My Recipe for Success — 13 Ideas on How to Succeed in Life
Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! After covering the basics of investing and starting your own business, I believe that it’s about time we took a step back and looked at the bigger picture.
This is why today’s article will be a tad more generic. I’ll give you 13 ideas on how to build wealth and how to lead a more successful life.
Basic principles of success
Some of those points may seem obvious to some of you, you’d be surprised by how many people fail at them. Hundreds of self-made businesspeople (me included) have put these principles to use and believe me when I say this — they really get the job done! It’s all in the details folks!
If you want to be successful, you need to be debt-free. If you find yourself in an unfortunate financial situation, try your best to free yourself from the bonds of debt immediately! I’ve said this many times before, and, with the risk of repeating myself, I’ll state it again: financial freedom is absolutely vital for leading a happy, productive and successful life. The more time you spend worrying about dealing with bills, mortgage payments and debts, the less time you have to work on yourself! I’ve already posted a couple of articles on this topic, and, if you’ve missed them, I suggest that you check out before proceeding!
Dealing with financial difficulties
If you’re having a hard time with a project or business, instead of giving up on the entire thing, try to be more conservative with your spending. Approach it with a side-job mentality and build from there. Additionally, you should never — ever — leave your job before your business truly gets off the ground. Yes, this can take a couple of years. But you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket!
This can be especially stressful on those of you who already have families or loved ones that rely on them. Sometimes it can feel like everything is just a step away from falling apart, like your project is about to crash and burn, leaving you with nothing to show for all that time and effort you invested. In these times, remaining level-headed and staying on track is doubly important. Realise that our time on this Earth is limited. You’re not only building a stable life (wealth included) for yourself — you’re mainly doing it to secure a future for those who come after you. If you give up now, you’d be letting them down! Do everything in your power to remain on course and never give up!
Income vs savings
If you already have a stable job, things will be much easier. As a matter of fact, I suggest you do your best to secure a nice position for yourself in an already-established company before starting a business or project of your own. Registering a business name and getting a website together can be done on a very limited budget — that much is true. But if you really want to get something serious going, you’ll need a lot of resources. At the bare minimum, you’ll need:
- A base of operations — While this may vary, depending on your field and niche, most companies will need a place in which to conduct their business. This can be anything from a small office area with a couple of laptops, a warehouse for supplies to a big office building, complete with break rooms, meeting rooms and the likes.
- A competent team — in the modern world, reputation is everything. This is doubly important for small and medium-sized teams — you’ll need all the recommendations and positive feedback that you can get. And good reputations don’t build themselves!
- A well-designed and functional website — Probably the number one requirement for running a successful modern business, a good website will not only help with getting your message out there but also generate tons of leads passively. Not to mention that it’s much more cost (and time)-efficient than running advertisements or handing out leaflets.
- A solid marketing program — no matter how great your product or service is, the clients can’t get to you if they don’t that you exist!
- Good advisors — For a beginner, having access to reliable lawyers, accountants, business consultants and investment experts will make your life easier. For a business that’s looking to grow and expand, they’re a necessity, not a luxury!
And do you know what all of those things have in common? That’s right — they all cost money. Money that you’ll need to get from somewhere, without going in debt. And what’s the best way to get the money? By having a solid job, of course!
And now, without further ado, let’s dive into my 13 ideas on how to be successful and wealthy:
1. Master the art of setting goals
The very first step of becoming successful in life is learning how to set goals. And while it might sound simple at first glance, believe me when I say that this topic is so vast that it deserves a full-length article of its own. As a matter of fact, there are countless books, focused entirely on the art of goal setting! For the purpose of this post, however, I’ll give you a short checklist:
- Focus on your passions — don’t dive into things that you aren’t passionate about. That’s just a recipe for disaster.
- Look into SMART goals — a simple, yet effective system of setting goals, the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely is a great place to start. You want any goal to be specific, your progress towards it — easy to measure, the end result needs to be within the realm of possibility, relevant to your current situation and doable in a certain time-frame.
- Don’t just aim for “getting rich” — if your goal is too generic, getting lost along the way is a huge possibility.
- Write down your goals — writing things down helps you keep track of things easier and helps with overcoming commitment issues.
2. Do the maths
Establishing proper goals can take a while, but sitting down and figuring out how to actually achieve them is a whole new level! Now is the time to do the maths and see what you need to do (you can refer to my list of bare necessities above).
3. Educate yourself
No matter how good you might be at what you do, there’s always room for improvement. And, if you’re still in the planning stages, chances are that you’re still missing quite a few skills.
I’ve written many articles on the importance of self-improvement, reading and learning new skills so I won’t go into details here. I will, however, suggest that you at least skim through my previous posts to get a better idea of what I’m talking about — I’ll leave some links for you at the end of this post!
4. Work on your self-discipline
Generally speaking, the harder your work, the quicker you’ll be able to get to your goal. As with most things, your experience may vary based on the type and field of your business, but more often than not, working harder will mean faster and (better!) results.
If you’re having troubles with motivation, ask yourself –do you really want to achieve your goal? Is this really your “calling” in life? Is this how you’re going to “make it” big? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, then it’s merely a matter of pushing through your laziness. Otherwise, you might want to consider going back to the drawing board!
5. Get things done right
When you’re trying to achieve a serious goal, there’s no room for distractions. Set strict “working hours” for yourself and focus on getting things done. And yes, this means abstaining from most of the usual distractions. No social media, no YouTube videos and no random chats with your friends during work hours! Treat your goal like a serious project, because it is one!
6. You don’t have to do *everything* by yourself!
This part is mostly aimed at business owners, but it’s applicable in nearly every project-related situation. Yes, you might have a solid grasp on most aspects of what you’re trying to achieve (and if you don’t — try your best to learn as much as can as quickly as you can!), but you’re just one person with limited time.
If you’re getting involved in every single detail and trying to do everything on your own, you aren’t going to get very far. Taking care of the entire thing from start to finish is likely to take a lot more time and energy than you may have to spare. If you feel like your efforts would be best spent focusing on a specific part of your project, don’t be afraid to get some outside help!
7. Be on the lookout for things that you can improve
The best thing about modern technology is all of the statistical data that it gives us and leveraging that is in your best interest! Assuming that you’ve been following my checklist so far, and you’ve set some smart goals for yourself, then you’re bound to have a plethora of statistics available. Use your information to draw conclusions and steer your project in the right direction.
8. Try to save as much money as you can
Learning how to save money and prepare for the future is a crucial skill that every successful individual has mastered. No matter what your current job is, or how wealthy you think you are, you should always be cautious when setting up your budget.
If you haven’t done much saving in the past, I’d suggest you start small — set aside about 10 per cent of your monthly income and work your way up from there. You aren’t allowed to spend this money unless something very important comes along. It might be a bit difficult at first, but the future you will thank you for it! As you learn more about investing, or you decide to start a business of your own, you’ll find plenty of uses for your savings.
9. Don’t overindulge
Don’t go on random spending sprees. Ever. Not only is this horrible for your image (and self-control), but it can also devastate your wallet. Remember that, at the end of the day, you need money to make money. Managing a project takes resources and the more funds you put in, the more money will come out (provided you get things right). A short vacation every now and then is fine. Overindulging isn’t.
10. Invest
That’s a big one. As a matter of fact, I believe that learning the why, when and how of investing is so important, that I’ve written an entire article series about it (you can find a link at the bottom of this page). Generally, you will want to invest most of your earnings back into the avenues that will bring you more money, but I’d advise all of you to look into investing! An investment gig or two on the side will significantly benefit you in the long run!
11. Find a good mentor
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Sure, you could figure everything out on your own, but this means that you’ll make mistakes. Yes, that’s right — nobody is immune to making mistakes! But in the world of finance, mistakes tend to two things — time and money. Both of which also happen to be the main factors that stand in the way of building wealth. So here’s my suggestion — why not look for someone who has already walked the same path and learn from their (costly) mistakes?
No matter how unique your idea or niche, there are at least a couple of people out there who’ve tried and succeeded in doing something similar to your project. And, more often than not, they’d be willing to share their experience if you approached them. Then there’s also the “generic” type of success coaches and mentors, who can teach you about important things that every aspiring professional will face. A good mentor will not only help you avoid failures but will also help you achieve your goals much faster!
12. Work on networking
If you want to succeed, you’ll need connections. Knowing the right people can help you find great team members, learn about crucial market changes in time and snatch good deals before your competitors can get their paws on them. It also opens the door to exploring new fields, expanding your horizons and getting new ideas.
And if you’re trying to make it big, one of your main goals should be to establish good connections. Wealthy and successful people generally prefer the company of other wealthy and successful people, since they usually share similar qualities and interests. Furthermore, they tend to be more open-minded and uplifting. You’ll rarely find successful people who drag others down or try to talk them out of their ideas. Instead, they’ll usually try to uplift their peers, instilling them with confidence and positivity. And that’s exactly the kind of company that you want to keep!
13. Build a robust portfolio and work on diversifying it
So, your project is up and running. You’ve got a happy and productive team, and the clients just can’t get enough of your product or service. You’ve also managed to establish a reliable network of professionals to exchange ideas and expertise. Now finally comes the time to kick back, relax and go on a month-long vacation. You can go and spend all of that hard-earned money, right? Wrong.
As I mentioned above, if you want to be successful in the long term, you’ll want to put as much of your profits as possible back into something that will make you more money. In this case, however, you might want to think bigger than your current project.
Once you’ve got good connections, you can start looking at the bigger picture — joint ventures and group investments can put incredible opportunities at your fingertips! Everything that you’ve done before can now be scaled up. Instead of investing in a small apartment, you could buy an entire building. Instead of working on a project with a team of 20 experts, you’ll suddenly have access to hundreds of qualified professionals. Use this to expand and diversify your portfolio! Secure your success for years to come!
And that about wraps it up for my 13 ideas on how to succeed in life. Join me again next week.
And what about you — have you tried any of these strategies before?
Which one do you think is the most important? As always, please feel free to share your thoughts, experiences and opinions in the comments below!
RESOURCES:
Books & Audiobooks that I recommend:
- Audio books on Audible — use Audible to listen to the books, if you don’t have time to read.
- Tony Robbins — MONEY Master the Game
- Tony Robbins — Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom
- Unshakeable: Your Guide to Financial Freedom
- Benjamin Graham — The Intelligent Investor
- David Chilton — The Wealthy Barber
- Robert Kiyosaki — Rich Dad Poor Dad
