Five Key Enablers of Success

Five Key Enablers of Success

11 December 2016

Success is such a huge topic for a lot of people and it’s important too – we’re all striving to succeed aren’t we?

Over the last eight years I’ve made a practical study of success, both from my own experiences and from the lessons and guidance of those who have ‘made it’.

From what I’ve learnt so far, here are my top five enables of success.

Patience

I think a lot more people would be ‘successful’ if they could see the results of their actions immediately – it would spur them on to keep going. The truth is, success doesn’t work that way. Success builds over time and you need patience to see it through. Often, something you thought would take a year to build, takes five or even ten.

I’ve been on a mission to succeed for as long as I can remember. I first got into business when I was 23. I launched my own graduate coaching company. It tanked and I went back to work. As soon as possible, I was back out again, this time with my own digital marketing agency. I achieved huge success with both companies quickly but as I grew up in business I learnt a key differentiator: success does not always lead to fulfilment. But I wanted both and so I sold one company and downsized another to start again. Without patience, I would never have dared to start again: I am willing to wait for ‘success’. I want it to be fulfilling.

What I’m building now (DARETOGROW) is in its early days. I’ve been working on it for 18 months and I’ve built real traction. It’s nowhere near my full vision yet but it’s a hell of a lot closer than it was last month, or last year. What keeps me going? My vision is crystal clear and it’s super compelling. I want to make it all happen. (You can read my vision for 2017 here.)

You see, to succeed, you must learn to practice patience. You can’t reap what you sow in the same season. Plant your seeds, nurture them and wait for the crop. If you don’t like the crop, plant new seeds!

Where do you need to develop patience in your life?

Personal Development

I grew up learning to share what I earned, that I’m lucky to have money, you can’t always speak your mind and hard work is important. This unusual mix has led to positive and negative outcomes in my life. The positive outcome is that I’m a grafter; I come from a family of grafters. The negative outcome is that I have previously given away everything I earned meaning I had little left to experience life, build new things and live a life of freedom. Some values I want to keep and some I want to change and that’s okay.

The key to success is to know yourself: know what drives your behaviour, know what you’re good at and where you can improve. The best way to do this is through personal development activities such as reading, listening to audiobooks and trying new things. Push the frontiers of what’s possible for you. Forget what your parents would advise and do what feels right to you. Get around people who are doing what you want to do and learn from them. Personal development never stops.

How can you up your investment in yourself today?

Consistency

My greatest success in life doesn’t come from one off big hits. It comes from the habits, rituals and activities I practice daily. Take this blog for instance. I’ve identified writing / content creation as one of the cornerstone habits to my success. If I write / produce and share great content daily I’ll hit all my other goals. But the key is consistency. I can’t do this every once and a while. I must do it daily. That is how I keep this project in focus, how I keep moving forward and how I build traction.

Key to finding this cornerstone habit is first setting a compelling vision for your life and then breaking it down into goals. I advise clients: pick the goal that will change the game for you and build a habit around that goal. The rest will take care of itself!

What one habit must you practice daily to succeed?

Hard work

I think people who are not living their dreams like to attribute success to luck or genes or smarts. It has nothing to do with those things. It has everything to do with hard work. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or how smart you think I am. What matters is who is willing to put in the most hours, the most graft.

Over the years, I’ve skipped so many nights out, I’ve missed so many boxsets but do you know what? I don’t care. I want to live in a beautiful sea side villa in Ibiza. I want to drive a brand new Mercedes SLK. I want to be able to tour the world, writing every single day. I’m willing to skip a few parties now to live the rest of my on my terms.

I want to live an extra-ordinary life and means going to extra-ordinary measures to succeed.

What are you willing to do to succeed?

Failure

On our journey towards success we will get a lot of things wrong and that’s okay. The more you fail, the more you’ll succeed.

For example, when I left Uni I went to work in America as a door-to-door sales person. I was taught that if I knock on thirty doors a day, I’ll make three sales. Do you know how painful it is to receive three nos every single day? I do. It hurts! But as they taught me ‘every no brought me closer to my yes’. The more I was willing to fail, the more I was willing to succeed. More nos meant more yeses. Isn’t that brutally funny?

Your success in life will be directly proportional to the risks you’re willing to take, the problems you’re willing to tackle and the failures you’re willing to endure. Tackle small problems, lead a small life. Tackle big problems, lead a big life. Fail small, live small. Fail big, live big.

What failures are you willing to endure in order to succeed?

Need a little motivation?

I’m about to launch a free online course to guide you through this process. It’s a 6 day course and I’ll be sending you one 5 minute video every day for 6 days to share the key ideas and give you a process to follow to get moving.

If you’re interested, sign up below and I’ll tell you when it’s ready!