by Elliot Barnett

Created on: May 18, 2008

One thing I have learned over the last year or so as I run the business that I run is that people self-limit. Leaders are those that assume they can do something until proven otherwise. Followers are those that assume they cannot do something until someone else proves to them that they can. From what I have seen, the former leads to potential successes and the latter prevents success.

Life is a series of decisions. You are where you are based on the decisions that you have made in your life. There are certain times that there is a crossroad; where something significant is either happening to you or could happen for you. It could be someone reaching their hand out giving you an opportunity. It could be a tragic moment where your actions could have a great impact on others. It could be many things. The fact is, those moments can be life changing. Success or regret is a very typical outcome to such situations. You either failed to act and regret it or you acted and had an impact. Notice I left out the 3rd option: regret from action. I did so because I truly believe that regret from action is always much less than regret from inaction. The "I should have" or "I could have" statements in your life are statements born from those moments of inaction. It breeds the blame game and further self-defeat and self-doubt pushing you further from success.

If you want to insult a successful person, call them lucky. Luck to me is when opportunity meets preparedness. See, you can be prepared for an opportunity and one is not there. An opportunity could present itself and you aren't prepared for it. However, when those two come together, we call it luck. Successful people are those that not only had luck by this definition but also acted! Action is the key to success in life. Excusing action leads to regret and a path to mediocrity.

Somewhere along the way, we forgot how to dream. We are beaten down and "put in our place" by society. It could be our race, our backgrounds, where we grew up, our family, whatever it is we are slowly but surely told the best we can be is average, just like everyone else. To dream is to waste our time. When I was a child, I was sure I was going to be a professional football player. In fact, I was going to be so good, I was going to skip college and go right to the pros. Well, I realized at 5' 7" and 150 pounds, this was likely not going to happen but my parents never told me so. They just encouraged me to continue to work hard towards my goals and dream.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>