Personally I don’t believe that becoming successful will make me happy. I believe that becoming successful will enable me to get rid of considerable stress and worry; but having money will not cure my depression. Maybe during the first months of being financially free I will keep myself so busy doing things I was unable to do before that I might not necessarily be conscious of my depression. But eventually I will adjust to the change and settle into my now financially secure lifestyle, and then I will realize that I am the same person that I was before; that I still have to put in the work to find happiness inside myself. Because the big house, the Bentley, the maid, the pool, the tennis court are all just material things that can’t fill the emotional void, can’t replace human contact, can’t truly give me that sense of worth that needs to come from within. So I don’t think money brings happiness. But it does provide the opportunity to pursue happiness without the harsh realities of poverty thwarting your efforts daily.

Here is an interesting article about the search for happiness written by Vincent Roazzi from thespiritualityofsuccess.com:

The Search for Happiness

What is your personal definition of financial success? Is it owning many homes around the world? Retiring young? Never having to look at a price tag again? Each of you will have your own answer to this question, because financial success is a subjective experience. Success means different things to different people. However, there is one answer to this question that is the same for everyone, and which is the real driving desire behind why people want to achieve success. People want to be successful because they want to be happy!

Unfortunately, most people are conditioned to believe that success can be achieved in a manner that does not foster long-lasting happiness. As we grow up, society teaches us that in order for us to win, somebody else has to lose. For instance, in sports, in order for one team to win the other team must lose, but in the business world success under these conditions is not rewarding and does not result in happiness.

We continue to carry this conditioning with us in life, and into the business world. Many people today engage in a military style of business; they believe that ‘business is war,’ and that success is about achieving, winning, victory and ‘taking the hill at all costs.’ Yet, in order for you to win, what must happen to the other side? Someone must lose. Success is a science that follows the universal laws of cause and effect. What you put forth into the world will come back to you tenfold. If you are putting forth loss and defeat in the lives of others, eventually loss and defeat will begin to appear in your own life.

In order to achieve genuine success and happiness, everyone must win. For instance, if you provide a valuable service to others in the marketplace and truly care about your customers’ personal success, you will be rewarded by heavy sales, loyal customers, and the many other factors that contribute to a successful business. You will also experience the happiness associated with the success that you have attracted into your life. If you concentrate on making money by “getting over” on your customers you may experience temporary success, but it won’t take long before customers catch on to what your doing and you lose the success that you had appeared to gain. Do you think this kind of temporary success cultivates a happy life? Isn’t happiness what we are really trying to achieve?

So contrary to what society teaches, success isn’t about you against the world, it’s about you in relation to the world. Genuine success is about being in a relationship with people, and having that relationship prosper to a point where everybody wins. It’s a relationship concept. You become successful by helping other people and the more people you are able to help, the more successful and happy you will become.

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Reprinted from “The Spirituality of Success” Newsletter, a free
monthly ezine published by Vincent Roazzi, author of the best-selling
and award winning book, “The Spirituality of Success: Getting Rich

with Integrity.” For more information visit
http://www.spiritualityofsuccess.com

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Of course you will find numerous ideas being expressed by numerous people, both qualified and unqualified as to what it takes to achieve success and what defines success. I was viewing the below video a short moment ago. I’m pretty skeptical about books and videos that promise you can achieve anything your heart desires by applying visualization techniques and the like; but I am able to appreciate that the alternative to believing you have the power to shape your own life and create your own destiny, is to believe that you don’t have the power; and it seems to me that believing you “do” have the power is far more benefical than believing you don’t.

Success Principles Show # 1 Life’s a Stage

The article below was written by Ryan P. M. Allis, July 19, 2003. It does not provide any specific formula for finding and creating opportunities but is a useful article with sound advice for the entrepreneur who is trying to come up with new and viable ideas. Some of us wait and hope that an idea or more to the point an opportunity will fall in our laps; but you have to keep your alertness sharp, be observant, listen, read, pay attention to the world around you because the opportunities are not going to come to you. They do exist; but you have to go out and find them.

Finding & Creating Opportunities

Ryan P. M. Allis

How, in your own lives can you find and more importantly create opportunities?

In the Chinese language, you have the character representing crisis and the character representing change. When these are combined you have the character representing opportunity. Now why is that? Why is it that when crisis and change merge you have opportunity?

Because when crisis and change merge you have disequilibria. You have changing laws or changing conditions. New needs and problems are created and often it is up to the entrepreneurs to fill those needs.

Whenever you experience new things or the world around is changing, there will always be lots of opportunities. Here are some tips for finding, creating, and taking advantage of opportunities.

• You must live your life wholly and fully as an entrepreneur. Your job isn’t being an entrepreneur. You ARE an entrepreneur. You must keep your eyes open at all times.
• The more you travel to other regions and countries, the more opportunities you will see. Often in other places things are done differently or there are good products that haven’t yet reached your country.
• You must be a networker. The more people you talk to the more opportunities you will find out about. It is not just what you know but also who you know and how well you know them that counts.
• You must be in it for the long run. You cannot be discouraged by setbacks or mistakes. You must have perseverance, learn from your mistakes, and keep going. As you learn more and gain more experience you’ll be able to see and be prepared for more and more opportunities.
• The world is filled with opportunities just waiting to be found by an energetic and intelligent person.
• Too many people wait for opportunities to come to them. Don’t. Don’t wait for the opportunities to come to you. Create the opportunity for yourself. This is what entrepreneurs do. We see a need or a problem and from that derive an idea. Then, through doing all those steps I listed a few minutes ago we create an opportunity that hopefully will be validated in the marketplace.
• You must have the opportunity mindset. You must be looking for and evaluating opportunities constantly. You must make time to talk to others about what opportunities they are pursuing. You must become magnetized towards opportunity.

Let me conclude this section with a quote from one of my favorite authors. His name is Napoleon Hill and the quote is “Every adversity comes with it a seed of equal or greater benefit.” “Every adversity comes with it a seed of equal or greater benefit.” Another good quote is, “There is no person worth remembering that lived a life of ease.

You will be discovering many many opportunities for learning, for partnership, for collaboration during your lives. From the adversity of life there will come many benefits and opportunities. Take advantage of every one of them.

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Ryan Allis is the author of from Zero to One Million, a book on how to build a company to one million dollars in sales based. Additional information on the book and an extensive entrepreneurship resource can be found at http://www.zeromillion.com. Ryan is also the CEO of Broadwick Corporation, a provider of permission-based email marketing and list management software IntelliContact Pro (www.intellicontact.com) and CEO of Virante, Inc. (www.virante.com) a Chapel Hill, North Carolina based web marketing consulting firm. Additional information on the author can be found at www.ryanallis.com.

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Some additional notes. Here’s an excerpt from “Think And Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill:

Give Your Imagination Some Exercise

Your imaginative faculty may have become weak through inaction. It can be revived and made alert through use. This faculty does not die, though it may become quiescent through lack of use.

Center your attention, for the time being, on the development of the synthetic imagination, because this is the faculty which you will use more often in the process of converting desire into money.

Transformation of the intangible impulse, of desire, into the tangible reality, of money, calls for the use of a plan, or plans. These plans must be formed with the aid of the imagination, and mainly with the synthetic faculty…

Two Forms of Imagination

Synthetic Imagination: - Through this faculty, one may arrange old concepts, ideas, or plans into new combinations. This faculty creates nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education, and observation with which it is fed. It is the faculty used most by the inventor, with the exception of the “genius” who draws upon the creative imagination, when he cannot solve his problem through synthetic imagination.

Creative Imagination: - Through the faculty of creative imagination, the finite mind of man has direct communication with Infinite Intelligence. It is the faculty through which “hunches” and “inspirations” are received. It is by this faculty that all basic, or new ideas are handed over to man. It is through this faculty that one individual may “tune in” or communicate with the subconscious minds of other men.

I have always been a bit stubborn. Deferring to others, regardless of their position, has never been something I’ve been able to manage. As a child I earned myself a repuation for being quite devilish for my unwillingness to do what I was told. Though I usually did obey my elders, if they instructed me to do something I didn’t want to do, I never failed to let that fact be known. I imagine even if I hadn’t develop a severe case of social phobia that prevented me from living a “normal” life and forced me to find ways to make a living without having to leave home, I might still have found myself following an entrepreneurial path in life. Frankly I can’t imagine myself as an employee. I have never been an employee and could never be happy in a position of working for someone else. But that is not to suggest there is anything wrong with working for someone else. I suspect most people would prefer to be their own boss; but when it comes down to the reality of affording food and shelter, most people will chose the security that a 9-5 job provides rather than risk the insecurity of running their own business.

Here’s an article from a few years ago written by the author of “Zero to One Million”, Ryan Allis. It might be useful if you happen to be weighing your options between starting your own business and staying in your current job:

The Best & Worst Things About Being an Entrepreneur: An Alien’s Choice
April 20, 2003
by Ryan P. M. Allis

An alien lands on Earth. After a few days she finds out that she is going to need some money in order to purchase food and shelter. Daringdo has a choice. Should she become an entrepreneur or get a job? Let’s examine the best and worst things about being an entrepreneur so we can help Daringdo make an educated decision.

According to InvestorForce co-founder Colin Wahl, the worst thing about being an entrepreneur is the loneliness. He says, “You are on your own and nobody supports you because it’s hard for them to see what you see and feel the excitement that you feel in the early stages.”

I would have to agree with Colin on this point. It can indeed be lonely sometimes. One can also become de-motivated after working so hard and so long on something for which the reward may be months or years away or perhaps never to come at all.

KendallTodd, Inc. CEO Todd Ballenger says that the worst thing about being an entrepreneur is that you often work 80 hours a week as an entrepreneur to avoid working 40 hours a week as an employee. Posed with the same question, Inspire Pharmaceuticals CEO Christy Shafer says the worst thing is that you are constantly busy and stressed out and have less time for family. Best Friends Pet Care founder Randy Myer says that the worst thing is the impact on your health and your family.

With cash flow problems, having to lay people off, working eighty hour weeks, the possibility of not ever being paid for your work, and loneliness, why in the world would anyone want to be an entrepreneur? An extra-terrestrial coming to this planet for the first time would surely choose the safety and security of a job in Corporate America. Or would she?

Before we can be sure, there is another side of the coin we must examine. Along with the negative, there are a number of positive things that go along with being an entrepreneur. While being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, let’s examine the upside before you make your final decision.

So what is the positive side? Well, first you have freedom. You have the opportunity to use all your skills. Significant financial reward goes to he who succeeds. You have control over your destiny and will never have to worry you or your family’s financial security. Respect comes from your peers. You have the recognition of being a visionary. You have provided hundreds or thousands of people with jobs and they respect and thank you. You have provided value and efficiency to a market and improved the standard of living of many. Finally, there is no worry about being laid off or not being able to take care of yourself after the value of your 401(k) plan evaporates.

MCNC Chairman Dave Rizzo says, “You have control over your destiny, your calendar, and the vision is yours.” Christy Shafer adds, “You are constantly challenged and have fun.” Colin Wahl notes, “You have much more control of your own destiny and your entire life!’ Randy Myer states, “The best part is the rewards — financial and psychological.”

So what will you choose? Well, in the end this lies with you. However, do remember that we only live once. If you have a good idea, the trust in yourself to execute, a basic knowledge of business, can bring together a good team, feel you are at the right stage in your life, and believe you can afford the risk, I’d highly recommend going for it. But you must get going and start moving.

There is a certain law of inertia that I often reference. A body in motion remains in motion. And while in motion finds new people and acquires new knowledge that it would not have come in contact with if it was not moving. Once you begin on a quest, that quest will lead you to things unbeknownst to you at the beginning. Once you start on your quest, many new events and pieces of knowledge will fall into place. Inertia will take effect as new knowledge and possibilities create a snowball effect up the learning curve as you come closer and closer to your goal. Therefore one should not wait until all the traffic signals are green before he starts his journey.

In the end, it may take awhile to reap the benefits of being an entrepreneur. And you may experience much of the downside along the way. But if you get moving today and are adaptive, persuasive, self-confident, and a visionary, and have perseverance, have a bias towards action, and can inspire others with your leadership, you may just be able to enjoy this upside. As Colin Wahl says, “Go for it, it’s an incredible chance of a lifetime – as the saying goes, better to have tried and lost than never to have tried at all! The riskiest thing to do is not to try…then the chance of success is zero. The downside: even if things don’t work out you will gain amazing experience that will help you even if you end up having to go back to working for someone else.”

So what is the final decision? Will our alien friend decide to be an entrepreneur or an employee? Well, after thinking things over, she decides that she’d be better off applying for a few scholarships, going to school, working on her English and business knowledge, making some contacts, and developing some business plans while interning at a company in the field she is interested in, and then venturing off on her own. Smart alien.

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Ryan Allis is the author of from Zero to One Million, a book on how to build a company to one million dollars in sales based. Additional information on the book and an extensive entrepreneurship resource can be found at http://www.zeromillion.com. Ryan is also the CEO of Broadwick Corporation, a provider of permission-based email marketing and list management software IntelliContact Pro (www.intellicontact.com) and CEO of Virante, Inc. (www.virante.com) a Chapel Hill, North Carolina based web marketing consulting firm. Additional information on the author can be found at www.ryanallis.com.

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