What It Takes To Maintain Success

When you’ve been in business for yourself for as long as I have, occasionally someone will come up with the question, “What’s the secret to your success?”

In truth, I have to say its actually pretty simple. There are no secrets. I’ve never had luck standing on my door, or a secret guide that’s shown me the magic path. But what I do is consistent with every business I’ve started, and works again and again because it’s systematic.

I Read

Every morning I get up and read through my favorite blogs via my Google Reader. When a trade magazine comes in, I sit down and read it. I buy books and check them out from the library every week. Yep, I’m what you’d call an information junkie. I have my favorite books – How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and the Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer, which I read over and over again. I also watch the top 100 lists to choose new titles from. Every time I read, I gain a new idea. It doesn’t matter if the book was just published, or is 50 years old and I’ve read it 10 times. Because I’m always at a different place in my life, and I always have new issues to deal with, I always learn something new. I’ve also found the older I get, the more I read, the better my business gets. Any correlation?

I Write

Yes, I do write for my blog every day. But “I Write” in this context focuses on what I learn from my reading. You see the only way to remember what you read, and retain the very best ideas you come up with is to write them down. It doesn’t matter if you use them now, or save them for a later timeframe. If you have an idea that could impact your business or change your life, you have to write it down. Than quantify it. How can you put it into place? How can it help you build for a better tomorrow? The more action you take on it, the more you’ll reap the rewards.

I Collect Ideas

Whenever an idea comes to mind, I write it down. The trouble with ideas is they can “pop” into your mind at any time, day or night, so it’s important to be prepared. I keep a notebook and pen on my nightstand for the 2 am ideas that wake me up. I know if I don’t get them down, I’ll be up all night trying to remember them. I also have a small notebook in my purse. If you’ve ever been out running errands and had nothing to write on, you know the dilemma. Instead of finding a napkin or an old receipt, I have my small notebook at hand, ready for all my ideas. And of course now, I also use my iPad – Evernote is a great resource that allows you to collect just about everything, from sites, to content, to photos.
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