Success Depends on You
Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will have a joy in overcoming obstacles—a delight in climbing rugged paths which you would perhaps never know if you did not sometimes slip backward, if the road were always smooth and pleasant. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. ~ Helen Keller.
Kevin Curtis left this message for his facebook friends. I want to share this message with you because I see too many people rest on past laurels and think that will bring them successes in their businesses today.
“People park when they sit back and rest on past laurels; the mistake being that they allow over-confidence and past successes to cloud future rewards. This situation makes people lazy in their business dealings. They become board with their lives and fall victim to complacency.” ~ Judith Sherman
We cheat ourselves and our downline when we become complacent. There is little growth going on in our businesses and that’s a recipe for failure or for dropping out. Then, since our downline duplicate us, those we have sponsored will become complacent and possibly drop out as well.
To keep this from becoming a problem, we must learn to do something every day that keeps us motivated and hungry enough to grow our businesses. This is what I have done and why I was able to overcome tremendous hardship to succeed in publishing my book. I believe this situation is represented well in the story “Tortoise and the Hare”.
The tortoise is slow moving and takes a long time to get anywhere. On the other hand, the hare is very speedy. One day the tortoise and the hare were challenge to a race. The hare is expected to win because he is fast and the tortoise is so slow.
The hare ran fast and became tired, so he decided to lay down for a rest. At other times he would stop to play a little. The hare knew that, because he runs so fast, he can make up time and still win the race.
Although the tortoise may not be very fast, he just keeps trudging along. He does not stop to play or to rest because he takes the race seriously. He just keeps going, putting one foot in front of the other. The tortoise is slow, but nevertheless he won the race.
Do you see this same activity going on in your business? Do you see some associates working their businesses at full speed and then tire so they take a break? Once they lose momentum, it is difficult to get it back and it takes more effort to regain the momentum lost.
Then there is the slow starting associate that doesn’t appear to be doing as much as you would like, but they always seem to reach their goals. They always seem to make sales and sponsor new associates every single month. This is the same principle demonstrated in the tortoise and the hare story. Putting one foot in front of the other every day, doing something meaningful in your business every day, reaps the rewards that come with success.
Working smart instead of working hard uses the same principle as the tortoise and the hare. Making contact with people in a friendly manner with no expectations will gain their trust and they know you will not bomb out on them. They will watch you for awhile to make sure you are serious about your business and the relationship you develop with them. If they do not like what they see, they won’t give you the time of day. Then, once they see that you are trustworthy, they will be loyal to you as long as you are in business.
If you want to be like the hare, you need to be doing something else as well to help you keep up the momentum and not tire easily. Otherwise, you WILL lose faith when things don’t happen as quickly as you expect. Also, you will grow tired and weary from the pace and need to take a rest. As the hare discovered, rest breaks can cause you to lose. Someone else will come by and pick up where you left off, and you will have no one but YOU to blame.
My advice is to pace yourself with a steady application of effort and working smart, improving your skills through education, and taking time for relaxation. Allow people to know you better and to develop a good relationship with them. It takes time to develop healthy relationships and to earn loyalty. People need to know that their relationship with you is worth more to you than money or what you can earn from their business.
I would like to build a relationship with you as well through my postings. But that relationship has to go two ways. So this means I welcome your stories regarding the principles discussed in this article or about anything else you would like to share or ask me. You may leave a comment in the box below.
You may email me at Judith@JudithSherman.com
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