Review
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Excerpted from The Seven Rules of Success by Fiona Harrold. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1. Be Passionate
Passion is the driving force behind every significant human achievement from discovering the light bulb to defeating Hitler.
A successful life has to be underpinned by passion; otherwise youre building your life on shaky foundations, which may well require restructuring later on. Theres just no mistaking this change in our outlook. We want more out of life, and money cant buy it. You need a sense of purpose to bring passion into your life. Look at anyone who lives life passionately and youll find a sense of purpose underpinning their approach to life.
2. Practise Self-belief
You have to have self-belief to get anywhere in life. Where you end up is where your self-belief takes you to. You are the product of all that you believe to be possible for you. It really is that simple and it really is all in the mind. The inescapable conclusion Ive come to is this: self-belief is self-created. The meaning of life and its direction is more down to you than even I thought.
Free will gives us the capacity to choose how we create our lives, our ability to be self-determined. Free will is the will not to conform to the past and its the measure of a persons capacity to act as an individual.
3. Do More!
If theres one rule all the achievers in this book share, its this one: theyre all doers. They do more than the average person. And because this rule is so darned obvious, its often overlooked in our quest to discover some hidden recipe for success in life and the secret of others success. Heres the blinding truth that I came face to face with in the making of this book: successful people do more than their less successful counterparts.
Look at every single person who impresses you with their accomplishments and youll see a man or woman of action. Less talk, far more action.
4. Take More Risks
Im not advocating recklessness of course, but Im suggesting that being too frightened to give up some security is deadly, and one of the key inhibitors of success.
One of the greatest myths about successful people is that they have somehow achieved that success without any pain, disappointment or defeat. On the contrary, look beneath the surface of any great achievers career and youll find more than one flame-out. You may have to look deeply as they wont be publicising their mistakes, but theyre there. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin boss and the UKS most popular and successful entrepreneur, once said of his success, Ive just failed a lot more than most people, and on another occasion, The best developer of a leader is failure.
5. Inspire Others
Theres only so much you can achieve on your own. Whether you want to start a revolution, rid your country of a colonial power, create an incredible business, get elected to parliament or simply find a way to live life on your own terms, you need the co-operation of other people to do it. You need to be able to inspire others. This ability to inspire has to be one of the most compelling characteristics of great achievers and its been a feature of success throughout human history. All great leaders know the value of it. How can you ignite someone else? You have to invoke the Whats in it for you? question. Think: I will succeed in my goals by first of all helping other people achieve their goals.
6. Persevere
One of the untruest sayings is that the first step is the hardest. Thats nonsense. Its really the 4th, 5th and 25th that are the hardest, once the initial excitement has calmed down. The simple truth is, people who succeed are those who have persevered.
The world of showbiz and every other world is full of talented people wholl never make it. Because all the talent in the world doesnt make up for a lack of staying power. Those who do make it do so because they have the muscle and grit to keep going, recover, make changes and keep going some more. Their determination, usually called ruthless, takes them far.
The message is stop expecting things to be easy and fast.
7. Be Generous
My observation and conversations with happy, successful achievers has shown me that living and working with a generous approach to life pays big dividends. On a personal level, being generous leaves you feeling better about yourself, giving you that elusive feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction, that we know money cant buy.
In business, it brings you career advancement and opportunities that meaner jobsworth individuals envy and dont understand.
And if youre running the business, quite simply, people will want to work for you and stay with you.