read it and write things to implement 19
SECRET
Be Decisive and
Action Oriented
Take arms against a sea of troubles,
and in so doing, end them.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ONE OF THE qualities of self-made millionaires is that they
think carefully and then make decisions quickly.
They discipline themselves to take action and to carry out the
decisions they have made. They move fast and they get quick
feedback from their actions. If they find they have made a
mistake, they quickly self-correct and try something else.
The key to triumph is for you to try. Successful people are
decisive and they try far more things than other people do.
According to the Law of Probabilities, if you try far more
different ways to be successful, the odds are that you will
eventually find the right way for you at the right time.
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B e D e c i s i ve a n d A c t i o n O r i e n t e d 65
Unsuccessful people are indecisive. They know that they should
do or stop doing certain things, but they do not have the
character or the willpower to make firm decisions. As a result,
they drift through life, never happy, fulfilled, or successful. They
never become wealthy or achieve financial independence.
They settle for far less than is possible for them.
When you become decisive and action oriented, you shift your
entire life into high gear. You get far more done in a day than
other people. You move ahead far faster than the people
around you. You actually tap into a higher source of energy,
enthusi-asm, and motivation that fills you full of joy and
ex-hilaration. This positive energy then propels you forward
even faster toward your goals.
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
Ask yourself, What one action, if I did it immediately, could
have the
greatest positive impact on my re-
sults? Whatever your answer to that
question, just do it!
◆
SUCCESS
20
SECRET
Never Allow
Failure to Be
an Option
There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
—FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
THE FEAR OF failure is the greatest single obstacle to success
in adult life. Note that it is not failure itself.
Failure makes you stronger and more resilient and more
determined. It is the fear of failure or the antici-pation of
failure that can paralyze your thoughts and your activities and
hold you back from even trying to do the things that you
need to do to be a big success.
A young journalist once asked Thomas J. Watson Sr., the
founder of IBM, how he could be more successful faster.
Watson replied with these wonderful words:
“If you want to be successful faster, you must double your
rate of failure. Success lies on the far side of failure.”
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N e ve r A l l ow Fa i l u re t o B e a n O p t i o n 67
Dare to go forward. Self-made millionaires are not gamblers,
but they are always willing to take calcu-lated risks in the
direction of their goals to achieve greater rewards. In fact, your
attitude toward risk taking is probably the most important
indicator of your readiness to become wealthy.
Whenever you are faced with a risky situation, ask yourself this
question, What is the worst possible thing that could happen
if I go ahead? Then, as J. Paul Getty, the self-made oil
billionaire, said, you should make sure that, whatever it is, it
doesn’t happen.
The fact is that everyone is afraid of failure. Everyone is afraid
of loss and poverty. Everyone is afraid of making a mistake
and being set back. But self-made millionaires are those who
consciously and deliber-ately face this fear and take action
anyway. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Make a habit
throughout your life of doing the things you fear. If you do
the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain.”
When you act boldly, unseen forces will come to your aid. And
every act of courage increases your courage and capacity for
courage in the future. Whenever you take action in a forward
direction with no guarantees of success, your fears diminish
and your courage and self-confidence increase. You eventually
reach the point where you are not afraid of anything.
Perhaps the best line from the movie Apollo 13
came from Eugene Krantz, head of mission control at NASA.
When the people around him were starting to
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The 2 1 S u cce s s S e c re t s o f S e l f - M a d e M i
l l i o n a i re s think about the possibility of losing the
spacecraft and the astronauts, he pulled them all together by
an-nouncing in a loud voice, “Failure is not an option!”
Your job is to commit yourself to becoming a self-made
millionaire. Your job is to set specific goals for yourself, write
them down, and work toward them every day. And especially,
you must continue to remind yourself, in the face of all the
problems and difficulties that you will experience, that “Failure is
not an option!” This is the attitude that, more than anything
else, will guarantee your long-term success.
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
Identify one major fear in your life—
for example, failure, criticism, or dis-approval—and resolve
to act as if the fear did not exist. Imagine that you were
guaranteed success if you
would only take action in the direc-
tion of your goals and dreams. Then, just do it!
◆
SUCCESS
21
SECRET
Pass the
“Persistence Test”
Nothing can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common
than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is
almost a proverb. Education will not;
the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent.
—CALVIN COOLIDGE
PERSISTENCE IS THE iron quality of character. Persistence is
to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
It is the absolutely indispensable quality that goes hand in hand
with all great success in life.
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The 2 1 S u cce s s S e c re t s o f S e l f - M a d e M i
l l i o n a i re s And here is one of the great secrets of
persistence and success: Program your subconscious mind for
persistence well in advance of the setbacks and disappointments
that you are going to have on your upward quest toward
success. Resolve in advance that you will never give up, no
matter what happens.
When you are overwhelmed with a problem or difficulty, you
do not have enough time to develop the necessary persistence
to deal with the setback or disappointment. But if you plan in
advance for the inevitable ups and downs of life, when they
come, you will be psychologically ready. You will be prepared.
The courage to persist in the face of adversity and
disappointment is the one quality that, more than anything, will
guarantee your success. Your greatest personal asset can be
your willingness to persevere longer than anyone else. In fact,
your persistence is a true measure of your belief in yourself
and your ability to succeed.
Remember, all of life is a test. For you to have great success,
you must pass the “persistence test.” And this test is often a
pop quiz. It can come at any time, usually totally unexpectedly
and out of left field. You take the persistence test whenever
you are confronted with an unexpected difficulty,
disappointment, setback, failure, or crisis in life. This is where
you show yourself, and everyone around you, what you are
truly made of.
Pa s s t h e “ Pe r s i s t e n ce Te s t ”
71
Epictetus, a Greek philosopher, once wrote, “Cir-cumstances do
not make the man. They merely re-veal him to himself.”
The one inevitability in your life is recurring crisis.
If you are living a busy life, you will have a crisis every two
or three months. In between these unavoidable crises will be a
continuous succession of problems and difficulties. And the
more goals that you attempt to reach, the bigger your dreams,
and the more determined you are to become a self-made
millionaire, the more problems and crises you will experience.
The only factor you can control is how you respond to
difficulties and setbacks. And the good news is that every time
you respond in a positive and con-structive manner, you
become stronger and better and even more capable of dealing
with the next problem or crisis that comes along. Eventually,
you will reach a point in life where you become absolutely
unstoppable.
You will become like a force of nature. You will be irresistible.
You will become the kind of person who never quits, no
matter what the difficulty. No matter what obstacle is put in
your path, you will find a way to go over it, under it, around
it, or through it. You will be like the Energizer Bunny in the
television commercials. You will keep going and going and
going.
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l l i o n a i re s
◆
ACTION EXERCISE
What is the most difficult situation you are facing in your
life today?
Whatever it is, imagine that it has
been sent to you at this time to teach you a valuable
lesson that you need to learn to be even more successful in
the future. What could that lesson be?
From this moment onward, always
seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty. You
will always
find it, and it will help you in your quest to become a
self-made millionair