Duplicate Your Success

Learning how to duplicate your success is like getting a license to print money. Many people who are ahead in life (financially) are people who have learnt to duplicate their successes.

For example, the founder of McDonald’s Restaurants has the exact formula of replicating his success in one restaurant to another. McDonald’s has perfected the art of making a profit with one restaurant, and if you are going to open a McDonald’s restaurant, you will succeed, provided you follow their formula to the letter.

People like Michael Jackson were able to become household names because they did something well, packaged it, duplicated it and sold it to millions. If you can package your success and photo copy it, or duplicate it in some way, then you can get rich.

You may not be able to duplicate your success like a DVD, book, CD or website, but there are other ways of duplicating your success. Let us say you want to become an property investor… you can invest in one property, perhaps get a loan for it, improve the property by adding a fresh coat of paint and do the required repairs to add value to the property. Then get a tenant to rent your property. After you have paid off a portion of the property, you can duplicate the exact steps you made and get a second property. Over time you can have a healthy property portfolio if you stick to your winning formula.

Document Your Success

You will encounter challenges and find unique solutions to problems on your success journey. It is a good idea to keep a diary or some form of documentation for the steps you take to succeed.

Using our earlier example of property investment, you can write down the exact steps you take to acquire the property, the surrounding legal issues, your contacts, your finance options, the obstacles you faced, the length of time each step takes, and your lessons along the way. This information would really serve you well if you were to try and get a second property.

When I started this blog, I did some research on what others were doing in the personal development space. I watched countless videos, read numerous blogs and talked to a number of people who were running blogs successfully. I wanted this blog to be a success and to meet the objectives that I set out.

There were many challenges I faced including looking for a good hosting company, blogging technology, branding and market research. I read a number of books and blogs on how to create a successful blog. I brushed up on my internet marketing skills to be able to drive traffic to the site. I made sure that I wrote down each step that I followed. It is still an ongoing project so I keep a record on what I learn and the choices I make, and the rationale behind them.

Why do I document the steps I make as a blogger? If I was to create a second blog, or provide advice for someone who wants to start one, I would refer to my notes. Writing down the challenges and solutions to problems helps in reflection and gives me an opportunity to come back later and see the problems in new light.

I work in the software development industry where documentation is not one of the favorite things to do, but one of the most important. When someone is writing a software package e.g. a ecommerce store, they have to write down the documentation for future developers and customers to make sense of the system. A computer programmer who goes back to inspect his or her own work after 12 months might not be able to remember why something works the way it is. Without proper documentation, they would find it hard to extend or fix problems with the system.

You might not be a computer programmer or a property investor, but whatever you do, make time to document the steps you take to get to your destination. Without proper documentation, you will always be re-solving the problem afresh. If you document your process, not only will it make it easier for you in the future, but you will be able to teach someone else how to do it on your behalf.

The Art of Delegation

There is a bible story about a man called Moses. He was charged with the task of moving the Israelites to freedom from Egypt. They stayed in the wilderness for 40 years and they multiplied on the way.

One day his father in law, a man called Jethro, observed Moses at work. Moses would wake up early and work till dusk being the judge over the growing population. With over 600,000 people looking up to him, his work was cut out for him.

His father in law was worried that he was going to work himself to the grave. He gave him advice that you can apply in your life too if you want to get ahead. He told him to delegate. Up to that point, Moses had assumed that he was the only one who could do the job. But Jethro advised him to teach other noble men the teachings of God and put them in charge of 50 people, some in charge of 100 and others in charge of 500 people.

All Moses had to do was document his art of judging and taught others under him how to do it too. It substantially reduced his work load and improved his effectiveness. His story reminds me of the story of a young lawyer who was working for 90 hours per week.

When this young lawyer was asked why he worked so hard, he said that others could never do his job as well as he could. One senior partner at the firm where he worked then took him to a cemetery and showed him the graves. He said that it was likely that some of those graves were full of men and women who thought they were irreplaceable, or that the world would not go on without them.

Do not hold on to stuff too close to your heart. Document your process of success and delegate where appropriate. You cannot do everything there is to do. Learn to delegate and empower others to share with the responsibility and the glory of what you do.

Plans are underway to share the responsibility of updating and managing this blog.. I am looking for people who have a passion for inspiring others to join a small team that will be in charge of growing this to the next level. For that reason, I am documenting my ideas, obstacles, requests and comments to be able to empower my team to inspire others.

Leverage Initial Success

A struggling beginning musician would find it really hard to get his or her music played on radio. But as soon as they make a hit, everyone would want to play not just their hit song but their upcoming album.

As an unknown person in your industry, it is rather difficult to get people to open doors for you. You have to kiss a lot of asses to get ahead. You have to work hard and hit the pavement. In Kenya, they call it “tarmacking”. Your shoe has to hit the tarmac for you to get any takers. It is ok, plan for that. It is a necessary part of success. Do not be discouraged.

You should consider creating little successes of your own. Success thrives on success. Every time you succeed, use that success as a stepping stone to your next success. People are more likely to take you seriously if you prove you can do something.

Many people starting or planning to start businesses quickly find that raising funds is not very easy. Lenders want to lend to people who have a proven track record. Many complain and wonder why they are not even being given a chance to create that track record. Unfortunately that is just the way life is. You have to succeed before people have the desire or willingness to invest in you. Many people and banks will lend you an umbrella when it is sunny and ask for it as soon as it starts drizzling.

When you get that one chance to succeed and get ahead, maximize your opportunity. Use that success to create more successes. Play each success card well.

Packaging Your Value

Money is the exchange of value. The more value you provide, the more money you will make. To be able to deliver your value to others, think of ways of encapsulating your value into something “tangible”. If you can package your value into something that people can take with, and share with their friends, then you will get the packaged value working for you 24/7.

If I was to talk to a group of 50 people and tell them the words and ideas that I have shared with you, many would be happy and maybe even pay for me to speak to them. But when I write these words down, you are able to read from your phone, computer or printout even though you might be thousands of miles away from you. Writing my ideas on this blog is way of packaging my value.

Packaging value enables you to present that value to more people and you can duplicate it. We are living in extra ordinary times. You most likely have access to the internet. You can document the steps that lead you to success and share it with others. Musicians, authors, actors, trainers etc get rich through packaging their value in DVDs, audio CDs, books etc. Those books or DVDs are able to work for them even when they sleep.

In Summary

I have gone around in circles and touched on various ways of succeeding. It is my hope that you have gained some insight in how you can duplicate your success to get ahead in life. Document the process of succeeding, and package your value, then deliver it to the people who need it.

Have the mentality of duplicating success even before you start a venture. Ask yourself how you are going to succeed, how you can translate that success into more successes. Do not become a slave to your business. Learn to delegate and make your work easier.

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