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.

What does it mean to be successful? What if it was a simple as a smile? Sounds strange doesn’t it? If success was really as easy as putting a smile on our faces, why don’t we all just smile more?

How do you define success if it does not involve putting a smile on your face… and putting a smile on other people’s faces?

I have to admit, I’m one of those who used to think that success came with the massive bank balance, the fancy cars and the nice houses. If you told me to smile more, I’d have told you to get off the drugs and get serious about success. However, the reason I did not smile is because I was not happy. There was always something more to do, something more to achieve – I was always so busy that I did not have the time to enjoy the fruits of my labour. My family rarely saw me and after a while my friends stopped inviting me to things because they knew I was “too busy”. So they were out enjoying life while I was busy working. I just figured that once I landed that bigger deal, I got my fancy car and bought the big house then I’d stop and smile more. Then I’d stop and relax. But of course, I didn’t. Life was passing me by and I did not know it.

I’d see a young child run past me with the biggest smile on her face and I’d wish for a moment to be a kid again so I could smile and be carefree. I’d recall my younger days when I could smile and laugh without being burdened by responsibility. Of course, now I was too busy building my business to be able to do that – at least that’s what I thought. I, like so many other people, believed that happiness came after “succeeding”. I had it backwards and I was about to learn the truth, the hard way.

In just a few months, I fell from being one of the top in my field to being nearly bankrupt and scrambling to make ends meet. I didn’t know if this was a natural part of every entrepreneur’s journey but all I knew was that I was down. So now I finally had some time on my hands, I finally had time to stop and think. As I did, I started to realise that I had been on a journey that was not giving me any joy, happiness or fulfilment. I had not had a reason to smile in quite a while. Sure, I felt good and I smiled whenever I landed a great deal or made a massive sale or when someone cracked a joke, but that sense of happiness quickly faded away.

Now here I was, with very little left to my name, struggling to make ends meet but with plenty of time on my hands. So I had to do something and I did. I started to go for nature walks, get some fresh air, watch the birds take flight and I started to enjoy the little things in life.  I started to let life in. I also started to focus on my health and fitness, not to look good as had been my previous motivation but to have more energy. I also started looking for things to smile about. The amazing thing was that as I started to look for things to smile about, I found them.

I woke up early and smiled at the beauty of the sunrise over the hills, I smiled as I watched the birds go hunting for worms, I smiled as I took a deep breath of fresh air as the wind brushed my face, I smiled at the little kids who ran past me down the street with so much joy, I smiled as I jumped in the puddles when it rained, I smiled after a hot shower and I smiled whenever I got to see my family. I also started to call my friends and reconnect, some of them I was calling for the first time in over 18 months. The amazing thing was the joy they felt at hearing from me put an even bigger smile on my face. As time went by, my challenges remained and I still did not know exactly what the next chapter of my life would entail but I was happier than I had been when I was at the top. I was smiling more than ever before and I just felt like I could handle anything. For me waking up every day, being grateful for having a roof over my head and a warm bed to sleep in was something to smile about. Every morning as I woke up, I smiled with gratitude at the day ahead. I decided that in the new chapter of my life, success was going to begin with a smile.

Today I am more successful, by the accepted rules of success, than I ever have been. However, I remember the great lesson the Universe taught me; that success begins with a smile. The amazing thing is that with my new mindset of waking up looking for new things to smile about, I am naturally happier. I am in a better frame of mind and a better physical state – and as a result I am more productive and achieving goals faster than ever before. I am still amazed at how choosing to smile and being happy first leads to greater fulfilment and ultimately longer term success.  I am enjoying my work more and I am often seen with a smile on my face. Why? Because I can smile and because I want to smile. Do we really need any other reason?

Start today and look for more things to smile about. You’ll feel better about yourself and you’ll start looking at your problems in a different light. Smile first while you work and you can happily achieve rather than achieving to be happy.

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. And please share this on twitter, facebook and stumbleupon.

To your happiness,

Niro

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I have to admit, I’ve always been a fan of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies – primarily because of their inspirational messages. This video highlights a message that I think is more pertinent today than ever before.

Rocky’s son blames his dad for not getting what he wants from life. We’ve all been there at some time in our life – looking for something to blame out of pure frustration because things are not going the way we want. I know I’ve been there on more than one occasion.

However, as natural as the inclination to blame other people and events is, it will never ever make any difference to our situation. Playing the blame game is like sitting in a rocking chair – it gives us something to do but it never gets us anywhere. In reality, it does not even make us feel good. The only solution is to take responsibility for the situation and move forwards, but why don’t we do that? Because that requires courage and true courage is rare commodity these days. As someone once told me, true courage is that little voice that says at night, “Tomorrow, I will try again… one more time!”

Stallone addresses this very smartly with his line, “If you know what you are worth, then go and get what you are worth – but you have to be able to take the hits.” This is just so true. He goes on to say, “There ain’t nobody who can hit as hard as life, but it don’t matter how hard you can hit. What matters is how hard you can get hit and keep moving forwards – how much you can take and keep moving forwards.”

Whenever, I’m going through tough times, I always remember these words: “Life is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forwards.” One of my mentors says it differently – he says, “When you’re going through hell, keep going. Because if you stop, you end up in hell”. In other words, when you’re going through tough times, you must have the courage to persevere and get through. Otherwise, you’re just going to end up stuck in a rut, frustrated and looking for things to blame.

“Tough times don’t last but tough people do” – often the key factor determining your success in life is your resilience, your tenacity and your ability to persist. We’ve all heard the saying, “success is falling down 7 times but getting up 8”. The ability to be able to last through tough times is what separates the men from the boys – it’s often the single quality that is the difference between success and failure. Harrison Ford, star of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars Series said, “I knew that to succeed in this industry, I just needed to hang in there longer than everyone else.” Ford was paid $65Million for the latest Indiana Jones movie.

So go out there and strive to get what you want from life – but it is not always going to be easy and it is not always going to be smooth sailing. As J. Sidlow Baxter said, “Every opportunity has a difficulty, & every difficulty has an opportunity.” So get yourself ready for the hits and go forwards anyway!

Unfortunately, there is a whole movement out there which seems to suggest that if you just sit around and visualise success, then success will come to you easily. Nothing could be further from the truth – as Rocky says, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there if you let it.”

Everyone has had their tough times and tough times will come again – the question is what will you do when they come? Will you let life beat you down or will you aim to stand up one more time? Will you allow yourself to lie on the canvas or will you get up for another round? There have been times for me, especially when I was over $109,000 in debt with no income and people suing me for money that I wanted to throw in the towel. I have to admit, I was on the canvas and I felt like lieing there.

However, no matter how tough life gets, always remember that you and you alone decide how many times you want to get back up again. You can choose to quit or you can choose to persist. I have 3 strategies that I use whenever I feel like quitting:

1. I tell myself, “I can always quit tomorrow so why not just go another round today?” It’s a silly little saying but it keeps me moving forwards and ultimately that’s all that matters
2. Another strategy I use when I’ve had a tough day is I’ll take the day off and get an early night. When I wake up in the morning, I remind myself that today is a brand new day. Whatever happened yesterday is in the past and today is a clean canvas and I get to create it anew.
3. When things are going really badly, like when I was almost on the verge of bankruptcy and I felt like the whole world was against me, I remembered saying to myself, “I might as well quit now because things are not going to be any different tomorrow.” And then I remembered thinking, “Ok, let’s say I quit and I go back to just being like everyone else… and in 50 years time when I look back at my life, would I be happy that I quit just because a few people were trying to make my life hell or would I have wanted to keep going until I got through the tough times?  That was a very easy question to answer and I persisted and I fought and I got through. Let me assure, life looks a whole lot better today. So whenever you feel like quitting, project forwards a couple decades and look back on your life. Would you wish you’d continued or are you happy that you quit? The answer is often quite easy.

Many of us have seen great sporting feats where a team or an individual was down and out; yet they found something from deep within them that turned everything around. It is these stories that we find inspirational and Rocky is a classic example of this. But why not be your own inspiration? Why not reach deep down from within yourself and inspire your own revival? After all, what do you have to lose?

Remember, this thing called life has an end – but it ends when our hearts give out and not before. And as far as I’m concerned I’m going to keep striving for what I want from life until one of the following two things happen. Either, I’m going to get what I want or I’m going to die first – it’s just that simple. How about you? Are you willing to dedicate your life to achieving something glorious or are you going to allow life “to beat you to your knees”?

What strategies do you use to bounce back from adversity? Remember, “there ain’t nobody who can hit as hard as life but it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forwards. How much you can take and keep moving forwards.”

Leave me a comment below and let me know if you think Rocky’s advice is sound and what strategies you use to get back up again when life knocks you down. I’d love to hear from you.

And finally, if you ever feel like things are getting too much, remember the famous words of Winston Churchill:  “Never, never, never, never give up!”

To bouncing back from adversity,

Niro

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Have you ever struggled in business? Almost every entrepreneur has at some time or other – and it really sucks! As entrepreneurs, we take the risk of going against the grain, being different to the masses and following our dreams. Yet for most of us, this decision only results in pain, both financial and emotional. At times, it seems that the entire universe is conspiring against us.

I know I’ve been there.

When I decided to open up a pizza restaurant a few years ago, one of the most stupid decisions I ever made (a decision that was driven purely by my ego and greed) we struggled to get customers in the door. We seemed to be working so hard to pay the rent and to pay our staff, only to have very little for me and my business partner to live off. It was a terrible time.

So what did we decide to do when times were tough? We decided to cut prices by 10% thinking that would do the trick. And what did that do? That just dropped revenue by 10%. So now we were struggling even more – it became all too much for my business partner who one day stole the remaining $20,000 I loaned to the business and skipped town, leaving me to face the firing line..  This was not a happy time at all but one in which I learned several lessons.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, the majority of us believe that if we drop our prices, everything will be ok – yet, this is rarely a sustainable way of doing business, especially since our original prices are often not that high to begin with.

The main reason we think that lowering prices is a solution is because even though we are business owners, entrepreneurs and producers of products and services, we think like consumers. You see, as consumers we are often conditioned to look for the lowest price so many entrepreneurs sadly think lowering prices is the way to line their pockets.

Here’s the truth – lowering prices will NEVER make any long term positive difference to your business, especially if not enough people know about your product or service in the first place. That was the case with my pizza store. I opened it up in a small country town with a tiny population thinking that my business partner and I could grow this into the next big multinational pizza franchise. I’m not sure exactly where my head was at, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere intelligent – that’s for sure. Opening up the restaurant in a bad location placed at a disadvantage to start off with and then lowering prices only killed us off completely.

So how can you turn around a struggling business? There are only two ways – you need to sell and educate your way out of a hole! That’s it – these are the only two ways to get off struggle street. For example, if you have a great product but you can’t sell enough, don’t lower your price – instead look at your marketing. What can you do differently?

One of the key things to ask yourself as well is whether there is actually a market for what you have to sell. Most of us go into business thinking we have this great product or service that people need. Yet, rarely do people buy what we think they need – instead they buy what they want. So when you’re going into business or if you have already started a business that is struggling (like my pizza shop), do some research to confirm there is a market for what you have to sell. Then get some education about how you can tap into that market.

Invest in your most valuable asset which is your mind and your thinking. It is often said that to earn more, we must first learn more – and that is never truer than in business.  The successful entrepreneurs and business owners really do think differently and it is their thinking that ultimately makes all the difference.

What are your thoughts? How would you turn a business around? I’d love to hear from you so please leave me a comment below and then please share this article on twitter and facebook.

To your success,

Niro

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Seizing a golden opportunity seems to be something that is not talked about in many of the success books, personal development blogs, and business seminars that are available today.   They don’t mention how important it is to be able to recognize and capture an opportunity to succeed.  As I make strides towards success in business and life, it is becoming clear to me that seizing opportunities is imperative in making those successes possible.

During an interview, Will Smith was asked how he was able to be so successful while many other actors in Hollywood still struggle.   He responded by saying,

“The main reason most actors have not seen success in this business is because they miss key opportunities.”

I would agree with Will and I would add that it isn’t just in Hollywood that people are missing opportunities.   Most people will never see their dreams come true because of the simple fact that they seem to miss opportunity when it presents itself.

I once worked for a very large company that got bought out by an even larger company.  Those of us who worked for the company had no idea what was going on and didn’t even know if we were going to have a job in the future.  The stock price of the company took a nose dive and many people lost a lot of money.  There was panic throughout the company and uncertainty was in the air.

I decided to look for opportunity amongst the mayhem.  I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the company but I did know that the stock price was extremely cheap.   I decided to buy a lot of the stock understanding that there was a small risk involved.  Before I bought my shares, I told about 6 of my co-workers that I was going to buy and that they should too.  They all were interested and said that they would buy too.

A few months later, when the panic began to die down and the merger began, the stock price skyrocketed.  I went into work expecting to high-five everyone that told me they would buy the stock when it was cheap.  But it turned out that only one of them had bought the stock.  The rest of them were too afraid to take the risk.

The truth is that my co-workers and I were in the same situation.  We were all presented with the same opportunity.  But since I seized the opportunity, I benefited.

There are many reasons why we sometimes miss opportunities.  Here are just a few.

• Fear of making the wrong decision
• Focus on the problem not the possible opportunity
• Lack of preparation
• Procrastination or hesitation
• Giving in too early

.

Seizing a Golding Opportunity

Stay Ready-Getting ready for opportunities is very important but staying ready is even more vital.  Many people wait their whole lives for their golden opportunity but when it finally comes, they are not ready to receive it.  One of my favorite quotes from Thomas Edison is “Good things come to those who hustles while he waits”.  Anyone who wants to achieve great things should adopt this philosophy.

Perseverance-Being persistent means continuing to pursue your goal no matter what obstacles come your way.  Perseverance is important to seizing opportunity because it is hard to take action when you are feeling sorry for yourself.  We never know how close we are to our next big prospect.  That is why it is vital that we persist until the golden opportunity presents itself.

Lookout for Opportunities-When things happen around us it is easy to focus on what is happening as opposed to what may come of it.  One of the only ways to seize an opportunity is to see the opportunity.  When events happen in our lives, we must be able to focus on the possibilities that follow difficulties.

Be ready to Risk-In order to win, you must be willing to lose.  Most people miss golden opportunities because they are not willing to take a risk.  By taking risk, we are opening ourselves up for greater change and growth.

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”- Sir Francis Bacon

Create Your Own Opportunities-So what do you do when you seek opportunity and can’t seem to find it?  Well, you make opportunities.  Begin to be proactive in your actions.  Try changing the way you do things and monitor the results.  You may find that actions will create new- and possibly better-outcomes.

Seizing a golden opportunity can be the difference between what is and what could have been.  Are ready to seize new and greater opportunities this year?

Ralph Jean-Paul is not only committed to his own personal development, but he is also committed to the personal development of everyone he comes in contact with. This desire to see growth in himself, led him to begin to mentor others. Ralph also found his purpose when he began to speak at universities, corporations, associations and other organizations. To learn more about Ralph, please visit Potential2Success.com.