The first thing to note in relation to success is what does success mean to you? If you were to look back in 5/10 years with pride on your success, what would it look like? What would show up in your life? How would you live? How would you feel? What would you do? Who would you be surrounded by? What types of people would be in your life? What would your business look like? (Team, products/services, routes to markets, markets, turnover, profits, technology, geography, etc. in as much details as possible).

An easy error people often make when defining success for themselves is choosing what they perceive others would define as success for them. For example, my parents/teachers/neighbours/in-laws/friends/partner would see me as successful if I abc. Other people’s opinion of us is none of our business! We were not given our talents to hide them away and play by other people’s rules. The person you need to please first is yourself. Then find others who can appreciate and enjoy what you have to offer.

The most important opinion, of anyone you could ever possibly meet, is yours! What do you say to yourself, about yourself, when you are by yourself, will determine if you are successful or not.

So, once you have defined what success looks like for you, how do you go about achieving it?

From my experience there are five key elements of success to satisfy:

Talent

They say you need to invest 10,000 hours in your chosen field to be an expert. To put that into perspective that would equate to 25 hours a week, for 40 weeks a year, for 10 years developing knowledge, skills, experience and expertise.

Passion

If you are going to invest so much of your life in this you’d want to love what you’re doing, right? Do you love what you do? Do you believe you were born to do this? Are you passionate about bringing your product or service to the marketplace?

Value Proposition

Provide a product or service that there is a need, want and budget for i.e. there is a market for what you provide and how you provide it.

Work Ethic

Having the work ethic to develop your talent isn’t enough! There are plenty of businesses out there that work hard to provide a great service or product that close their doors for good because they just didn’t work on making it sustainable and profitable. Are you working on the right things?

Continuous Personal Development

I divide this into too complimentary chunks. Firstly, body & mind. This is building on your experience and expertise. Keeping up to date on advancements, innovations, and new ways of doing business in your industry. Eating, drinking, sleeping exercising to optimise your physical health.

Secondly, heart and spirit. This relates to mind set, positivity, mental health, eating drinking, sleeping and exercising to optimise your mental health. Dealing with any unresolved areas of our past, no matter how far back, is essential here. Otherwise, no matter how talented you are it will eventually catch up with you and drag you back.

Probably the most neglected element is spirituality. Irrespective of your chosen believe system, be it a structured religion or set of guiding beliefs and higher power, those who have faith are consistently proven to be better able to weather the storms. All paths in life bring their own challenges/opportunities for growth and those with a faith are better equipped to come to terms with disappointments, learn from their experiences and move passed life’s challenges a better person for the experience. So, whether you had a faith and lost it or never really believed in anything, work on your spirituality and find a faith that works for you.

And remember:

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
― Truman Capot