Success in any arena of life doesn’t ever happen by accident,….it is always a planned event.  Success in life as well as in business comes from creative planning, purposeful design, adequate preparation, and prolonged controlled activity that lasts until the job is completed.  These are the very reasons that so many people try to succeed and never get to where it is that they want to go.  They are simply not willing to work long enough, hard enough, or purposed enough to actually achieve their dreams and goals.  They just “don’t get it.”  

If it takes say 10 things to do and keep doing without any breaks, sabbaticals, or interruptions,…and they only perform 7 or 8 or even 9 of the required tasks and get none or not enough expected or desired results,…they get discouraged…and they give up, quit their work efforts, and slowly drift away into oblivion….And then complain that the whole business opportunity doesn’t work anymore, or that it will only work for a certain somehow preselected group of people or individuals.  They reason that since they have decided they are not to be part of the successful group, they just cannot see wasting anymore time and effort trying to do what they think they cannot do.  Quitting then becomes adequate justification in their own minds that they no longer need to persevere onward and upward to reach their chosen field of success.  Hence, they quit and become part of the failure statistics…through no one else’s fault but their own.  

Success is a well planned event.  Personal responsibility is an absolute requirement.  No one has ever “lucked” their way to the top.

Listen carefully to what God Almighty has to say about this subject.  He tells us in the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 10, verses 3–5, and 8,  NKJV:

3.     “The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish,
          But He casts away the desire of the wicked.

4.      He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the 
          diligent makes rich. 

5.      He who gathers in summer is a wise son;
         He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”

8.      “The wise in heart will receive commands, 
          But a prating fool will fall.”

Whenever a man speaks or acts all one needs to do is observe his actions and listen to his speech, and very soon you will know precisely where this man or woman is headed.  It will either be in the direction of their dreams and goals or away from such things.  If their speech doesn’t match up with their actions,…if their “walk” doesn’t match up with their “talk” you automatically know they are on the road to failure.

So, as it says in the Bible, success is a matter of an individual becoming and staying diligent in the required work efforts and activities needed to achieve their desired levels of success.  Diligent means staying active on a daily basis by doing the work steps demanded to be performed in order to accomplish the known or desired results.  It does not mean “trying” to do the work steps, it does not mean “hoping” that the work steps will produce the wanted results, and it does not mean sporadic “on-again, off-again” applied effort.  Just as sin is sin is sin,…all sin is sin,…so is a little time off from the work effort.  A little time off is just as deadly as taking a whole lot of time off.  Interrupted work efforts always takes the performer back to zero,…back to the starting point,…and then all the same unproductive work effort has to be begun again.  It is all self-imposed.  The only viable option to accomplish success is for you, the performer, to start the required work ethic and diligently stay at it until all of the work is completed.

Real flexibility is a major key.  The performer has to be willing to change things if what he or she is doing is not producing the desired results.  

Here is a little self test: If the work you are doing is incomplete or not producing desired results, change and start doing all of the required work diligently on a daily basis!  If you are dealing with people unsuccessfully, then change the caliber of people with whom you are dealing.  If you are starting people into your business venture or on your business team, and they are quitting faster than you can start them, then you change how you are treating them and what you are teaching them to do.  And finally, do not be afraid to do something that best fits your personality and work habits if you are not already doing that.  Deal with people you enjoy being around.  And most importantly, be yourself.  

I once read about a businessman who was struggling and desperately needed to change his business operations around to bring them back onto sound financial footing.  Maybe you can learn something about the turn around that will be useful to the adjustments and corrections you need to make or teach others how to make.    

It seems there was a shop keeper who once fell behind in his monthly payments to one of his vendors.  To further complicate matters, he completely ignored three increasingly sharp letters demanding full payment for his arrearage to his vendor.  Finally the vendor appeared in person with a file full of unpaid bills under his arm.  Holding the bills out in front of the shop keeper, he loudly demanded full payment immediately.

To the vendor’s great surprise, the shop keeper did not hesitate or even ask for more time to pay off the bills.  Rather, he simply sat down and wrote out a check, paying the vendor off in full.  “Is this check going to clear your bank once I deposit it?”  The vendor asked suspiciously.

“Oh yes ,” said the shop keeper.

“Then why didn’t you just send me a check several weeks ago and save us  both this unpleasant visit?” cried the vendor.

“Well, at first I didn’t have the cash,” the storeowner admitted, “but I copied your letters and mailed them out to people who owed me money.  

Everybody paid up.  Your letters worked so well, I just kept stalling on payments to you in hopes that I may eventually have a full set of your letters for use in my own business!”

Pushing people may result in payment, but not in building good personal relationships.  Be diligent in your own work, and never at the expense of another person.

As my dear sweet mother used to say to me,…“You can attract a lot more bees with honey than you can with vinegar.”  Always be kind and generous when working with or serving all other people and you will always go further than you ever expected to go.

God loves a cheerful giver.

Leaders Gotta Lead…………