If you were to ask people the question: “What Is Success?”, you would most certainly receive a wide variety of responses.

This is because the word “Success” over the years has taken on many meanings. It is quite amazing what meaning people attach and associate to that simple word, “Success”.

For example, when some people are asked to define the word “Success”, they might associate it with wealth, material possessions, a lucrative career, or fame.

We will come back to the question: “What Is Success?” in a moment. But first, let’s take a brief look at what some have perceived success to be, and what has happened to some in their pursuit of success.

Some, unfortunately have a warped view of success. Take for example, some who are involved in sports.

According to medical researchers, more and more young athletes are taking potentially harmful performance-enhancing drugs in order to excel in sports. Education Update online reported: “When college students in a recent survey were asked: “If you knew you’d win or make the team by taking steroids, but in five years you’d get sick, would you still do it?,” nearly all said yes. When the question was changed to “If you knew you would die within five years,” 65% still said yes.” It seems some are willing to pay a high price to attain success at any cost – even if that cost is not just their careers, but their very life!

Another example comes from the entertainment world. We will keep the name of this person anonymous . Needless to say, this person was a singing phenomenon by her early 20’s and was very rich. Few people become so famous and financially successful at such an early age. But then things started to go wrong in her life. After two failed marriages, she had to spend time in alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers. Her whole life began to unravel.

Even in the more conservative business world, seemingly successful people often have troubled lives. Regarding New York City’s financial high-fliers, a newspaper reported: “The push for record profits is ruining careers, tearing apart families and keeping drug dealers busy…While record bonuses make some Wall Street bankers feel invincible, others become emotional wrecks from pressure to perform and some hit rock bottom.”

I ask the question, in view of the previous example: Is our success in life contingent with amassing wealth? Studies indicate otherwise.

For instance, a study in China showed that during a recent period when the average income grew by 250%, people actually became less satisfied with life.

We have seen from these examples, what meaning people attach to the attainment of success, and how it affects their lives and the impact it can have upon their life!

But we come back to our original question: “What Is Success?”

The Collins English dictionary defines the word “Success” as: “the favorable outcome of something attempted.”

So, “success” is when we attempt to perform some action or reach some goal, and we achieve it successfully! The other things we’ve mentioned, wealth, fame, material possessions, are merely outward results of doing something successfully – and success means different things to different people!

The problem with the definition we almost always place upon the word “success”, is ,that it can make some people feel “inferior “ and that they’re not a successful person. It can make them feel frustrated, dissatisfied with their lives, but with the kind of dissatisfaction that immobilizes them, and they become even more negative.

An author once said about the word “success”: “If you can read or write, and tie your shoe laces, you’re a success.”

In reality, the potential for “success” is within each of us. The trick is, to tap into your potential, but then, to have a sound understanding of what “success” really is, as we defined it earlier.

Don’t get sucked in by the media’s view, and definition of what success is. In real terms, success has more to do with who you are as a person, not with what your status in life might appear to be!

© 2009 by Coach Ian Scott

These suprising tips from career experts can help you create your dream job:

Think:Me

Strike “selfish” from your vocabulary. You probably spend half your waking hours working. If you don’t like what you do, it spills into your personal life and has a tremedous impact. Changing to a career you love is not selfish, it’s necessary.

Arlene Hirsch, author,Love Your Work and Success Will Follow

Take An Hour

Pick a time once a week to sit down for an hour and focus on your plan. This is your strategic time. Measure what you’ve done and what you need to do. Put your plan on a timeline. Count on needing five to ten hours a week to execute it. Whatever you do, the weekly check-in is critical. It will keep you focused on going for what you want.
Laura Berman Fortgang, author,Take Yourself to the Top

“Be Nice”

Tell everyone you know you’re looking for a particular kind of job; more than 60% of British employers say they recruit from word of mouth. Get to know people within the industry – they might become a mentor or know of a position going within their organization. Francis Wilson, HR Advisor, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

It’s Possible!

If you go to a pensions and investment expert, (like Suze Orman for example) what you think is not possible financially may suddenly become so. You might be able to draw on your pension early to invest in your company. You could remortgage your house and live on the proceeds until your new job provides more income. When I set up my firm, I worked at it evenings and weekends, only when I had enough income did I pursue it full-time. Negotiate a day off each week – a good company will allow this as it is in its interests to have happy employees and you are giving it time to train a replacement.
Ross Taylor, author,The Ultimate Book of Confidence Tricks

Don’t Ask Why

Asking why you should pursue your passion leads to self-doubt. Instead, ask why not? That helps you identify real obstacles and plan strategies around them.
Richard Chang, author,The Passion Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering, Developing, and Living Your Passion

Build Your Future!

“We make our future by the best use of the present”

Let’s begin by considering a thought provoking question: Who in their right mind, would deliberately relinquish all of their talents, skills, expertise, knowledge and experience, so that, a corporation could, over time, potentially make millions of dollars from your efforts – because you gave away your power to them?

That is a shocking thought. The reality of course, is that every day, around the world, countless millions do just that! Why? Because they don’t know any better. They’ve being taught the old lie: Go to school, get good grades, work for a corporation, and you’re set for life!

What would you think, if you were an observer of anyone giving away their power? Would you by any chance think they were crazy?

It’s time that individuals began to think more for themselves, than to follow the crowd – the crowd isn’t always right!

You see, if you’re talents, skills, expertise, knowledge and experience can potentially make millions for a corporation – then why not turn all of that to your advantage?

“The future will be different if we make the present different”

From this day forward, you’re going to think differently. You’re going to think:You, Inc!!

You can use all those abilities that you possess, and channel them into a successful, and profitable home-based business – if you decide to.

The first step to take however, is to ask the question that we posed at the beginning of this article, the question of relinquishing power to the benefit of a corporation. You must use that question to create dissatisfaction in yourself!

What do we mean by that?

In essence, we mean that you’ve got to see that you’ve being short-changing yourself all these years you’ve been working for someone else!

Just imagine this: You’re at the end of your life, and a friend comes along and says to you: “Can I show you how you’re future would have turned out if you’d pursued that idea you’d toyed with year after year?” The friend then goes on to show you how you turned your idea(s) into a goldmine! You were able to help family and friends, your community, you took great vacations, everything was just the way you’d like it to be. True, you worked hard to achieve it. But the sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, and personal achievement were all worth the effort!

“The future is the time when folks will be wishing they’d done all the things they ain’t doin’ now!”

If having your own successful business is something you’ve often thought about, but have’nt taken action yet, when would now be a good time to start planning and working on those ideas?

I recall reading an article a few years ago, by Mark Yarnell. It was titled: The Next American Dream. In the article, Yarnell interviewed Juliet Schor, a Harvard Business School economist. She made some interesting observations about people and work.

In essence, the article was discussing corporate America, downsizing, the fact that people are having their workloads increased etc. Then the article moved on to consider the home-based business boom, and why it was exploding so rapidly.

The conclusion Schor came to regarding the home-based business phenomena, was, that people see it as a way of taking back control over their personal destiny. But more importantly, as a way of using their talents, skills, expertise, creativity, knowledge and experience. All of these things are restricted in the corporate world, for the most part, because the workplace creates the structure for the employees.

Schor wrapped up by stating, that more and more people will take the plunge regarding their financial future – a move which is growing on a daily basis!

So, are you prepared to join them? Are you willing to build your future?

© 2006 by Ian Scott

How often have you thought of owning your own business? A few times, many times, often, or downright most of the time?

Conversely, how often have you dismissed the thought of having a business? What caused you to dismiss the thought? Was it lack of money, knowledge, experience, skill, or the opinions of others?

It can be a combination of all of these things. But, the most hurtful of these, can be the opinions of others. Especially the opinions of well-meaning friends and family! True is’nt it?

When you’ve being excited or interested about some business opportunity or idea, what’s the first phrase that comes out of their mouths? – “What do you know about business?” That sure cuts deep into your soul does’nt it?

Well, here’s a great question for the nay-sayers and dream-stealers: Before you went to school, what did you know about anything?

Before any of us went to school, we were all “clean-sheets”. We knew absolutely ZERO about anything – we were all in the same boat!

Which means what? That any skill is learnable!

Can you play a musical instrument? Are you good at sports? Can you speak another language? If not, you could if you learned how! It’s just the same with business. Anyone could have their own business if they just learned how!

Let me ask you: Do you think anything in this world would exist or have being invented, if every business person was put off by the opinions of others? Do you think any business would exist, if people had’nt learned how to operate one? You know the answer!

What well-meaning, protective friends and family don’t realize, when they think they’re acting in your best interests, is that being in control of your personal destiny, is actually something which is built into each one of us!

Allow me to explain why this is so.

You’re probably familiar with the phrase from the Bible, that we’re made “in Gods image.” Exactly what, does that mean? It means that we’re made with similar qualities and attributes which He possesses. One of these being Power. Specifically, the power and ability to create.

Tied up in this desire and power to create, is mine and your personal sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, self-worth, contribution, and personal achievement. In truth, there is a heck of alot involved in the desire for self-expression and self-determination! When you, and others understand this, you realize why absence of self-expression leads to frustration and unfulfilled lives!

This desire to create, is such a deeply entrenched, in-built thing, it never leaves a person until it’s found a way of expressing and manifesting itself.

If you think that people in general are living the life of their dreams, the next time you commute to the workplace, just take a close look at their faces – they’re miserable!

Not convinced yet that you should start your own home-based business? Well, if what I’m going to share with you next does’nt move you to action, then I can tell you, a bomb would’nt move you in the right direction!

Heard the phrase “job security?” Sure you have, we all have. But that’s not the reality of the matter, as you’re probably well aware.

Way back in May 1994, Business Week magazine reported that, in the first quarter of that year, there were 192,572 layoffs. That was an average of 2,110 jobs cut from corporate America every day!

The article went on to list some of the leaders and their individual body count. This list should change the way people view the phrase “job security.”

IBM :85,000
AT&T :83,500
General Motors :74,000
USP :55,000
Sears :50,000
Boeing :30,000
NYNEX :22,000
Hughes Aircraft :21,000
GTE :17,000
Martin-Marrietta :15,000
DuPont :14,800
Eastman Kodak :14,000
Phillip Morris :14,000
Procter & Gamble :13,000
PharMor :13,000
Bank of America :12,000
Aetna :11,800
GE Aircraft Engines :10,250
McDonald-Douglas :10,200
Bell South :10,200
Ford Motor Co :10,000
Xerox :10,000
Pacific Telesis ;10,000

Although the above list from several years back is used by many authors to illustrate the uncertainty of todays job market, the fact is, similar statistics appear in newspapers on a regular basis!

So, security is’nt a reason to postpone starting your own home-based business, security is the reason to start your own business.

In fact, you can bet, that many of those former employees had wished they’d being better prepared, and had something else they could turn to as a source of income!

And as you know, the problem of job layoffs is’nt isolated to the USA – it’s a global problem!

I wanted to share those statistics with you, to help you realize a number of things:

#1: The only way to get rich, is to build your future and dreams not someone else, by having your own business.
#2: There is no such thing as job security in the corporate world.
#3: To remind you that the acronym for J.O.B, is Just Over Broke!

So, here’s the deal: You can continue to follow the 40+ year plan, and keep getting the same results

Or…

You can decide, (It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped – Anthony Robbins) that you’ve had enough, and you want to take full responsibility for your future!

The choice my friends, is entirely yours!

If you enjoyed reading this article, share it with a friend!