Winners are winners because they’ve formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.
Years ago the National Association of Life Underwriters published a pamphlet by Albert Gray entitled “The Common Denominator of Success.” The author said that he had been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work, but that he had seen so many men and women work hard without succeeding and so many people succeed without working hard that he had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret.
After much research, he became convinced that the common denominator of success … the secret of every person who has ever been successful … lies in the fact that that person formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do. Of course, that didn’t mean that the successes liked to do those things either; they just did them anyway.
In particular, I’ve noticed two things failures don’t like to do.
1. Failures don’t like to set goals.
They don’t want to take the time or put in the effort to think about what they really, Really, REALLY want. They’d rather drift through life, drift through their careers, and drift through relationships … hoping things will work out. Oh, they make their lack of goal setting sound really pretty, saying something like “I prefer to keep my options open.” But that’s baloney! A lack of goal setting ensures your failure more often than not.
By contrast, Alfred Werth set a goal to become a highly successful real estate agent. He left his native home in Germany in the 1930’s to escape Hitler’s regime and migrated to San Francisco where he had a distant relative.
Alfred did not speak English, but he still wanted to pursue a career in real estate. His relative did the natural thing and advised Alfred to get a job washing dishes or something menial until he learned to speak the language. However, Alfred wanted to start selling real estate right away and he convinced his relative to introduce him to a local broker. The broker told Alfred the same thing … to go out and get a job where you can learn the English language and then come back.
But Alfred was persistent, coming back to the real estate office over and over again and finally the broker gave him a desk in the corner, telling him he would only be paid if he sold something. Alfred went to his desk and just sat there. He didn’t understand a thing that anyone was saying.
At the end of the day, however, when everyone left the office, Alfred stayed on. He went to the wastebasket and dumped the contents on the floor. He picked out every telephone call slip and selected those that had a name that looked German. The next morning he called each of those people. If the person did not understand him, he hung up. However, if the person responded in German, Alfred would offer the very best of personal service and personal attention.
Within three months Alfred was the top producer in that office. He went on to great success in the real estate field in California and he became the shining example of how powerful goal setting is. You know … that old saying is true … where’s there’s a will (or a goal) there’s a way. I only wish the failures in life would realize that sooner than later.
And…
2. Failures don’t believe in themselves.
Of course failures don’t like to admit things like that. Most of them would rather blame their failure on their birth order, poor parenting, their race, religion, gender, or inadequate education. They’d rather make excuses than work on bolstering their self-esteem.
By contrast I think of four people who had every right to say, “Life really dealt me a bad hand. I can’t make it.” Yet each of them believed in themselves enough that they didn’t sit back and whine. They took action. The first person was tongue-tied at birth, but he became the greatest orator that Greece had ever known … Demosthenes. The second person was blind, but he remembered what he had seen when he had his sight and went on to write beautiful poetry … John Milton. The third person was deaf so he couldn’t even hear the music he composed … Ludwig van Beethoven. And the fourth person who grew up with braces on her legs and years of illnesses became the world’s fastest runner … Wilma Rudolph.
You already have the potential for greatness inside of you. After speaking to hundreds of thousands of people, I know that’s true. I know that it’s not what you HAVE that counts; it’s what you DO with it that makes the difference.
ACTION: Set three goals for yourself. Write them down. Read them every day … morning and night. Do that for 30 days and you will have some significant successes.