Christiana Mbazigwe, Duric Business Solutions, Toronto, ON, CYBF Mentor

Success means different things to different people. When it comes to learning, the importance of defining concepts cannot be overemphasized. In my own learning process, I give attention to understanding the fundamentals, especially definition of terms or concepts that I’m learning and the subject matter becomes very easy for me the moment I understand the concept. Some concepts have common or universal acceptance while others do not. Success is one of those concepts that have no universal definition as it’s a subjective issue.

People’s definition differs a lot when you ask them what success means to them. While teaching a class of women entrepreneurs, I asked each person to say what success means to her and it was amazing to get their different answers. To me, success in the business context is identifying a business opportunity and taking advantage of it to achieve inspired goals and objectives to actualize your mission and vision. The vision should include seeing every problem as an opportunity to create a product or service to meet the need or solve the problem identified.

The main elements that lead to success can be summarized as (1) Understanding – get it right  (2) Lifestyle – live right and (3) Performance – do it right. The eight success factors relating to these three elements are:

1. Mind-set – tactical, strategic and integrative (360 degrees) thinking is required. Your belief system is critical for success. Think and see success and it will happen.

2. Behavior – background (affects your behavior), learning, planning, marketing (proper marketing and public relations plans), risk-taking, innovating and creativity all affect your success.

3. Passion – having it long-term for what you do is important. It makes you love what you do and to see it as fun not as work, even if you’re not making money from it yet.

5. Motivation – remaining motivated and not being afraid or getting demoralized when things are not working out the way you wanted. You don’t give up.

6. Inspiration – you have that inner drive to forge ahead and go for the goal despite all odds.

7. Action – being action-oriented, proactive or responsive. You take the right steps/action at the right time.

8. Accountability – will help you to set goals, record, track and evaluate performance and allow you to declare results in due time.

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