Real failure isn't a moment in time, it's an attitude in your mind.

In the movies, things are often painted with a nice black or white brush. We know what winning looks like, and we know what losing looks like. Success and failure are properly labeled so we can easily recognize them.

In real life, we might imagine such labels exist, but the reality is that they don't. Failure and success are often two different perspectives on an event. And even those perspectives are subject to change over time. 

For example, there was a company called Blue Ribbon Sports, known better today as Nike. In 1971, they were a tiny business that was losing their distributorship for ASICS running shoes in the USA. This effectively put them out of business. They had no product to sell. In that moment, it would be easy to look at this event and declare it failure. 

But founder Phil Knight managed to find someone to manufacture a new design, to create their own product - later known as Nike. If they had NOT lost the distributorship, they may have carried on as a distributor. While there's nothing especially wrong with that, it would have meant that you'd have never heard "Just Do It" as there would be no Nike. There's no way that a distributor would have the brand equity that Nike does. In essence, losing the distributorship was a major success. But it took a bit of time to see that. Most importantly, it took the will to keep going.

Such is the nature of much failure and success. What looks good in a given moment may not stand the test of time. Conversely, what looks like a complete failure today can be the genesis of a remarkable success. Keep that in mind before you become too downcast over a setback. Real failure isn't a moment in time, it's an attitude in your mind. Stay positive and just keep looking.

Inspiration gives you a start, endurance gives you a victory.

   We all love an exciting new idea. Something that gets us PUMPED UP! The adrenaline gets flowing, and we're ready for action. This seems like the moment when our future is decided. Well kind of, but not really.

   Such moments are not all that rare, and if that were the magic elixir for success, there would be a whole lot more of it happening. If inspired people all went out and remade the world, the place would look much different I suspect. 

   What happens is people get really fired up, and then most of them calm down and go back to what they were doing before. There are obviously exceptions but, in general, the inertia of life pulls them back into their old pattern of behavior. 

   There's a second element, which is essential to make inspiration more than a wisp of thinking that passes by, which is endurance. Once inspired, if we begin working toward realizing the idea in our mind, and keep on working toward it relentlessly, then some magic happens. We start moving toward what we had previously only imagined.

   I'm not aware of any success stories where inspiration alone did the job. You need a large quantity of endurance to make success out of inspiration. Endurance doesn't make for a great headline or spectator sport. It's the slow grind late at night, throwing out mistakes and trying again and again. Trying over and over to translate inspiration to reality. 

   That's the nature of success. There is the glory of the idea which makes for compelling copy and a dramatic storyline. The rest of the process can be tedious, boring and at times, heartbreaking. It's not easy to make something new appear in the world. But there are few shortcuts, it's just putting in the time and slogging away until the idea starts to come together.

   Like I said: Inspiration gives you a start, endurance gives you a victory.



    Alphabet Success, your personal step-ladder to success.  To buy, click here. 

Persistence, patience and the elusive squirrel.

   Patience and persistence are two widely admired characteristics. Rightfully so, as they contribute to a broad array of accomplishments. There is just one problem, on their own, they are pretty useless.

    To illustrate my point, my old dog "Patches" loved to chase squirrels. He held on to this passion into the final years of his life. Moreover, he wasn't just passionate about the chase, he truly wanted to catch them. It consumed him to even see a squirrel in our yard. He demanded to be released to pursue his quarry.

   In fourteen years of diligent pursuit of squirrels, never giving less than his absolute all, he caught exactly zero squirrels. So much for persistence and patience. On their own, those two attributes have great potential; for comedy. To be effective they must be tied to intelligence. In that regard, Patches was sadly lacking. A lovely dog, but dumber than a bag of hammers.

  If you want your persistence and patience to pay off, you need to add a nice healthy dose of thinking to interpret the feedback you get from your efforts. By using that feedback you can adjust your efforts and continually get closer to your goal. 

   Sometimes, we just need to switch races. By all means, put in an effort. Just be prepared to use the feedback you get honestly. Be willing to accept that you're doing a "Patches" and putting a lot of effort into a losing idea. 

   Maybe you're just not meant to catch squirrels. 

   

   

The biggest obstacle to your success is in your mind.

   Occasionally I get involved in conversations about the means by which people get ahead in life. While I am quite aware there are some seriously corrupt people in the world, the majority of my high achievement friends got there the old fashioned way. Hard, persistent, intelligent work and a bit of luck.

   The reason I'm bothering to write about this is that the idea that you have to sell your soul and be corrupt is both false and disempowering. It sends a message that getting ahead is impossible without some sort of magic contact list coupled with a dearth of ethics. In fact, I'd say the opposite is true, and now more than ever.

   The flattening of the barriers to communicate about a product or service, along with the myriad of outsourcing opportunities have allowed a great number of new entrants into most markets. There is so much niche territory at the edges of markets that big companies simply cannot manage to keep up with their nimble competition. Opportunity abounds.

   Is it easy to succeed? Nope. But it is completely possible, and the barriers to entry for many fields are lower than ever. Don't be misled. Most markets are open to people with the ability to use some empathy and apply that into a meaningful market offering. No special contacts, and no secret handshakes are required.

  Believe in yourself and make a difference. The only thing holding you back, is you.

Success is taking what you know, and creating the best YOU that YOU can be.

   There are no Ivy League degrees on my wall, since I graduated from Miami-Dade community college. I also went to an average public high school, never took the SAT exam, and was frequently in trouble in school. Some pedigree. 

   My reason to tell you this is because I, like you, thought I would never be able to "make it". There was no point of reference for success in my family or education. I was on a track to be pretty darn average. But I decided not to accept that. You can make that same decision.

   Is everyone capable of anything? Probably not. But you are certainly capable of being much more than you currently are. You are capable of being a pretty amazing YOU. 

   That's the central idea behind my book, Alphabet Success. "Making it" isn't so much about having a remarkable IQ, or a previously unheard of invention. Success is taking what you know, and creating the best YOU that YOU can be.

   My message to you is, don't settle. Discover the most powerful version of you. I too thought successful people were "special". Perhaps, but it's a sort of special that is available in some way to everyone is who is willing to try, and keep on trying until the "special" happens. 

   The trying part? That part is up to you.