It is in our nature to want to be successful personally as
well as professionally. Yet there can be a price to pay for profit. Individuals are often willing to pay the price
for success by investing time, energy, and even money into developing their
success. However, time energy and money are only three elements that can
create success.
Whether you seek to be successful personally or professionally be
ready to look at the cost of success, as well as the profit. Parents who want
to be great parents often do so at the cost of a marriage or relationship,
Business professionals seeking success within corporations may pay the price
by losing relationships or even losing sight of their personal values. Such
cost may be more than you are willing to pay.
However, the good news is that if you seek success you can achieve it
without it costing you! For some people the price for success means facing
their fears and being willing to profit from personal growth. As a personal coach, I am fortunate to work with individuals all over the world who have decided they are willing to look at various areas of their life and see how they can grow. While they pay the price in time and energy to examine areas that often they have often avoided, they profit when they overcome a barrier that was keeping them from succeeding. One example is overcoming the self-doubt that you can succeed or hesitation that prevents you from making the next cold call or reaching out to the next customer. The biggest price we
must pay for success is facing ourselves and the obstacles that we put in
front of us which prevent us from profiting. The other price we must pay to
be profitable is a willingness to surround ourselves with people who believe
in our ideas and goals. If your business has, a goal to increase sales it is
obvious you would want employees who support that goal, who believe in it and
who want to achieve it. Therefore, it makes sense that when we set a personal goal,
we should surround ourselves with supporters of that goal, people who believe
in us and who will encourage us to succeed.
One price for success is that we must have congruency in our goals
personally and professionally. This means defining success with our values
firmly planted in how we will achieve success. If we desire financial
security for our business and our personal values include honesty, then our
definition for success will be directed to "honestly creating a business that
has financial security."
The second price for success is developing an understanding that giving
generates success. The element of giving is often one of the riskiest
components that successful people experience. It forces us to look at how we trust others, how we encourage and invite other people to learn with us and from us. This concept feels foreign to many people, because
certain generations, certain cultures were taught that when we shared we were empowering others to be our competition. It was indoctrinated that to succeed we must keep information to ourselves. To not share but to look out for number one. This mentality causes us to leave in fear and it squelches our creativity or ability to increase productivity. Furthermore, those who learned that knowledge is power fear sharing and when they do, they do what I call “selective sharing.” Educational systems don’t have room for more than one valedictorian. While more educators are encouraging the benefits of study groups, there is still competition for grades that will get students accepted into a college that only has X number of slots. In order to get a better position at work or to be seen as a person who deserves a promotion, work force in order to get the better position, competition drives the engines. The price for success no longer has to be loneliness or isolation.
Last but most important the third price for success is that of learning.
Learning is an ongoing process that requires that we shed our egos and
realize that there is always something to learn and more to experience.
So invest in your success today. Define success congruently with personal and
professional goals. Seek opportunities to give to others as you grow more
successful and self assured this will become easier to do. Then reinvest in
yourself with courses, tapes, coaches, or whatever it takes to help you learn
and examine how to continually improve.
Quote:
“The price for success can be minimal and the profit great if we approach
success correctly.”
C. Krosky, CSP, LCSW
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