will set your business way back. Read The
Joy of Success for specifics on the Three Gears of Success and Leadership.
8. Highly successful business people share their dreams
with people I call Codreamers. People who hold the details
of their dream along with them. People who contribute additional
information and perspective. People they can call when they come
out of a meeting so devastated that their dream seems to have been
literally erased from their minds. One phone call to a Codreamer
can get you back on track. Who are your Codreamers? And who are
your Codreaders? Make sure you know the difference!
9. Going so fast that you can’t gear down to spell out the details
of the task you’re delegating may seem strategic at the time. But
in the long run it will ruin your business. To get the support
you need from coworkers, customers and vendors, you need to share
precisely what you have in mind. Or fall victim to Sensory Fill-In.
When you only provide a sketch, they automatically fill in the details
they have in mind instead of the ones you have in mind. And who
is responsible for the errors that result? Well, you are of course.
10. Would you rather ask an expert or figure it out yourself? That
all depends. If you are climbing the learning curve, ask
an expert and follow their directions is what works best… with one
exception. When you know next to nothing, making a salesperson
your expert may set you up to buy what’s best for him or her but
not for you. Consult an independent expert before you make that
purchase. On the other hand, depending on experts when you’re creating
something new, may take you back to how it’s already been done.
Listen to their input but, as its creator, know you are the ultimate
expert when it comes to your dream.
11. When we were kids, we were rewarded for doing things by the
book. But as the head of your own business, that simply won’t work.
These days, having to know how upfront will hold you back.
What you need is a thoroughly detailed outcome… and the appropriate
method will find you. Highly successful businesses frequently start
as hunches or middle of the night Ahas! Most business leaders I
interview tell me they rarely know how but they always know what.
12. The ability to venture into the unknown is a must today.
The marketplace is changing so rapidly that top CEO’s tell me they
don’t have a ten-year plan or a five-minute plan either. Flexibility
is key. Can you think on your feet? Can you seize an opportunity
others fail to notice it? Can you abandon your plan… your ten-year-ago
or five-minute-ago ideas… and take the next step to your dream when
it presents itself?
13. For years I interviewed inventors and creators and over and
over I heard the same comments. I woke up in the night with
a clear image in my head or a voice telling me what to do. Or I
was taking a shower when my idea hit me. Jeff Bezos, creator
of Amazon.com, was so sure about his hunch that he packed up everything
he owned and moved across the country in pursuit of his dream. And
we all know he found it!
14. When you’re stuck, instead of sitting
and staring at your computer screen, get up and do something else.
Go for a walk or switch to a project that requires another mindset
altogether. HSEs constantly tell me their most creative solutions
come when they walk away from their desk and WHAM! The solution
comes to them out of the blue… or out of the right brain. They tell
me they strategically use the Alpha State to “program in” their
problem and trust their mind to deliver a solution when they wake
up. And it does.
To find out whether you are using all 10 Success Skills…
at the right time… and whether you are leading the people around
you to use them, read my latest book, The Joy of Success:
10 Essential Skills for Getting the Success YOU Want, HarperCollins
paperback 2004. Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup fame wrote, "I
have been reading books on success for 30 years. This is one of
the most sophisticated and useful ones I have ever read. I highly
recommend it.”
Contact: Susan Ford Collins, Founder and President
of The Technology of Success, 305-892-2702 or email susan@susanfordcollins.com.
For more information, go to my website www.susanfordcollins.com.
