One of my fav articles is the Common Denominator of Success by Albert E.N. Gray. This article was originally written in the 40’s for a group of life insurance professionals so it has some quirks – however what the author shares applies to us as entrepreneurs regardless of the time. He was exploring the simple question of “what makes someone successful?” and what he came to was:
“The common denominator of success — the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful — lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.”
I find this so fascinating, especially when we look around us and consider that success shows up in so many different ways. Someone might come from an underprivledged background and create success “from nothing”, whereas someone else may have had a “good upbringing” and find themselves struggling through out life.
When we consider it from this perspective the answer is very clear – regardless of background successful people do things that *most* people don’t want to do. They pick up the phone and make that call. They are willing to risk investing time, money and energy into their business. They are willing to face their fear and potentially make a fool of themselves in the process.
Does this mean that they love doing these things? In many cases probably not… but they are willing to do them anyhow knowing that the success they are looking for comes as a result. And I know for me, the more I “do the things I don’t want to do” the stronger that muscle becomes. It’s certainly not easy, but it does become easier to just take a deep breath, say what the h**l and do it anyhow.
So how about you? What is it that you don’t want to do right now?