6 Inspiring Success Fundamentals Everyone Should Know

Success Fundamentals

VISION

If you have a great vision, you must be careful who you take it to. Never ever submit your vision to any person who does not have an equal or bigger vision than you. Not your friend, not your colleague, not your mentor, not your pastor. If you are in the company of any of these and you realise that your vision has grown more than them and they groan when you tell them you want to live in a mansion or become your country’s Head of State, leave immediately. If you do not, you may, like Joseph, be sold into slavery. And there may be no Portiphar’s house in your case. Dream killers are a major cause for stagnation in life. From such, flee!

FAILURE

Any undertaking that is not preceded by numerous and occasionally large failures is too small for you. You can only become a great success that impacts the lives of others if you embrace, accept and multiply failure. I know, I know. You hate to fail. I understand. But if you abhor failure, I can already decipher what you are doing. You own a beat up car that you have been driving for ages and proudly call “my car”. You are trapped in a dead end job and you are “happy with the little I have for [yourself] and [your] kids”. Failure is therefore not for you. Nor is success. So I am not talking to you.

Try this. Try building a 7-figure business that will not only provide for your kids but make a donation of $5 million a year to charity (Mary Kay); try to become the first African American to occupy the White House (President Obama); try to fight a cause that scares everyone and involves risk (Martin Luther). Try anything that involves leaving your current comfort zone. Failure will come in droves. Only after failing enough to know how to avoid failure will your success mature fully.

The best computer engineer is the one that has encountered – and solved – the most problems. The best plastic surgeon is the one that has met – and overcome – the greatest challenges. Take a step today, accept failure as a possibility, but also as the life-wire of your success. Mary Kay said “We fail forward to success”.

RESISTANCE

When you break through in life, your greatest opposition will come from those who knew you when you were ordinary. No close friend will buy your book or attend your seminars. They will say of you as they said of Jesus: ‘Is not this the Carpenter’s son?’ (Mark 6:3). Ignore them and project yourself into the world where millions are waiting for your message of hope.

CRISIS

Gary Ryan Blair once said, “progress often masquerades as trouble ; midway through surgery, it seems like a murder took place”. EVERY trouble you are in carries the seed of great progress. Every problem carries the mechanics for its own solution. If you throw your hand in the air when trouble strikes, lose control, phone everyone to say how unfortunate you are and then run to your pastor for deliverance from I know not what, this message is not for you.

When I was faced with a driving ban for speeding, I took my flying lessons seriously. When Richard Branson received a big tax bill of $75,000, he could declare bankruptcy as most would. He turned it into an opportunity and opened 10 more shops SO AS TO BE ABLE TO PAY THE BILL. That bill propelled him to multiply and expand to billionaire status. Idem for Donald Trump. When Edison lost his laboratory to consuming flames, he asked his wife to “come here quickly and see this beautiful moment. All our mistakes are being burnt in the fire. We have just been given a chance to start afresh”. 3 months after, he invented the dictaphone (Ediphone).

I do not care how big your problem is. Sit down quietly and ponder the reason why it came. This is not mere philosophical talk. There is greatness couched somewhere beneath that seemingly intractable crisis. The Good Book puts in succinctly when it says in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”.

NAMING YOUR BUSINESS

One of the biggest mistakes Christians make in their online business is that of poor nomenclature. In order to be seen to be “glorifying God” in their businesses, they give all manner of Biblical names to their ventures. “Nissi Enterprises”, “Jireh Spares”, “Melchisedech Salad” or “His Majesty’s Store”. They then purchase domains in those names. For those of us who understand the workings of Google Algorithms in SEO and Pagerank, nothing could be more suicidal for an online business than using name tags that cannot be found. Which is why when you go to Godaddy’s expired domains, you find a graveyard of “Christian” domain names that have been abandoned. The solution?

Name your business and select your keywords and phrases ONLY AFTER you have at least gone to Google’s Keyword Tool to ascertain search volumes. You may use Market Samurai and such like as well. If one million people are searching for the term “apnea” every month, is it not better to name your business “Apnea Solutions” than “Shalom Enterprise” if you are trying to cure apnea? Who types in “shalom” in google to find a cure for snoring? Of course, one may argue that as long as keywords are optimized, visible and ranked properly in search engines, the business name and domain do not matter. They do. Besides, I would hesitate to look at “Jireh Spares” when all I need is just “car parts”. Get the picture?

You can better glorify the name of the Lord with a successful business that has no religious name than with a sanctimoniously labeled business that flops. Food for thought…

DO NOT SETTLE

People who achieve great things do not come from outer space. The CEO, Head of State, Televangelist, Celebrity; all of them were once familiar people in the neighborhood. Even Jesus was an ordinary carpenter’s son (Matthew 13:55). You see, just as a carpenter’s son can be the Savior of the world, a “wild student” the current President of the United States, “little Jack” (Canfield) one of the world’s greatest motivational speakers, so can you.

No great person on earth has a better faculty, reasoning or wisdom than you. The only difference is that they DECIDED one day that they would start doing something even if it meant they would fail several times. As you ponder that vision and look at yourself in the mirror, remember this, that the greatest people on earth were once as ordinary as you are. If Jesus wondered what the neighbors might think of His humble state, he would not have launched out when the Spirit was upon Him. If Les Brown, “mummy Brown’s baby boy” regarded his lack of education, orphan status and color, the world would have been robbed of one of its greatest speakers. Right now, you are great, you are ready, you are more than able, you have all it takes and the world is waiting on you. Do not end up like the General who has settled for driving a bus, the CEO who is working in a factory, the Minister who is sweeping the street. Rise to your higher calling now, this very minute. When you decide to act, you will be surprised how many helpers the Universe has prepared to see you on your way. Like Zig Ziglar says, “see you at the top”!

(First published in DUNIA print Magazine, issue 8)

Gordon Hurd is a motivational speaker, gospel singer, goal setting expert and author of Christian Millionaire Secrets, a new book that challenges Christians to take back their God-given right to wealth. 

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Also by Gordon on DUNIA

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