How To Be A Super Success (part one)

I really enjoy reading about the lives of successful people. Whether from the world of sports, business or politics I love to hear their stories and try and find the key to their living such a successful life.

A favourite personality of mine is Duncan Bannatyne, the British entrepreneur who began life as an ice cream seller before going on to build a hugely successful and popular chain of health clubs and a business empire. Today he is well known in the UK for his TV appearances on Dragons’ Den, where he invests his own money in fledgling and start up businesses.

Another British businessman is Sir Alan Sugar. Rough and ready and talking in a broad “cockney” accent, Sir Alan has certainly had a successful life building up the Amstrad empire; though it may surprise some to know that he began his business as a market trader selling set-top aerials from the back of his van.

One thing super successful people have in common is that they never give up if they feel their goal is achievable. They have a strong sense of who they are and they all display an iron-clad belief in their innate capabilities to make their dream a reality.

Many of these successful individuals have never followed the traditional route to the top and have never been afraid to buck the trend if they feel it’s to their advantage. Sir Richard Branson, founder and head of the Virgin Group, for example is famous the world over for his unconventional approach to business and especially marketing.

Unfortunately many of us are trapped by conventional wisdom and plagued by feelings of self-doubt. We all dream of a better life, whether taking early retirement, building better relationships, or applying for a more challenging career, but because of these doubts and our learned behaviour which re-enforce them, we do little when it comes to putting our dreams into practice. What we can learn from reading about these successful lives is that these self-created stumbling blocks are the only things stopping us from living truly successful lives. In fact, if we are to learn anything from these super successful people it would be this: Action.

As another example lets take Bill Gates, another well known businessman who has certainly had a successful life. Once when being interviewed on CNN, he told a story about how he became super successful; a story that teaches us an important lesson if we too wish to become super successful in our lives.

When IBM was looking for an operating system they telephoned Bill and asked him to visit their headquarters and show them his work. Despite a 2 hour plane flight, Bill and his team were at the IBM HQ within 4 hours of putting the phone down. That’s so amazing, and as it sums up everything about this post so brilliantly, I’m going to say it again but this time with emphasis. Despite a 2 hour plane flight, Bill and his team were at the IBM HQ within 4 hours of putting the phone down. Needless to say, IBM bought the MicroSoft operating system MS-DOS and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now let’s imagine what we would have done in a similar situation. Remember this could be your big break. Get it wrong and it’s all over. Well to start with, many of us would have taken weeks just preparing the presentation; taken a few weeks more to rehearse it fully until it was fluent; and then taken even more time to manage those who were to stay behind, just so that they’ll know what to do in your absence. Not Bill. When opportunity knocked he dived straight in and made MicroSoft a global leader and the software giant we know today. When opportunity knocked, Bill took action

So how can we emulate these examples of success and make our dreams, whatever they may be, a reality? How can we remove the self-doubt we may feel and break free from conventional wisdom so as to achieve success in our lives? Well that will be the subject of the next post, when I’ll show you some super successful tips for building a super successful life.

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