2 The Power of Positive Thinking

2 The Power of Positive Thinking

Key Point
You are what you think. You feel what you want.

Why Think Positively?

All of our feelings, beliefs and knowledge are based on our internal thoughts, both conscious and subconscious. We are in control, whether we know it or not.
Aim high and do your best
We can be positive or negative, enthusiastic or dull, active or passive.

The biggest difference between people is their attitudes. For some, learning is enjoyable and exciting. For others, learning is a drudgery. For many, learning is just okay, something required on the road to a job.

"Most folks are about as happy as they
make up their minds to be."Abraham Lincoln

Our present attitudes are habits, built from the feedback of parents, friends, society and self, that form our self-image and our world-image.

These attitudes are maintained by the inner conversations we constantly have with ourselves, both consciously and subconsciously.

The first step in changing our attitudes is to change our inner conversations.

What Should We Be Saying?

One approach is called the three C's: Commitment, Control and Challenge.

Commitment
Make a positive commitment to yourself, to learning, work, family, friends, nature, and other worthwhile causes. Praise yourself and others. Dream of success. Be enthusiastic.

Control
Keep your mind focused on important things. Set goals and priorities for what you think and do. Visualize to practice your actions. Develop a strategy for dealing with problems. Learn to relax. Enjoy successes. Be honest with yourself.

Challenge
Be courageous. Change and improve each day. Do your best and don't look back. See learning and change as opportunities. Try new things. Consider several options. Meet new people. Ask lots of questions. Keep track of your mental and physical health. Be optimistic.

Studies show that people with these characteristics are winners in good times and survivors in hard times.

Research shows that,
"... people who begin consciously to modify their inner conversations and assumptions report an almost immediate improvement in their performance. Their energy increases and things seem to go better ..."

Commitment, control and challenge help build self-esteem and promote positive thinking. Here are some other suggestions.

7 Suggestions for Building Positive Attitudes

* In every class, look for positive people to associate with.
* In every lecture, look for one more interesting idea.
* In every chapter, find one more concept important to you.
* With every friend, explain a new idea you've just learned.
* With every teacher, ask a question.
* With yourself, keep a list of your goals, positive thoughts and actions.
* Remember, you are what you think, you feel what you want.

CHANGE OR FORCE TO CHANGE

CHANGE OR FORCE TO CHANGE
Everyone resist change. Anything we do repeatedly becomes a habit and later we are conditioned and resist new changes. Remember when you switched over from driving a bike to a car, it was uncomfortable for some days later switching back to bike was uncomfortable. So its all the state of mind. Anything you do with passion gives a positive state of mind thus you start learning / adapting new things in life. Today if you don’t change as per the trend tomorrow, you will be forced to change. Better change today.

Today when you look at the world, what took a decade to change, now takes just a few months. It took 50 years for cassette tapes to replace records, but it took less than ten years for CDs to replace cassette tapes. These were soon replaced by mini discs. Today, in less than 3 years we have the MP3 and MP4. These innovations are making the rest totally obsolete.

Today in the market, mega billion dollar business can become bankrupt because of obsolescence overnight. Similarly small companies can become worldwide market leaders in just 5 years. In the same manner a professional with years of experience and a high market value can become economically unviable within a short period of time. Why?

The new economy is so dynamic that 80% of what you learn in school will become obsolete by the time you graduate. 30% of the jobs, companies, products and services that are common now never existed a decade ago.

Whoever heard of professionals like chief information officer, web designer, techno-preneur, internet service provider in 1990’s. Similarly 50% of the jobs that exist today will no longer exist in their present form ten years from now. In fact the average person will probably go through 4 career changes (not job changes) in their entire life time. Why? Simply because the jobs they have and the companies they work for will not exist for very long.

There are now a hundred times more millionaires and many more billionaires as compared to decades past. Unlike earlier, when most of them were in their fifties, today billionaires are in their thirties.

Today with an innovative idea, you could become the owner of a billion dollar company in less than 10 years. We know that academic success, knowledge and intelligence alone are no guarantee of success in the new economy. In fact, they could mean very little. In the new economy the school dropouts are those who employ “professors” to run their business, like- Bill Gates (founder – Microsoft), Larry Ellison (CEO – Oracle), Richard Branson (CEO – Virgin Group), Steve Jobs (CEO – APPLE), Antony Robbins (World No 1 Success Coach) and Micheal Dell (CEO – Dell) became creators of billion dollar empires.

While education and academic qualification are important, they are not enough if you want to make it in these evolutionary times. The most successful in the new economy are not necessarily the ones with the highest IQ and degrees behind them. It is only certain pattern of excellence which they acquire to succeed. This I have observed with many successful people.

Pattern of excellence is a set of beliefs, attitudes and behavior exhibited by individuals who consistently produce exceptional results. It is the ability to model and replicate excellence within a very short period of time. It is the ability to take charge of your life, be in control of your emotional state and bring out the best of your personal potential.

Whatever may be external circumstances; you can master your mind and design your destiny. You have all the resources you need to succeed.

“WHY BLAME OTHERS FOR YOUR MISTAKES?”

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Research has shown that about 40% of all businesses fold-up within the first year of starting. A staggering 80% of businesses fail within the first 5 years and of the remaining 20% that make it past the 5 year mark, over 80% of that 20% fail by the tenth year. In other words less than 10% of businesses that start up ever succeeds beyond 10 years.

Many people look at these statistics and say to themselves that with only a 10% chance of success, they are better off staying in their job for the rest of their life. It would be a lot safer. After all, they can never be smart enough or good enough to be in that small minority of 10%.

Firstly, I want to say that being among 10% of successful entrepreneurs is not only possible, it is very much achievable when you know how! You can be in the successful minority if you follow the critical SUCCESS FACTORS.

The reason most people fail in business is not because they lack a superior IQ. It is not because they lack luck or a special talent. The reason for all these failures is simply because they are making the same mistakes over and over again.

After starting so many businesses and consulting many business friends, I can tell you that success in business has nothing to do with your age, nothing to do with your level of education, little to do with how much capital you have and very little to do with luck.

It has to do with two main critical success factors that anybody can learn.

The critical success factors are entrepreneurial Mind Set and Entrepreneurial Skill Set.



ENTREPRENEURIAL MIND SET:

The first thing that sets successful entrepreneurs apart is their way of thinking (MINDSET). I have found that time and again, successful business owners think very differently from the rest of the crowd. When employees are given work to do, they see it as a problem. When an entrepreneur is given more work to do, he sees it as an opportunity to learn and grow from it. When a person with the employee mindset is sent for training, they often see it as a waste of time. The successful entrepreneur sees it as a valuable investment. When more people look at something challenging, they think of all the reasons why it cannot be done and avoid it.

Our mind set is the most important key to our success as a business owner. In fact, I would say that your ability to succeed in business is 70% psychology and 30% strategy. Your mindset affects your thoughts, which affects your behavior & actions and these ultimately affect the results you produce.

HERE ARE 3 ESSENTIAL MINDSETS OF A MILLIONAIRE ENTREPRENEUR:

MINDSET 1. Taking 100% responsibility & ownership.
MINDSET 2. Failure leads to success.
MINDSET 3. Constant and never ending INNOVATION.

100% RESPONSIBILITY & OWNERSHIP

100% RESPONSIBILITY & OWNERSHIP

Whenever I ask most business owners why their business is not as successful as it can be,

I usually get these responses:
1. I can’t find good people.
2. There are too many competitions.
3. The economy is soft.
4. The industry is tough
5. people are just not spending
6. I don’t have enough capital
7. if only I had more money things would be different
8. My partner is the problem
9. I have been down on my luck
10. I just don’t have the time to focus on marketing
11. I don’t have enough experience
12. I am too young or I am too old.

The problem with all these above reasons is that they are all aimed at blaming something or someone else. The majority of people with the above mindset tend to give themselves a lot of excuses and blame everything and everyone, except themselves, when things go wrong.

They blame the economy, the government, competition, bad luck, lousy staff, disloyal and difficult customers for their lack of success.

People with this VICTIM mindset will NEVER SUCCEED IN BUSINESS.

Successful entrepreneur mindset will never allow circumstance to control their fate. They have faced all the reason mention above. Success was in their thoughts and actions allowed them to retain the power to change their environment and their results.

Millionaire business owners believe that if there is something wrong with their business it is only because there is something they are doing or not doing in the right way. They believe and have 100% control over their business success and profit.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY GIVE YOU POWER AND CONTROL

So, are millionaire entrepreneurs successful because everything is going their way? Are successful business owners found only in booming economies, industries and rich countries? Do all successful business owners start off with lots of capital? Rae they blessed with the most motivated and hard working staff? Are they gifted with special luck? We know the answer is a resounding “NO”. In fact, many of the successful and enduring entrepreneurs in the world started off in the worst times and with all the odds stacked against them.

When SOICHIRO HONDA started his company (HONDA) after world war 11, Japan was facing an oil crisis and twice the Americans bombed his factory. A few years later his factory was destroyed for the 3rd time by an earth quake.

When FRED SMITH started FEDERAL EXPRESS (FEDEX) his planes were almost repossessed twice by the Finance Companies because he didn’t have the money to pay the installment.

When RICHARD BRANDON wanted to go into the airline business, everyone told him that the industry was tough and that most carriers were losing money. And yet VIRGIN Airlines became highly profitable and took market share away from the market leader BRITISH AIRWAYS.

IF THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE BUSINESS THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE OWNER!

They believe that if they have challenges with their customers, it’s because they don’t understand customer relationship management. If they have a problem with sales, it’s because they don’t understand marketing. If they have money problems it’s because they don’t understand finance.Similarly, if they have operational problems, it’s because you don’t understand operations.If you have employee problem it’s because you are not doing the right thing in their recruitment, training and retention.

By taking 100% responsibility over your results you are acknowledging that you are creating it, either directly or indirectly. People with this leaders’ mindset believe that “FOR THINGS TO CHANGE,I MUST CHANGE FIRST”.

FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS

FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS

Once you have the first mindset of taking 100% responsibility and ownership, the second mindset you must possess, is the attitude to manage failure, setbacks and massive frustrations. What stops most people from starting a new business, innovating a new product or entering a new market is the fear of failure. This set back is what kills most entrepreneurs. In the world of business, lessons do not come in text books (like in school). But they come in the form of failures. By failing is something, we know that what doesn’t work. And yet, experiencing failure, frustration and set back is all part and parcel of being an entrepreneur. In the process of building any successful business, you will go through times of failure, rejection and intense frustration. Things rarely go according to plan or work out the way you would expect them to.

All successful entrepreneurs have the ability to stay calm, optimistic and confident. I believe that before we can succeed in anything, we have to first learn to fail, make mistakes and deal with setbacks.

Success never takes a straight line. If you study the paths off all successful entrepreneurs, you would see that all of us had to go through many set backs before ultimately achieving our dreams.


* While building DISNEY, WALTDISNEY went through near bankruptcy 12 times in the country’s history before establishing it as the largest and most successful entertainment company in history.

* DONALD TRUMP also went through near bankruptcy twice in his career as a real, estate builder before achieving world wide fame.

* LIM TOW YONG, founder of EMPORIUM was declared a bankruptcy at the age of 72 with debts in millions. He later started a new company and made back all fortune at the ripe old age of 82.

* When SIM WONG HOO started CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, his first product, the CUBIC 99 was a huge failure. It was after multiple product failure that his company went to the billion dollar league.


* Nine years after STEVE JOBS started and successfully built APPLE COMPUTERS, he was fired from his own company by the very CEO he appointed. To make things worse, the following company he started (next computers) also went down in flames.

It is only after a string of major set backs that STEVE JOBS built PIXAR (the most successful animation studio in the world) and brought APPLE back
From the verge of bankruptcy onto become one of the most successful technology companies in the world.

After all, success comes from exercising good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience and experience often comes from making bad judgment and paying the price.

Of course there are always things we can do to minimize these failures. The trick is to learn from other people’s experiences and other people’s mistakes. This is why it is so important to read biographies of successful business owners in order to gain the insights they have gotten after years of trial and error. However, no matter what lessons you learn from books and mentors, the greatest lesson you will learn will come from the “UNIVERSITY OF LIFE” THERE ARE NO FAILURES. THERE ARE ONLY LEARNING EXPERIENCES.