Leaders are learners. Continuous learning is the key to the 21st century. Lifelong learning is the minimum requirement for success in your field, or in any field. Make a decision today that you are going to become a student of your craft and that you are going to continue learning and becoming better for the rest of your life.
There are several keys to lifelong learning. The first key is that you get up and read in your field for 30 to 60 minutes each day. Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. When you read for an hour each day, this will translate into about one book per week. One book per week will translate into 50 books per year. 50 books per year will translate into 500 books over the next 10 years. Since the average adult reads less than one book per year, when you begin reading one hour per day it will give you an incredible edge in your field. You will become one of the smartest, most competent and highest paid people in your profession by simply reading one hour each day.
The second key to lifelong learning is for you to listen to audio programs, especially in your car as you drive from place to place. The average person sits in his car 500 to 1000 hours per year. This is the equivalent of 12 to 24 40 hour weeks or as much as three to six months of working time that you spend in your car. This is the equivalent of one to two full time semesters at the university.
Turn your car into a learning machine, into a university on wheels. Never let your car motor be running without an educational audio program playing. Many people have become millionaires through the miracle of audio learning. This is why audio learning is often called the "greatest breakthrough in education since the invention of the printing press."
A third key to lifelong learning is for you to take every course and seminar you can possibly find that can help you to be better in your field. The combination of books, audio programs and seminars will enable you to save hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, and many years of hard work, in achieving the same level of financial success.
Make a decision today to become a lifelong learner. You will be amazed at the affect that it has in your career.
Success secret number eight, pay yourself first. Save and invest 10% of your income throughout your working life. Take 10% of your income off the top of your paycheck each time you receive it and put it away into a special account for financial accumulation. If you just saved $100 per month throughout your working lifetime and you invested that money in an average mutual fund that grew at 10% per
annum, you would accumulate a fortune of $1,118,000 by the time you retired. What this means is that anyone, even a minimum wage person, if they start early enough and save long enough can become a millionaire in the course of time.
It was once said that, "If you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you." Developing the lifelong habit of saving and investing your money is not easy. It requires tremendous determination and willpower. You have to set it as a goal, write it down, make a plan and work on it all the time. But once it locks in and becomes automatic, your financial success is assured.
Practice frugality, frugality, frugality in all things. Be very careful with every penny. Question every expenditure. Delay or defer every important buying decision for at least a week, if not a month. The longer you put off making a buying decision, the better will be your decision and the better price you will get at that time.
A major reason that people retire poor is because of impulse purchases. They see something and they buy it, with very little thought. They become victims of what is called "Parkinson's Law."
This law says that "expenses rise to meet income." No matter how much you earn, you spend that much and a little bit more besides.
But this is not for you. If you cannot save 10% of your income, start today by saving 1% of your income in a special savings and investment account. Put it away at the beginning of each month, even before you begin paying down your debts. Live on the other 99% of your income. As you become comfortable living on 99%, raise your Savings level to 2% of your income, then 3% and 4% and so on. Within one year, you will be saving 10% and maybe even 15% or 20% of your income and living comfortably on the balance. At the same time, your savings and investment account will start to grow. You will become more careful about your expenditures and your debts will begin to be paid off. Within a year or two, your entire financial life will be under your control and you will be on your way to becoming a self-made millionaire. This process has worked for everyone who has ever tried it. See for yourself.
Success secret number nine, learn every detail of your business. The market only pays excellent rewards for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for average performance and below average rewards, failure and frustration for below average performance. Your job is to become an expert in your chosen field by learning every single detail about how to do it better and better.
Read all the magazines in your field. Read and study the latest books. Attend the courses and seminars given by experts in your field. Join your industry or trade association, attend every meeting and get involved with the other top people in your field.
The Law of Integrative Complexity says that, the individual who can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in any field soon rises to the top of that field. If you are in sales, become an aggressive, lifelong student of the selling process. The top 20% of salespeople earn, on average, 16 times the amount of the bottom 80% of salespeople. The top 10% of salespeople earn even more. If you are in management, resolve to become an outstanding professional manager. If you are starting and building your own business, study entrepreneurial tactics and strategies and apply new ideas every single day.
Set a goal for yourself to become the very best in your business or profession. One small detail, insight or idea can be the turning point in your career. Never stop looking for it.
Success secret number ten, dedicate yourself to serving others. Your rewards in life will always be in direct proportion to your service to other people. All self-made millionaires have an obsession with customer service. They think about their customers all the time. They are continually looking for new and better ways to serve their customers better than anyone else.
Keep asking yourself these questions, "What do my customers really want? What do my customers really need? What do my customers consider value? What is it that I can give my customers better than anyone else? What is it that my customers are buying from others today and what would I have to offer them to get them to buy from me?"
Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do. Always look for opportunities to do more than you are paid for. Always go the extra mile for your customers. Remember, there are never any traffic jams on the extra mile.
Here is the question that you need to ask and answer, every single day: "What can I do to increase the value of my service to my customers today?" Look for ways to add value to what you do and to the people who depend on you every single day. One small improvement in the way you serve your customers can be a major reason for your financial success. Never stop looking for those little ways to serve your customers better.
Success secret number eleven, be impeccably honest with yourself and others. Perhaps the most valued and respected quality you can develop is a reputation for absolute integrity. Be perfectly honest in everything you do and in every transaction and activity. Never compromise your integrity for anything. Remember that your word is your bond and your honor is everything when it comes to business.
All successful business is based on trust. Your success in becoming a self-made millionaire will be solely determined by the number of people who trust you and who are willing to work for you, give you credit, lend you money, buy your products and services, and help you out during the difficult times. Your character is the most
important thing that you develop in your entire life and your character is based on the quality of integrity that you practice.
The first part of integrity is to be true to yourself, in all things. Be true to the very best that is in you. Being true to yourself means doing what you do in an excellent fashion. Integrity is demonstrated internally by personal honesty and externally by quality work.
Then, be true to the other people in your life. Live in truth with everyone. Never do or say anything that you do not believe to be right and good and honest. Refuse to compromise your integrity for anything. Always live up to the very best that you know.
Here is a question for you to ask and answer on a regular basis: "What kind of a world would my world be, if everyone in it was just like me?"
This question forces you to set high standards for yourself and keep raising the bar. Act as though your every word and action were to become a universal law. Carry yourself as though everyone were watching you and patterning their behavior after yours. And when in doubt, always do the right thing, whatever it is and whatever it costs.
Success secret number twelve, set priorities on your activities and concentrate single mindedly on one thing at a time. This is the key formula for high levels of productivity and performance and for becoming a self-made millionaire. With this formula, setting priorities and concentrating, you can accomplish virtually anything
you want in life. This simple strategy has been the primary reason for high income, wealth creation and financial independence for thousands and even millions of people.
Your ability to determine your highest priority and then to work on that high priority until it is completed is the primary test and measure of willpower, self-discipline and personal character. It is the hardest thing to do but also the most important if you want to be a big success.
Here is the formula. Make a list of everything you have to do before you begin. Set priorities on that list by asking yourself four questions, over and over. Question number one is: “What are my highest value activities?” What is it that you do that is more valuable than anything else to your work and your business?
Question number two is: “Why am I on the payroll?" What exactly have you been hired to accomplish? Focus on results, not activities.
your personal life. What is it?
Question number four is this: “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” There is only one answer to this question at any time. Your ability to determine the single most valuable use of your time and then to start in on that task is the key to high productivity and financial success.
Finally, commit yourself to work single mindedly on one task, the most important task, and stay with it until it is 100% complete. Persevere without diversion or distraction. Push yourself to stay at the job until it is done.
The good news is that by continually setting priorities and concentrating on your highest value tasks, you soon develop the habit of high performance. This habit will then become automatic and will virtually guarantee you great success in life. This one habit alone can make you a millionaire.
Success secret number thirteen, develop a reputation for speed and dependability. Time is the currency of the 21st century. Everyone today is in a tremendous hurry. Customers who did not even know that they wanted a product or service now want it yesterday. People are less and less patient for anything. Loyal customers will change
suppliers overnight if someone else can serve them faster than the people they are already dealing with. Instant gratification is no longer fast enough.
Your job is to develop a reputation for speed. Develop a sense of urgency. Develop a bias for action. Move fast on opportunities. Move fast when people want or need something. Move quickly when you see something that needs to be done.
When your customer or your boss asks you to do something, drop everything else and do it so fast that they are amazed. You have heard it said that, “Whenever you want to get something done, give it to a busy man, or woman.” People who have a reputation for moving quickly attract more and more opportunities and possibilities
to them. They get more and more chances to do more and more things faster than other people who just do the job when they get around to it.
When you can combine your ability to determine your highest priority task with the commitment to getting it done quickly and well, you will find yourself moving to the front. More doors and opportunities will open for you than you can even imagine today.
Success secret number fourteen, be prepared to climb from peak to peak in your life and in your career. Just as a mountain climber who has reached one peak must go down into the valley to climb to another peak, your life will be the same. Your life and career will be a series of ups and downs. As they say, “life is two steps forward and one step back.”
All of business life is cycles and trends. There are up cycles and down cycles. There are trends in business that can often lead to a complete change in the industry. We see this today with the Internet and the expansion of technology in all directions, changing many of our fixed ideas and beliefs about the way business is done.
Develop long-time perspective. Take the long view in everything you do. Plan two, three, four and five years into the future and don’t allow yourself to get onto an emotional roller coaster with the shortterm ups and downs of daily life.
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