Rules for Success

Clearly in all of our minds there is no road map that we can purchase to get us to the success that we desire for ourselves.  The only knowledge that we can go by is to observe and listen to what others have done to achieve and to continue to achieve their successes.  This is by no means saying to copy them.  We each have to always be ourselves and take a characteristic phrase from a successful person and make it work for us in our own way.

Just recently in Entrepreneur, Frederick W. Smith talked about his top ten rules for success.  I believe that we can agree that he has a large success story with his corporation.  To me, it is worth looking over his rules and seeing how they can fit into our own lifestyles to help make us more successful.

Believe

Be self-effacing

Have a vision

Be willing to take a chance

Be a team player

Innovate

Think globally

Be prepared

Master your craft

Keep getting better

These are generalized rules that can fit into anyone's ladder of success.  In doing a bit of research on other successful people, I noticed that they had most of these same concepts, perhaps worded in a different way, yet it meant the same.  The other information that I was able to gather seemed to be more specific things that most successful people always do and I found them too specific and know for a fact that most people could not possibly follow the guidelines 100% of the time, in fact, 50% would be doing well.

You may be wondering what some of the specifics are.  Let me share a few of them here with you now:

Focus on one thing

Make it home for dinner each night

Avoid meetings at all cost

Say no to just about everything

Always use a notebook

Only going with five of the 14 listed because in my opinion most are not doable on a daily basis.  Some things, in fact, most people are not even in control of such as meetings.  At best, you can suggest the meetings stick to the subject and have a time limit. And there are days that require individuals to stay a little longer to complete a time-sensitive project.  The trick here is to not let that take over your life and happen too often. 

The foundation of success is failure and therefore the meaning of success has changed in a lot of ways for me.  Success, like happiness, lies within me.  It does for every one of us.