Week 4 - Skill, Character, or Luck?

This week I have thought a lot about what it takes to be successful and what things I need to develop in myself. I think that Skill, Character, and Luck all have some part in success, but here is how I would personally rank them and why... #1 Character. This is the idea that you can teach someone how to do something, but you can not change who they are. I think that character is partially something that a person is born with, and partially comes from the experiences of life that the have had and that have shaped them. Character really is who you are, not what you know. You can accomplish a lot if you have strong character and are willing to do what it takes and continue to try and try again. Character is made of things like Determination and Honesty. #2 Skill. The things you know how to do and are able to do well are the skills that you have. Some of these can come naturally as gifts of character, but skills can also be learned. That is why I think skills are important. Anything in the world that you take and interest in and want to learn about, you then have the potential to learn that skill. You may or may not be good at it naturally, but there are many things you can do to strengthen your skills and learning. #3 Luck. By luck I mean the particular circumstances around you that help or harm your chances of success in any particular area. I think that luck has some weight to it, but I do not think it will make or break your success on its own. After all, if you run into some circumstances that are not good for what you are trying to accomplish, maybe you try a different area or different crowd, or different approach. Usually people that "luck" into success loose it pretty fast. That is not truly success to me. I think success is something that you work for and that you build over time.

Lots of Ideas...!

I really learned a lot this week from a video I watched about a 10 things you need for start ups... I won't share all the 10 things, just the ones that I really took note of. One of the things that surprised me was that it was mentioned that you don't need the top of the line furniture and décor. I think this is absolutely true, although I hadn't put it together until hearing this from someone else. It is not as important how you look, as what you do in your business. Customers will be able to tell if you are all for the "show" or if you can provide a great service and effectively help them solve their problems. The second thing that REALLY, REALLY hit me hard was that you need to little money. That's right, too little money. I had to rewind the video a few times because I kept thinking I was sure that he meant the having too little money was the problem. Nope, apparently having too little money is a good thing. Here's why: Having a shortage on cash created a need for urgency and action... if you already have plenty of money, where's the heat? A lack of money created motivation and breed growth, ideas, and creative problem solving. So far in my experiences in business, there has never been a time when I have had more money than I needed, it has always been at least a little bit of a stretch to get by, but I never realized that this was a blessing that was working in my favor. I totally see that now. I have done more and gone farther than I ever thought I could in the beginning of my journey, and that is directly related to being motivated by having "too little money". Weird, but true! The next thing I really liked was that you should have the "pride of a fat baby" (haha, no pride at all). This was something I needed to hear. I know I often holdback from things because they are uncomfortable or I don't particularly want to do them, or I may look silly, but those are all feelings to be left behind if I want to be successful in business. The last idea I want to share that really impacted me this week was having confidence that you will have thousands of great ideas, and not just one great idea. Even giving away some of your great ideas because you are creating a culture where new ideas are expected. I LOVE this concept! The idea that you will continue to progress and that you are not building everything on just one idea.