Claude’s Secrets to Success, Part 1

10 Traits To Propel You to Greatness

What a privilege I have been given to have the opportunity of being mentored by a good friend and awesome person, Orrin Woodward.  Sitting in his presence ignites your passion! When the student is ready, the teacher appears – that is totally what you get when you spend time with Orrin.  If you’re hungry for more knowledge, he will mentor and pour into you. What a blessing. I cannot encourage you enough to go through his books as well as attend his leadership meetings. Orrin is one of the top 10 leaders in the world. He will teach you that success is available to anyone who wants it. It is not elusive; not something that only a chosen few are accessible to.  There may be certain factors that are beyond our control that might influence our success but we, as individuals – really have more to say and do on what happens in our future.

What determines our chance to be successful the most?

• Our actions
• Our mindset

Let me share 10 specific traits that are common to successful people:

1.  Focus & Purpose.  You must have a goal! If you are truly focused, you will recognize when you need to give up a good opportunity in the moment so you can receive the best in the long run. As my business grew and I began experiencing success, many people wanted to know more on how I was achieving this. Many opportunities surfaced for me to speak publicly and these gigs paid extremely well. In the short term, I was making good money but I could also recognize that this same opportunity was causing my core business to suffer. I realized that these same speaking engagements were detrimental to my main focus; that forced me to make a tough decision. I made a pact with myself: no more than 1 speaking engagement per month in lieu of every weekend.  That turned out to be one of the wisest things I ever did for my business. Today, my business takes way better care of me than these speaking engagement ever could. Despite the short term gratification, I maintained my purpose.

2.  Success & Excellence. Spend 30 minutes with a successful person and it will become obvious to you that they always seek to self-improve.  Get yourself and your pride out of the way! As soon as you begin thinking that you know it all, you are going down. Kaput. You’re done.  When you are successful, you know that the destination is not the ultimate prize. It’s the journey you’re on.  Being a Canadian, hockey is my my favorite sport.  Did you ever notice how the best paid professionals on this planet still consistently go through drills to stay on top of their game?  They know that the minute you quit striving, their competition can get the upper hand.  The person who strives a bit longer usually wins the game. Those who become super heroes at their game always continue striving to become even better. They strive for excellence.

3.  Success & Making People Feel Good.  It doesn’t matter what field you are in, making people feel good is a crucial component.  If you lack in relationship skills, you will not be successful. Plain and simple. Business and people go together.  To build our new home, Lana and I knew that we had to look at this as a 3-year project. We also knew that we needed to have great relationships with the contractor, the construction crew, the electricians, the plumbers, etc… People skills were important to us.  We visited every other day and made the conscious effort to treat each person with the utmost respect. We got to know these people very well and they shared at the end how they enjoyed the project of working with us, one of the best they’d had yet.  It impacted the quality of their work to the extent that they wanted to go that extra mile to please us even more. The project was a success – I attribute it all to the relationships we built and the people skills we used.  It doesn’t matter what type of business you do.  Successful people always leave people feeling better about themselves when they leave their presence. I would definitely say that the most important thing about a building project is people skills.

4.  Success & Responsibility.  Growing up, my brother loved to play hockey and he was a goalie.  As I was watching one day, his team lost.  He came bursting off the ice immediately blaming the defencemen and grumbling on how his teammates were just terrible. He wasn’t the one that let that puck go in the net! Those defencemen failed at defending him.  What he failed to recognize is that he would never get better at his game as long as he didn’t own the problem.  Blaming others would hinder his growth as a goalie and sabotage his own success. As soon as he began blaming others, he gave his power away.  I remember pointing out to him that the best goalies are usually the ones with the worst defencemen – forcing them to get even better! You always have 2 choices: blame others and believe it’s not your problem OR you can take responsibility.  Play a bit more to compensate for others and it will propel your success.

5.  Success & New Challenges.  Get out of your comfort zone!  You get comfortable at your position and you soon quit taking on new challenges.  That means you are getting stale. As a leader in what you do, you need to keep sharpening your axe.  It’s a competitive environment out there in the business world; you just can’t quit growing and expanding.  As I explained some above, it is not the destination that is the most important for leaders. It`s the journey.  According to scientists and psychologists, humans are the happiest when they are striving. You would think it’s when they get to the victory but no…. it’s during the battle. The journey makes the victory sweet. So – get out of your comfort zone – now!!! Keep conquering new territory.

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God Bless!

Claude Hamilton

The LIFE Business

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