The road to success is....

Fill out the blanks and that becomes your reality. If you think its hard, it will be hard, yet if you think it's easy and enjoyable, chances are that is exactly how it will play out. ?

You see, I strongly believe that most of us are stuck in a rut and the rate race chasing this dream and that dream. For most those dreams don’t come true because soon enough failure creeps in. So as we chase this dream it’s failure after failure and of course as Winston Churchill said, “success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”, so those who are the most resilient and most passionate eventually succeed. You see, the magic words here are resilience and passion. There is no way to succeed at something you are not passionate about or are not willing to walk through the storm for. It’s virtually impossible to find YOUR space after just one or two attempts at finding it. So you need to be prepared, whether in love or business, it’s a foregone conclusion that you will come head to head with failure. The trick is to NOT fear failing but to embrace it. When you do, dig deep, reflect and be grateful for the lessons learnt. In every failure there is a lesson, the question then becomes are you a student or a pretend to be master??

Think of Venom the movie (I know it because my son chose it for movie night one evening). In the movie the guy gets possessed by some strange force. Initially he doesn’t understand it, fears it, tries to get rid of it but the force goes nowhere. Eventually he embraces it and uses the same force to give himself superpowers. There was going to be only two outcomes there; either he dies from it or he profits from it. That’s kind of how we should see failure. The truth is you can use the energy you get when you get an idea to spark the fear monster in you or the superpower (excitement) one. When it’s the fear one, you need to wrestle with it and turn that energy into a powerful force that moves you forward. So how do you do this…?

1. Idea comes in head
2. Uncertainty creeps in?
3. Doubt follows?
4. Fear settles?

…. At this point you will either let fear cripple you, try focus on its deadly manifestation inside you and eventually it kills you or you…

1. Want your dream like you have never wanted anything else in your life before. In fact need it like you need oxygen to live.?
2. Accept that you WILL make mistakes and get excited about learning from them?
3. Accept that you may not know what you are doing but you will learn?
4. Say hell yeah I’ll make bad decisions along the way but guess what I’m a student and even masters make mistakes so I’m in good company?
5. Understand and accept that sometimes your energy and motivation WILL be low. Take a day off, sleep, go for a drink, meditate, do affirmations or go to church… whatever, just find your spiritual RedBull, get your wings and move on right along
6. Appreciate that you have people that love you and want to see you succeed even when you may not know why. So don’t focus on the haters, let that energy go! Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson said; “Go 'head, switch the style up And if they hate then let 'em hate And watch the money pile up”

1. Surround yourself with like minded people. We call it the (your) master mind group. Remember, the energy of those around you rubs off on you and visa versa. You can’t hang with a perpetually negative person and hope to have positive thoughts. The two don’t mix!?
2. Find a partner that you can share your ideas with, with excitement. For me this is my wife. She is an amazing critic, motivator and mentor.?
3. Celebrate every success like it was a major milestone, it will help you get over those low energy days. If you want to see this in action follow Sean “P Diddy” Combs on Instagram… fakimali uzobona?
4. Believe! Believe! Believe! Believe and say it back to you “I believe that….” until you sound crazy even to yourself ??. You see negative thoughts creep up on us unknowingly. Have you watched the?movie Devil’s Advocate? There is a scene where John Milton (Al Pacino) says to his new superstar recruit Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) “…I’m the hand up Mona Lisa’s skirt. I’m a surprise Kevin, they don’t see me coming”. That’s negative thoughts for you. You can never anticipate them, you never see them coming because they kind of just happen. Unfortunately with positive thoughts we have to consciously make ourselves hear, implant and believe them. It’s conscious autosuggestion, there is no other way! You must consistently tell yourself you are great and most importantly, You must believe your own voice! Believe in yourself!?

11. Finally - immerse yourself, have fun, dream of it everyday, smile and imagine it like it’s happening already. Once you done doing that, get up with the same force and go start with one action that will contribute positive results for that day.?

I’m no motivational speaker nor an accomplished author, but every now and then I find something worth sharing. This weeks it’s the reality about this journey of building Dabiya Legacy Technologies. We are nowhere near our target R100m but we are chipping away at each contributing milestone with excitement, motivation and eager anticipation. We making a hell of a lot of mistakes and bad decisions along the way, but along the same way, we are making a truck load of excellent ones too. That’s what we focus on, that’s what excites us, that’s what excites me as CEO and leader of this fantastic group of people. You see leadership and success does not entail?the absence of mistakes, bad decisions, failures or fear. Success and leadership just means your bounce back game from all of those is on fleek and I’m still learning this as we plot our path to becoming a R100m company. So go out there and take a chance, don’t focus on the pressure, don’t focus on the pitfalls, just enjoy the journey!?

In conclusion; as I read and learn about expanding my potential I came across Dr Joe Vitale and he teaches a principle called “what if up”. You see most of us say “what if I fail”, “what if I make a fool of myself” etc. The principle of “what if up” changes that narrative. It seeks to put a positive spin on “what if”. So instead of doubting yourself and asking yourself “what if negative”, try to start asking yourself, “what if positive” questions like; “what if I succeed”, “what if I make it”, “what if one day they adore me and sing my praises” or “what if I’m the greatest in the world”. While you saying “what if up” imagine it, day dream it, be a kid again and make pretend it’s happening and let’s see if things do change for the better (see the what if up in this … change for the better statement????). After all you have a lot more to gain and nothing to lose. The truth is you only truly fail when you give up. So as’hambeni… let’s go!?

“Illusion is first of all needed to find the powers of which the self is capable” - Paul Hogan?