5 Essential Ingredients To Success With Your Own Business

by Arthur Cooper

Published on this site: May 26th, 2004

Many people dream of starting their own business. Fewer actually do it. Fewer still make a success of it.

Why?

What are the essential ingredients if you want to succeed with your own business?

1. Desire
   
   If you look at any successful businessman, from the sole trader to the billionaire entrepreneur, you find that the one element that is always present is burning desire to do what they are doing and to succeed at it. It is not a vague wish, it is not a hope or a dream. It is a deep felt, motivating desire. It is what takes him through the difficulties and the set backs and the failures along the way. Do you have this desire?
   
   
2. A Plan
   
   You cannot and you will not succeed unless you have a well thought out plan. You must know where you are going and how you intend to get there.
   You must concentrate on the route you have chosen and not be distracted along the way.
   
   
3. Knowledge
   
   You must know what you are doing. You must know your chosen field. There will be others competing with you for the same markets and the same customers. You must be up with them. You must strive to be ahead of them. But the beauty of knowledge is that it can be aquired. If you need to know something you can learn it – if you have the desire. There has never been a time when it has been so easy to find the information that you need. You just need the motivation to get it. The need and the desire.
   
   
4. Hard Work
   
   Its true. You cannot get away from it. The fact is that if you are to succeed in your chosen business then you must work hard at it. It is not a pass-time or a game (although if you are doing what you have always wanted to do it can seem like both). But the great thing about running your own business is that you enjoy your work. Otherwise why do it?
   
   
5. Luck
   
   Luck? Is that it, then? The other four items are in my control. I have the desire, I have a plan, I can get the knowledge, I am prepared to work hard. But luck? What can I do about that?
   
   Actually quite a lot. Luck is really the wrong word, but it is what people use. It is what other people must have had when they succeed. It is what unsuccessful people think they never have.
   
   But you can make your own `luck'. Successful people have often failed many times before they have their `lucky break'. But they have that burning desire and they have pick themselves up and start again. They redraw their plans and set out once again. They start again with a little bit more knowledge than they had before. And they work hard to succeed this time.
   
   Substitute the word `resiliance' for the word `luck' and you are much nearer the truth. It is the abiliity to hang on in there and stay with it when things go wrong.

So follow your desire, make your plans, keep learning, and work hard. You can succeed. And......Good luck!

Arthur Cooper is a writer and publisher. To receive his articles by email send a blank message to: [email protected]
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