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Success Advice

5 Enemies of Success You Must Avoid At All Costs

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Midjourney

In the journey of life, we all come across certain challenges that in one way or another attempt to derail our success. Sometimes these challenges are of our making while other times they creep up on us when we least expect them.

Here are five enemies of success you need to avoid at all costs:

1. The Villainy of Complacency

Complacency is one of the biggest enemies of success we must avoid at all costs. Believing you have “arrived” is a very costly mistake. One never arrives at success. Success is a journey, not a destination. While you may achieve your goals and objectives, you must never forget that there are always bigger mountains to climb and tougher obstacles to face.

Unfortunately, many people do not realize early enough that there’s always more to do and that the competition is rapidly gaining on them in the race. They assume that the initial achievement of material benefits, i.e., money, power, and status is enough to sustain them on for the rest of their lives.  

There’s always someone coming behind you who is hungrier than you, and willing to work a lot harder for less pay until they achieve what you have and more. As someone once said, “Complacency will get you killed.” You need to maintain your fire if you are going to stay the course and achieve lasting success.

“The right time is always right now.” – Casey Neistat

2. Lack of Resources

If you study successful people, you will observe that an overwhelming majority of them succeed in spite of their obstacles. On the other hand, failures always complain and give excuses that their failures are as a result of lack of resources i.e. money, connections, and access.

The presence or absence of resources is not the primary determinant of success. Resourcefulness is the essential ingredient that separates the winners from the losers. The ability to make the best out of what you have, and manipulate situations and circumstances in your favor is a critical success factor. Resourcefulness is a learned skill.

You can improve your resourcefulness by training yourself to collect seemingly disparate and unrelated resources. Casual information you stumble upon today could be the missing link to someone else’s success story. You need to become a collector and connector of resources and people if you want to achieve lasting success.

3. Ego

Your ego is another powerful enemy that can hinder your progress and success in life. Believing that you are infallible or invincible after achieving some prior success is a trap that ensnares many people.

The problem with a growing ego is that by the time you realize it is a problem, it is already too late. Ryan Holiday’s book “Ego Is The Enemy” discusses how the “Ego” has led to the failure and destruction of many great men and women throughout history.  I would suggest that you grab a copy and read the section on how to manage your Ego during times of success. It is a compelling chapter with many valuable lessons that cannot be summarized in a few short sentences.

The main thing with your ego is that it does not let you see beyond your immediate circumstances. Ego blocks you from seeing the full picture and therefore increases the chances of failure. By not letting your ego get in the way, you can look at things from different perspectives and come up with solutions that are pragmatic.

4. Loss of Focus

When most people reach the top of their game, they become the envy of their peers. It is at that point many decide to branch out and diversify their interests and activities. As a result of increasing their capacity and activities, many people are unable to make any meaningful impact on any one task. This is a major problem for a lot of successful people.

To guard against this, you need to stay focused and dedicated to tasks that are the highest and best use of your time. If the project or task you are taking on next is not suited to your strengths and does not provide a high ROI, you need to seek help.

Learn to practice the art of strategic delegation. Delegation helps you create high leverage opportunities for yourself and provides an avenue for your team to learn and grow.

“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” – Brian Tracy

5. Fear of The Unknown

After achieving some success, many people shy away from taking bigger risks. They get accustomed to their new situation and create a comfort zone where they do not take risks.  The truth is, everyone gets scared and everyone doubts themselves from time to time. It is a part of life. Everyone you look up to has at one point or another had to cause to question themselves.

A small voice in their head tells them “you have gone far enough, don’t rock the boat or you could lose everything.” That is the voice of Fear. Fear plants little suggestions that cause you to doubt and second guess yourself. Everyone has heard that voice at one point or another. The people you look up to hear that voice routinely.  The only reason they appear heroic to you is that despite the self-doubt and overwhelming fear of the unknown they still make a conscious decision to take action.

Action breeds confidence and kills fear. The only way to silence the voice of fear and doubt in your life is to act confidently and trust your instincts. When you approach new challenges and larger obstacles, you must believe that you already have what it takes to succeed. Once you can do that, you will become unstoppable, and your future success is guaranteed.

What would you say is another enemy of your success? Please leave your thoughts below!

Chi Odogwu is a writer, speaker, teacher and a business growth consultant. He helps fast growing private companies with $500k - $5M in annual revenues scale up by taking advantage of underutilized digital marketing strategies. He is a thought leader in the direct response marketing field. Chi is also an avid student and teacher of personal development and success principles. You can connect with Chi through his website www.odogwu.com or through his Facebook.

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Success Advice

Why You Shouldn’t Discount A Brick And Mortar Store In 2025

We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options, but is it worth questioning this theory?

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Image Credit: Midjourney

In 2024, you’d be forgiven for thinking that physical shopping is a thing of the past. We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options. But is it worth questioning this theory? (more…)

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
Image Credit: Midjourney

Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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