Understand that everything is temporary and everything is a season. There’s a high season, and there’s a low season. There’s a good season, and there’s a bad season. There’s Winter, and there’s Summer, Spring and Autumn. If you’re having a terrible time right now, it won’t last!
If you cannot find a job right now, that is only for a season. If your business is going in the wrong direction, it's only a seasonal slide. If nobody wants to date you right now, that's only for a season. If you don’t have a boyfriend right now, a time is coming when all the guys will be after you.
There’s going to come a season where everybody will want to marry you!
If you have no money right now, the good news is that you’re only seasonally broke!
#2. Success is An Idea.
Success is not something you pursue.
Every successful person started with an idea first. They didn’t chase success or money. Money came later.
We should not be pursing money—we should pursue an idea or vision.
There are three types of people in the world—there are poor people, rich people, and wealthy people. Poor people talk about money all the time. Rich people talk about things like fancy cars, big houses and yachts, all the time.
Wealthy people focus on ideas. That explains why wealthy people spend large sums of money buying ideas.
Poor people, rich people, and wealthy people all think differently.
For example, poor people pursue money. Rich people accumulate money and other stuff, and wealthy people create money.
And so constantly, there's a different way of thinking between the poor, the rich, and the wealthy.
Ideas attract money. Get an idea and money will follow the idea.
#3. Create Your Own Work
Employment is doing somebody else’s work, meaning you’re employed to help someone else achieve their dream and become successful. By the end of the day, you will be forced to leave because the company doesn’t belong to you.
To be employed means that someone else is benefiting from your efforts, and you’re exchanging your time and effort for money.
Why don't you position yourself differently, and look for deployment?
To deploy yourself, means that you are using your own time and effort to enrich yourself. In other words you’re creating wealth for yourself and your family.
So, instead of waiting for someone to give you a job, create your own. That's why your own work is different from your job.
Your job is what you’re trained to do. Your work is what you were born to do.
Your job is your skill, from which your employer can fire you any time. But your work is your gift or talent, and no one can take that away from you. Everybody has a talent.
Your job is where you get compensation for activity. Your work is where you get fulfilment of life.
Your job is what you can retire from. You can never retire from your work, because that’s who you are.
Every problem in the world is a business.
So when a person discovers their work, they no longer need a job.
#4. Create Positive Change
Change is a principle of life. Change is part of life.
In order to make any meaningful progress in life, you must allow yourself to embrace change.
Let me shock you—change will happen whether you like it or not.
“If you don’t embrace change, change will change you.”
Everything changes. Even towns become cities, bus parks become train stations, and open fields become airports.
Understand that in life, if you want to make progress, you must be willing to create change. Sometimes change can be gradual, sometimes it can occur instantaneously.
If you ever find yourself in a place where there’s no change, create it. If you meet resistance, move to another place.
If you’re a student, what kind of classes do you want to take in college this year?
What kind of grades do you want?
What kind of relationship do you want to have in your life?
Who do you want to drop and who do you want to pick up in your relationships?
What kind of people do you want to associate with?
As long as change is taking place, you are making progress. When there’s no evidence of change, know that you are stagnant.
#5. Become A Person of Value
"Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value." — Albert Einstein
The world places a price tag on you depending on the value you can deliver o the world—not on the amount of education you have, or the number of degrees you have.
Becoming an individual of importance and influence demands a lifelong commitment to personal development. Personal development is the process of learning about and improving yourself in order to reach your full potential.
The degree to which you have been able to improve yourself determines your ability to add value and influence others. Every raw material is worthless in its raw form. However, after it has been refined, it becomes valuable.
Take the time to improve yourself in all areas. That may be difficult, but it is rewarding.
Everyday, ask yourself: “What do I need to learn or do to become a better person?”
Your worth is determined by the value you deliver.
Focus on self-improvement—don’t chase money now.
Identify your gift or talent and develop that. A time will come when you’ll become valuable and resourceful. Then everybody will be chasing you.
#6. Follow Your Passion
You don’t believe your passion has anything to do with your success—do you?
Well, some of the greatest successes, breakthroughs and inventions were born out of sheer passion.
Some of the greatest musicians, entertainers, and entrepreneurs were consumed with passion, and so were the greatest athletes, scholars and teachers in history.
Every successful person I know followed their passion.
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Cuban, and Jack Ma, including some lesser known entrepreneurs like Jack Dorsey, Evan Spiegel, and Jan Kuom, were all very passionate about their dreams.
Passion is invaluable, especially when you’re facing great odds and are about to give up. Passion then comes in handy, because you can’t give up on your passion.
#7. Defy Your Own Experience
Experience could be a curse.
All my life I've been taught that “experience is the best teacher.”
Now, I don’t believe in that.
Why?
Because experience could cause you to stop progressing, because you keep judging your dreams or vision by your experience.
And you end up saying, “I tried that before”, or “I’ve never seen anyone do it that way”, or “It’s never done like that.”
Such attitude gives rise to the popular phrase, “It’s impossible”.
And you begin to use your past experience to stop your future progress.
Some of the most successful people in history never had experience.
Unfortunately, most companies look for experience before they hire you, instead of looking for potential.
That explains why most companies have 80% unproductive labour compared to only 20% real productive staff in the workforce.
Past experience ties you to the past, and can prevent you from moving into the future.
For example, 50 years ago, there were no computers. Interestingly, people who started working on computers in the 1960s had no past experience. They were fresh. It explains why even today, most people are still intimidated by computers, while people who dive really deeply into computers are some of the richest people in the world.
Everything that’s happening today is actually not tied to the past.
Don’t judge your success by what the masses believe in.
Past experience can generate fear of travelling the same path, especially if the path reminds you of a bad, traumatic experience.
#8. Take Advantage of Your Adversity
When facing severe challenges, your mind is at its sharpest.
Humans never produced real quality value unless they were first tried, tested and faced with adversity.
Not that we get into adversity willingly, and certainly, no one enjoys going through trial.
However, new research shows that there are advantages to experiencing adversity in life. After a tough challenge or moment we are less likely to feel pained or challenged next time around.
Resilience is a term used to describe this. Having the mental and physical stamina to cope with life's struggles and challenges is referred to as resilience. Adversity forces us to seek support, form social networks, and recognize that we cannot and should not solve our difficulties alone. Resilience will make us feel like we have more control over our lives.
That is not to suggest that we will never hit a breaking point in our lives. There are moments when life is just too difficult. Too much adversity will deplete one's resources.
All the same, adversity can assist us to build the resilience to overcome the challenges of life.
#9. Discover Your Purpose
Why is it so important to have a sense of purpose?
The inspiration that propels you toward a fulfilling future is your sense of purpose (or meaning). It also enables you to get the most out of the things you do and accomplish right now, big and small.
A sense of purpose also helps you focus on short-term goals such as getting homework done, looking after a brother or sister, and getting into the school soccer team, as well as long-term goals such as working as a volunteer, obtaining a trade apprenticeship, or attending university, and beginning a family.
Sense of Purpose helps you:
- prioritize your life
- make plans
- get the drive to keep going when things get tough
- identify things that truly count if circumstances change
- become more resilient as you grow
Your real purpose is something you haven’t discovered yet.
Your real purpose is that thing you’ve been postponing to do for years.
You real purpose is something you’ve probably been running away from.
Your real purpose is something that keeps nagging your subconscious mind.
Your real purpose is something bigger than you.
Your real purpose is closely connected with your passion, and it’s that thing that once you start fulfilling, will make you happy.
#10. Learn From Everything
Everything contributes to your growth, whether good or bad.
Don’t look only at the successful things you’ve done in life. Look also, at the things you’ve failed in life, or things that have disappointed you. The negative aspects of life are equally good. There are many lessons to be learned there. That’s why everybody has a history.
Whether you failed at something or not, everything contributes to your present growth.
Sometimes it’s difficult to envision a positive outcome when we’re in the middle of a crisis. We look out onto the arena of our lives, find it in ruins, and feel helpless.
We don’t even know where to begin to make things right.
Some of the most successful companies in the world encourage criticism. For example, at Microsoft, employees are actually rewarded for manufacturing constructive criticism as a policy.
At Zappos, employees who want to quit the company are paid for leaving the company.
The idea of keeping your eyes open and having an open mind is a progressive mindset in modern times. A seemingly bad idea can actually turn out to be the savior of the day later.
According to legend, many years ago, the Emperor of China, Huang Di had a problem. His mulberry trees were being eaten by something. So, when faced with a dilemma he couldn't solve, he did what any brilliant man would do—he handed it over to his wife!
As she looked up at the trees, Empress Si Ling-Chi found a moth laying eggs on the mulberry leaves, which hatched into caterpillars. Each caterpillar spun a thread that wrapped around itself to form a cocoon after a few days. She plucked one of the cocoons from the leaves and lowered it into hot water.
Slowly, the delicate and beautiful thread began to unwind. It was a half mile long when the empress stretched it out and measured it! Then it occurred to her—”perhaps this thread could be woven into fabric.”
And that was the moment the silk trade was born. An empire of extraordinary beauty and wealth began with an emperor’s garden disaster!
Keep an open mind. Every ugly story has a beautiful ending.
