In life, I had always believed that we need to work on our weaknesses so that we can become better people. Turn your weaknesses into strengths was my motto in life and I thought this was the way to do business as well.

So I went and did things where I knew I was weak – with the aim of improving my skills so that I could then make more money.

Dumb!

Really, really dumb!!

By taking this path, I lost money, time, my self confidence and everything that goes with that. I worked my butt off for years for zero return. In fact, not only did I make zero return I went backwards.I would have achieved more doing nothing, sitting around watching TV and eating junk food all day.

Seriously!! It was terrible.

Does that mean you never work on your weaknesses? Absolutely not! There is definitely a time for working on your weaknesses and a time for leading with your strengths. In today’s video I go through this in some detail so I really hope you enjoy it. The lessons I talk about in this video could have saved me a number of years of heartache and pain. And tens of thousands of dollars in lost income.

Use these lessons and I guarantee your path to success will be a lot more enjoyable, fulfilling and profitable.

Watch the video now:

Now, let me know what you thought of the video. Leave me a comment below and then share this on twitter, facebook or stumbleupon.

To your success,

Niro Thambipillay

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Roger Federer, defending Wimbledon champion and the greatest of all time very nearly lost in the first round of Wimbledon this year. He came back from the very brink to win the match and as he admitted, “I won this match that I should have lost.”

How does someone so great survive and snatch victory when defeat seems assured?

This is the one characteristic of Federer that is so underated – his ability to survive and keep fighting until the very end. And this is what we can learn from the great man.

How many times in life have you been faced with tough challenges, overwhelming circumstances and things not going right? What do you do when that happens?

Every New Year’s eve, one of the top 3 most common resolutions is to lose weight. We go and buy the new training gear, perhaps sign up at the gym and get started. Yet very quickly, most of us give up on our new routine as “life gets in the way.” But a few persist, regardless of the challenges and a few months later they are enjoying their new found health and fabulous looking bodies while the rest of us look forward to the next New Year’s eve so we can start all over again.

Does this sound familiar? Have you started something in the past only to give up when things got tough? I know I have – many times unfortunately. However, the great ones, the ones that achieve the success they are looking for, never give up.

The ability to persist in the face of massive challenge, adversity and circumstances out of our control is the number one characteristic that distinguishes the ones who make it from the also rans.

When we set ourselves a goal in life, we must also resolve that no matter what, as long as we still want to achieve that goal, we will stick with it until we achieve it. Sadly very few of us make this decision. Most of us want a goal and are willing to work for it until things get hard, but that’s when the rubber meets the road. That’s when you know how much you want the goal – when you’re willing to still go after it even when everything seems to be going against you.

Federer says that he felt that everything was going against him, he could not play the way he wanted to play and his opponent just had it all over him. So he said the only thing he could do was hang in there and fight as hard as he could.

What about you? Do you resolve to hang in there and fight as hard as you can until things turn around? I know that isn’t always easy to do – as I said, I’ve given up many times before. But now I don’t give up anywhere near as often and that’s made a big difference to the results I’m achieving in my life.

So how do you keep going when things get tough? You look at your reasons why you wanted to achieve that goal in the first place. If your reasons are strong enough, you will find a way. I don’t know exactly what Federer’s reasons are but I know that he feels that Wimbledon is his tournament and nobody is going to take it away from him. He knows that if he lost in that first round match, he would have to endure the pain of that loss for a whole year. There was no way he was going to face that. So he fought!

What are your reasons? Why would you get back up when you get knocked down? I’ve heard the quote: “Success is falling down 7 times but getting up 8.” However, the only way you are going to get up is if you have a big enough reason. Remember, the size of a challenge is limited but the size of your reasons can be unlimited.

So next time you go after a goal, make sure you know exactly why you want to achieve it. And then decide that no matter what you will persist until you achieve your goal. Change your strategy if you need to but never give up on your goal!

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think this post. What do you think separates the successful from those who never make it?

To never giving up,

Niro Thambipillay

PS: If you liked this article, please share it on Twitter, Facebook or Stumbleupon. I’d really appreciate it

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“If you enjoy the process, it’s your dream. … If you are enduring the process, just desperate for the result, it’s somebody else’s dream”
- Salma Hayek

I absolutely love this quote and the wisdom it contains. If all of us could focus more on doing something we enjoy and following our passion, then our lives would be so much better. I am so guilty of not adhering to this and ending up frustrated and miserable. In this short video, I talk about how following Salma Hayek’s philosophy could lead to a life more enjoyable and more rewarding than you ever thought. I hope you enjoy it and please leave me a comment below….

Let me know what you think of this video and leave me a comment below. I’d really appreciate it if you shared it on twitter and facebook as well.

“In life you can learn one of two ways: you can either learn from mistakes or you can learn from mentors”

The best sports stars have coaches to help take their game to the next  level – these include the best of the best such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Roger Federer.  Yet, many of us in business don’t see the need for a coach – instead preferring to try and work things out ourselves. I guess that’s part of our nature – as entrepreneurs, most of us are very independent and some of us don’t want to ask for help. Yet, that is probably one of the biggest reasons why entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t achieve the level of success they want.

Albert Einstein said, “A problem cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created it”. In other words, if you have a problem that you are struggling to solve, you need to get some new knowledge, some new strategies in order to solve it. Often this knowledge and the correct strategies can be attained by trial and error but that just costs too much money, takes too much time and causes too much hassle. A much easier way would be to learn and leverage off people who have travelled the path that we have and are a little ahead of us in our journey.

Sir Isaac Newton said, “I see so far because I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before me”. Are you standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before you? Are you getting an unbiased external perspective that might help you take your business and your life to the next level?

The successful business people have worked this out – they knww they needed help and so they went and got advice, mentoring and coaching as needed. For example, one way that small businesses grow is to get experienced people on their board of directors so they can leverage of their experience.

In fact, Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that one of the best pieces of advice he ever received was to get a coach. (See his interview on Youtube below)

Many of us have not achieved anywhere near the level of financial and business success that Schmidt has – yet he says he has a coach! So what excuse do we have? One of the reasons many entrepreneurs don’t get a coach is that we don’t think we have the time. Well, if Eric Schmidt can find the time, then I think we call can. Some business owners don’t get a coach because we think mentors are expensive. Let me ask you, what do you think is more expensive – mentors or mistakes?

Of course, the next question is how do you find the right mentor or coach? Whenever I want to look for a mentor or coach, I have two questions that come to the fore.

1. Has this person achieved what it is I want right now?
2. Can this person teach me what I need to learn?

If the person who I’m considering as a coach or mentor fits the above two criteria, then I’m happy to consider them. Remember, to be the best, we need to do what the best do, and all the best people in any field – sports or business have a coach or mentor. So the question is: Do you have a mentor?

If you are serious about being successful in business and you want to take your business to the next level and have 53 different business experts in your corner for zero cost, then I strongly encourage you to have a look at this video.

Get My Free Access to The Best Business Growth Advice On The Planet

–No one else anywhere has ever had access to this calibre of famous, prominent, brilliant real-life experts that have been assembled.

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Click on the link now: Get My Free Access Now!

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In this short video below, I talk about the power of focus. Focus has been said to be the number one quality of successful people. Yet many of us struggle with this concept.

Tiger Woods, recently reported to be the world’s first billionaire sportsman, is known to be able to focus to the exclusion of everything else under pressure, especially when a major championship is on the line. Imagine if you could be like Tiger – if you could focus on winning, on achieving your goal no matter what challenge or what crap life threw at you? How different would your life be?

Robert Kiyosaki said that FOCUS stands for: Follow One Course Until Successful so please watch this video until the end and if you like it, leave me a comment below. I’d love to know what you think about the Power of Focus.

Click here to get your free trial of six minutes to success

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Will Smith is one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood. In this video, which is a compilation of different Will Smith Videos, Smith outlines his philosophy for success and living the life of your dreams. The wisdom in this video is truly amazing and I encourage you to watch it and integrate it into your own philosophy for living.

Some of my favourite lines are:

• I have a great time with my life
• If you are not making someone else’s life better, you are wasting your time.
• Greatness is something that truly exists in all of us
• The separation of talent and skill is one of the most misunderstood concepts by people who are trying to achieve something
• Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic.
• If you’re going to be here, there is a necessity to make a difference.
• I want the world to be better because I was here.

.

If you enjoyed this video, please share it on twitter, digg or stumbleupon. I’d really appreciate it

Finally, leave me a comment. I’d love to hear what you think of this and please let me know if you would like to see more of these types of videos.

Thanks, Niro

Failure is something that most of us will do almost anything to avoid for fear of pain, punishment or loss of face. Yet, failure is a natural part of success. Think of the young child who learns to walk. She has to fall over and fail several times before she can succeed at walking. Yet, I don’t know any mothers who would say, “Look child, you’ve fallen over 7 times – I just don’t think you’ll learn to walk, so stop trying.” No, a mother will say, “My child will walk! And she will keep trying until she can walk!” And even if the mother did not say that, the child would never give up anyway. Yet, as mature adults, we seem to have lost that sense of drive and conviction that we can achieve anything we want. We seem to be afraid of failure and try and avoid failure at any cost and avoid taking any risks. Many of us in fact stick our head in the sand and just hope things will turn out for the best. Many of us do the same things day in day out, hoping that life will change. Yet, we’ve all heard the saying that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.” In fact, I believe that the fear of failure is the primary reason why so many of us do not actively pursue the life of our dreams. The irony is the person who is willing to have a go and persist, might fail many times, sometimes even painfully so but in time he will succeed. However, the person who avoids failure at all costs, ends up on their death bed regretting their failure to take action and wishing they could have another chance at life. Regardless of what you believe, this is the only life you will remember, so why not give it all you got. Your life is not a rehearsal. Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Many of us seem to have forgotten the very truth that every child knows – when you set a goal you might fail several times, but you only need to succeed once. Regardless of how often you fall over, you only need to succeed once at walking and once you do, your failures become immaterial. When you are pursuing the partner of your dreams, you might have several failed relationships, but you only need to succeed once. Why? Because once you succeed once, you have achieved the goal, learned the skill and enjoyed the experience. Ask any person who has succeeded in achieving the life of their dreams or any goal for that matter, and they will tell you that their success was worth every ounce of pain, every sacrifice and every perceived failure. In fact, I’ve spoken to people who have not achieved their goals despite giving it their all and they will tell you that they are glad they tried because at least they know that gave it their best; they gave it a shot! It seems that there is no real long term downside to giving something a go, pursuing a goal or chasing the life of your dreams.

Henry Ford said, “Failure is only an opportunity to more intelligently begin again.” I constantly remind myself of this statement because I know I have “failed” in my life so many times. I choose to also adopt Michael Jordan’s belief which is that “I have failed time and time again… and that is why I succeed.” Personally, I believe that it is because I have failed so many times in my life that I succeed. Every successful person knows that failure is simply a rung on the ladder to success.

Yet, there are those among us who discount this theory arguing that it is a philosophy put forward by those “positive thinking” and “motivational” people. They argue that everyone knows that failure is the opposite of success. Isn’t it amazing how people will go to great lengths to justify their ignorance? Let’s look at failure from a scientific perspective – which ironically argues that there is no such thing as absolute failure. Even failing to get the desired outcome is still a successful outcome in and of itself because failure is a required part of every experiment. Thomas Edison understood this perfectly.

The story of his apparent failures are legendary – it is said that he failed 9,999 times before he succeeded in inventing the light bulb on his 10,000th attempt. The story goes that he and his assistant were working on the light bulb when Edison did something that caused an explosion. Edison and his assistant were thrown backwards and glass smashed everywhere. Edison’s assistant was frightened witless, yet Edison got up, calmly dusted himself off and started writing in his journal. The assistant was incredulous and started yelling at Edison. “Are you crazy? Can’t you see you nearly killed us – why do you keep trying when you just failed…. AGAIN?” Edison, again calmly, looked up and replied, “I have not failed. I have simply discovered the 9,999th way not to invent a light bulb. However, I have also found a way of making an explosion and I better write it down before I forget.” Now that’s the positive mindset that gave human kind the light bulb and changed the course of our destiny forever.

Sometimes it is in fact our failures that lead us to our greatest results. For example, the simple “Post-It Note” from 3M is a classic example of this. Apparently, 3M were looking to create something that could be stuck on permanently and they failed. However, they looked at how they could use their “failure” for a benefit and they marketed it as the”Post-It Note”…. the rest is history. What about you? What do you do when you fail?

Tony Robbins says that there is no failure. There are only ever results. Some results we expect  and we like which we call success and others we don’t like, which we label failure. For me, I try and look at situations where I don’t achieve my goals as stepping stones and lessons. I believe that as long as I’ve learned something in the process and I’m a better man for the experience, then my effort was worth it. Now I know more for next time. I also believe that if I fail to get the outcome I wanted it is because there is something even better in store for me so I always try again. Besides, for me “Giving Up” is the ultimate failure. I don’t want written on my tombstone when I die – “He Gave Up Before He Could Succeed”. Do you? Remember the line “Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit.”

There is another famed fable from Napolean Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” about the gold digger who went digging for gold. He dug and he dug, and he finally gave up saying that there was no more gold to be found there. So he sold his gold digging equipment, which I imagine was just a shovel (clearly gold digging is not my speciality ) and then went home. The person who bought his stuff continued to dig and just 3 feet from where the first gold digger gave up, this guy struck gold – literally. In fact, it ended up being one of the richest veins of gold ever found during the gold digging era. The man who gave up, gave up just 3 feet from his greatest success. His failure was not in failing to find gold. His failure was giving up too soon. Have you ever given up too soon? Remember, the greatest success stories would never have made it if they gave up at the first sign of failure or rejection. The Beatles were told their music would never be main stream, the authors of “Chicken Soup For The Soul” were told on countless occasions that “nobody reads short stories anymore”, Michael Jordan did not make his high school basketball team, Richard Branson’s first business did not make any money and Steve Jobs was actually thrown out of Apple! Often the single difference between those who make it and those who do not is the unwillingess to give up, regardless of the challenge.

How often do you give up? And what if you give up just at the point when you are about to succeed. Remember, our biggest failures come just before our biggest successes. The night is always darkest just before dawn and the start of a new day. Remember the gold digger who gave up just 3 feet from his greatest success. So never give up on going after the life of your dreams. And never shy away from trying something new. Remember, it is only by trying something new that we can get a different result. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is, as I said above, the definition of insanity. Are you insane?