20 Principles of Success Not Taught in School

20 Principles of Success Not Taught in School

No matter what you do for a living, no matter how old you are, and regardless of where you grew up, we all share something in common—a desire to be successful. True success should be defined by you, specific to you and your goals. What success means to one, can be very different for another. Success to some may mean fancy cars and homes. Success to others may mean being a good parent, spouse, or friend. For others, it may be simply to be happy. Or it can be all of the above.

I believe true success begins with this core principle:

Your success, happiness—anything you truly want for your life—has to begin with unwavering, non-negotiable desire, commitment, and persistence. Without it, you cannot withstand and overcome the tests that will be put in your way, to not only see how badly you really want it, but to help you appreciate what you have once you get it. Because it is through the tests, that you discover yourself and your purpose, which is what you were really looking for to begin with.

Through my journey, and as I continue to write my own “story of success,” I have faced many obstacles and made many mistakes. The gift from those obstacles and mistakes are these principles, which I use as my guidelines—or should I say my way of life—to keep building my foundation stronger, and reaching higher to live to my fullest potential.

1.     The only thing in life you have control over is your perspective. No matter what happens, YOU control what the meaning is, and what to do with the meaning you give to the circumstance.

2.     Have more fear of regret than failure.

3.     Failure is only part of the journey to success. There is not one success story out there that hasn’t experienced failure. The reason you are hearing about it as a success story is because those people saw failure as a tool to get it right.

4.     It’s not about what you want to do for a living, it’s about you who want to be. What is your purpose and legacy?  I believe the age-old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is wrong. We need to be asking, “Who do you want to be? What footprint do you want to leave in this world?” From there, you will have your answer as to what you should “do.”

5.     Stay focused on your race within. When you are too busy looking behind and around you, people are passing you by.

6.     True leadership comes from good energy. Worry more about what your energy is like than the firmness your handshake.

7.     Life will give you the same challenges/problems over and over again until you learn your lesson.

8.     Until you jump over your inner roadblocks, your outer ones will stay firmly in place. We spend so much time focused on all the exterior obstacles around us, letting them be our excuses. But the more clear and aware we are of our internal roadblocks, and dissolve them, the external roadblocks will begin to disappear, too.

9.     The most successful people are the ones that work on themselves first.

10.  Do not judge—be inspired. If you are too busy judging everyone and everything around you, you are not remaining open to find inspiration in everyone and everything around you.

11.  You are not allowed to complain about something unless you are going to do something about it.

12.  Surround yourself with people you want to be like.

13.  Learn to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. The more fears you face, the more you will grow.

14.  Always ask, “What if?” and, “Why Not?” Instead of thinking, “What if I fail?” ask, “What if I succeed?”

15.  Creativity is your unlimited capital. Understand and harness its power.

16.  “I only have good days.” If you start off everyday with this mindset, even when challenges emerge, your positive mindset will help you overcome them more readily.

17.  Create your own footprint. You do not need to do what others have done before you.

18.  Hit the “mental reset button.” When you are thinking negative thoughts, envision hitting the “delete” button in your mind and begin to rewrite a better story.

19.  Abundance is everywhere. You must choose to see it and believe it in order to fully experience it.

20.  There is a lesson in everything that happens to us—wisdom to be gained and gratitude to be given. Begin with gratitude and everything else will reveal itself.

The beauty of success is that it can have many layers. Success doesn’t need to be limited to one aspect of life—but as many aspects as we desire to succeed in. The critical part of being successful is to be aware of what you want. Define it, write it down, and reflect, every day, on which steps are necessary to write your own story of success.

By Jen Groover

PRODUCT MARKETING USING THE INTERNET

Product marketing is a critical challenge for early stage of companies. As the area of focus expands from technology to the business (customers and revenue), companies recognise that marketing is as important as innovation.
The Internet has emerged as a powerful medium with a fundamental impact on the two core functions:

1. Innovation: We are at the threshold of product innovation being delivered over the Internet (e.g., Software as a Service)
2. Marketing: Using the Internet, companies can reach their target audience worldwide with relatively low budgets, flexible spending and measurable marketing metrics

The online marketing mix for demand generation

Marketing elements and their primary goals I Must Have Online Marketing Elements 1) Company website A content rich website for the self-education of visitors/prospects To drive organic search engine traffic 2) Landing pages (calls to action for website visitors like “Download a free trial now” or “Buy now” etc.) To convert the nameless website visitor into a lead by collecting specific contact information Integrate landing pages with online CRM systems like Salesforce.com for tracking rich lead information 3) Company blog Drive organic search traffic Cultivate the blog as a rich source of content for prospect education Voice of the company and could provide a 'human touch' to the prospect experience Encourage readers to engage, interact and share thoughts/comments 4) Interactions (forums, industry bloggers and LinkedIn communities) To understand the prospect’s pain points, and provide responses to professionals looking for solutions that you could provide Interact with leading bloggers covering your technology II Good To Have Marketing Elements 1) Online articles Demonstrate the company’s vision and technology leadership Create rich content to pique the interest of the readers 2) Twitter Diffuse promotional offers and establish a viral marketing channel 3) YouTube Viral marketing III Evaluate In Your Specific Context 1) Webinars Reach a particular target segment; also a good avenue for product demonstrations and prospect interactions A recorded webinar can also be used for other online marketing campaigns & co-marketing with partners 2) E-mail campaigns Broad outreach to an entire database of contacts Prospect nurturing 3) Google Ads Search engine marketing and targeted outreach

The box above captures the key online marketing elements along with each of their primary goals. Content, i.e., text, videos, along with its continual updating, is critical for success in each of the following marketing elements featured in the table below – hence the cliché, “Content is king on the Internet”.

The benefits of online product marketing

Product marketing over the Internet offers several key benefits:

1. Rich set of analytics: Marketing over the Internet can be rigorously tracked. For example, the company website can reveal the sources of traffic, the number of new visitors, bounce rates, etc. Rich analytics can be associated with every online marketing element, not just the company website. The use of analytics ensures that the ROI on marketing efforts is more easily measurable.
2. Marketing 24x7: Marketing efforts on the Internet are ‘always on’, i.e., prospects can continuously reach your online content and learn about your product and offerings.
3. Pull vs push marketing: The Internet provides the ability to change the basic marketing paradigm – prospects now search for specific information on the Internet and then find your product to meet their requirements. Contrast this with the earlier paradigm of a ‘blanket push’ of information to a whole set of users irrespective of whether or not they were ‘in the market’ for a product that you offer.
4. Retain better control: The online marketing elements can be controlled more easily by marketers -- for example, the message can be updated and is instantaneously available to every new visitor.
5. Keeping a close tab on your competition: Since the Internet is a public forum, it is easier for you to keep a close tab on your direct and in-direct competitors (e.g., via news alerts, what people are saying about the competing product, etc).

So is marketing over the Internet a bed of roses?

The Internet can be a rewarding marketing channel, but there are some points to bear in mind as you adopt it:

• ‘Click fraud’ and online advertising: It is possible for your online advertising campaign to be quickly made ineffective through click fraud. An example of this is when random visitors consistently click on your advertisement without even a remote interest in the product.
• Not all conversations about your product may be good: Remember that not all conversations about your product in blogs and other publicly-viewed online forums are likely to be complimentary. Respond as appropriate and treat the criticism as important feedback for the organisation. Let the conversations flow freely and learn from them!
• The Internet cannot entirely substitute in-person meetings: The Internet can serve as your marketing vehicle, to a large extent; however, it cannot replace face-to-face interactions entirely, atleast not yet. You should schedule the occasional in-person connections with those who make up your target market (at key conferences or industry events).

Lukonde L. Chaibela

Bsc in Computing, SSCP, Blogger