THE SECRET SAUCE TO SUCCESS?
Do you know what 500 of the world’s wealthiest people did to attain their success? If you knew what that was, would you be willing to do what they did?
You might be surprised as to how simple, yet complex, their winning strategies still are.
Back in the early 1900’s, the world-famous author, Napoleon Hill, was a protégé’ of Andrew Carnegie- at the time, Carnegie was the richest man in the world. And he gave Hill the task to research many of the most successful people in the world to find out what they all might have in common. The results of his many years of research can be found in the classic perennial best seller, Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937.
There were two common factors that Hill identified as key to the success of 500 of these people. One, they all credited being a part of a mastermind group as integral to their prosperity. Surrounding themselves with others who operated at a different, higher level of success and thought in order to challenge and stretch their own thinking.
The second commonality was the quality of Persistence. Hill dedicated an entire chapter to Persistence and considered it to be ‘essential’ to anyone’s success.
“THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PERSISTENCE!”
When I was first being mentored through Think and Grow Rich, I was highly encouraged to read the chapter on Persistence for 14 days straight for obvious reasons. Sounds easier than it was, but I stuck to it. That exercise taught me a lot about myself and my opportunity to grow in this area. So many of us have the best of intentions, but allow distractions, competing priorities, and life in general to divert us from persisting consistently towards our goals and dreams in life.
Hill states that, “There is no substitute for Persistence! It cannot be supplanted by any other quality. Remember this, and it will hearten you in the beginning, when the going may seem difficult and slow. Those who have cultivated the HABIT of Persistence seem to enjoy insurance against failure. No matter how many times they are defeated, they finally arrive up toward the top of the ladder.”
Your paradigms will shift when you consistently feed your mind with repetitive information. That’s because your subconscious mind works continually, while you are awake, and while you sleep, reprogramming your current paradigms with whatever your latest repetitive input happens to be.
Hill describes the four steps that lead to the habit of persistence as:
1) A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment.
2) A definite plan expressed in continuous action.
3) A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances.
4) A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose (in other words, a Mastermind Group!)
These four steps will also lead to the mastery of fear, discouragement and indifference.
Persistence is one of the common threads in the 500 wealthiest people’s repertoire – make it part of your daily practice and watch how your success patterns shift!
