NFIB

Are Common Myths About Success Holding You Back?
02/ 09/ 2004

by Jeffrey Moses

Psychologists have long known that a person's behavior is strongly determined by past experiences and by how these experiences are viewed by an individual. For instance, in the field of business, a person may start a company and have it fail within a few years. This failure can be looked at either as motivation to succeed in the future (using mistakes as learning tools) or as a sign that nothing the person does will ever succeed.

Similarly, there are many myths, or feelings, associated with money and success. Money is a central part of our lives, and we all have particular feelings about money that have been instilled within us from childhood by our parents, family members, teachers and media. These myths can influence the way we think about success -- and in fact can help determine how successful we become.

By understanding some of the myths surrounding money and success, and by becoming aware of how they may be holding us back from success, we can learn about ourselves and focus on overcoming obstacles that are keeping us from success.

Myth: Financial success is achieved only by dishonest means. This clearly is untrue because we see examples every day of honest, hard-working individuals who are successful. But from childhood we may have heard our parents say something to the effect of: "We're poor because we're honest." Or: "All wealthy people are dishonest in some way." Even though we consciously realize this is not true, our deepest childhood memories may be holding us back, making us feel that because we are honest we don't have a chance of gaining success.

Myth: Financial success is a matter of luck. We must understand that success is based on performing the essentials of business: planning, organizing, being dedicated to a goal and working smart. The lottery mentality is detrimental to success. Getting rich from the lottery may be one shot in 30 million, but business success is extremely likely when adhering to the principles that have proven successful for so many in the past.

Myth: A person must work to exhaustion to achieve success. Actually, long-term success is based not on working to exhaustion, but on maintaining a high level of energy and health. Certainly, hard work is an essential aspect of business, and a person may need to work hours of overtime and become tired to complete a specific project. But maintaining a proper pace of work overall is the key to lasting success.

Myth: You have to grab your slice of the pie. The basis for this feeling is that there is only so much money to go around, and to be successful you have to grab what you can even at the expense of others. Successful people, however, will be the first to declare that true success is based on creating wealth through supplying what people need and giving a good value. An important success principle states that there is no ceiling on the amount of wealth that can be created, and that the only thing holding us back is our own sense of limitation.

Myth: Most successful people gain their success overnight. Again, many successful individuals will say that they worked years or even decades before success arrived. The old saying, "It took 10 years to become an overnight success" is true in almost every field of business. Why? Because success is based on learning from mistakes, becoming knowledgeable about business, and knowing our own strengths and limitations.

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