Along your rising path toward success, you will most certainly grow in understanding and acceptance of the fact that you are never alone. Just look around you, you are undoubtedly surrounded by infinite sources of strength, energy, motivation and ideas. It is up to you to use these resources to the best of your ability. Some resources are in plain site and are the tools which we first grow accustomed to and use to begin our journey toward ultimate success.

Teamwork is of paramount importance as you tread your path. Although you will enjoy the spoils and benefits of your success, you definitely will not get there alone.

There is really no such thing as a “self made man”. Each and every business person that has reached success has attained that level and status through the help and influence of many other people.

Let’s have a look at the most obvious of these groups:

• Parents:  It is the influence of parents (or the lack of) that can have the most profound effect on our lives. Core emotions, such as love and security are imprinted on us even before birth. Children who are blessed enough to have grown with parents who nurtured, protected and loved them gain tremendous benefit both physiologically and psychologically. 

• Teachers:  Most of us can remember one teacher in particular in our lives that made a big impression on us. Whether that is a positive or negative impression, those relationships have contributed to who we are today. Life and career choices can be altered by the influence of a teacher. Most often it is the positive influence of teachers that helps mold and form us into successful adults.

• Friends: Friends are the most dynamic and far reaching of our influences. Successful people who are happy with their lives surround themselves with a diversity of friends. It is the shared energies of friends that can motivate, edify, and keep us moving forward. Though your circle of friends may change, the purpose of those relationships are undeniably important.

• Mentors:  Anyone who desires success will be influenced greatly by acquiring a mentor. Along the rising path toward success, a mentor’s guidance can keep us clear of stumbling blocks or bad habits that might otherwise sabotage our progress. The experiences, successes and failures that a mentor has already endured and can share with us is an invaluable gift.

• Spiritual Leaders:  Your spiritual leaders are in a very influential position to contribute both positively and very significantly into your life. Whether your spiritual mentor is a rabbi, a minister, pastor or priest, their ability to see beyond the circumstances that you may be facing and share the bigger lesson with you. Their ability to bring light into a dark place within us is a treasure that should be cherished. Though you may have a spiritual mentor, you will no doubt still face trials and tests, the comfort comes in knowing you won’t face those times alone.

In the same way that you work with a sphere of influence to help you toward YOUR goal of success, you will also become part of the sphere of influence of many others on their own journey toward success. As you meet people going through some of the experiences that you’ve already dealt with, share with them how you were able to adapt and overcome. Encourage them and perhaps mentor them or become an accountability partner with them to help them keep their focus. You will build your team, your integrity and your success if you follow this advice.

Above all else; do the right thing, do it because it’s right and most importantly, do it right.

Success means many different things to different people.  Ultimately, success means being satisfied with your result.  Using this attitude and breaking your task down into smaller tasks can make a large job seem so much easier to handle, and assure your own sense of success.

The secret really is, to begin with your goal in mind and think backwards from there.  As an example, if my goal is to earn $250,000 this year, it may seem daunting at first, but once you break it down into bite sized little chunks it’s actually quite digestible.  In order to earn $250,000 a year, I’ll need to earn just under $21,000 per month which again breaks down to about $5,200 per week.  If we break that down even further, and base it on a 40 hour work week we need to charge an hourly rate of $130 to reach our goal of $250,000 this year.

If we translate this idea from a monetary one to one of gaining subscribers perhaps, just decide how many subscribers you would like to have on your list this year, break that goal down, backwards into bite size chunks as well.  Once you have a traffic system in place that will guarantee you visitors you can grow a list of 100,000 subscribers by breaking them down into only about 12 subscribers per hour for the whole year.  While 100,000 subscribers seems like an unreachable goal, if you look at it as trying to get to the point of 10 to 12 subscribers per hour it doesn’t seem quite so impossible does it?

While many equate success with owning the large home and the boat and the second home and a large SUVs, they have found very little fulfillment in those objects and until they can find personal success, they will never feel truly successful.  Take the time to work yourself, being a well-balanced individual, physically ,mentally and spiritually, and you will find your path to success in business much easier to handle.

Every aspect of our business should be a reflection of ourselves.  If you can take pride in who you are and the way you represent yourself to the world you can also take pride in your business and the way it represents itself to the world.

Equipping Yourself for Success—Must Have List of Gear for the Telecommuter
By: Sylvie Fortin

There are few things more aggravating for a business owner than hiring someone to work from home and finding out they don’t have the proper equipment or software. Worse yet is when someone has the equipment, but doesn’t have a clue on how to use it. Don’t be one of these telecommuters!

If you are a telecommuter, you need to equip yourself for success with the best must-have gear available. The actual equipment and software you need will be dependent on the type of work you perform, but the following list of barebones minimum requirements should help you get started down the road to work-at-home success.

Computer
It is critical that you have a superior computer system if you plan on telecommuting full-time. Computers are a lot cheaper these days than they once were. It is worth the investment to have a system that doesn’t crash constantly, can access the internet at high speeds, and can process documents rapidly.

Good Quality Printer
Consider investing in a laser printer. With professional quality proposals and documents, you’ll be stunned with how much more effective you can become as a telecommuter with a quality printer. Definitely recommended!

Fax Capability (fax machine or online fax service)
Whether it’s an inexpensive online fax service like j2.com that allows you to send and receive faxes using the internet or a traditional fax machine, having fax capabilities will be invaluable to you as you create a professional image with your customers.

Second Phone Line (if using dial up access) or use Cable / DSL
If you must use dial up access, rather than have a cable modem or DSL high speed, then you need to have a second phone line. There is nothing more frustrating for employers than to try and reach a telecommuter and cannot because they are online and there’s a busy signal. Remember: the faster your internet access speed, the more money you can make!

Software You Can’t Live Without
Part of what will make you very good at what you do is handling all the stress on behalf of your customers. They don’t need to hear “No, I’m sorry. I don’t have that software, so I can’t do that project you needed done yesterday.” So, make a concerted effort to have a wide assortment of software at your disposal. To save money, consider buying used software. You can keep an eye on local newsgroups to see what people are selling that they don’t need anymore. Also check out eBay.com and Bidz.com for software deals.

Microsoft Office, especially Word and Excel, can set you up to handle just about any telecommuting need. Data entry, research, technical writing, web design, graphics…pretty much everything you’ll typically need to do can be done with this one set of software.

A Good Web Browser
Obviously, you need a good web browser, like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, but you also need to know how to use it effectively!

WinZip
As you know, size isn’t everything, but when you’re talking files and download speed, bigger isn’t better. WinZip opens files that are sent to you or downloaded, but more importantly, it is used to compress files that you need to send to your clients. Why is this important? Simply put, with zipped files, your clients won’t have to painfully watch their email being downloaded with large file attachments. Spare your clients the pain, download WinZip for free from http://www.winzip.com.

Adobe Reader
Put simply, Adobe Reader allows you to view .pdf files. Without it, there are very few documents that you will be able to read, including many eBooks. You can download the Adobe PDF reader for free (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).

HTML Editor
You will need a good and simple html editor. This allows you to modify sites and website templates, but more importantly, you can take on projects that involve working with html files. The more variety in projects you can take on, the better for your bottom line!

Graphics Program
Even if you aren’t planning to be a graphics designer, you should definitely have a decent graphics program. No matter the reason—whether it’s resizing, changing a file type, or making a minor modification—you will need a graphics program.

Your Own Website
If you don’t have your own website, you’re seriously hurting your chances of getting the work you deserve! A web site shows the business world that you are serious, professional, and ready to get to work on their project. A telecommuter without a website is like a business without a building. Start building yours today!

As you know, to be a successful telecommuter takes hard work, dedication, and a commitment to excellence. When it comes to equipping yourself with the right stuff, make sure you get off to the right start by equipping yourself with the gear you need to succeed. To your success!

 
——————————————————————————–

=================================================
This article is excerpted from “You Can Work in Your PJs”, a real world guide to telecommuting. Sylvie Fortin works from home full time and wrote this book to share her unique techniques with others. You can download your copy of “You Can Work in Your PJs” by visiting You Can Work in Your PJs =================================================

It is inevitable that you will be faced with failures along your rising path toward success. The way that you choose to deal with those challenges and circumstances defines who you really are. Napoleon Hill once said, “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” Be sure you’re prepared to take that step.

Okay, so you’ve been giving it your all.  Well, maybe not your *all*, but a good portion of your all.  And you’re not seeing any progress.  So now what?  Are you doomed to failure and never to succeed?  No!  Keep reading.

One thing that you need to understand is that failure is an event, not a person.  It doesn’t define you as a “loser” for the rest of your life—unless you let it.  Failure happens to you—it isn’t who you are.  You’re not a victim, but it also doesn’t define you.  So when it happens (notice I didn’t say “if”), pick yourself up and get ready for the next event in your life.

You must adjust your attitude as you recuperate from a failure.  You will rise to your own expectations.  Psychologists call this a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” and we are suckers to believe our own words.  So adjust your attitude to the positive side of things.

Remember the guy who came up with the brilliant idea to change Coke?  Back in the 80s (for those of you who were mere babes during that decade), someone had a stroke of genius—or so he thought.  The Coca Cola company decided to compete more with Pepsi, and changed the formulation of their signature product—Coke.

 They called it “The New Coke.”  It bombed.  No one enjoyed the new taste and the calls were immediate to bring back “the old Coke.”  After a few months of hemming and hawing, Coca Cola executives brought back the original formula of Coke and ditched the new stuff—and its creator. 

So what happened to the guy whose idea this was?  He left Coca Cola and began to look for new work.  The trouble was, his name was well known in the business community and everyone connected him to the failure that New Coke was.  He finally landed an interview in which he got a fair shake:  the interviewer asked what he had learned through the problems the New Coke had created. 

Naturally, he indicated that he had many lessons learned from the fiasco.  He didn’t let failure define him, and he ended up landing the job for which he was interviewing.  Good for him, right?  But good for the company that hired him, too.  They were willing to take a chance on a creative risk-taker who had a very public failure on his record. 

Many of those who are considered to be “successful” have had failures dot their lives.  Rush Limbaugh, the king of daytime talk radio, was fired multiple times from different radio jobs.  He also filed for bankruptcy—twice.  So you can see how Limbaugh didn’t permit failure to define him.  Those failures were events from which he recovered and moved on.  And you should take the same tact when confronted with something that didn’t turn out like you hoped it would.

Thomas Edison failed more than 10,000 times before finally succeeding with his light bulb. Where would we be today, if it wasn’t for his persistence. The point is, we learn from our mistakes and improve upon our failures. Those that are willing to stick to their dream and see it through are the ones that will be ultimately successful. Stay on task, see your dream through and you may discover your true purpose.

When pondering the topics that surround success principles, attitude and motivation are of paramount importance. BUT, the most zealous and outwardly positive salesperson will in all likelyhood, never reach their goal without the proper success skillset and product knowledge.

It’s not necessary to have a PhD to be successful, in fact you don’t need a degree at all! I can think of at least one person with an advanced degree that has gone to waste. Education is worthless without the attitude and aptitude to do something with what we’ve learned.

Whether your choice is to be the Dean of a University or Mr. Greatwrench, there are specific educational criteria necessary in order to do that job well. That advanced degree is worthless without the desire and ability to inform, encourage and educate others. That six foot tall, stacked toolbox, full of the latest techno-gadgets is nothing but a half ton paperweight without the knowledge of how to apply the tools to the needed repairs. Without the proper education it is impossible to reach your fullest potential and be truly successful in your field.

Some career choices don’t necessarily require any form of formal education at all. Professional sports for example gives young, gifted athletes with miraculous aptitude the opportunity to forgo their education and begin a very lucrative career, sometimes right out of high school. These youngsters are loosely encouraged to get an education to fall back on, but most are blinded by the lure of dollar signs and bright lights.

On the other hand, consider the young athlete who received a degree in business management while attending and playing through their college years. This athlete is in a much better position for a secure and successful future if fate or circumstance were to deal a career ending injury. Even without injury, and heading for retirement, the second athlete is better prepared for life outside of sports.

The thing that drives us to become educated in our skillset is motivation. In order to achieve success on your career path you must constantly be in pursuit of the education necessary to excel. When we stop learning, we start losing.

When the three traits of attitude, aptitude and motivation are combined with intent, there is nothing that can stand in the way of success. These are the basic tools of any success in business or in life. Apply these principles for yourself and watch your life change before your eyes.