How Perseverance Saves Your Business

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” ~ Winston Churchill

If you run a business, no doubt you know what it means to go through a bad patch once in a while. It is nothing strange. Everyone gets to go through their own bad patches in the course of any business. Nothing good comes easy so says the sages. Going through a bad patch in the course of any business is akin to going through hell. Depending on the passion you have for the business and what the business means to you and your family, it is real hell on earth anytime things aren’t going well for your business. For some businesses, this happens much too often because of the vagaries of the economic environment the business is operating from. In such circumstances, you must always find ways to persevere hoping that things will pick up again down the road as they always do. So, if you are going through a bad patch in your business, stick with it and keep on striving to make things better. Things always get better with time anyway, if you manage to stick with the job. Most times, throwing up your hands and giving up is not advisable. That is like quitting at the very first obstacle. Successful people never do that.

According to Conrad Hilton, "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." That requires determination and bravery because as most working people know very well, "fortune favors the bold but abandons the timid," a very apt Latin Proverb. In any business, you can never go very far if you are not willing to do and dare. At some point, if you are going through hell in the course of your business, just go right through. That is the surest way to success. Nothing is guaranteed in this world of ours. If you want something bad enough, you must find a way to get it no matter the odds.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

Why You Must Persist to Achieve

“You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance.” ~ Lee Iacocca

To achieve anything worthwhile in this world, you must have the staying power to see things through. That is persistence. There is nothing in this world that can substitute for persistence. Nothing can take its place when it comes to achieving set goals. Even if you are very talented, it is not enough. There are numerous unsuccessful people who are talented. Even if you think you are a genius, many unrewarded geniuses are walking around the streets in desperation. How about education? Well, being educated is OK but without the ability to persist in anything you are doing, you can’t make it. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. They are the main tools you need to get things done in our highly competitive and repressive world. 

Ask people who have attained some measure of success in the business and you’ll get to appreciate this relationship more. One of such successful persons is H. Ross Perot who wrote that "Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown." He should know because he was out there for quite a while. 

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

How Service Enhances Growth

"Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men." -Mahatma Gandhi

Life is all about service, service and more service to others first and to self last. The more you serve others the greater you become. People get into politics to serve their communities. Others get into business to serve customers/clients. In fact, no business is a business if it does not produce something of value for others to benefit from. The more of such service you can render therefore, the more popular you become if you are in public service. But if in business, the more service you render, the more your business grows and the richer you become.

Every business is about service. That is, working for the customer/client more or less. Serving the customer/client comes first then money follows as a consequence. Money is an exchange for service already rendered or to be rendered. When you have no customers/clients to render a service to, surely there is no money to be made. The more service you render therefore, the more money you make. Mr. Ray Kroc advanced this argument more succinctly when he wrote: “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

Real Challenges to Success in SFI Business

From my own experience, my greatest challenge to success in SFI business was MARKETING my business. Because I was unable to market my business effectively, I faced very tough challenges in selling products at Tripleclicks and even recruiting PSAs. I found out to my chagrin that because I could not recruit real active PSAs to grow my downline, succeeding in SFI became a real challenge. This challenge was exacerbated because: 

 
- I was too shy to talk to people.
- I was not very good in Internet marketing.
- I could not advertise my business effectively.
- My budget was very low for advertising.
- I was not learning very fast.
- I was not very optimistic.
- I was not even enthusiastic.
- I thought I was not smart enough for this kind of business.
- I did not believe in the usefulness of advertising my business.

How did I overcome these challenges? I sat down and thought long and hard. You know, I even considered quitting the business at some point. My saving grace was that I turned to fellow affiliates including my upline for help. That is what changed my thinking. That is when I discovered that all these factors which hitherto inhibited me from marketing my business effectively can be overcome by deliberate efforts. These efforts include reading/learning the business thoroughly, following the rules and using the tools provided to grow your business. Your upline, your sponsors and your a2a friends can also help you out to find a way to market your business effectively. From my experience in SFI, fellow affiliates willingly give to other affiliates free tips to market their business. This is aside from the free tips SFI Admin makes available to all affiliates on very regular basis. I have over time found these tips/opportunities to be very useful and have actually been using them. My business has been on the upswing ever since.

5 Business Survival Skills

Going into business is not only fun these days, it is highly rewarding in very many respects. To survive out there, everyone needs skills, real practical skills. One of the most important skills you need to survive in today's business world is the ability to learn and to learn very quickly. Once you are able to do that, it becomes easier for you to learn and to quickly grasp all other survival skills. The act of learning is every bit as important as what you learn. Believing that you can improve yourself and do things in the future that are beyond your current possibilities is exciting and fulfilling. Among the many skills you need, these here 5 skills are some of the most essential skills which can deliver the biggest payoff for your efforts at surviving in today's business world.
 

01. Ability to take initiative. Initiative is the ability to take action without prompting. If you acquire the skill, it will take you far in business and in life. Anyone can always take initiative if they find ways to get over other things which usually get in the way. Knowing what to do and getting it done in spite of obstacles, requires initiative. In the business world, it is inevitable that you have to take risks and push yourself out of your comfort zone, until taking initiative becomes second nature to you. That is one great way to survive out there.

02. Time management skills. Management experts have determined that one of the biggest things that get in the way of effective time management is the "tyranny of the urgent." This is simply the tendency of little things that need doing now to get in the way of what really matters. If because of the supposed urgency of these little things you neglect other important matters, you end up spending more time doing things which will not help you to get the real work done. Learning to manage your time effectively is one essential skill you need to free up more time for you to perform optimally.

03. Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. It is a skill you can learn. Doing business is all about managing behaviors and relationships. Even though it may seem intangible, emotional intelligence is that something we all need to manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that make positive results. In every field of human endeavor particularly in business, emotional intelligence is the critical reason that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack. It distinguishes between genius and mediocrity, between high achievers and non performers.

04. Ability to stay positive. I am the first to admit that it is hard to find the zeal to focus on the positive when positivism seems like nothing more than wishful thinking. Emotionally, the real obstacle to positivism is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and focus on threats for the sake of our survival as human beings. This survival mechanism serves us well when it is a matter of life and death. But, in today's world, this mechanism breeds pessimism and negativity through the mind's tendency to wander until it finds a real threat. It is really a mind thing and the mind is subject to everyone's control. What you think about and focus on is thus subject to your own control. When you think positive, you stay positive. Thus, maintaining positivism is a daily challenge that requires real focus and attention. It pays to find ways to stay positive by deliberate efforts thereby preventing your brain from wandering off to fears and threats which it is naturally wired to look out for.

05. Listening skills. I once heard that the reason we have two ears and one mouth is because we are naturally expected to listen twice as much as we talk. Sure, it can feel so good to unload on somebody and let them know what you really think, but that good feeling is temporary because when you are at it, you can hardly know what the other person is saying. True listening is one effective way to focus solely on what the other person is saying and to think about a clear response strategy. It is about understanding, not rebuttal or comments. Learning how to delay judgment and focus on understanding the other person's response is one of the most important skills you can develop. In plain words, if you are not skillful enough to decipher valuable information from the other person's tone of voice, body language, and what isn't said, you could get left out of the game easily.