Pay The Price

Pay The Price For Success

Pay the price. Have you heard that saying before? When my wife and I first started our Network Marketing business, we heard many successful leaders tell us and others that in order to succeed in anything, including our business, we were going to have to pay the price. When I first heard that success saying, I really didn’t know what they meant. Did I have to literally pay a price to succeed? Did it mean doing things that I didn’t want to do or believe in? As we continued to build our business and take action to grow it, we came to understand what it meant to pay the price.

Let’s examine what it means to pay the price for your success. No, you don’t have to worry about selling your soul or anything that extreme at all! Paying the price simply means letting go of something of value in order to get what you really want.

Letting go of things that make us comfortable and that we perceive to have value to us is a very hard decision to make. We fear letting go of something that we are used to or provides us security for the opportunity to grow and move on towards our success. If you are not willing to change and let go of what you have always known, you will remain exactly where you are in life. Remember, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Are you going insane? The good news is that you can change that! What is it that you have not let go of to advance your success? Do you have a “good job” that you fear losing? However, you know in your heart that you were meant for more and leaving one secure job for the opportunity to use all of your talents and gifts has you fearful of failure. How about old habits that have been holding you back? Do you have things in your life that have caused you to stay stale and stagnant that you know you must change? I am here to tell you that if you are willing to pay the price and change, you will be much better off. Non of us want to live our life with regrets and wondering, “What if?”

Another way that you will pay the price for your success is to give more. I am not speaking of money here, but of your time, energy, and commitment. If you run a business whether it is on line of off line, you will pay the price of time, energy, and commitment. Any business takes time to build and maintain. If you are trying to become a top athlete, you will not succeed by only practicing your craft some of the time. It requires you to put in work every waking moment of your life in order to train and get better. If you are striving for success in the corporate world, you will not succeed to your capability by only working part time. You will have plenty of late nights at the office in order to accomplish more than the average worker at your company. There are birthdays that may be missed, family reunions that you will have to opt out of, and plenty of sleep that will be missed. If you want to succeed, you must be willing to lose out on some of these things now so that you can enjoy the life that you truly want! If you miss a family reunion now, how cool would it be to have your family reunion at your gorgeous estate and invite everyone over, or take your family on an all expense paid vacation where you foot the bill, all because you paid the price and have the success to show for it. Do you think your family would understand that you may have missed a couple of family reunions so that you can spoil them with your rewards from paying the price? Success does not come easy. It takes more than a $1 lottery ticket to become successful. I believe that success is not just about how much money that you can accumulate, but how much better of a person that you become through paying the price of your success. 

There are no short cuts to success. You must be willing to pay the price in order to succeed. If succeeding were easy, everyone would be succeeding, correct? In order to break away from the masses, you must be willing to do what they are not willing to do. In many cases, that means change and sacrifice. My wife and I watched as our friends and peers were buying new homes, buying new cars, and going on vacations. We said to ourselves that we would pay the price for a short time and then be able to live life the way we wanted to and be free from a corporate job, able to purchase whatever home, car, or vacation that we want to. The decision was simple, pay the price and live a life of success, or stay the same and live a life of mediocrity. The choice is yours!

If you enjoyed this post and would like to learn more about what my wife and I do, click on the Work with Kenneth link and we will see you on the other side!

To Your Success,

Ken Cloutier

 

5 Characteristics of a Likeable Person

Do you deal with people on a regular basis? Does your career or business depend on you getting along with people and being liked?

The following 5 characteristics will help you to become a better “people person” and be liked by others more easily and sincerely.

1. Listen more than you talk- Don’t you hate it when you speak with someone who only seems to know the word “I” or “Me”? It seems as though they do not know anybody else exists other than themselves. Likeable people understand they then need to listen more and talk less. They ask questions and actually HEAR what the other person is saying. They use active listening which shows that they care. Active listening means that they are leaning forward, making eye contact, acknowledging and re-stating key points that they hear. Everyone wants to know that they are being heard and listening will make you more likeable.

2. Give without receiving- Likeable people truly give of themselves and provide knowledge and/or expertise without worrying about what they will get in return. Giving is really the only way to establish a relationship and connection with others. By giving freely without expecting anything back in return shows others that you really do put them first and care about them. Try it and watch how good you feel by giving of yourself; you will be liked.

3. Likeable people are humble- In a society where athletes and musicians alike, for example, are quick to say and act as though they are God’s gift to civilization and they are untouchable, never making mistakes. In fact, the opposite will get you much farther. Individuals who are liked by others tend to have a confidence about them but do not feel the need to broadcast it to everyone. Instead they are open to and enjoy learning from others. Which brings me to the next characteristic.

4. Take the spotlight off of themselves and shine it on others- These folks do not care nor want the credit. Instead, they are quick to give the credit to others and will even tell others that they have done a good job and are appreciated. This not only demonstrates what a nice person they are, but the people that they are praising will have respect and like them.

5. They don’t take themselves too seriously- Likeable people are liked largely in part because they are not afraid to admit their mistakes and shortcomings. They are quick to laugh at themselves and don’t take themselves too seriously. By doing this, they let others know that they are REAL and do not look down on others and point out their flaws only. This goes back to be humble and having humility. Nobody is perfect, so they don’t have to act as though they are.

By implementing these characteristics into your own personality, you will begin to attract and draw others to you. We are around others and work with them on a daily basis, why not enjoy them and help to make the world a better place.

To your continued Success!

Kenneth Cloutier 

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