5 Principles of Success in Business

Funny things take place in my brain when i'm walking sometimes. Its as if my mind develops a, erm...mind of its own. Lost in my thoughts, I may experience the occasional bump into a stranger, or imagining ways of selling my jumk on ebay for inflated prices....this time however, something productive actually resulted from my day-dreaming!

Walking down the steps of Parliament station I couldn't help but reflect on critical elements anyone needs to develop/possess to obtain success in any endeavours, business or otherwise. So here's my list - he 5 Ps required for success

1) PURPOSE

There is nothing significant in this world that has been achieved without someone first having a strong vision and purpose! It is like the compass that guides a traveller by night, or in modern terms, the GPS that navigates you around Melbourne city! When you look at successful people, you will never find a single person who is scattershot in their route to success. No, each and every action is drawn towards that single guiding goal and nothing detracts them from it.

"Purpose is what gives life meaning" - Charles H Perkhurst

2) PLAN

Having no plan in your journey is synonymous to travelling through a foreign location without a map - you will get somewhere, but it will seldom be where you wanted to go in the first place! It is commonly said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail and I believe no other quote illustrates this truth better!

Another note on planning, often I meet people who speak of amazing goals for their lives, contantly flooding their minds with visualisations of how rich they will be in 20 years, blah blah blah. Not that any of that is bad, but they must realize that without a specific plan or roadmap towards that goal, those dreams are nothing more than just meaningless daydreams!

"It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark" - Anonymous

3) PASSION

I was greatly moved by the portrayal of Jesus Christ in the movie "Passion of the Christ". If ever there was a single person who epitomized the truest definition of passion, he would be it! Nothing could stop him from fulfilling his purpose, not whips, not persecution, not threats, not sceptics, not even death! Through all that he went through one thing fuelled him forward at every turn, PASSION!

Business owners should be the same. Passion is to your actions what fuel is to your engines, it keeps you pressing forward! The easiest way to keep yourselves motivated is by developing a strong passion for whatever it is you are striving towards.


"Nothing great in this world has ever been achieved without passion " - Hebel quotes

4) PATIENCE

This is a critical component that many of our youth nowadays lacks, the art of patience! Unfortunately it is inescapable that we do live in an "instant" society - instant noodles, instant gratifications, instant downloads, instant credit card approvals...To demand the same of a business is folly because the bad news is, anything worth anything takes time to develop.

Its no surprise that within the last few decades, get-rich-schemes have proliferated like wild mushrooms ( or like amount of spam I seem to get!). Why? Well because it preys on our society lack of patience and great desire for wealth. Remember, take time to plan, take time to execute and take the time to evaluate your progress. As long as your plan is sound, and you stay the course towards your purpose, your patience will eventually take you there - there areno shortcuts!!

"It takes a day for weeds to sprout, but decades for mighty oaks to grow" - Anonymous proverb

5) PEOPLE
You hate some, you love some; you embrace some, you bear with some. It is undeniable the importance of having good people around you in your venture towards success. Everyone needs someone to be there and support you, but here are other roles that people can play in your life

• To teach you - Someone who has done the yards to offer valuable and insightful adivce to save you from getting stuck in the pitfalls and nurture you towards 'correct' growth
• To critique you - This is never a popular role, but a vital one nevertheless. Without someone to honestly (and lovingly) tell you where you have gone wrong, you might never think that just sometimes you could be doing something wrong *gasp*
• To hold you accountable - This could be a peer or someone you respect to ensure you are staying on the right tracks and not veering into unproductive activities diverting you from your ultimate goals.

Surround yoursef with as many of all these people and at some stage see you will wonder how you ever did life before them!

"Individually we are one drop. Together we are an ocean" - Ryunosuke Satoro

Well, those are my thoughts- what are some other "P"s you think are important for success. Would love to hear your thoughts.