Building a Strong Foundation for Success
- Succeed through Making a Contribution
- How to Get Ahead in Life
- Find your Own Angle for Success
- Start Succeeding Early
- Do Not Re-Invent the Wheel
- Of Good and Bad Debt
- Duplicate Your Success
- Building a Strong Foundation for Success
- Gaining and Sustaining Success Momentum
- How and When to Buy Influence
- Succeed through Authenticity
- Set up Systems to Serve You
- Why set up your own Pipelines?
- Chasing the Wind of Success
- Is your Belief System screwing you up?
- What to do when you Lose it all?
A sky scraper’s foundation is different from that of a single floor house. The kind of success you desire must have a matching foundation. Invest in a good foundation to build lasting success.
Think through that which you want to build. Reflect on the implications of your success. Visualize on the magnitude of the success you desire. If you have big dreams, then you should have a strong foundation.
Spend the time learning the ropes, training and getting experiences. I have been in situations where I have succeeded without having properly built a foundation. It is not a good feeling when you have to live with the fear of your success crumbling. My experience has taught me that it is better to wait to succeed than succeed when you are not ready.
Core Values for Success
What are your core values? Have you ever given serious thought to developing values as a way of building your foundation for success? It is good to consciously think of the set of values that you would not compromise on. Examples of such values are honesty, integrity and trust.
Running for the office of the USA president requires one to have a character that is beyond reproach (atleast in theory). The media and opposition looks for any shreds of evidence of hidden weaknesses and past mistakes. The core values and character foundation requirements for the United States president are different from that of a long distance truck driver.
What do you want to be and what are the moral requirements? Think of the core values that will ensure your success in your ventures. What kind of foundation are you standing on? Who are the key people in your life? What does your history and past actions say about you?
From this point forward, assuming you want to get ahead in life; what do you need to do? What changes do you need to make in your life? You are as strong as your weakest link. If you have skeletons in your closet, they can come back to haunt you.
A Strong Foundation in Business
To get ahead in business, you need to have a strong foundation. Many people focus too much on what they can get out of business instead of first laying a strong foundation.
Do you know who your customers really are? Do you know what their most pressing needs? How are you going to meet and exceed their expectations? Conducting proper marketing research is a great way to build a firm foundation for your business.
Take time to understand the people you are going to serve. Take time to know what value they are seeking. Identify their evolving needs and be proactive in serving them. It is said that the customer is always right. They have the right to spend their money with whom and on whatever they deem fit. Become a close fit to their expectations and desires.
Do not put your needs before those of your customers. That is myopic and a recipe for failure. Let your value proposition reflect the wishes of your customers. Understand your competition and position yourself in the minds of your customers as being the best supplier.
Another way of setting up a good foundation for business is to understand the numbers. Cash flow is everything in business. Manage your payments, receipts, income and expenses prudently. If you do not have the know-how, employ the services of a good accountant or book keeper.
Find a balance between providing value for your customers and getting paid. When you get paid, have systems in place to re-invest the profits. Treat the business like a baby. It needs nourishment. You cannot keep taking from your business and expect it to thrive. To create a sustainable business, have a strong budgeting process, cash flow projections and multiple streams of income.
A Strong Foundation in Relationships
You do not want to be in a relationship with someone who is “still finding themselves”. They will betray you and jump off the relationship if they find out that it is not you they were after. Are you that kind of person? Are you still finding yourself?
Take time to know yourself. Know what you want in a partner. Know what you seek in a relationship before you commit to one. Understanding and clearly communicating your needs and expectations of each other is one very important foundation stone of relationships. Be sure you understand each other’s fears, likes, hopes, dislikes, circumstances and customs.
Many people jump into relationships without proper dating or courtship. That can be a recipe for disaster. It is easy for a relationship to cloud your judgment if you jump in too soon. Wherever possible, take time to develop a friendship and understanding before committing to a relationship.
If you are already in a relationship, and you think that that relationship is doomed, then get out now. There is no honor in staying in a relationship that is not going anywhere because of the fear of being single. There are so many other people out there and you may be surprised to find that true happiness is not beyond you.
In the event that you find yourself in a relationship that has the hope of working, then take it upon yourself to do what you can to make it work. Lay a good foundation for your relationship by creating bonding opportunities, having shared values, expectations, aspirations and memories. Build and maintain trust; it is the foundation of healthy relationships. Broken trust is hard to recover so if you find someone trusting you do not abuse it. If you have failed your partner then think of ways of making it up to him or her and hope that time will heal. If your partner has abused your trust and you want the relationship to work, find it in you to forgive and rebuild the trust. Without trust, it is impossible to love truly.
A Strong Foundation in your Career
You can have a strong foundation for long term career success by getting into a career that matches your talents and desires. Find that which you love to do and pursue it for a career.
You can set yourself up for success through proper training and gaining of experiences. For example, if you wanted to be a successful small business owner, make sure you learn all there is to do with your offering. Also make sure you learn skills such as marketing, finance, human resource management etc that will be useful for you running your business successfully. You can learn through formal education, learning from other small business owners, attending seminars or through self education.
Networking and contacts building is another smart way for setting yourself up for career success. As Confucius once said “dig the well before you thirst”. Make friends with people in your industry and related industries before you need them. Build your networking strategy to be a win-win relationship. Bring something to the table when you go networking.
A Strong Foundation in your Finances
To succeed in finance, you have to understand the time value of money. Live within your means. Watch you outgoings and worry about the cents and the dollars will take care of themselves. Learning to live within your means especially when you are starting out is one of the best ways of securing your financial future. Many people, perhaps due to peer pressure, end up spending more than they can earn, or saving less than they should. Remember that your early choices will influence your future significantly.
Another way of setting yourself up for financial success is to invest in your financial education. You may be a musician, doctor, brick layer or mechanic, but you still need to learn how the world of finance works. You need to take the time to understand various investment options available to you. Do not let a third party make all the decisions for you. Their interest and your long term interests may not always align.
When building your financial empire, remember that there are things that are beyond you that could go wrong and hand you financial ruin. Become adequately insured. Good income protection policy, medical cover, life insurance policy and other covers can come in handy for you and your family if things go pear shaped.
Fundamental Habits
We are creatures of habits. The kind of habits you have will influence your long term success. Think of the habits you form as the foundation for your success.
- Focus – Avoid distractions. Set clear goals on what you want to achieve and focus on that until you get the results you desire. Work on your ability to concentrate and see things to completion.
- Hard work – Nothing in life comes easy, not success anyway. Be prepared to work for your success. You need to develop that ability to work hard. Make it a part of you to put in the hours and effort that it takes to succeed in what you set your mind on.
- Sleeping Habits – Do you get adequate sleep? Sleep deprivation can lead to loss of productivity. On the other hand, sleeping too much can reduce the time available to you to work on your ventures. They say “early to bed, early to rise, makes someone healthy, wealthy and wise”. Are you an early riser? Many successful people have a regular sleeping patterns and wake up early. The early bird catches the worm. (sshhh…don’t talk about the early worm!).
- Persistence – Do you jump from one venture to another? Do you jump from one investment to another? Do you jump from one relationship to another? Staying put long enough to accumulate success is a vital habit that can bear good dividends.
- Listening – God gave us two ears and one mouth each. Use them in that proportion. Develop good listening habits. Even the dull and ignorant people have their side of the story. Listening enables one to gain insight in the way others think and interpret situations. Accept that you will not always be right or know everything.
- Follow Up – Many people can do something once, but very few have the tenacity to follow through on their commitments. It is not what you do once that matters. It is what you repeatedly follow up on that makes the difference. Whether you are developing a relationship with a partner or customer, following up can make all the difference.
In Summary
Decide upfront what kind of success you desire and set up an appropriate foundation. Setting out to succeed without a strong foundation is recipe for disaster.
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Mmmmm!!! wow!!
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Great words of wisdom, Daniel……..it’s making me wanna stop reading all the books i’am reading and just read your blog instead. It will actually be a good idea if you was to write a book – your explanation is so clear and easy to follow and connect.
Just adding on your words of wisdom and hope i do not subtract anything but add.. Through my mentors teachings, i have come to learn the importance of building a strong foundation for success as it’s the first lesson i learnt though i recently just started applying it now that i have started comprehending the philosophy behind it.
There is a story (correct me if am wrong) in the bible of which am unable to quote the verse as i dont know exactly what verse or book it’s in but it talks about the wisdom of building a foundation on a solid rock than on sand. And its funny that most of us have known this since sunday school when we was little, for all who attended, but have never really applied it in wide areas of our day to day life. Foundation determines the success or failure of almost anything and everything mankind does. I do not believe there is a short cut to success and every success has a core in its foundation. Have learnt from my mentors that everything in life follows a natural progresion – Plant, Cultivate and Harvest. Plant or build a foundation and make it strong by cultivating to have a bumper harvest or success. It is easy to build a strong foundation and also very easy not to as the results of doing/not doing it won’t show now or tomorrow but compound to show until much later – it all goes back to the philosophy of compound interest.
Peace, Love and Harmony.
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Daniel Ngari Reply:
August 24th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
@ Gabriel – Keep reading the books but be stopping by as well. I love your input. A firm foundation will make all the difference when push comes to shove. I love your insight that success follows natural progression. So true.
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