The 7 Principle of Success I confirmed by jumping out of perfectly serviceable aircraft!

A friend of mine recently invited me to talk to a group of business people on the subject of success in business, and life as a whole. But then he complicated my life by asking me to use some of the experiences that I had during my military career to illustrate the principles that I would be sharing. The complication came simply from the fact that it is not a period of my life that I reference very often, and I was truly not convinced that it was something that would be of general interest to other people. But because I'm such an amazing friend, I reluctantly agreed to do it, and ended up with about 30 minutes of pretty interesting content.

The good news for you is that I am not going to bore you with the military stuff, unless you specifically ask for it, of course! Instead, I'm going to pull out the major elements of the presentation that identify the 7 primary areas that each of us needs to focus on if we wish to be successful in our businesses, or our lives as a whole. So here we go…

1. Accountability

This is the fundamental requirement for success – we need to each own the process that got us to where we are today, even though we may not regard ourselves as being successful yet. A lack of accountability manifests in our lives as a lack of understanding of our personal values and that leaves us unsure of what we really believe, or where we are actually heading. As soon as we become accountable for our past we free ourselves up to be equally accountable for the future of our choosing. Continuing to blame random forces, over which we have no control, keeps us trapped in our past, and allows our history to determine our destiny. Each of us has arrived at the point in our lives that we are at today because of the decisions that we have made. In turn, each of those decisions was based on our thinking at the time. Therefore, it follows that if we can change the way we think, that will change our decision-making process, and that will allow us to move into the future of our choosing.

2. Forgiveness

A lack of forgiveness in our lives keeps us emotionally bound to historical problems and issues, and stops us being able to be objective about our current situation and our future. We end up "shoulding all over ourselves" – I should have done this, I should have done that, I should do the next thing! Unforgiveness traps us in the no-man's land of inactivity, and hoarding forgiveness very quickly leads to bitterness. Releasing the demons of past, which you can do nothing about anyway, gives you a clear heart, and a new beginning. Apart from the fact that all of the hours spent planning the confrontation and revenge for past wrongs could have been used for something far more positive, all that they have actually created is a psychological rock in your shoe, and the person you are angry with has probably not lost one second of sleep over the issue.  Start each day with a forgiving heart, forgive other people's lack of understanding, and accept that criticism is the price you pay for moving out of mediocrity.

3. Happiness

Without wishing to burst your bubble, success does not always bring happiness. Think about how many eminently successful people you know about, who live in a state of abject depression, and are extremely unhappy.  Despite existing levels or degrees of success, a lack of happiness is often the result of fear of failure. Unfortunately, we have got the formula wrong, and any of you who have read any of my previous blogs on the subject will know that happiness is a choice, and is critical in order to achieve success, not the other way around. Happiness, as a choice, is the end result of thoughts and activities that bring about a chemical reaction in your physical being, called euphoria. And the good news is that euphoria is completely under your control. Smile a lot, start every day with laughter, and the chemical reaction in your bloodstream will translate into enthusiasm, which will make you alert to all of the possibilities that day, or situation, holds. Be grateful – if you're reading this blog my guess is that you have too many good things and people in your life to honestly maintain an attitude of un-gratefulness. Happiness fuelled by gratitude creates enthusiasm, and other people will follow enthusiastic people anywhere.

4. Teach-ability

A lack of knowledge, understanding or specific skill set will obviously hamper your ability to be successful. I mentioned earlier that nothing you can do will ever change your past, but everything you do from today will change your future. Choose to become more teachable. Read books and listen to input that will help you make positive changes in your personal relationships, and give you a greater understanding of other people. Take advice – making decisions using only what you know has got you to where you are today, but adding input from intelligent men and women to your existing experience, will exponentially increase your chance of success in the future.

5. Certainty

I regularly interact with people who have not taken the time to clearly define what success looks like for them. This lack of definition often results in high levels of unfocused activity that eventually lead to disillusionment and burnout. You need a dream, and the bigger, hairier, and more audacious it is, the better! Go to sleep at night exhausted, comfortable in the knowledge that you've done everything you could that day to move you towards that dream. Don't apologise for your dream, but use it to create your vision, your passion, and your hope for the future. As you do that, you will develop certainty, which will focus your activity on achieving your dream. Use analysis to help you make the decisions that will turn your dream into a reality, but understand that the purpose of the analysis is to arrive at a conclusion. Don't be timid and don't wait, every problem gets smaller the sooner you confront it.

6. Activity

I mentioned earlier that high levels of unfocused activity usually cause burnout. The problem is not the activity; the problem is the fact that it is random and unfocused. In order to prevent burnout, the certainty resulting from your definition of success needs to be used to focus your activity. Grab (verb) every opportunity and run (verb) with it. Faced with the choice of doing nothing, or doing something, always choose activity. Successful people make decisions quickly and change their minds slowly, and as you increase your focused activity level you will inspire other people, and automatically become a leader. Leading is doing, and to become a leader you must take action.

7. Persistence

I recently heard of an aboriginal group that became renowned for their ability to create rain by doing a rain dance. When the leader of the group was interviewed on their 100% success rate, his response was that the group did not dance in order to make it rain, they kept dancing until it rained! Failure on any level, makes us want to give up, but in order to be successful, once we have dealt with the past, clearly defined what success looks like for ourselves, and focused our activity, we arrive at the final piece in the puzzle. We need to choose to persist, irrespective of circumstances. Average and mediocre people stop when exhaustion starts, but you need to see exhaustion as the final step before victory. How many times does a baby fall down, trying to walk, before they actually get it right? They never ask how long they will need to keep trying before they succeed, and neither should you. If you persist, irrespective of circumstances, towards a defined and achievable expression of success, the outcome is guaranteed.

Success, whether in business, or life in general, does not have to be some mythical concept, achievable only by luck. I work with people on a daily basis who are applying these principles systematically, and seeing their, and the lives of their families changed as a result. To help more people along this road, I have created a Personal Manifesto for success, which defines and explains these principles in more detail, and is presented as a personal statement of intent. You can download it for free here. 

If you would like me to come and present the principles to your team, including all the war stories, send us an invite via our Facebook page or the Contact page of our website. Anton and I have also developed a number of tools, exercises, and programs, designed to help you achieve success in your business, based on the same principles. If you need more specific help on this subject as a whole, or on any of the individual principles, please feel free to leave a comment below, or connect with us through http://www.version8.com.au, or our Facebook page.