4 Steps to Outrageous Business Success

Don’t be afraid to try.
There are schools across the country teaching that “this” is the way business gets done and we read books and web blogs with all kinds of messages saying “this” is how business is done. You are going to find conflicting ideas, thoughts, and theories and hear what has worked for others, but you won’t know what is going to work for you until you try it.

If it were as easy as what the books say or what we are taught, then everybody would be doing the same thing and nobody would stand out. You really have to stand out and sometimes that means taking a chance on something, and accepting that you are going to fail. The people that I have seen who are successful are the ones that expect to fail. They know that they will get up after each failure and they will learn from it.

The only real failure is when you don’t learn from your mistakes, and you keep repeating them.

Pride leads to happiness.
There is a lot of work being done in the field of happiness (what makes us happy) and a lot of that is centered in the moment. I think there is a larger theme of happiness beyond any one moment of happiness that goes into something more life-long, something of significance.

I think that pride leads to true happiness. There is a good amount of pride that goes with being proud of who you are, what you’ve done, the impact you have had on the world, and the impact that you’ve had on other people. We still need to design in those “moments” of happiness, allow them to occur. We need to think about the things we’re doing that get in the way and try to recognize why we are doing those things.

Understand your own limitations. Don’t dwell on them.
There are limitations that we all have. I’m never going to be playing in the NBA. It is just not going to happen. I could have practiced and practiced as a kid, and still never be a basketball star. It would not have been in my best interest to focus that kind of effort on something that was just a non-starter. That wasn’t my thing. You have to find that one thing that you enjoy, at which you can excel, and run with it.

Charter your own course.
Be OK with being different. Create your own views of how business should be done. That will help you differentiate yourself from others. You shouldn’t want to be like anybody else. You should want to be the best “you” that you can be.