Sell Your Way To Success 07/24 by Think and Grow Rich Mastermind | Business Podcasts

Sell Your Way To Success 07/24 by Think and Grow Rich Mastermind | Business Podcasts

The Power of the Subconcious Manifest Your Goals Dreams 02/18 by Masterminders | Blog Talk Radio

The Power of the Subconcious Manifest Your Goals Dreams 02/18 by Masterminders Blog Talk Radio

The Power of the Subconcious Manifest Your Goals Dreams 02/11 by Masterminders | Blog Talk Radio

The Power of the Subconcious Manifest Your Goals Dreams 02/11 by Masterminders Blog Talk Radio

The High Road to Success

It is almost that time of year when high school and college graduations are being celebrated. Most of us know someone who is graduating: a child, grandchild, niece ornephew . This is a message we must share with each of them.

The first leg of the journey is over, but now, the second leg begins. The Highway to Success lies before you. Are you ready for the trip of a lifetime? The low road takes short cuts and leads to temporary success, while the high road leads to lasting success.

What is success? Random House Webster’s College Dictionary defines success as the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. I believe a better definition is achieving goals you set for yourself. If a goal has been set and met, that’s success.

There are many methods for becoming successful, but there are some basic common truths you must remember: 
1. Be your best. That shows noble character. Success won at the cost of self respect is not success.
2. Do your best. That’s the quality of your performance. The difference between failure and success is performing a task nearly right and doing it exactly right.
3. Work hard. That’s the quantity of your performance. You see, there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.
4. Never, never, never, never give up. That’s persistence.

On this journey to a place called success, there are no nonstop flights. There are stops and detours, departures and arrivals:
Depart from Mediocrity and arrive at Excellence.
Depart from Procrastination and arrive at Action.
Depart from Incompetence and arrive at Brilliance.
Depart from Nonchalance and arrive at Commitment.
Depart from “I Can’t” and arrive at “I Can”.

I have an example of that last departure from “I can’t”. Some years ago, one of my daughters was preparing for the “Miss Florida Drill Team” competition. The contestants were traditionally seniors in high school, but she was just a junior.

After having difficulty choreographing her routine, she became frustrated. I could see what was coming and I was prepared. When she said to me, “ I can’t do this”, I told her to get the dictionary, look up the word ‘can’t’ and read it to me. She flipped the pages. When she turned to the page where the word “can’t” should have been, it was not there. I had cut the word out with a razor blade. I don’t know what was on the other side of  “can’t” but whatever it was that word was gone, too.

My point was, if the word is not in the dictionary, it’s not a real word, so don’t use it anymore. She didn’t - and she went on to win the title convincingly.

It’s good to know that success isn’t by the position you reach in life; it’s measured by the obstacles you overcome. And when you’re taking the high road to success, there are pitfalls and potholes that you have to step over.

Don’t ever open the door to discouragement. If you are not finding the acceptance and success you desire today, just remember, your success story is still being written. And if by chance you fail at a task, don’t panic. Failure is a teacher - a harsh one, but the best. You learn from your mistakes. Remember, failure is not fatal, besides success lives right around the corner.

Allow me to share this story. The late, great Ray Charles was able to do what few musicians could - create music that appealed to young and old, black and white, rich and poor. He successfully crossed major boundaries.

Ray Charles lost both of his parents and a brother before he was grown. He grew up in a school for the blind where he learned to play piano and sing. By the time he was a teenager, he was a hit in Central and North Florida. He and his friends believed in his  talent. 

In 1946, Lucky Millender, the famed band leader, brought his band to Orlando. Ray Charles managed to get an audition. What an opportunity! It was his first chance at the big time. 

Charles sang and played with all his might. He gave 150 percent. Millender listened quietly. At the end of the audition Charles expected to hear praise, but all he heard was silence and finally Millender told Ray, “Kid, you ain’t good enough”. Ray could not believe his ears. He had performed with all his heart, with every fiber of his being. He couldn’t have heard right. So he asked Millender to repeat what he said. Lucky Millender said, “You heard right. You don’t got what it takes.” 

Ray went back to his room, heartbroken. He cried for days. But when he had no more tears to shed, something happened on the inside. He knew he was not a quitter. He knew he had God-given talent; so he began to practice as never before. Looking back years later, Charles realized that failure was the best thing that ever happened to him. He vowed that no one would ever be able to say that about him again. And we know the rest of the story. 

Never accept another’s person assessment of your talent and skill. Never let someone tell you what you cannot do. Never take shortcuts that impugn your integrity. Never step down from the high road.

Leadership and Service

Zig Ziglar, the great motivator, said, “You can best achieve what you want in life if you are servant enough to help others achieve what they want in life.” Simply stated, if we want to become King of all, we must first become servant of all.
 
Servant-hood leadership is little understood and very rarely the model for our lives. We need to understand that leadership and service are indispensable to each other. Sometimes, people start out as leaders and end up becoming bosses. There is a difference is leadership and boss-hood. H. Gordon Selfridge gave the following differences:
The boss drives his men; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends on authority; the leader on goodwill.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says, “I”; the leader says “we”.
The boss knows how it’s done; the leader shows how it’s done.
The boss says “go”; the leader says “let’s go.”
There are four keys to Servant-hood Leadership

I. VISION
The good book says where there is no vision, the people perish. If any group, whether business, church or government, is under a leader with no vision, the result is definitely not good. There is disorder, rebellion, chaos and maybe even anarchy. There are some visionary leaders down through history that I really admire. One is Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune Cookman University in Daytona, Fl. Another is Harriet Tubman who had the tenacity and courage to lead people out of slavery to freedom at great danger to herself..
 
Four vision axioms to remember are:
1. Nothing happens to us by accident; all reversals are God-given challenges.
2. Never sidestep challenges.
3. Love people, use things. Don’t reverse this order.
4. Value both leisure and labor. Leisure will give your life pacing. Labor will make you productive.
 
II. DECISION
In a poem entitled “The road Not Taken”, Robert Frost said, “Two Roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”. Sometimes, it’s a decision that makes all the difference in the world. . Sometimes we make decisions that are not always right. Sometimes it’s a matter of timing.
 
The wrong decision at the wrong time = DISASTER.
The wrong decision at the right time = MISTAKE.
The right decision at the wrong time = REJECTION.
The right decision at the right time = SUCCESS.
 
A vision is nothing until we DECIDE to do something about it.
 
III. NETWORKING
The leader of large Christian organization, R. C. Sproul, said, “I hope when I die there will be at least five of my friends who will be able to sit through my funeral without looking at their watches.” A Good example of networking is Jesus Christ. Whether you are Jewish, Christian, Moslem, you have to acknowledge that He is the best example of servant hood leadership. He trained a network of twelve men who carried on the work when He was gone. They in turn trained others. The impact of that networking is felt today, One leader and twelve followers turned the world upside down. Networking multiplies power.