Posted on 01/03/2013 11:31:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Feeling down about your small business these days? Is the broken economy hurting your sales and keeping you up at night? Need some motivation and tough love to help you stop pitying yourself? Well, here you go: 13 reasons you might have in your head about why you're not as successful as you should be.
#1 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Laziness I don’t think there’s an easy way to put this. I have to assume that you’re lazy. Every single successful person works their butts off to get where they are. It’s ok to be lazy. Just admit it. But don’t whine about not being rich and successful, ok?
#2 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Entitlement Only a few people in the world are part of the lucky sperm club. You and me? We gotta work to get what we want. Quit thinking you are owed something. You’re not. Get to work.
#3 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Fear You are afraid, plain and simple. Afraid of looking silly. Afraid of what your friends and family will say. Afraid of everything. Look, you’re either going to stop being afraid, or you’re not. Nobody can convince you to stop. Imagine though... what awaits you when you stop with the fear excuses?(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at nfib.com ...
What a complete load of condemnatory pseudo-psychological bs.
Reason #14 why the author isnt successful? People have wised up and stopped buying his ridculous self-improvement books and courses.
I think it’s a great list... and does make a lot of sense.
I actually think this is a pretty good list.
You have to work your ass off but, there needs to be a certain amount of laziness. Like work smarter than the other guy laziness and get more done, in less time and higher quality. When you master that you will find yourself at ease knowing you can take time off to have fun because you have fun just as hard as you work.
Skip it lazy ass. You ain't entitled to Shiiite...PERIOD or even EVUH. You will earn every penny and own the sweat from it.
Yep, you are a Fraidy Cat. Get over it. Just move, Just do it, act like you can. Pretend you are Bruce Lee.
Get rid of dream killers, stop listening and reading the news. If it gets bad enough, someone will tell you. Then again, you might want to be informed but, with all the negative crap that happens in a day, accept its existence and resist until you are so rich you can throw away bars of soap when the letters wear off. Then you can pay some other jerkoff to worry about crap that really doesn't matter.
You are so smart!!! Sure you are. Stuff it. The bottom line? Only an intended outcome matters and results that are meaningful and measurable matter more than your being the smartest person in the room. Let the smartest person in the room take a paycheck from the guy who gets it done and rides private jet cuz commercial is a hassle.
Pretty much. You just don't think much further than next months rent. You gotta be sexy, bold, courageous and think about 5 years from now. Dream it, what does it mean to you, what will it feel like when you get there, smell it, feel it, Live itl
FK em. "They" will always take advantage of you or get in your way. Ignore them, push past them and climb your mountain.
You do have to work harder than pretty people but most pretty people know they have an advantage and never excell at much. Don't believe me? Explain all the ugly people who are rich.....
Don't excel at low value activities. Excel at activities which push or move you closer to your goal.
Yawn. Most people aren't even interesting. Start by blowing off the ones you have wanted out of your life for while anyway and see how you fill that space they have been wasting.
Waste of time to dream about a new Miata, except if it's your dream then start there but think "What if I could Pay Cash?" What would that feel like? "Hey!!! I won't worry about bill collectors" . Me? I dream big and visualize. Today I finally acquired a watch I spent two years trying to get. I collect Omega watches and decided I wanted to collect Omega watches designed for the Olympics. I now have the 2010 Vancouver Seamaster, my 4th Seamaster. You can see one here http://www.selectism.com/2009/02/18/omega-seamaster-diver-watch-for-vancouver-2010/ You are not me, so you will probably not ever own this time piece(Just my ego and I am so pumped, get over it. I'll be humble tomorrow). they only made 2010 of these and I am only one of some 2000 men who have this...IN THE WORLD! HA, HA HAAAA!!!!! I love this thing!!!!
I am getting the Lillihammer 1994 Omega in a day or two. Not limited but comes with 5 different kewel Aligator bands and I want the blue one.
Early bird will take an ass kicking by the hungry bird. You have to want it so bad you can taste it. The only people who get what they want are those who need it so bad they will work their buttocks off to????????? What to do you want? Why do you want it? What will it mean to you? What will mean if you can't have it? You are the only person stopping you.
That's my rewrite. Hope no one minds. I am so high because I got this watch! I hope to meet another man wearing it while I'm wearing mine. I'll buy him a drink and we'll laugh because we both have a fabulous watch collection and we'll try to impress each other with our stupid crap.
Can't wait to meet that guy.
bttt
Loss of large accounts due to bankruptcy or merger can be difficult to surmount when buyers have panicked and pulled any new programs, not to mention being left holding the bag on outside expenditures in the high five figures due to a customer bankruptcy. Office space and equipment leases cost money whether there is anything coming in or not.
Lived all that, in 2008. Don't sling this motivational poster crap in my face. If I had tried to ride it out I would have been broke and a ward of the state or living under a bridge by now. As it stands, I'm holding my own, waiting to get back in and fight another day.
13 Reasons You're Not As Successful As You Should Be
He's not even a capable wordsmith. The author let his true thoughts about entitlement show with that one word....he's a phony
I agree.
Hubby has busted his hump for 17+ years but in the last 4 [gee..what *could* have happened since then?] we’ve watched our normal year-long waiting list dwindle to nothing.
He just finished his only kit order at brutally discounted prices and we are going to make hardly any profit.
People simply can’t afford even our low prices any more.
99% of our buyers are veterans and they’re terrified to make any moves for fear of cuts to their paychecks.
Just found out a friend of ours has left his desk duty post and is heading back to Afghanistan next month.
Not because he wants to [he’s been going there since the 90’s] but because battle pay is higher.
Wife and kids to support.
The Won has succeeded in crushing the small business people.
Only large chain stores remain open in my area.
All the ‘little guys’ are going or already gone.
Ironically, tonight as I waited in our 10 year old car for hubby to buy Super Glue to fix the reading glasses I can’t afford to replace, a 47%er mom and her kid frolicked out of the store loaded down with bags, wearing really nice new clothes I could never afford and hopped into their shiny late model Toyota 4Runner.
Don’t tell me we’re ‘failing’ for lack of any of the crap in that article.
And we still have to pay for the machine shop and all the equipment therein, even though it’s not making us any money, now.
The majority of businesses and people ‘failing’ right now are a direct result of The Won’s intentional slaughter of the “American Dream”.
Exactly. Smoke and mirrors. It sounds impressive because we all can relate to most of the things he lists, but pointing it out does nothing but make you feel guilty, not inspire you to greatness. True, guilt is the greatest thing holding most folk in chains, but in this case what is he trying to make you guilty of? Being Human?
In any case, if he really wanted to help he wouldn’t be turning the pyscholodical screws like that. It’s all empty words designed to impress, but he just comes over to me as being very smug, which shouldn’t really surprise anyone. What mostly sets “successful” people apart is that they do not desire company. :)
Interesting list.
Woohoo! I got 13 out of 13! Oh, wait a minute...
First and foremost - what do you mean by "success"? Lots of money? A big house? Freedom to do whatever you want? Mother Theresa had none of those things, yet no one would say she was not a "success". What counts as success to me might not be success to you. Not everyone wants to be a CEO or have millions in their bank account. I have a friend who's clever, highly qualified and assertive, but she has never progressed in her profession. She barely has two cents to rub together, but she's happy in her work because she's a paramedic who regularly saves people's lives. Is she a "success"? Not according to this guy.
And who is he anyway? According to the blurb he speaks and writes books about business and marketing. In other words, he's a salesman. Pure and simple. And what he sells is primarily himself, and a particular very materialistic worldview. But hold on. He makes nothing. He produces nothing. He just manipulates what everyone else does (which is how to become rich incidentally - there's no money at all in manufacturing these days. The profit is all in "value added" activities - most of which don't add any value at all). Think on it. If aliens beamed up all the "motivational speakers" and all the janitors on Earth, who do you think would be missed first?
As for his list...#1 "I have to assume you are lazy." Do you now? It may be true that "every single successful person works their butts off to get where they are", but that doesn't necessarily mean the reverse is true. There are plenty of people who slog away day after day and never get anywhere. Artists are the classic example. Most of them only become "successful" after they're dead, which is scant comfort for them here and now.
#1, #4 & #5 are all effective subsets of the big lie in #7, namely "The truth is you, and you alone, control your success in life/business/everything." Garbage! Of course I would never deny that you do have a strong influence over your success. If you don't try and don't work hard you will certainly never succeed, but the horrid fact is that there are an enormous number of factors influencing "success" that are completely beyond your control. Hard work and effort are only a starting point.
#3 Negativity. You don't get to choose your family. If they are "negative" is he advocating ditching them? What happens if the wife suddenly becomes a liability, economically speaking. If she develops some chronic illness do you think your vows become null and void?
#13 Society didn't teach me that only a few “exceptional” people get what they want. Experience teaches me that. Logically, there can only ever be a few people who are the "best" in any field. The last sentence gives the author's ideology away. He thinks the way to get ahead is to push everyone else down, metaphorically speaking. He thinks of the world as consisting of losers (people who do not share his values) and "the rest of us". The guy is an elitist, as bad as any liberal. Well let me tell you, you can get all the "success" you like in the world, and then you die and none of it counts for squat. He won't be at the front of the queue at the end of time.
It just goes to prove time and circumstance happen to us all. When you add the poison of "progressive" socialism the odds are stacked against "success". Its possible, but its getting harder and harder.
Engineering is in my blood too, but its time is rapidly passing. There is just no money in it anymore, except possibly some of the “new” technologies, and the big companies are moving to sew that one up.
what a mean article. I suggest this loser take a long walk off a short pier
I’d say that you are the one confusing success with material wealth. If that is what someone aspires to, then that is fine, I guess—he doesn’t seem to be making any judgments in that way. How did this guy say that your friend or M. Theresa is not a success?
Most people on FR actually believe in free markets, and that if people value motivational speaking and market consulting, why the more power to the motivational speakers and market consultants who fill that niche for them!
I really don’t see how his point to limit exposure to negative mindsets (hmmm...where could I be detecting one about now?) in any way suggests a sick or unemployed wife (or husband) should be ditched.
Finally, it is a very sad thing if most people in society aspire to that which is out of their reach. There is so much of value here right at hand.
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Log out of Free Republic and don’t come back until you have made a million dollars.
When my company was dragging me towards BK years ago, I complained to an oilman from Odessa, TX.
He said, “Never discount luck. I have seen experienced, well-financed men fail. I have seen amateurs succeed. Keep swinging; you WILL hit the ball!”
Good Idea!
Logging out now!
We can relate. It is brutal.
One thing I did was to spend a lot of time and energy finding discount sources for some of my supplies. Just scored nearly 2 years worth of one item at Goodwill (they bought up a liquidator’s inventory)that means I saved 80% on future cost of those supplies. One of my main suppliers of a consumable has produced their own brand, saving me another 50% on that item, while presumably keeping themselves alive. I am actually saving less, though, since my product uses a lot of energy to produce. Just had to raise my prices 10% and the buyers tell me they have never seen prices rise so much, so fast. Everyone is fearful.
My husband’s client list shrank to those w/government pensions or who work in education or medicine.
However, we dropped to 1/3 of income in 2008 and about 14 months ago, business improved to the point where we are now only down 50% compared to 2007. The New Normal. Ha!
My husband is hanging on to his hand machine tools, though (rolling mill/trip hammer/some others). Thank God, they are paid for. You never know when you’ll get an idea that will utilize your tools AND find a market.
As for firearms manufacture: we have friends who lost their shirts in that industry back when the economy was booming. Now, the partner with the FFL is feeling paranoid and wondering how many more *lists* he is about to be on.
Markets. That is the real problem, right now. And sales venues that don’t eat all your profit, time and personal energy.
My area is full of specialty micro businesses and people are really working hard to stay alive.
nice rewrite
thanks.
Great re-write. Probably will print it up and post it in my truck somewhere.
As we used to say where I worked, and saw people move up who could not meet the “required” qualifications...
“It’s not who you know, it is who you bl#w.”
Incidentally, his points are the opposite of your last paragraph. I agree with you re the folly of striving for that which you can never achieve at the expense of the wonders that are all around, but he clearly doesn't think that. He is of the mind that anyone can be successful, if only they had the right mindset. But that is unrealistic. Mindset is important sure, but it's going to take more than that.
It is immaterial that most people here believe in Free market economics, because that is not the basis on which I am criticising him. The fact that he is filling a niche that is valued doesn't mean I cannot question whether that niche is a valid one, or whether his services are of any value. After all, a croupier fills a niche that society values. So too does a prostitute, a palm reader, and a drug dealer. Does that mean I can't argue against gambling, sex slavery, charlatinism and cocaine addiction?
His argument re negativity is that he is advocating ditching people whose negativity is dragging you down. The point I was trying to make is that you might be able to do that to friends, but there are folk you can't do that to. Folk who you have a responsibility to. Family for example.
Attempts to induce inadequacy in me because I have the temerity to disagree with a moticational speaker don't work. The times when I would have fallen for that are long past.
Cynical, but not untrue alas.
My #1 reason is satisfaction. I’ve built a life for myself better than I ever thought I’d get, and rather than continuing to chase the money I’ve decided this is good. So yes if I was willing to work harder I could probably double my income, but I’d rather go home and read than work over time and do business travel. The money chase is overrated, enjoy what you have, because nobody’s grave stone says “I should have spent more time at work”.
Well, yeah, the article is in a business magazine.
But that doesn’t mean the philosophy only pertains or is espoused for financial success. It could be for someone wanting to get married and start a family, or, given this particular publication, someone looking to build a ‘lifestyle’ business, rather than a megamillion earner.
His list is simply suggested as possible reasons that one might not be succeeding with one’s business as wished.
I’m sorry you’re so jaded as to think this grand ol’ US of A, however challenged it might be right now, is not still a land of opportunity.
Lord knows Himself can machine just about anything and has made gun parts for his own use.
I’ve actually suggested that to him after seeing the quite nice things he’s made.
As an aside from, he just told me that a local man whose car repair business just folded was ‘taken away by men in a black vehicle’ because he had a sign in front that ‘thanked Obama’ for the closure and was released from custody after 4 days *only* because he didn’t own any guns.
Anybody hear anything about that or will it be kept under wraps?
See my post #30.
Apparently people aren’t even allowed to name the cause of their ‘failure’, now.
Sure wish I could find a news source for what happened but so far, only the locals are speaking of it in hushed tones.
Things just got very bad, very fast, if what they’re saying is true.
There is zero tolerance for criticizing 0.
I am a news junky and follow several patriot and 2ndA sites and heard zilch about that. You are in Tennessee?
Friends w/a successful biz (34 employees)lost Federal contracts after writing LTE and otherwise speaking out, including a local billboard. It is common.
We are surrounded by bots. DH has a local & regional biz and I sell all over the country to 3 major distributors in my industry, plus individuals and some smaller accounts. We have learned to keep shut.
As my handle indicates, I am a long-time known defector and have become quite the hermit, aside from my conservative friends. We’re all self-employed, so we just don’t say much. If asked, we just allow that this is what folks voted for and we believe in majority rules, so it is what it is. I do want to gag when people volunteer how they LOVE 0. If they keep on, I just nod and say nothing else.
You are dog people. THAT is a good niche, if you can find the right product.
I’m in Western Maryland.
Himself is a welder/metal fabricator and there’s not much market for steel dog items...:)
[darn it]
I told him to start acting like we live in Nazi Germany or Russia.
He may rightly know why our business is tanking but he shouldn’t keep telling anybody within hearing distance.
The town west of me where the guy was supposedly grabbed is full of “47%ers”.
It’s a fairly poor river town and 80% of the once-thriving businesses have closed down.
All that’s left are the mom & pop hardware stores, grocer and couple fast food places.
Most of the rest are living on some kind of dole.
I held on for six months after it hit the fan. It was too much to bear, for me. Thirteen years, most of which were very successful, went spiralling down the tubes, and so quickly. I was caught by circumstance at a very bad time. Feeding attorneys is expensive even as plaintiff. Had to settle, took a big hit on that. Sold cars and a lake house to support both myself and the business but it wasn’t coming back. Nobody was buying, they were all paralyzed with fear, this was late spring of 2008. Then my dad died. I couldn’t do it anymore. I folded. Took a job with a former customer, one of the few still solvent and growing. Still there. Greatly reduced circumstance, but current on everything, able to save a little, holding my own.
I think the biggest beef I have against the progressives is that they are collectively allowing this decline to happen. Indeed, some seem to be positively encouraging it. You hear it in phrases like "what gives us the right?" and "America cannot dictate to the rest of the world". There is a measure of self-hatred there that I think is really rather sad. And that self-doubt is largely self fulfilling. Your country cannot be great if you continually go around thinking and saying that it isn't.
Now ok, the US is not as pre-eminent in the world as it was even 5-10 years back, but that's largely due to the rise of other nations, not because of an innate decline in US culture per se. But these people by wishing it true start to make it true. "Our industry cannot compete against these emerging nations, therefore we should move production overseas." They never consider the answer of fighting back by making industry better - by being more efficient, or making higher quality or better designed products. That's what would have happened in America's heyday. That kind of attitudinal difference is what is making the US decline. Am I being jaded to think that? Possibly. But more importanly is it true?
This all sounds so very familiar.
It wasn’t ‘progressives’ who moved inefficient, union-ridden jobs overseas for the cheap labor—it was the market. And that was better for the US than the protectionism it would have taken to keep them here.
But the combination of the new US energy boom—primarily led by gas fracking—and the increasing use of technology in manufacturing is allowing for a mini renaissance in US manufacturing. That’s exactly how and why it should have come about.
One area where progressivism (and the sellout GOP) is killing the country, however, is in the massive import of multigenerationally unskilled labor. We can’t compete with the rising labor of Asian countries with high school-dropout illegals-made-legal. That’s just a simple, ugly truth.
BFL
Just....damn.
:(
I hope the new technology and a coming energy boom really do help things out, but from experience I remain doubtful as to how much they can do. New technology manufacturing doesn't employ many people, particularly those with low skills. There is going to be a lot of resistance to fracking, even though it does seem like it can solve our energy needs for the next century plus.
The bottom line is that every nation needs a few people who do the basic job of connecting bolt A to nut B. Americans are not going to survive this century by selling each other insurance and hamburgers.
What would you have had the progressives (or conservatives) do? And of course new technology uses fewer hands, that’s the basis of the cost efficiency—so less need for people to connect bolt A to bolt B.
Well for a start off they can check existing legislation is not penalising business in any way, and that the entire of their area is “business friendly”. They can ensure the infrastructure (roads etc) that business needs is as well-maintained and efficient as possible. They can encourage partnerships between public schools and business so that the kids and the educators know what business is looking for in recruits. They can ensure there are enough and proper premises available. All of these things are in their purview and things they should be doing anyway.
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