Burn the lifeboats

In the corporate and self - employed world,people often talk about success and failure and how you try and achieve success. Most people just success by money, even though in life and work there are many other metrics to measure success other than cash in the bank.

For most of my adult life, I have been self - employed but i have also been fortunate to have experience in the corporate world in my twenties and one recently.

I have been moderately successful in my working life ( my metric for measuring success was that i have never had to rely on anyone else for my income)

It's fascinating that in the corporate world assume they can make all the right decisions if they only were backed by cash in the bank.Many people will often say to me it's easy for you your backed by cash. Many times in my life i've walked away from things when it didn't make any financial sense to people looking from the outside. I always had the opinion that when one door closes another ten will open for me.

I think this is the thing that stops people being fundamentally not suited to working for themselves and taking responsibility for their own futures. If you're not willing to go backwards financially in the short term or risk everything you own, likely, you will never get there as a self employed person. The personal sacrifices for success are immense - no holidays - long hours - stress - pressure the list is endless.

They say that you can judge a character by how it reacts when it's deep in the shit. If you ever work with me you will find that i'm very calm under pressure. It's also really important that you don't feel pressure to just go with the crowd. One of the thing i never liked about the corporate world is that most employees are like monkeys that on tree branches. They move from branch to branch for survival.

Being successful is a journey not a destination - your have to be all in to whatever your doing or you will never get there. This applies to all corporate jobs as well. In any situation i ask myself the same question "What is the worst thing that can happen here?" If i can deal with that i just go for it. The only thing that you can't do anything about is your health. This is one area i have been lucky with i've had plenty of problems over the years but never any related to my health.

I know i could go back to less than zero tomorrow and build back up again - never know when your beat !!! The road to success is never straight and you have to make many interesting and challenging detours!

My list of tips to be successful that worked for me.

*Never complain or moan or blame others - if something is going wrong own it ! It's your fault !!

*Burn the lifeboats- you often find that if you have no fall back position, you do get creative and make it work.

*Don't look too short term - it takes years to be an overnight success!

*Be true to yourself in what you believe and stand for.

*Don't wait for the ideal time to quit or start a business. The ideal time in life doesn't exist the ideal moment never arrives! We all tell ourselves lies next week, next month , next year - all excuses because human beings are scared of change.

*Be willing to work harder than all your competition. This is something i always did and still do 10X i like the idea that whilst my competitors are taking it easy i'm on it !!

*Learn new skills - my fundamental skills are selling and communication. Running a small business was the best business school. Money can't buy you the experiences you go through day to day. Larger competitors trying to eat you up , recessions , clients not paying , zero advertising budget. You either get creative and learn or you go down with the ship. I've read hundreds of books and blogs from people like James Altucher , Tom Ferris , Mark Cuban , Ryan Holiday , Alan Weiss , Gary Vaynerchuck, Tony Robbins. Learning something from these guys can literally earn you millions. These were and are still my teachers.

*Seeing skills in other people that you don't have.When i met my wife she was running a financial planning practice. It took me months of persuasion for her to team up and do all the money side of it. I lucked out when she agreed to do it. Finances and making sure your business is clean is a fundamental part of running it day to day and ultimately selling it if that is what you want to achieve.

*My main developer i lucked out with as well - his work ethic was second to none and he worked well with me. I lost count of the number of times i asked him to pull back and find a solution !! He always did !!

Enjoy the journey - it's the best bit of anything - it becomes addictive ! When i pull back and think about things i don't remember the good things - i look back more fondly on the things that went wrong and what i learnt from it ! Whatever your age you should always be looking to learn something new every day!