- Always try to understand before judging. When we judge first we are providing fertile ground for fear, uncertainty and distrust.
- Alwyas listen to the whole story. Learn to ask questions before drawing conclusions this allows more time for understanding. Learn to ask good questions these are open questions that allow more information to be heard. Closed questions give you what you want to hear.
- Always maintain a high level of integrity. Truth really is a personal issue. People will usually see very quickly whether what you are talking about is something you just say or something that you live by. A personal lived truth is far more trustworthy than a talked about fact.
- Be positive. It will influence the sort of people who want to be around you. Negativity can draw a crowd but its always the wrong sort of people if you really want to discover success. Negative people tend to tear down and that may seem like fun for a while but it never lasts. Positive people will seek to build and that allows for increased opportunities.
- Learn to work well with other people. This will allow you to grow beyond your own limitations in whatever you do. Working with other people is an acquired skill that requires perserverance because you will be often let down. Resist the temptation to think that I can do it better on my own. It may be true in the short term but success is a long term ambition.
Wisdom is the bringing together of knowledge and action. The wise person is the one who has understood and then applied that understanding to their way of life. Success is seeing the fulfilment of makng wise choices.
Success for the rest of us is all about attaining wisdom. Yesterday in the mail I received a brochure promising financial freedom that would allow me to do the things that I really want to do. Such a narrow definition of success forgets the rest of us who may not neccessarily want to just accumulate financial wealth. Wisdom should overflow into our financial choices but our wealth will be a symptom of a much broader context.