What does taking shelter in a storm have to do with being a successful entrepreneur or running a Business? Think about it. What should you take shelter from in order to become as successful as you’d like to become? Let’s take a look at what an ant might have to avoid along his journey of searching for food and protecting the colony. Numero uno would be the bully that is lurking around the corner with a magnifying glass! Another would be a literal rain storm and another might be cold weather. The list could go on and on but how do these things relate?

Here is a list of things that I would avoid, watch out for, or plan to go around if I was looking to create all out success.

1. Avoid negative media! Here’s an amazing statistic: Walmart gets sued every hour! But why? Walmart is a great store! I’ll tell you why. It is because Walmart is a great store and when you are a great store, that means you are a successful company. When you are a successful company, you make lots of money. Now who doesn’t like money? So they sue! Plain and simple, if you are successful, and they are not, they hate you for it! That is the truth.
2. Don’t waste time with the Kings and the Jokers. You are looking for Aces to work with. There are a lot of other prospects, clients, customers, or business partners that will be and look enticing, but they’re not an Ace.
3. Prepare for the Cold Weather, or the down time in your business. This is considered the slow season, if there is any in your industry. This is no secret and you probably already know this, but I will tell you the secret to getting through a slow time in your business. This is it! Are you ready? “There is no slow time!” Did you miss that? It is all belief!
4. Avoid, like the plague, people that bring you down with beliefs of poverty and failure. This one is number one in my book. Take all the people you hang around with, add their income and divide it equally among you. The average is what your income will generally be. Hang out with like-minded and ambitious people.
5. Procrastination! Avoid it, avoid it, avoid it! That is all I have to say about that!

There you have it. The next philosophy of the ant. The best way to take shelter from the storms of business is to just make a ton of friggin’ money and have all out massive success so that when a storm does come along, it will take a heck of a lot of force to knock your mountain of prosperity over! That, my friend, is how it is done!

One of the simplest aspects of becoming successful in any endeavor is a two word phrase, “Never Quit!” I can still remember back to the glory days of High School sports and one phrase still rings crystal clear in my mind. It came from my coach during the first few weeks of practice and it went something like this, “What part of never quit don’t you understand? The never or the quit! If you want to quit, you don’t deserve to be on this team!” What an effect that has had on me in everything I have pursued. It is as simple as it sounds! The “Quitter” never wins.

I believe the underlying reason so many people quit at so many things is because it is easy. When the road gets a little rough, the wind picks up a little, the waves toss you to and fro, just throw up your hands and quit. Than you don’t have to think about it anymore. It’s over. Move on! You have all probably heard the common phrase, “Great things come with great sacrifice!” That is a principle. Never expect to get something for nothing, but expect the something. Never expect to get the free ride, but expect the ride. Life is all about the journey, and success is achieved by going through that journey. Success is truly not yours unless you create it yourself. Never expect others to make it happen for you.

If you have ever studied an ant or tortured ants like I did as a boy, then you know this simple principle of “Never Quit!” What does an ant do when you place your foot right in front of its path? Does it stop short of your foot, sigh a little then turn around and go home? No! That ant will go around, under, over or through, if necessary, and if you really tick it off, it will bite you and make you move! That is determination and that is the never quit mentality that successful people possess.

So what separates those who succeed from those who do not? What is the big difference there? Let me illustrate a few examples. One couple, when starting a Home Based Business with a large initial investment, ran into issues with finding the funding. Instead of quitting right then and there, when things looked hopeless, they found a way. They came up with the funds. They simply make a decision to never quit and they are now making more every month than they initially invested. Another couple, with zero computer experience, was having issues with advertising their business properly on the internet. Instead of letting frustration set in from the fear of the unknown, they figured it out. They were solution focused and plowed right through their obstacle and now have more inquiries than they can handle.

When it call comes down to it, the reason people become successful is because they start to finish. They don’t start to quit! The only way to fail is to quit! Quit, and you deserve to fail. Never quit, and you deserve all the wealth, prosperity and abundance that is truly yours.

“All the so-called ’secrets of success’ will not work unless you do.” This is a quote by an unknown author that hit the nail head on. So many people desire success yet they wait for it to slap them in the face. We’ve all heard of the old saying, “Nobody ever drowned in their own sweat!” We aren’t saved by our faith alone, but by our “Works” also. Basically, if you want something done, you’d better get your butt up and do it. The Lord worked for 6 days and then he rested on the seventh. There is much to learn from all this. Basically success, fortunes and dreams aren’t created by themselves. They are created by work.

Now, there are different kinds of work. Hard work is not defined by how much you sweat or how many ditches you can dig. Work is defined by your productivity. “You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.” ~Jim Rohn

For me to make $1000 by working 10 hour days for a week straight is work alright, but is it productive work? If I were your employer, I would say yes! If I were the employee, I would say no! You see, there is something that ants understand very well. They understand the power of a small word called “leverage!” Can a single ant feed an entire colony? Do a few ants collect the food while the rest hang out with the queen? No! So, think about who you’d like to be in this scenario. Do you want to be the worker ant or the queen? The worker has only leveraged his own efforts. True success comes when you can figure out how to leverage your time with the efforts of others and at the same time, adding value for everyone involved.

There are only 24 hours in a day. We all get those same 24 hours right? So, whether you get rich or whether you get broke is a measure of what you have done with your 24 hours. Success, the same as failure, doesn’t happen overnight or in one swift decision. It happens by one small act or failure to act, duplicated over and over, for a period of time! Work requires action rather than sweat. Work requires productivity rather than the ability to just stay busy. Work requires will and ambition rather than complaining and remorse. If success didn’t involve work, I think almost everyone would be doing it! Then again, there are those who still would not do it because thinking can be work.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. Understand that the first philosophy of the ant is: Hard work always pays off. In the words of an previous mentor of mine, “The field is white, all ready to harvest, so just forget yourself and go to work!”