Every father loves to brag about their children. My wife Glori and I have two great children and many times we wait for them to do something great to pay them a compliment. I will quickly admit that every parent should probably compliment their children for small everyday things more often.
I recently found an article recapping my then 15 year old daughter's competition in her school’s state track meet. She rocked! She won the 100m and 200m as well as placing in two relays and the triple jump. She also won the high point award as a freshman. I was impressed and you should be to.
The local newspaper ran a full page story (I have extra copies if you want one) on her successes and they asked to interview my wife and me as a part of the article. The reporter asked me why Dulce is so successful in track, cheerleading, grades, etc... I thought for a second and responded “strong faith, hard work and discipline.”
The more I thought about my response, the more I realized that those three areas are important keys to success in all areas of life.
Dulce has a strong spiritual faith but she also has faith in herself. She doesn’t just hope she wins, she expects to win. She worked very hard in practice. She also ran and worked out at times that the coaches were not even around. She has the discipline to prepare even when she would rather be doing something else. She blocked off time during the summer to prepare for the next track season. She could have just relaxed and had fun at the lake or the pool. Instead she showed discipline by remembering her goals to improve her times during the next track season almost a year after the summer break.
As business owners, we can use the same principles to succeed.
Strong Faith – when I worked in the corporate world at BellSouth I did not need much faith to pick up my paycheck every two weeks. I really just had to show up and not upset anyone and I could keep getting my paycheck. You must have faith when you start your own business. You may not get paid as consistently as you did while working for someone else so you must have faith to press on even when times may tough or seem bleak.
There are definitely spiritual aspects to having faith. Knowing that there is something bigger in this world than you. But, it is also critical to have faith in your business and faith in yourself. Faith in your business is knowing with absolutely no doubt that the business works and that you will succeed. And when seeds of doubt creep in, exert every bit of willpower you have available to push those non-faith thoughts out.
You have seen other people get wealthy in business. You know that it is possible. Your concept may be different and unique, but have the faith and confidence that you will be a success.
Have faith in yourself and your abilities. You were blessed with talent and skill. You have the ability to hire people that have the skills that you lack. Be bold and confident. Not cocky and arrogant. But have faith in you and your business!
Hard Work – it never ceases to amaze me when people think that they will be successful without exerting any real effort. Some people do not even know what working hard really is because they have never done it before. Hard work in most businesses may not be hard manual labor such as digging ditches, but it does mean you may not get to watch all your favorite TV shows, may not get 8 hours of sleep every night, may not be able to go on vacations while you are in the business building mode. Many people also think they just deserve to get the rewards of success without paying the price for success. Expect to work, be consistent and don't take shortcuts.
Discipline – some people may think that hard work and discipline is the same thing. They are related but they are also different in many ways. It is possible to work hard in short bursts without being consistent and never gain any momentum to reach the results you desire. I heard someone once define discipline as “remembering what you want.” Well if you have no idea what you want, it is difficult to be disciplined and therefore difficult to stay focused for any period of time. Then you would be working hard without a purpose.
Discipline is steady work over a period of time because you want the results that it will yield. Discipline is all about daily habits. If you exercise daily or multiple times per week, then you will maintain a certain level of fitness and be healthy. But it will not yield instant results. It will take time. Developing growth and profit in your business takes some time also. Your business success will be determined by your disciplined daily habits.
Be a superstar. Make the headlines of your newspaper.
Have faith. Work hard. Be disciplined.
I recently found an article recapping my then 15 year old daughter's competition in her school’s state track meet. She rocked! She won the 100m and 200m as well as placing in two relays and the triple jump. She also won the high point award as a freshman. I was impressed and you should be to.
The local newspaper ran a full page story (I have extra copies if you want one) on her successes and they asked to interview my wife and me as a part of the article. The reporter asked me why Dulce is so successful in track, cheerleading, grades, etc... I thought for a second and responded “strong faith, hard work and discipline.”
The more I thought about my response, the more I realized that those three areas are important keys to success in all areas of life.
Dulce has a strong spiritual faith but she also has faith in herself. She doesn’t just hope she wins, she expects to win. She worked very hard in practice. She also ran and worked out at times that the coaches were not even around. She has the discipline to prepare even when she would rather be doing something else. She blocked off time during the summer to prepare for the next track season. She could have just relaxed and had fun at the lake or the pool. Instead she showed discipline by remembering her goals to improve her times during the next track season almost a year after the summer break.
As business owners, we can use the same principles to succeed.
Strong Faith – when I worked in the corporate world at BellSouth I did not need much faith to pick up my paycheck every two weeks. I really just had to show up and not upset anyone and I could keep getting my paycheck. You must have faith when you start your own business. You may not get paid as consistently as you did while working for someone else so you must have faith to press on even when times may tough or seem bleak.
There are definitely spiritual aspects to having faith. Knowing that there is something bigger in this world than you. But, it is also critical to have faith in your business and faith in yourself. Faith in your business is knowing with absolutely no doubt that the business works and that you will succeed. And when seeds of doubt creep in, exert every bit of willpower you have available to push those non-faith thoughts out.
You have seen other people get wealthy in business. You know that it is possible. Your concept may be different and unique, but have the faith and confidence that you will be a success.
Have faith in yourself and your abilities. You were blessed with talent and skill. You have the ability to hire people that have the skills that you lack. Be bold and confident. Not cocky and arrogant. But have faith in you and your business!
Hard Work – it never ceases to amaze me when people think that they will be successful without exerting any real effort. Some people do not even know what working hard really is because they have never done it before. Hard work in most businesses may not be hard manual labor such as digging ditches, but it does mean you may not get to watch all your favorite TV shows, may not get 8 hours of sleep every night, may not be able to go on vacations while you are in the business building mode. Many people also think they just deserve to get the rewards of success without paying the price for success. Expect to work, be consistent and don't take shortcuts.
Discipline – some people may think that hard work and discipline is the same thing. They are related but they are also different in many ways. It is possible to work hard in short bursts without being consistent and never gain any momentum to reach the results you desire. I heard someone once define discipline as “remembering what you want.” Well if you have no idea what you want, it is difficult to be disciplined and therefore difficult to stay focused for any period of time. Then you would be working hard without a purpose.
Discipline is steady work over a period of time because you want the results that it will yield. Discipline is all about daily habits. If you exercise daily or multiple times per week, then you will maintain a certain level of fitness and be healthy. But it will not yield instant results. It will take time. Developing growth and profit in your business takes some time also. Your business success will be determined by your disciplined daily habits.
Be a superstar. Make the headlines of your newspaper.
Have faith. Work hard. Be disciplined.
Tim Winders has over 25 years experience as a business owner, entrepreneur, coach and consultant. He founded Accelerate Growth NOW to provide business owners with the training, coaching and resources to double, triple and 10X their business. To learn more and to claim your FREE business growth resources, visit AccelerateGrowthNOW.com.
