5 CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

keys to success

What does it mean to be successful? Does it take some special ability to defy all odds and be on top of the rest? Most importantly, can anyone become successful? These are but a few of the questions we ask ourselves on daily bases. When we look at our current situation we begin to cast a shadow on what life has in stock for us, and always wonder if we would finally be there.

So what really is Success?

 Success for different people can mean different things. But for me, Success is being able to look in the mirror and be proud of the person you have become!

It is the inner joy of accomplishing those dreams that would make the world a better place. Success in its totality is not a destination but a journey.

Do successful people have certain things in common? What makes people successful? In this post I share with you five characteristics of Successful People.

• VISION:

“A blind man’s world is bounded by the limits of his touch, an ignorant man’s world by the limits of his knowledge, a great man’s world by the limits of his vision.” – E Paul Hovey. The people who make things happen are those whom have vision. So, successful people possess vision. Vision provides the creative spark that makes great achievements possible. Every successful person has a vision: an eye that sees not the darkness behind him but the light ahead. Vision is having in mind a dream that you want to see accomplished, and that would make the  impact in this present generation and generations yet unborn. 

•  OVERCOMING FAILURE:

Successful people learn to overcome failure. They are not easily intimidated by temporary defeat. They see failures as stepping stones, welcome it; and learn from it. Most of the great achievers in history were bitterly criticised, yet they chose to persevere. If you want to be successful, learn to get over the fear of criticism, fear of taking a risk, fear of losing self-confidence, fear of getting a second chance. Learn to overcome failure to become a great achiever. It is important to learn to recognize failure for what it is, review failure in order to learn, recognise your weaknesses, readjust your effort, ignore or overcome discouragement and re-enter the game.

• TIME MANAGEMENT:

Henry Ford said, “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste”. All successful men and women in any industry: politics, law, academia, religion are excellent time managers. One of the most important strategies for using your time wisely is to drastically reduce the time you waste. The dividing line between success and failure is often associated with how well a person manages his time. Successful people get good at time management. Learn to get good at managing your time well and effectively channeling it into activities that would only help fulfill your dreams

• PERSISTENCE:

The law of Cause and Effect says that if you do what the successful people do, you will eventually get what the other successful people get. In a marathon, nobody is better than anybody when we start, but it is what we do after, that makes the difference. Your ability to keep running even when you feel like giving up is what makes you the victor. It is important to know that almost 85 to 95 per cent of self-made millionaires or significant people start as ordinary people, from ordinary backgrounds, ordinary education, circumstances and many

failures. What distinguished them from the crowd is their dedication and persistence to learning the principles (secrets) and strategies to success and apply them relentlessly. These are the people fixed on the vision of the result and not the process

• COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE

Vince Lombardy says, “The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field.” Successful people commit to excellence. You can resolve to be the very best at whatever you do. You can set a goal for yourself to join the top 10 per cent in your field. Remember your life gets better when you get better. Make a plan and work on getting better in that field every day.

Successful people start early and work late. Work all the time you work, don’t waste time.

What Next?

What if you were told you would be successful one day,what would you be do different? Start doing them now and share your progress with us. Drop me your comment

How to Make the Right Choices

Each day, we make countless choices. How can we be sure we are making the right decisions? As the new year unfolds, i want to assist you make the right choices.Here are a few suggestions:

choices

1. Be aware of where the road leads
Choose intelligence. Not every decision we make is a moral choice. Sometimes its just a matter of choosing between stupidity and intelligence. For example, if you are a young nonsmoker and your friend offers you a cigarette, don't take it. That would be stupid. If you're looking for the path to happiness, it is easy to find. Just avoid the paths with signs that say STUPID and follow those that say SMART. Easy enough to do, but you have to remember to check the signs before you start down a path. As Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote, "He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end."

Whenever we are at a fork in the road, we will find that one of the paths is easy to take, but that may be the only thing good about it. So, look carefully. You may find that one path tempts you and the other ennobles you. Choice the one that ennobles you. Learn how to withdraw from temptation. For as it is written in the Bhagavad Gita, "Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise can draw in their senses at will."
2. Do what you can
Decide what you CAN do, not what you WANT to do. Our wants are insatiable. We want to do everything. But how can we become anything if we want to become everything? Choose worthwhile goals that you have time for. Set priorities and focus on the important issues. If you run out of time before getting to the minor tasks, at least you would have done the important ones.

Choose to carry out your responsibilities not because you HAVE to, but because you WANT to. Tasks that you HAVE to do create pressure and stress. Actions that you WANT to do, lead to the joy of accomplishment and freedom from inner conflict. Choose to learn how to WANT to do those tasks that you should be doing. For in the end, you will do only what you want to do. Similarly, when you cant have what you want, choose to want what you have.

3. Look for the good
Some of us may be undergoing great hardships. But no life is so difficult that it cannot be made better by improving our attitude. No matter how dire the circumstances, if you look for some good, you will find it. But how can we find anything good if we occupy our time complaining? The rule to remember is that we are certain to find what we look for. If we search for good, we will find it. If we search for something to complain about, we will surely find it. Choose to search for good. And choose to believe something good can and will happen. Choose to live with hope, rather than despair. Don't be a dope. Learn to cope. Live with hope.

4. If you cant change the circumstances, change yourself
We cannot choose what will happen TO us, but we can choose what happens IN us. That is, we can choose to have the right attitude, one in which we view challenges as opportunities instead of problems. Choose to be positive. For example, although he became confined to a wheelchair after his accident, W. Mitchell (author, TV host, and businessman) said, "Before I was paralyzed there were 10,000 things I could do; now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 Ive lost or focus on the 9,000 I have left."

5. Be aware of your choices
When we act out of habit rather than conscious choice, the path were traveling on is a rut, perhaps even a slippery slope. If we don't want to end up at the wrong place, we have to be awake. We have to be aware and make our choices consciously. The best way to do this is to develop the habit of always looking for opportunities. Scout Cloud Lee also writes about conscious choice: "When we acknowledge that all of life is sacred and that each act is an act of choice and therefore sacred, then life is a sacred dance lived consciously each moment. When we live at this level, we participate in the creation of a better world."

PARTING WORDS
Look around you. There are great people everywhere. Champions, victors. And they're all rooting for you. They are voting for you because they want you to win. Unfortunately, you are also surrounded by losers, people who want to drag you down. They are voting against you. Half are for you. Half are against you. How will this closely contested drama turn out? It all depends on you because you will be casting the deciding vote. The ballot is the choices you make. Be careful how you choose!


Credit Chuck Gallozzi

Lesson 3:MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

My third lesson from Rich Dad, reminds me of a comment that was making waves in the political environment in Ghana some months ago. The well like " Di wu fie asem" by Prez.Atta Mills,which translated literally means "Mind your own business". Well, Rich Dad also tells us to mind our own business!So what that this mean?

“The secret is: "Mind your own business” Financial struggle is often directly the result of people

working all their life for someone else. Many people will have nothing at the end of their working

days.”- Robert Kiyosaki

 

“There is a big difference between your profession and your business. Often I ask people, "What is your business?" And they will say, "Oh I'm a banker." Then I ask them if they own the bank? And they usually respond. "No, I work there."  In that instance, they have confused their profession with their business. Their profession may be a banker, but they still need their own business.”- Robert Kiyosaki

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

Mind your own business,or better still put a business on your mind: There is nothing wrong being an employee, everybody needs to  work for someone one way or the other,but whiles excelling in your current profession seeks out other avenues to accumulate wealth. You can  keep your day job and work all night to develop a business that would pour in money whilst  on your day job.It’s your boss duty to pay you for a month, you need to pay yourself for life.At the end of the day,when you are retired you cannot carry the company along!.It’s not your business.

Your business revolve around your assets column,invest time there.As young  Ghanaians, we need time to build an asset column, before we leave home, get married,make babies  and get trapped in the same financial situations as our parents.We need to build a business that do not require our presence, we own them but they are managed by others. We also need to invest in stocks,bonds, mutual funds and royalties  from intellectual property such a music, script and books.

I now have two investment account with leading financial service industries in Ghana,and working hard to start  a business by the end of much 2012. Watch out I would keep you posted(lol)

“When I say mind your own business, 1 mean to build and keep your asset column strong. Once a dollar goes into it, never let it come out. Think of it this way, once a dollar goes into your asset column, it becomes your employee. The best thing about money is that it works 24 hours a day and can work for generations. Keep your daytime job, be a great hard-working employee, but keep building that asset column.”-Robert Kiyosaki

LESSONS FROM RICH DAD

Were you ever thought anything about money at school? Was there ever a time that your teacher jumped into the class to teach you a topic called “Savings 101” or “How to Make Money in ten easy steps”? Certainly not, why? Because school does not teach us about money. Isn’t it funny? After spending so many years schooling the expected output is to apply the knowledge to make a living. So how do you learn about issues of money? Or better still where do you learn them from?

From the home, I guess! Or may be through the trial and error  means.

Today I would like to share with you some vital lessons on personal finance from one of the best selling personal finance books “Rich Dad poor Dad”. Ever heard of the title? I bet you, if you have never read this book I’m afraid you are leaving your financial life to chance. Rich Dad, Poor Dad contains timeless lessons for anyone who is seeking for the road of financial independence. It is not a theoretical book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a must read.I bought my personal copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad four years ago and today I just thought I  should share some of its lessons to my lovely readers.

So let’s begin

Lesson One: The Rich Don’t Work For Money

"The poor and the middle class work for money." "The rich have money work for them."

One of the keys to financial success is learning to make money work for you. What that means is, you develop a system that brings in money whether you are present or not. Can you mention a rich man in your county who works for someone? Certainly not, if you can, then, that person is definitely not rich .All rich people are business owners. A business   owner in the initial state  puts in all the effort to start and grow his business, the waiting period is hard and you sometimes feel like quitting.However, if the business stands on its feet, they don’t  necessary have to be present.They can be globetrotting from Ghana to Libya  and the money would be pouring into their bank account 24/7. The poor and the middle class work for money, they work for the owners’  of the businesses  who pays them monthly salaries which would not be enough to meet their expenses.To solve this problem, they work hard to earn money, ironically the more they earn the more their expenses increases to meet their income. They never make progress.

 The key is: don’t work for money. Don’t depend on your boss to make you rich.Use your mind the most powerful computer in the world to create a business for yourself

It only starts with a thought, an idea and a burning desire to take control of your life.Seek to be a business owner,investor rather than an employee.

25 LESSONS @ 25

Today I turn 25 on this planet called Earth, as I figured out how to make this occasion memorable, I said to myself,”Why don’t I write a post on the lessons I have gathered in life for the 25 years of existence.” I was a bit reluctant initially ,as I could not readily think of anything to pen down.

Emmanuel Kumah

Finally like the dawn of a new day, I took the giant step and now here is the post.

25 lessons at 25 years.

I am going to share with you 25 things I have learnt in life.Please feel free to comment to make this occasion memorable.

1. ·         FIND YOUR PURPOSE: What on earth am I here for? If you were to be like me, you may have asked yourself this question before .There is a reason why God brought you here, you are not a mere accident. So many people walk through life without discovering the true meaning of existence.God did not bring you here to fill the gap.A life without a purpose is not worth living. 
2.      KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASSETS AND LIABILITIES: If you want to be successful in life you  should know the differences between the “L” and the “A”.Simply put, an Asset is what puts money into your pocket and  liability is what takes money out of your pocket. What one may consider and asset would be someone’s liability and what you may consider a liability is a great asset.If you want to be financially successful,get to know what an asset is, buy one and build your asset column.No what liabilities  are  and avoid them 
3.    DO WHAT YOUR LOVE: One key factor for fulfillment in life is to do what you love or to love what you do. Life is too short to spend all your energy and time in a career you hate. If you wake up on a lovely Monday and you are not filled with joy that you would be off to work, then it simply means you hate the job, Quit! You either have a choice to do what you love or love what you are currently doing 
4. LEARN TO EARN:The highest paid individuals in the world are those who have much knowledge and knows how to apply the knowledge.I have learnt that in life if you want to be successful you should be willing to learn the more, the more you learn new things the more you know and the more you know the better it gets which would finally translate into monetary  equivalent.
5. MAKE AN IMPACT: Have you ever killed a mosquito before? How did you do it? By smashing that little insect in your wide palms.Do you take notice of the sound you hear when the insect finally dies, I am talking about the “pa” you hear. That is the mosquito making an impact before it dies.If  an unintelligent  insect like the mosquito leaves behind a “pa” sound in its death so should you.You should never leave this world without anybody noticing.When you time on earth is due,people should look back and be amazed at what you have done in your generation.Just look at these Great Men: Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein,Kwame Nkrumah etc.they were men who made a mark in their generation 
6. SEIZE THE MOMENTS: Any chance you get in life is an opportunity to make someone better,seize the moment, opportunities flows around in abundance. 
7. PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE: It’s true “your time go come” if you believe you would get there one day, prepare, prepare, prepare. Opportunity waste no time on those that are not prepared. Champions are not made in the ring, they are made in the gym
8. YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE: No man is an island, you need someone to show you the way and a shoulder to lean on in times of need. Don’t be too self centered, you can’t do it alone.
9. DON’T WAIT TILL ALL THE LIGHT TURNS GREEN: Most times we want to wait for the perfect time to start doing something. The traffic light cannot be green from Accra to Bolga,so if you are waiting for all the light to turn green, you would never get to your destination. 
10. PLAY YOUR HUNCHES:listen  to your heart,follow your intuition.Your inner voice speaks volumes of words to you if followed would change your life completely 
11. DON’T TRY TO GET RICH TOO QUICKLY: Don’t follow the get rich quick gimmicks; money that comes to stay comes bit by bit. If you want it all now and fast, you would have it now and pay a price you never thought of 
12. BE ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE  CROWD: Always learn new things, Let this guide your life,before they know it you should have known it already.Before they do it, you have done it and reaped the rewards before time. 
13. DON’T FOLLOW THE SAME ROUTE AS EVERYONE ELSE: IF you see everyone moving in a particular direction change yours. Beginning charting a new course for your life.There is no one absolute way to the pot of gold. 
14. PUT SOMETHING ASIDE FOR YOUR OLD AGE: Don’t wait for it to be too late.Had I known is always at last.Beginning putting aside some money for your old age.Because your children may not be in the best situation to take care of you them 
15. GET TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE BEFORE YOU START: If you want to venture out, get to  know your current situation, evaluate the mess you are in now.This would motivate you to take the first giant step towards greatness
16. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT: God gave us two ears and one mouth so we can listen the more and talk the less.Keep your mouth shut else you may sell some brilliant ideas to others 
17. GET SOME MENTORS IN LIFE: You cannot make it alone, surround yourself with people who have been where you are planning to get to 
18. KNOW WHEN TO SAY NO: Be firm on your decisions, say “no” when something is against your values don’t compromise because you feel the other person would be hurt 
19. CHOOSE THE LIFE YOU WANT TO HAVE: God has given each of us the  ability to chose,from  today chose the kind of job you want to have,the care you want to drive and what to do with your life 
20. PRAY,PRAY,PRAY: Prayer is a communication with a supreme being, when you pray you  identifies your limitation us man,and give way for God to  intervene.When you fail to pray it means you are capable of handling all that comes in your life 
21. GO THE EXTRA MILE: Don’t be too comfortable with what you are doing, stretch your imagination and you would never return to the current state again 
22. GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE: Move away from the things that makes you very comfortable, explore new opportunities.Life may be greener at the other end 
23. WALK IN LOVE: So many people have fallen in love and now have a broken heart, I suggest you walk in love so that it would be easy to walk out of love when things don’t go well 
24. LAUGH A MINUTE: Laughter is the greatest medicine in the world, watch some good movie or funny clip and laugh your lungs out. Don’t need to stay depressed all your life 
25. WORSHIP GOD: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come.Where you would say I had no pleasure in them

NJKWRS7P9BUX

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.