The Road to Success

I came across this picture the other day and I think it applies perfectly to a book I’m reading right now called “Born To Win” by Zig Ziglar. When people succeed, other people look at them and think “wow, they got lucky” or “wow, they really caught some good breaks” or “wow, that was easy”. 

People tend to see the end result and never stop to think about what it took to get there. Success is messy. If you’re currently experiencing a mess (and that's a pretty safe bet in the midst of a global pandemic with unforeseen and immeasurable economic impact) … well, good news… you’re somewhere in that tangled mess that ultimately leads you back to success (and you're in good company too)!

Yes, I understand that the definition of success spans a broad spectrum of opinions.

What one person views as success is not what someone else does. In a retail environment, we can have one store achieve a 10% conversion and consider it a success, while another can view the same result as a failure. Situations and circumstances tend to leave the word “success” open for interpretation. Continuing the retail business example and for our purposes, I think we can all view a week where we increased our KPIs, exceeded comp sales and plan sales and got through without any major issues a “success”.

What I want to focus on is what happens right at the middle of the arrow on the right. Right in that dark, tangled mess of lines… How do we “keep our eyes on the prize” so to speak? How do we stay motivated when things seem hectic and crazy and maybe even demoralizing... when we're in the midst of trying to keep a business afloat, trying to operationally manage and business reopening, trying to coordinate all the HR policies that have yet to be written, or yes, even in the midst of trying to restart a career cut far too short.

In Zig’s book “Born To Win” he talks a little about the power of encouragement and hope. He says “Encouragement and Hope are critical to success because they are the fuel of confidence and the engine of positive thinking and attitude.”

Hope is the power that gives a person the confidence to step out and try. It’s the driving force when you’re somewhere in the middle of the picture on the right; when success isn’t anywhere in sight. Zig Ziglar says “When you have hope, you believe something good is going to happen in the future, even though it seems unlikely.” So how do we develop that hope? How do we build our confidence? It all starts with some encouragement. Encouragement creates hope. The opposite is also true, discouraging words and actions diminish hope and make success virtually impossible. We talk a lot about creating buy-in… well what exactly is creating buy in? 

I think if "Buy-In" were a scientific formula, it would probably look like this:

Me+Leadership+Team(Encouragement+Hope)=Buy-In

There’s the saying “People will rarely remember what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” It’s very true and a central factor in creating buy in. That's because what you say and what you do, what you think and what you feel, how you act or even more importantly how you react will either bring someone hope and encouragement or make someone feel hopeless and discouraged.

The thing to remember about success is sometimes you take a step or two back before taking a few forward. It’s the encouragement that builds hope that keeps you from quitting and giving up. If we quit every time we had a bad day, we would never be able to build the momentum that drives us through challenging business..

I think the same is true about life in general. There’s probably no better time to talk about hope and encouragement than now. When unprecedented tragedies hit close to home it can leave us feeling pretty terrible. It makes all too real the dangers that we face today and the delicate balance of our businesses and lives. We all try to live our lives and be successful and in an instant everything can change. Without encouragement that builds our hope, life would be pretty rough. 

So today, whether it’s our businesses or our outside lives, remember the success picture above. When our vision of success or life seems tangled and messy… press on!

There’s a quote that says:

“Failure is a detour, not a dead end street. You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. It’s not what you’ve got; it’s what you use that makes a difference. Remember that failure is an event, not a person. You are the only person on earth who can use your ability. If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. Success is not a destination, it’s a journey. Those who wait until all the lights are on green before starting will never leave home. It’s your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude.”

If there’s hope in the future, then we have power in the present… there are times in life where we all need a little encouragement to keep us on the winding path to success. If that’s not you today… then go out and encourage someone else!

Never give up… success may be right around the next corner!