Monday 2 July 2007

Is there a 'Secret' to Business Success?

Over the years, I've heard this question asked many times. Some people are quite firmly in the 'no' camp, and are of the opinion that success is the result of hard work, luck, who you know, etc. Other people really do believe that a 'secret' exists and that they will be successful, just as soon as they find it!

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing) is sometimes called the study of excellence. It teaches us that, if we want to do something, anything, really well, we need to find someone who is already doing it very well, study what they do and then do the same. It's a bit more involved than that but, to me, it's the nearest thing I've found to the 'secret' of success.

I think that when people are looking for a 'secret' to business success (or success in anything), what they're really looking for is a short cut. They want a way of going from zero to millions without too much effort. (Why else would so many people buy lottery tickets at such outrageous odds?).

The funny thing is that, the people I observe who are convinced that a 'secret' exists, spend an awful lot of time and effort looking for it. If they had spent that time and effort working on becoming excellent at what they do, they'd probably be successful by now! But of course, that might be too much hard work ......

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