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Success Advice

Avoid These 12 Mistakes on the Way to Success

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One day when I was writing an interesting article my wife asked me, “Why did you achieve success so late, during the late forties?  Did you ever find out the reasons for your late success?” The question was an interesting one as I seldom thought about why I achieved success so late in my life until then. I thought about this for a while; here are the reasons that come to my mind:

  1. You must find your passion first and then follow your dreams to achieve success.  Many people don’t know their passions but slog hard throughout their lives like blind people searching for balls. This is the first mistake people make. 
  2. You must have faith in yourself and patience to pursue your goals. A study shows that most failures occur as a result of impatience and lack of faith in oneself. This is the second mistake people make. 
  3. You must have clarity in your approach.  You must know where you want to go and how you want to go.  Many people have huge potential but go to the graveyard without tapping them as they don’t know where they are going.  This is the third mistake people mistake. 
  4. You must have someone to handhold you. Behind a person’s success, there is someone who laid the ladder to facilitate this success.  A mentor or coach can help you reach your goals successfully. During my teaching and training programs, most of the people ascribe their failures or late success to a lack of guidance.   People often fail due to a dearth of guidance.  This is the fourth mistake people make. 
  5. You must focus on one thing in life so that you will be able to grow quickly.  Many people put their efforts into too many activities, and finally, end up nowhere.  This is the fifth mistake people make. 
  6. You must learn to manage external threats that divert from your goals and objectives. There are two threats ― internal and external threats where internal threats arise out of your negligence, or a lack of sustained focus, and external threats arise from the external environment in which you have no control.  Most people blame external circumstances for their failures. And they fail when they don’t anticipate and manage external threats. They also fail when they don’t constantly align themselves towards their goals by keeping themselves on track as and when they go out of track due to external forces and factors.  This is the sixth mistake people make.
  7. You must have connections in the current world. Connection is also known as a network without which people cannot grow. There are several right people in a wrong place thus failing in their lives miserably despite having immense potential.  If a raindrop falls into an ocean, it loses its significance and if the same raindrop falls into a shell, it becomes a pearl.  That is the major difference connections make!  This is the seventh mistake people make. 
  8. You must focus on the present rather than brooding over the past which cannot be changed and worrying about the future that cannot be predicted. Many people waste 30 percent of their time by thinking about their unpleasant past which wastes their precious time and energy.  This is the eighth mistake people make. 
  9. You must know how to manage your time. Time is more precious than money. If you waste one second, you have wasted one second of your precious life as God has gifted you a prescribed life span.  Use your traveling time to listen to inspirational tapes and turn your dead time into learning time.  Always carry a book to use your commute time. However, most people waste their precious time resulting in failure or late success.  This is the ninth mistake people make. 
  10. You must enjoy the journey and must not sacrifice it for the sake of the destination to excel in your area of interest. Many people sacrifice many things with the sole aim of reaching their destination, and finally, don’t find meaning in their lives and get dejected.  This is the tenth mistake people make. 
  11. You must focus more on efforts, not outcomes. When you focus too much on the outcome you may lose interest in putting your efforts as most of the time outcome won’t come instantly, and it takes lots of time.  And people get dejected for not getting an instant outcome for instant efforts. This is the eleventh mistake people make. 
  12. You must learn to reinvent as per the changing times and technologies. Currently, there is all-around complexity and uncertainty across the world with the rapid changes in technology.  Some people achieved success but failed to sustain it as they did not reinvent as per the needs of the time. They took their success for granted.  They did not change their tools and techniques as they thought that what worked for them to reach their present position would work for them to reach their next higher position.  They finally lost the position they reached, leave alone reaching their next higher position. This is the twelfth mistake people make. 

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

Remember that it is never too late to achieve success, and age is not an excuse.  Old age is a state of mind.  And there are a few people who still follow their passions and live life fully by utilizing their hidden potential and capabilities thus providing meaning for themselves as well as inspiring others to follow in their footsteps. 

I told my wife that I belong to a poor family without much regular education.  I joined Indian Air Force at the age of 18 and pursued my education privately with a lot of gaps in the middle. I told her that I had been an average student throughout my life.  It takes a long time for me to understand certain things.  

I think more number of times to understand and grasp the content.  Hence, I have to work harder.  If I had a consistent working experience, a good mentor, and timely support I would have achieved success much earlier.  I had to learn everything by trial and error method, and mostly learned lessons from my experiences, especially from my frequent failures.  

Above all, I was surrounded by a few unpleasant people, mostly my relatives, who continuously pulled me down. That damaged and slowed down my prospects to make it big in my life on time.  However, my passion for continuous learning and constant feedback made me a successful person.  

I firmly believed that success would touch my toes.  How long does it elude me?  Finally, I achieved success the hard way due to my hard work, smart work, and wise work, and touched my tipping point. Hence, keep doing your job sincerely by spotting your passions, and by pursuing them thoroughly with a single-minded dedication with more emphasis on the means rather than on your ends. 

Remember that success involves a series of strategies, steps, and sutras that you must follow meticulously.  You will succeed not because you are destined but because you are determined to achieve success despite several odds stacked against you.  To summarize, you can succeed only when you shrug off pessimism, choose good friends, take care of your family, and above all, break your mental limitations.

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D. is the Father of “Soft Leadership” and the Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India. He is an International Leadership Guru with forty years of experience and the author of fifty books including the award-winning ‘See the Light in You’ URL: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132. He is a C-Suite advisor and global keynote speaker. He brings a strategic eye and long-range vision given his multifaceted professional experience including military, teaching, training, research, consultancy, and philosophy. He is passionate about serving and making a difference in the lives of others. He is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine. He trains a new generation of leaders through leadership education and publications.

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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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How to grow a brick and mortar store
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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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altering business approach
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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Creating legal boundaries
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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
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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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