Success: Is it All in Your Mindset?

Success may not be ALL in your mindset but it certainly starts there – and can end there too if you don’t take positive action to prevent it. Your mindset, your beliefs about wealth are at the very heart of your success.

On the surface, we all want to run successful businesses. We want be financial successful and free, but there seems to be a bit of a conflict going on in most of us. There are many negative connotations around success and the accumulation of wealth that most of us have grown up with and they are not going to vanish without some help.

You know the sort of things I mean:

• Wealth and success makes people think they’re better than everyone else.
• You can only be successful at gaining wealth by cheating someone else out of what’s theirs.
• Money can’t buy you happiness.

If you haven’t heard the exact phrases above, the chances are you have heard something similar. Perhaps the negativity towards success was not expressed in actual words but the implication was there. Growing up amidst this kind of belief system rubs off on us and over time can embed itself deeply into our developing mindset.

The fundamental difference between the successful entrepreneur and the one that fails is not found in their skill but their mindset. That’s not to say that skills are unimportant, but if you try to attach ability to a belief system focused on failure, it won’t work.

When it comes to entrepreneurs, this conflicting outlook usually manifests itself in their attitude to the act of selling. A majority of would be entrepreneurs have a real uneasiness about selling. Many do not overcome it and end up cancelling out their own chances of future success.

The reason is simple. Most people do not start their business because they want to be the world’s most successful salesperson. They usually have a product or a service that they have developed a real passion for. They want to create a business out of it so they can spend every day doing what they love and earning money from it.

Some are simply unemployable. Much of their motivation comes from not being able to face working for someone else anymore. They start their own business without realising selling is going to be the number one skill they must learn to be successful, whatever business they’re in.

For most, selling has just about as bad a string of connotations as creating wealth, perhaps more. ‘Sell’ is a dirty word. To become successful at taking money off another individual at a profit is a bad thing. We have all heard a version of the story about the pushy salesperson that bullied the old lady to part with her life savings for something she didn’t need or want.

If this is your mindset to selling you need to change it if you’re serious about the success of your business. Like it or loathe it, you have to sell. Loathe it and your customers will soon pick up on that. Ultimately it will prove to be a stumbling block that will prevent them from buying your product or service.

A negative attitude towards selling will come across as lack of confidence in your own product or service. It will cause distrust, uneasiness, dislike and even irritation. You certainly won’t attract customers or success that way!

Think of it this way. You have a product that there is a certain demand for. You owe it to your customers to do an excellent job of selling to them. Contrary to popular belief selling isn’t about pushing something on to an individual that doesn’t want it just so you can turn a profit.

Show your customers the benefits to them of your offer. Make the shift in your thought process from taking to giving. Focus on giving your customers what they want. Find ways to add value or perceived value to their lives. Build good relationships with them.

Once you begin to see the importance of selling and open your mind to the possibilities, not only does it get easier but you may find you are quite excited about the prospect of making a sale. You will become so much more successful at selling when you’re passionate about your business and confident in your offer.

It’s great when you begin to get ‘thank you’ emails and testimonials of your customers’ successes. Changing your mindset to one that’s totally receptive to success can be rewarding in more ways than just financially.