Increasing Your Success

Understanding Success Through Luck, Preparation, and Decisions

Luck isn't just about chance—it results from your actions and mindset. It's about putting yourself out there and being ready to seize opportunities. We are all lucky many times in life.

The Traditional View:Luck = Preparation + Opportunity

• Preparation involves openness to experiences, continuous self-education, and readiness to act.
• Opportunity involves actively asking for information, seeking out possibilities, and metaphorically knocking on doors to create chances.

However, luck alone doesn’t guarantee success. There’s a critical step often overlooked:

The Expanded Formula:

Success = Luck + Decisions

• Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity.
• Decisions involve integrating preparation and opportunity into practice, making the necessary choices, and taking action.

Practical Example: A coach shares a story about a property that sat vacant for a year while neighbors hesitated. Within four days of discovering the property, the coach acted, purchased it, rehabbed it, and sold it for a significant profit. This story illustrates that success comes from decisive action while luck presents an opportunity.

Empowerment Through Perspective: Believing that luck is solely about being in the right place at the right time can be disempowering. Instead, recognize that luck happens to everyone—it’s your response to it that matters. As the coach often says, “The universe rewards action.”

Wisdom from Jim Rohn: Jim Rohn emphasizes personal growth and the importance of continual self-improvement:

• Change Yourself to Change Your Circumstances: “If you change, everything will change for you.”
• Seek Self-Betterment: Don’t wish for an easier life; wish to be better. Don’t wish for simpler challenges; wish for more skills. Start working on acquiring and honing new skills.

Rohn's philosophy underscores that your value in the marketplace reflects your skills and contributions, not just the time you put in.

The Coach’s Real Estate Journey: Starting at 23, the coach faced initial failure due to inexperience and tough market conditions. However, this period of learning and growth laid the foundation for future success in real estate and beyond. The key takeaway: The value gained from experiences often outweighs the immediate outcomes.

Becoming a 2%’er: Dennis' mentor, Frank Herberg, points out that only 2% of the people who attend a seminar or workshop actually take action.

Continual Improvement:

• Work Harder on Yourself: Beyond job performance, focus on self-improvement and skill development.
• Keep Learning: Continuous learning is essential both on and off the job. It's a process of constant growth and adaptation.

Upcoming Book:

Coaches’ new book, Unleash the Power of Connection, explores these themes in greater depth and provides insights on leveraging connections and opportunities for personal and professional success.