The Five Fundamental Principles of Success

If people are to have extrodinary success in any enterprise a relationship with a higher power needs to exist. That relationship will bring you the power to pick yourself up after you have been knocked down and the belief to continue on when every thing looks bleak. That relationship is something that you can believe in long after your friends have said, "you can't do this and it won't work" and then they leave you. I believe that the power of a dream comes from this relationship and because of that, passion to follow that dream is within you.

The second principle is to have a dream. Most people are day dreamers or they wish they had this or that, but a dream that is real, will give you the energy and zeal to accomplish it. The dream needs to be bigger than you are and in the process you will grow stronger. It will make you stretch and your skill level will also increase.

The problem with most dreamers is that they quit on their dreams, but we are not made to quit. WE WERE BORN TO BE SUCCESSFUL. Anything less than that is an insult to our emotions and intelligence. Quitting is for others, but not for you.

The third principle is that we must have a winning attitude if we are to achieve anything that is significant with our lives. A winning attitude says that I will win regardless of the defeats that I have or the circumstances that are present. A winning attitude is what all champions have. It is different than a positive attitude. A positive attitude says that in every situation there is good and I will search for it. I will always look on the bright side of any problem and I will feel good about it.

We must have a positive attitude daily in order to be facing the obstacles that we face, but in order to win; we also need a toughness that says, "I will not be defeated." One of the biggest dreamers that had a winning attitude is that of Nehemiah. The story comes from the Bible and Nehemiah had a dream of rebuilding the wall of safety around Jerusalem. He succeeded, but only because he followed the principles of fundamental success. Enormous obstacles were placed in front of him, but he had the passion to overcome. We can follow the same principles and succeed just as Nehemiah did.

The fourth principle is to find a mentor and let him or her guide you through situations that require advice. Your mentor must be more than a friend. A mentor needs to be someone who has walked your walk before you started your walk. A mentor needs to be honest with you and also be able to tell you that "you can do it." A mentor becomes the most important person in your life and without that honesty, your mentor is only a friend. A mentor is going to save you from making many mistakes and without one and without a mentor your success is going to be limited.

Finally, the people that you run with are going to make a difference. My suggestion is that you run with people who can teach you something. Your friends are good people, but if they are like you, they can't help you move on. Develop relationships with people who have accomplished a lot in life. Soak up what they say and listen to them, but don't forget to continue loving your other friends. Your responsibility is to lift up your other friends and make them feel important. They need your help.

Having people in your life that can help you is one of the major keys to success. I don't know of any successful people who became significant on their own. Each one of them had a person or a group of people that helped them. They also had mentors that influenced them and helped them move forward with their dream. The key to any success is always rooted in these five fundamental principles.