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What does it take to become a success? What’s the secret formula?

Here’s a question that will help you understand and make you think:

Are you trying to sell or achieve?

Let me give you a few more thinking points:

• If you read “The Secret” and believe it will work for you, you will lose to people willing to work for what they want, rather than wait for something they want.

• Achieving success is not about making your quota. Making a sale is just part of achievement.

• You set your own mental attitude and physical readiness to achieve each day.

Here’s the point: If you look at “achievement” as your objective, you will be looking, thinking and taking action at a higher level.

Here’s my formula:

Health + mental peace + focus + action + “help” + love of what you do = achievement.

• It helps to have a brand and a reputation. Be known for quality.

• It helps to have a visible platform. Send a weekly value message to all customers and prospects.

• It helps if you write something new and valuable to others every day to create new ideas, build your own understanding and clarify your current thinking.

• It helps to have an audience of loyal customers who love you. Customers who will do business with you again and again, and who will refer others to you.

• It helps to have the support of others. People who help you to succeed and encourage you to win.

• It helps to have a bit of money in reserve. Money to invest in new ideas and new technology.

• It helps to have extreme self-confidence. Your personal belief system and positive attitude drive your entire success process.

• It helps to have a past history of success. Knowing you have won before and understanding what made those wins happen will create more winning opportunities and the knowledge to capitalize on them.

These “helps” will get you there faster, but don’t overlook the biggest help – help yourself. Each time you

do something for yourself, it builds your wealth of experience, your wealth of knowledge, your valuable reputation and your character.

The “help yourself” element is the rest of the formula:

• Healthy body. Overweight means overburdened, and many people are. Your eating choices and your exercise choices are critical to your total strength.

• Healthy mind. Worry and stress are the cause of illness and failure. They occupy the mental space that should be full of ideas and calls to action. All thoughts are choices. Choose positive.

• Focus. Your mental drive and vision to study, make plans, take action and stay the course. It’s eyes AND mind AND body focused on the prize. Whether good or bad, your focus will determine your results.

• Take action. Nothing happens until you decide to MAKE it happen. Action requires risk. Fear of rejection prevents action.

• Love of what you do. Think

about your biggest achievements. My bet is that those achievements were tied to your passion. Love of what you do is critical to achieving anything.

Achievement requires action. Even if you win the lottery, you had to take the action of buying a ticket.

A sale is an achievement – but so is setting an appointment or discovering the decision maker’s name.

You decide what achievement means to you. It may be making a big sale or running a 10K in less than one hour. It may be getting a promotion at work or buying a dream home.

There’s one elusive element of achievement (especially for sales managers) that will lead to the next achievement faster and with more certainty: celebration! I DID IT!

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2008 Jeffrey H. Gitomer