The word success is one of those commonest topics that every individual has heard about right from childhood that never gets off people’s lips. Once or twice, we have received success tips from our parents, friends, teachers, motivational speakers, mentors, the list is endless.

As plain as it sounds, though many of us have read, heard or received several insights on how we can be successful in life, it is surprising that majority of people have not made it and are still looking for the answers.

Success is defined as the status of having achieved and accomplished an aim or objective. Being successful means achieving the desired visions and planned goals.

Furthermore, success can be a certain social status that describes a prosperous person that could also have gained fame for its favorable outcome. The dictionary describes success as the following: “attaining wealth, prosperity and/or fame”.

Ryan Benjamin Tedder, an American singer-songwriter and producer once noted “When you’re around enormously successful people you realize their success isn’t an accident – it’s about work.”- The old adage of knowledge is power seems to be partially non- applicable as having greatest ideas without practise simply renders them worthless. The true mark of success lies in having the courage to invest emotionally, physically and financially in your idea.

For instance, to legally operate a vehicle on any public road, one must have a driver’s license; to excel in sports, one must train and practice regularly; If your goal is success in business, then the formula is no different. In this article, we highlight reasons why we have not made it and how we can undo the status quo;

Setting Goals; While many people work hard, they don’t seem to get anywhere worthwhile and the key reason they feel this way is that they haven’t spent enough time thinking about what they want in life, and haven’t set themselves formal goals. Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. Goals are a constant reminder of what you need to accomplish fuels us to work hard and achieve our life’s’ objectives.

Working Hard Nobody makes progress by sitting back and waiting for it to find them. Successful people go out into the world and invoke change throughout their actions. Typically, leaders enjoy challenges and will work tirelessly to solve problems that confront them. They adapt well to changing situations without unravelling and are typically expert of helping their teams change with them by motivating them toward new goals and opportunities.

Learning from failures; Successful people are risk takers who have all gotten over one very significant hurdle: they are not afraid of failure. That’s not to say that they rush in with reckless abandon. In fact, entrepreneurs are often successful because they are calculating and are able to make the best decisions in even the worst of cases. However, they also accept that, even if they make the best decision possible, things don’t always go according to plan and may fail anyway. If you’ve heard the old adage, “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” that’s exactly what it is; do not be afraid to fail, put it out there and give it your best shot.

Most of you want to be successful but you don’t want it bad, ‘you kind of want it’. You don’t want success as much as you want to party or as much as you want to be cool or as much as you want to sleep. If you want to be successful, you have to be willing to give up sleep because if you sleep, you might miss out on being successful. You have got an opportunity to make your dream come into reality. Kim Garst, the founder and CEO of Boom! Social once said, “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know and start charging for it.”

Consistence; Most of us want to be successful but when we start something, we get tired along the way, and quit. Quitters don’t learn neither can they be successful. Don’t try to give up, keep going because you have already gone through the pain. Pain is temporary so it will last for a while but if you quit it will be permanent. Dale Carnegie, an American writer and lecturer once said, “Success is developed from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

Making sacrifices;You have to sacrifice what you like today to be the person that you want to see in future. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Start giving up what pulls you down and start believing that you are the best. Identify luxuries and separate them from the necessities. This will enable you to keep focused on your goals.

Innovation; Entrepreneurs are almost defined by their drive to constantly develop new ideas and improve on existing processes. In fact, that’s how most of them got into business in the first place. Successful people welcome change and often depend on it to improve their effectiveness as leaders and ultimately the success of their businesses as many business concepts rely on improving products, services and processes in order to win business.

Know what you don’t know; While successful people are typically strong personalities, most of them acknowledge that there’s always a lesson to be learned. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and if given an opportunity, acquire as many skills as you can.

This is what will give you a competitive edge over the others. However, the true meaning of success goes far beyond the common definitions of success, such as having a lot of money, being wealthy, having a lot of tangibles and earned degrees, awards and honors. Quite the opposite: true success in life cannot be measured with the above named factors, but instead with the amount of people that are able to live a better and more advanced life because of what they have created.