Transformational Income: Conquer Your Fears

Have you had – or taken – the opportunity to evaluate yourself in terms of the ten major causes of failure that we listed yesterday?

If you found this task onerous or found it difficult to be honest with yourself, you might consider asking someone who knows you well to go over the list with you and help analyze where you might fall victim to any (or all) of the causes.

If you choose this route, be sure that it is someone you trust to be both honest and discrete – you don’t want your failings broadcast to one and all. Be sure, also, that the person you ask to do this is one with whom you have a strong tie that can stand the strain of honesty.

Here are ten more major causes of failure according to Napoleon Hill:

11.LACK OF CONTROLLED SEXUAL URGE. “Sex energy is the most powerful of all the stimuli which move people into ACTION.” Because it is so powerful an emotion, it must be harnassed, turned, and directed carefully.

12.UNCONTROLLED DESIRE FOR “SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.” The gambling instinct can be almost as strong as the sexual urge. Hill wrote his book, Think and Grow Rich, after the stock market crash of 1928 and the Great Depression. I am writing this after the Lehman Bros. scandal and in the midst of the ensuing economic upheaval. In both cases, this desire for “something for nothing” may have played a major part as people tried to make money by gambling on stock margins.

13.LACK OF A WELL DEFINED POWER OF DECISION. Hill describes indecision and procrastination (putting off making a decision) as twin brothers and advises us to kill them off before they kill us off. He points out that people who fail reach decisions, if they reach them at all, very slowly and abandon those decisions very quickly in the face of the winds of change. People who succeed, on the other hand, make decisions quickly and change their minds, if at all, very slowly. Which are you?

14.ONE OR MORE OF THE SIX BASIC FEARS. We will discuss these fear more in depth later, but for now, let us merely list them:
a. fear of POVERTY
b. fear of CRITICISM
c. fear of ILL HEALTH
d. fear of LOSS OF LOVE
e. fear of OLD AGE
f. fear of DEATH

15. WRONG SELECTION OF PARTNERS. Hill listed this factor of failure as “Wrong selection of a mate in marriage” but I think it can be usefully expanded to include business partnerships. These relationships bring people into close contact and any discord, dishonesty, or misrepresentation can cause failure not only of the relationship but of the marriage or the business. Difficulties in these relationships can cause misery and unhappiness and can destroy all signs of AMBITION, INITIATIVE, and CAREFUL PLANNING.

16. OVER-CAUTION. If you take no chances at all, you have to be satisfied with whatever is left when other, more adventurous souls, get what they want. Of course, under-caution is as bad as over-caution; both of these are extremes that should be guarded against.

17. WRONG SELECTION OF EMPLOYERS. When you are just starting out – or starting over – in the employment market or in a business, it is easy to jump at the first chance (under-caution). Hill warns that we should take care not to take the first job that comes along. Rather, he suggests selecting an employer who will be an inspiration and who is, himself or herself, intelligent and successful. The idea is that we tend to emulate those with whom we associate most closely. Therefore, we would do well to choose an employer who is worthy of emulation.

18. SUPERSTITION AND PREJUDICE. Superstition, like prejudice, is not founded on fact but on unsubstantiated fears and biases. Both are signs of ignorance or the willful disregard for fact or truth. If you want to succeed, you need to keep an open mind and fear nothing.

19. WRONG SELECTION OF VOCATION. It has been said that if you love what you are doing, you never have to work. You cannot succeed for very long in a job you hate or working for people you hate. Choose a job or business into which you can throw yourself wholeheartedly.

20. LACK OF CONCENTRATION OF EFFORT. Baby Boomers may have heard someone described as a “Jack-of-all-trades and master of none”. Too often, we use a shot gun approach when a rifle would be more effective. Focus your efforts on one DEFINITE CHIEF AIM and concentrate on learning those skills that will help you reach that goal most effectively.