Oh, I can't do it now I'll put it off until tomorrow" "
Yeah! I suck because I can't help procrastinating" "What don't I like about myself? I procrastinate!"
Procrastination is evident when a high school student watches TV before studying, an employee takes an extended lunch break before beating a deadline and when a couple lounges around and lazily watches television before going out to fulfill their immediate tasks.
The dictionary defines procrastination as an action of delay. This is when things are put off until another time, when decisions are deferred until people lose the chance to make them.
Procrastination is sometimes beneficial for people who want to delay doing things they don't want to do. It is also makes everyone feeling useless.
Now the question is can procrastination be a good thing? When does it start becoming an evil factor?
Procrastination happens when someone is dying to do something but stops himself from doing so first, because he is not yet ready for it. It mirrors the capacity of a person to do a certain thing and it even implies the willingness and intention of a person.
For a person to figure out if procrastination is bad or not, he must ask himself the following: is my heart and mind saying the exact thing?
Intention and will are two things that affect procrastination. Intention means the want to achieve a goal. Will, on the other hand, is the power to make things happen. So one can have the fiercest intention to say, finish homework, but he lacks the will to fulfill it. A will must be at work before the idea finally unfolds to becoming a task.
It is no wonder that procrastination means the delay or fear of making decisions. When one is afraid of making decisions, he procrastinates. When one does not know how to decide, he procrastinates.
Sometimes, procrastinating can slightly affect or tremendously stir the people. The problem is that there are things that must be done to handle procrastination. What are they?
The person must look back and remember a task that was completed without that annoying procrastination.
He must ask himself: why was it easy to complete? Was it enjoyable? Was he confident in doing that? Or were there other people involved in the task's completion? One must try to get something out of this specific experience and apply it to the job at hand.
The person must concentrate and come up with a plan to make things done.
This means: listing the tasks, delegating them and prioritizing everything. One must ask himself: what if I start with the thing that I have been putting off forever? This task can be chunked so it will not be hard to execute. After the completion of task, one must try to draw inspiration from it.
One must look for a support system that will rah-rah for his success.
A friend, colleague or significant other can play this part. Anyone of them can cheer the person up and urge him to dive deep into action.
One must know how to encourage himself.
Sometimes, what one has to do is simply putting "I can do it!" notes all over his desk for the necessary inspiration.
One must get a specific time to get things done.
It is true: getting started is the hardest. But once the tasks have jumped off to a start, momentum will pick up and before the person knows it, the job is done!
One has to lighten up.
There is no need for a grumpy face or a heavy heart. One must perform the task happily and the moment it is done, he must reward himself. A job well done!
If everything else fails, one can get a personal coach.
If self-help books and self-help articles just don't work, then this might do. A personal coach can really train the person to be less of a procrastinator.
One must stop procrastinating, that's the basic thing. This leads to less problems and far more productivity. Relief comes a hundredfold once one says goodbye to procrastination. Everything else is easier without putting things off and that's a fact!
Fear of rejection can be a serious setback for anyone. It affects how a person feelsabout his or herself, the way they treat others, and even the way they view life.
Not only does it affect the individual who emotionally suffers from this way of thinking. But also the people that surround that person also become affected by the behavior exhibited by that person.
Root of the problem
There are many reasons why people suffer from fear of rejection. The cause could have stemmed from a bad experience in childhood. Being a kid who never really fitted in well with the other children, or the one who always got picked last for softball teams can have lasting effects. It could leave the child with a low self-esteem, and the feeling that he/she is not wanted. This could have psychological consequences to a child growing up.
This is also applicable to those children who were put up for adoption, and as a consequence passed from foster home to foster home. They develop serious emotional and psychological issues that can lead to a fear of rejection. RANDOM TIP GOES HERE. With better credit rating you will get good interest rates on credit extensions.
Looking for signs of rejection
People who suffer from fear of rejection tend to blow things out of proportion. A simple misunderstanding can become a source of a big fight! A friend, who cancels on a night out because he/she is too busy to attend, becomes a sign of future abandonment.
Individuals who adhere to this way of thinking have a tendency to read too much into things thereby making it very difficult for the people around them to respond in a natural manner. Given that they are being made to feel that they are doing something wrong to the person who suffers from fear of rejection.
Problems that might arise due to fear of rejection
The problem with fear of rejection is that this attitude can lead to other unhealthy behavioral patterns.
Having a fear of rejection can make a person become obsessive or "clingy" over the people they have in their lives. This could potentially be detrimental to a relationship. Given that the other person might feel the strain of this emotional baggage, or become suffocated as a result of this behavior.
This type of behavior can also turn people away. Potential friends might find this type of attitude really undesirable. Whatever wonderful traits and attributes a person might have, they can be overshadowed by the manifested undesirable behaviors driven by the fear of rejection.
Another problem that can arise from those individuals who are suffering from fear of rejection is that they reject others who want to be a part of their lives.
In their minds they are convinced with the inevitability of rejection that they do it to others first, before others get the chance to do it to them. This then becomes a vicious cycle in a relationship, and will end up hurting all of the parties involved.
How to get over the fear or rejection
Fear of rejection is strongly connected to a low self-esteem. People who don't have much confidence in themselves, or think that they are not good enough usually are prone to this way of thinking.
Usually they have a fear of approaching people. They are reluctant to engage in relationships because in their minds they are already thinking that at some point or another that they will be abandoned. So instead of even making an attempt, they simply withdraw from making contact.
One of the best things that individuals who are suffering from fear of rejection can do is to work on themselves. They need to develop higher self-esteem and a sense of self worth. Doing so will vastly improve their outlook in life. It will also help ease the manner in which they conduct their relationships with other people.
Individuals will benefit greatly from knowing their strengths and weaknesses. Let us face it, nobody is perfect. Accepting that you will not be the best at everything you do should take a lot of pressure off of you. People need to learn to accept their limitations.
Also, their self esteem should not be based on what others think of them. They should not alter their feelings about themselves simply because they failed to get a compliment on their appearance, for example.
People who are suffering from fear of rejection should get over this setback by accepting themselves first. Once they have learned to appreciate and bestow the right amount of self worth on themselves they will begin the road to recovery and the fear of rejection that has imprisoned them before will become a thing of the past.
Many people suffer from fear of failure. Whether they want to admit this or not is another matter.
This type of mentality touches people from all aspects of life. This is a common concern shared by many individuals. Although the degree in which they hold strongly to this way of thinking varies from person to person.
Society frowns on losers
One of the reasons people fear failure is because they are afraid of what people would think of them. This is especially applicable in a working environment or school setting, where one wrong move might possibly mean being ostracized for life!
Also, there's a lot of pressure that comes from home. Sometimes children become worried of not meeting their parents' expectations; or not getting good grades, or winning sports competitions, etc. This type of mentality unchecked can have harmful effects on a person.
In children fear of failure has become a serious issue. Many children nowadays feel the terrible strain of this fear to the point that some of them flat out refuse to try something new. This happens when the child feels that there is a chance that partaking in a new endeavor will result in failure. So instead of experiencing new things and learning from these experiences, they choose not to participate at all!
Fear of the unknown
A lot of anxiety and anxiousness that people feel come from the idea that they do not know what will happen next. Therefore, they would be unable to control the situation. They become uncertain of themselves and stress over how they will perform in a new environment.
Also, wondering whether they would get along, or gain acceptance in a new environment also becomes a source of apprehension.
Fear of failure in business
In business it has been assessed that in the United States, over 21% of the population mentioned fear of failure as the reason for not starting a business, or a company of some sort.
It is even worse if the UK, with an estimated over 32 percent, falling prey to this same type of thinking. Approximately 30% of individuals living in Europe claimed that they would rather be employed. Given that this provides a steady source of income, rather than take a chance at a venture that may or may not pay off in the end. In the United States, only 16 percent of Americans agreed with this line of reasoning.
There is always a risk when it comes to starting one's own business. Since, it is not guaranteed that a person will become successful in whatever business venture he/she chooses to tackle. This is why a lot of people chose to play it safe. Taking the employment route that guarantees a paycheck each month, rather than risk being out in the cold, with no sure source of income. It only goes to show that being an entrepreneur is not for everyone.
How to overcome the fear of failure
First of all, acceptance goes a long way and accepting that you will not be successful in everything that you do, will take a lot of pressure off a person. Everyone fails, from time to time, it is part of life. The important thing to remember is to never give up.
A lot of people who have attained success got to where they are because they chose not to be defeated by their 'failures'. In fact, most of them don't see failures as failures.
They view them as lessons learned- a process of trial and error. After all, it is a given that everyone will make some mistakes in the course of their lifetime.
In the process, a person learns how to become patient, how to persevere, and become more determined in the face of the many hardships that he or she encounters.
Failure has gotten a bad wrap. Everyone loves a winner! But what people are forgetting to consider is that it takes a lot of hard work, effort, perseverance, and lessons learned to get to the top.
Sometimes it takes a lot of mistakes to get something just right! This is why failure should not be seen as a death sentence. Otherwise it will just ruin a person's self esteem. The ability to bounce back, and not give up when everyone has counted you out, is what determines a real winner!
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” - Meister Eckhart Every Thursday is Happiness Day on Zen Habits.
Many days, I try to humble myself and hold a 2-minute gratitude session. I simply sit or kneel, with no distractions, close my eyes, and think about what I’m grateful for and who I’m grateful for.
I don’t do it every day, but let me tell you, on the days I do it, it makes me very happy.
Why should that be? Why should the simple act of thinking about who and what I’m grateful for make such a big difference in my life?
Just a few reasons: Because it reminds you of the positive things in your life. It makes you happy about the people in your life, whether they’re loved ones or just a stranger you met who was kind to you in some ways.
Because it turns bad things into good things. Having problems at work? Be grateful you have work. Be grateful you have challenges, and that life isn’t boring. Be grateful that you can learn from these challenges. Be thankful they make you a stronger person.
Because it reminds you of what’s important. It’s hard to complain about the little things when you give thanks that your children are alive and healthy. It’s hard to get stressed out over paying bills when you are grateful there is a roof over your head.
Because it reminds you to thank others. I’ll talk about this more below, but the simple act of saying “thank you” to someone can make a big difference in that person’s life. Calling them, emailing them, stopping by to say thank you … just taking that minute out of your life to tell them why you are grateful toward them is important to them. People like being appreciated for who they are and what they do. It costs you little, but makes someone else happy. And making someone else happy will make you happy.
What do I give thanks for, privately, in my little gratitude session? It varies every day. I thank all the readers of this site, for the encouragement you have given me, for the donations you’ve made that have made me that much closer to realizing my dreams, for the criticism you’ve given that has made this site better … for the time you’ve given me, just reading the articles when you have the chance.
I thank my loved ones, for all they do to me. I thank strangers who’ve shown me little acts of kindness. I thank God, for the life he’s given me. I thank people around the world for the things they’ve done to make the world better. I thank myself, for things that I’ve done (it’s important to recognize your own accomplishments).
How to Live a Life of Gratitude The thing is, simple acts of gratitude don’t cost you much (especially once you get over the initial discomfort some people feel with thanking others). But they can make a huge difference.
If you’re interested in living a life of gratitude, here are my suggestions:
Morning gratitude session. Take 2-3 minutes each morning to give thanks, to whoever or whatever you’re grateful for. You don’t have to do anything, other than close your eyes and silently give thanks. This one act can make a huge difference.
Say thank you. When someone does something nice for you, however small, try to remember to say thank you. And really mean it.
Call to say thanks. Sometimes you might think about something nice that someone did for you. Perhaps you remember during your gratitude session. When you do, pick up the phone and call the person, just to say thanks. Let them know what they did that you’re grateful for, and why you appreciate it. Takes a minute or two. If it’s too early to call, make a note to call later. Even better is telling them in person, if you happen to see them or if they’re on your route. Almost as good is a thank-you email — keep it short and sweet.
Give thanks for “negative” things in your life. There’s always two ways to look at something. Many times we think of something as negative — it’s stressful, harmful, sad, unfortunate, difficult. But that same thing can be looked at in a more positive way. Giving thanks for those things is a great way to remind yourself that there is good in just about everything. Problems can be seen as opportunities to grow, to be creative. See the prayer below for more on this.
Learn a gratitude prayer. There are many prayers, religious or not, that can remind you to be grateful. Find one you like, and print it out or make it your desktop wallpaper. Here’s a religious one, and here’s a collection from a multitude of religions. You can find many others on the Internet, or write your own. If you’re not religious, make one that doesn’t include the concept of God. A good one is below.
Let me leave you with a prayer of gratitude that I’ve always found … well, perfect:
Be Thankful Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire, If you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful when you don’t know something For it gives you the opportunity to learn. Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow. Be thankful for your limitations Because they give you opportunities for improvement. Be thankful for each new challenge Because it will build your strength and character. Be thankful for your mistakes They will teach you valuable lessons. Be thankful when you’re tired and weary Because it means you’ve made a difference. It is easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles and they can become your blessings.
Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. - E.E. Cummings
One of the things that held me back from pursuing my dreams for many years was fear of failure … and the lack of self-confidence that I needed to overcome that fear.
It’s something we all face, to some degree, I think. The key question: how do you overcome that fear?
By working on your self-confidence and self-esteem. Without really thinking of it in those terms, that’s what I’ve been doing over the years, and that’s what helped me finally overcome my fears, and finally pursue my dreams.
I still have those fears, undoubtedly. But now I know that I can beat them, that I can break through that wall of fear and come out on the other side. I’ve done it many times now, and that success will fuel further success.
This post was inspired by reader Nick from Finland, who asked for an article about self-worth and self-confidence:
Many of the things you propose make people feel better about themselves and actually help building self-confidence. However, I would be interested on reading your input in general on this topic. Taking time out for your own plans and dreams, doing things another way than most other people and generally not necessarily “fitting in” can be quite hard with a low self-confidence.
Truer words have never been spoken. It’s near impossible to make time for your dreams, to break free from the traditional mold, and to truly be yourself, if you have low self-esteem and self-confidence.
As an aside, I know that some people make a strong distinction between self-esteem and self-confidence. In this article, I use them interchangeably, even if there is a subtle but perhaps important difference … the difference being whether you believe you’re worthy of respect from others (self-esteem) and whether you believe in yourself (self-confidence). In the end, both amount to the same thing, and in the end, the actions I mention below give a boost to both self-esteem and self-confidence.
Taking control of your self-confidence If you are low in self-confidence, is it possible to do things that will change that? Is your self-confidence in your control?
While it may not seem so, if you are low in self-confidence, I strongly believe that you can do things to increase your self-confidence. It is not genetic, and you do not have to be reliant on others to increase your self-confidence. And if you believe that you are not very competent, not very smart, not very attractive, etc. … that can be changed.
You can become someone worthy of respect, and someone who can pursue what he wants despite the naysaying of others.
You can do this by taking control of your life, and taking control of your self-confidence. By taking concrete actions that improve your competence, your self-image, you can increase that self-confidence, without the help of anyone else.
Below, I outline 25 things that will help you do that. None of them is revolutionary, none of them will do it all by themselves. The list certainly isn’t comprehensive. These are just some of my favorite things, stuff that’s worked for me.
And you don’t need to do all of them, as if this were a recipe … pick and choose those that appeal to you, maybe just a couple at first, and give them a try. If they work, try others. If they don’t, try others.
Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Groom yourself. This seems like such an obvious one, but it’s amazing how much of a difference a shower and a shave can make in your feelings of self-confidence and for your self-image. There have been days when I turned my mood around completely with this one little thing.
2. Dress nicely. A corollary of the first item above … if you dress nicely, you’ll feel good about yourself. You’ll feel successful and presentable and ready to tackle the world. Now, dressing nicely means something different for everyone … it doesn’t necessarily mean wearing a $500 outfit, but could mean casual clothes that are nice looking and presentable.
3. Photoshop your self-image. Our self-image means so much to us, more than we often realize. We have a mental picture of ourselves, and it determines how confident we are in ourselves. But this picture isn’t fixed and immutable. You can change it. Use your mental Photoshopping skills, and work on your self-image. If it’s not a very good one, change it. Figure out why you see yourself that way, and find a way to fix it.
4. Think positive. One of the things I learned when I started running, about two years ago, what how to replace negative thoughts (see next item) with positive ones. How I can actually change my thoughts, and by doing so make great things happened. With this tiny little skill, I was able to train for and run a marathon within a year. It sounds so trite, so Norman Vincent Peale, but my goodness this works. Seriously. Try it if you haven’t.
5. Kill negative thoughts. Goes hand-in-hand with the above item, but it’s so important that I made it a separate item. You have to learn to be aware of your self-talk, the thoughts you have about yourself and what you’re doing. When I was running, sometimes my mind would start to say, “This is too hard. I want to stop and go watch TV.” Well, I soon learned to recognize this negative self-talk, and soon I learned a trick that changed everything in my life: I would imagine that a negative thought was a bug, and I would vigilantly be on the lookout for these bugs. When I caught one, I would stomp on it (mentally of course) and squash it. Kill it dead. Then replace it with a positive one. (”C’mon, I can do this! Only one mile left!”)
Know yourself and you will win all battles. - Sun Tzu
6. Get to know yourself. When going into battle, the wisest general learns to know his enemy very, very well. You can’t defeat the enemy without knowing him. And when you’re trying to overcome a negative self-image and replace it with self-confidence, your enemy is yourself. Get to know yourself well. Start listening to your thoughts. Start writing a journal about yourself, and about the thoughts you have about yourself, and analyzing why you have such negative thoughts. And then think about the good things about yourself, the things you can do well, the things you like. Start thinking about your limitations, and whether they’re real limitations or just ones you’ve allowed to be placed there, artificially. Dig deep within yourself, and you’ll come out (eventually) with even greater self-confidence. 7. Act positive. More than just thinking positive, you have to put it into action. Action, actually, is the key to developing self-confidence. It’s one thing to learn to think positive, but when you start acting on it, you change yourself, one action at a time. You are what you do, and so if you change what you do, you change what you are. Act in a positive way, take action instead of telling yourself you can’t, be positive. Talk to people in a positive way, put energy into your actions. You’ll soon start to notice a difference.
8. Be kind and generous. Oh, so corny. If this is too corny for you, move on. But for the rest of you, know that being kind to others, and generous with yourself and your time and what you have, is a tremendous way to improve your self-image. You act in accordance with the Golden Rule, and you start to feel good about yourself, and to think that you are a good person. It does wonders for your self-confidence, believe me.
One important key to success is self-confidence. A key to self-confidence is preparation. - Arthur Ashe
9. Get prepared. It’s hard to be confident in yourself if you don’t think you’ll do well at something. Beat that feeling by preparing yourself as much as possible. Think about taking an exam: if you haven’t studied, you won’t have much confidence in your abilities to do well on the exam. But if you studied your butt off, you’re prepared, and you’ll be much more confident. Now think of life as your exam, and prepare yourself. 10. Know your principles and live them. What are the principles upon which your life is built? If you don’t know, you will have trouble, because your life will feel directionless. For myself, I try to live the Golden Rule (and fail often). This is my key principle, and I try to live my life in accordance with it. I have others, but they are mostly in some way related to this rule (the major exception being to “Live my Passion”). Think about your principles … you might have them but perhaps you haven’t given them much thought. Now think about whether you actually live these principles, or if you just believe in them but don’t act on them.
11. Speak slowly. Such a simple thing, but it can have a big difference in how others perceive you. A person in authority, with authority, speaks slowly. It shows confidence. A person who feels that he isn’t worth listening to will speak quickly, because he doesn’t want to keep others waiting on something not worthy of listening to. Even if you don’t feel the confidence of someone who speaks slowly, try doing it a few times. It will make you feel more confident. Of course, don’t take it to an extreme, but just don’t sound rushed either.
12. Stand tall. I have horrible posture, so it will sound hypocritical for me to give this advice, but I know it works because I try it often. When I remind myself to stand tall and straight, I feel better about myself. I imagine that a rope is pulling the top of my head toward the sky, and the rest of my body straightens accordingly. As an aside, people who stand tall and confident are more attractive. That’s a good thing any day, in my book.
13. Increase competence. How do you feel more competent? By becoming more competent. And how do you do that? By studying and practicing. Just do small bits at a time. If you want to be a more competent writer, for example, don’t try to tackle the entire profession of writing all at once. Just begin to write more. Journal, blog, write short stories, do some freelance writing. The more you write, the better you’ll be. Set aside 30 minutes a day to write (for example), and the practice will increase your competence.
14. Set a small goal and achieve it. People often make the mistake of shooting for the moon, and then when they fail, they get discouraged. Instead, shoot for something much more achievable. Set a goal you know you can achieve, and then achieve it. You’ll feel good about that. Now set another small goal and achieve that. The more you achieve small goals, the better you’ll be at it, and the better you’ll feel. Soon you’ll be setting bigger (but still achievable) goals and achieving those too.
15. Change a small habit. Not a big one, like quitting smoking. Just a small one, like writing things down. Or waking up 10 minutes earlier. Or drinking a glass of water when you wake up. Something small that you know you can do. Do it for a month. When you’ve accomplished it, you’ll feel like a million bucks.
16. Focus on solutions. If you are a complainer, or focus on problems, change your focus now. Focusing on solutions instead of problems is one of the best things you can do for your confidence and your career. “I’m fat and lazy!” So how can you solve that? “But I can’t motivate myself!” So how can you solve that? “But I have no energy!” So what’s the solution?
17. Smile. Another trite one. But it works. I feel instantly better when I smile, and it helps me to be kinder to others as well. A little tiny thing that can have a chain reaction. Not a bad investment of your time and energy.
18. Volunteer. Related to the “be kind and generous” item above, but more specific. It’s the holiday season right now … can you find the time to volunteer for a good cause, to spread some holiday cheer, to make the lives of others better? It’ll be some of the best time you’ve ever spent, and an amazing side benefit is that you’ll feel better about yourself, instantly.
19. Be grateful. I’m a firm believer in gratitude, as anyone who’s been reading this blog for very long knows well. But I put it here because while being grateful for what you have in life, for what others have given you, is a very humbling activity … it can also be a very positive and rewarding activity that will improve your self-image. Read more.
20. Exercise. Gosh, I seem to put this one on almost every list. But if I left it off this list I would be doing you a disservice. Exercise has been one of my most empowering activities in the last couple years, and it has made me feel so much better about myself. All you have to do is take a walk a few times a week, and you’ll see benefits.
21. Empower yourself with knowledge. Empowering yourself, in general, is one of the best strategies for building self-confidence. You can do that in many ways, but one of the surest ways to empower yourself is through knowledge. This is along the same vein as building competence and getting prepared … by becoming more knowledgeable, you’ll be more confident … and you become more knowledgeable by doing research and studying. The Internet is a great tool, of course, but so are the people around you, people who have done what you want, books, magazines, and educational institutions.
22. Do something you’ve been procrastinating on. What’s on your to-do list that’s been sitting there? Do it first thing in the morning, and get it out of the way. You’ll feel great about yourself.
23. Get active. Doing something is almost always better than not doing anything. Of course, doing something could lead to mistakes … but mistakes are a part of life. It’s how we learn. Without mistakes, we’d never get better. So don’t worry about those. Just do something. Get off your butt and get active — physically, or active by taking steps to accomplish something.
24. Work on small things. Trying to take on a huge project or task can be overwhelming and daunting and intimidating for anyone, even the best of us. Instead, learn to break off small chunks and work in bursts. Small little achievements make you feel good, and they add up to big achievements. Learn to work like this all the time, and soon you’ll be a self-confident maniac.
25. Clear your desk. This might seem like a small, simple thing (then again, for some of you it might not be so small). But it has always worked wonders for me. If my desk starts to get messy, and the world around me is in chaos, clearing off my desk is my way of getting a little piece of my life under control. It is the calm in the center of the storm around me.
Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable. - Walt Disney
From the quietly confident doctor whose advice we rely on, to the star-quality confidence of an inspiring speaker, self-confident people have qualities that everyone admires.
Build your self-confidence with James Manktelow & Amy Carlson.
Self-confidence is extremely important in almost every aspect of our lives, yet so many people struggle to find it. Sadly, this can be a vicious circle: People who lack self-confidence can find it difficult to become successful.
After all, most people are reluctant to back a project that's being pitched by someone who was nervous, fumbling and overly apologetic.
On the other hand, you might be persuaded by someone who spoke clearly, who held his or her head high, who answered questions assuredly, and who readily admitted when he/she did not know something.
Self-confident people inspire confidence in others: Their audience, their peers, their bosses, their customers, and their friends. Gaining the confidence of others is one of the key ways in which a self-confident person finds success.
The good news is that self-confidence really can be learned and built on. And, whether you’re working on your own self-confidence or building the confidence of people around you, it’s well-worth the effort! All other things being equal, self-confidence is often the single ingredient that distinguishes a successful person from someone less successful. So how confident do you seem to others?
Your level of self-confidence can show in many ways: Your behavior, your body language, how you speak, what you say, and so on. Look at the following comparisons of common confident behavior with behavior associated with low self-confidence. Which thoughts or actions do you recognize in yourself and people around you?
As you can see from these examples, low self-confidence can be self-destructive, and it often manifests itself as negativity. Self-confident people are generally more positive – they believe in themselves and their abilities, and they also believe in the wonders of living life to the full.
Tip: Balanced Self-Confidence
Self-confidence is about balance. At one extreme, we have people with low self-confidence. At the other end, we have people who may be over-confident.
If you are under-confident, you’ll avoid taking risks and stretching yourself; and you might not try at all. And if you’re over-confident, you may take on too much risk, stretch yourself beyond your capabilities, and crash badly. You may also find that you’re so optimistic that you don’t try hard enough to truly succeed.
Getting this right is a matter of having the right amount of confidence, founded in reality and on your true ability. With the right amount of self-confidence, you will take informed risks, stretch yourself (but not beyond your abilities) and try hard.
Building Self-Confidence
So how do you build this sense of balanced self-confidence, founded on a firm appreciation of reality?
The bad news is that there’s no quick fix, or 5-minute solution.
The good news is that building self-confidence is readily achievable, just as long as you have the focus and determination to carry things through. And what’s even better is that the things you’ll do will build success – after all, your confidence will come from real, solid achievement. No-one can take this away from you!
So here are our three steps to self-confidence, for which we’ll use the metaphor of a journey: Preparing for your journey; setting out; and accelerating towards success.
Step 1: Preparing for Your Journey
The first step involves getting yourself ready for your journey to self-confidence. You need to take stock of where you are, think about where you want to go, get yourself in the right mindset for your journey, and commit yourself to starting it and staying with it.
In preparing for your journey, do the following things:
Look at what you’ve already achieved:
Think about your life so far, and list the ten best things you’ve achieved in an “Achievement Log.” Perhaps you came top in an important test or exam, played a key role in an important team, produced the best sales figures in a period, did something that made a key difference in someone else’s life, or delivered a project that meant a lot for your business.
Put these into a smartly formatted document, which you can look at often. And then spend a few minutes each week enjoying the success you’ve already had!
Think about your strengths:
Next, use a technique like SWOT Analysis to take a look at who and where you are. Looking at your Achievement Log, and reflecting on your recent life, think about what your friends would consider to be your strengths and weaknesses. From these, think about the opportunities and threats you face.
Make sure that you enjoy a few minutes reflecting on your strengths!
Think about what's important to you, and where you want to go:
Next, think about the things that are really important to you, and what you want to achieve with your life. Inform your goal setting with your SWOT Analysis. Set goals that exploit your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, realize your opportunities, and control the threats you face.
And having set the major goals in your life, identify the first step in each. A tip: Make sure it’s a very small step, perhaps taking no more than an hour to complete!
Start managing your mind:
At this stage, you need to start managing your mind. Learn to pick up and defeat the negative self-talk which can destroy your confidence. See our article on rational positive thinking to find out how to do this.
And learn how to use imagery to create strong mental images of what you’ll feel and experience as you achieve your major goals – there’s something about doing this that makes even major goals seem achievable!
And then commit yourself to success!
The final part of preparing for the journey is to make a clear and unequivocal promise to yourself that you are absolutely committed to your journey, and that you will do all in your power to achieve it.
If as you’re doing it, you find doubts starting to surface, write them down and challenge them calmly and rationally. If they dissolve under scrutiny, that’s great. However if they are based on genuine risks, make sure you set additional goals to manage these appropriately.
Either way, make that promise!
Step 2: Setting Out
This is where you start, ever so slowly, moving towards your goal. By doing the right things, and starting with small, easy wins, you’ll put yourself on the path to success – and build the self-confidence that comes with this.
Build the knowledge you need to succeed:
Looking at your goals, identify the skills you’ll need to achieve them. And then look at how you can acquire these skills confidently and well. Don’t just accept a sketchy, just-good-enough solution – look for a solution, a program or a course that fully equips you to achieve what you want to achieve, and ideally gives you a certificate you can be proud of.
Focus on the basics:
When you’re starting, don’t try to do anything clever or elaborate. And don’t reach for perfection – just enjoy doing simple things successfully and well.
Set small goals, and achieve them:
Starting with the very small goals you identified in step 1, get in the habit of setting them, achieving them, and celebrating that achievement. Don’t make goals particularly challenging at this stage, just get into the habit of achieving them and celebrating them. And little by little, start piling up the successes!
Keep managing your mind: Stay on top of that positive thinking, keep celebrating and enjoying success, and keep those mental images strong. You can also use a technique like Treasure Mapping to make the visualization even stronger!
And on the other side, learn to handle failure. Accept that mistakes happen when you’re trying something new. In fact, if you get into the habit of treating mistakes as learning experiences, you can (almost) start to see them in a positive light. After all, there’s a lot to be said for the saying “if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger!”
Step 3: Accelerating Towards Success
By this stage, you’ll feel your self-confidence building. You’ll have completed some of the courses you started in step 2, and you’ll have plenty of success to celebrate!
Now’s the time to start stretching yourself. Make the goals a bit bigger, and the challenges a bit tougher. Increase the size of your commitment. And extend the skills you’ve proven into new, but closely related arenas.
Tip 1: Keep yourself grounded – this is where people tend to get over-confident and over-stretch themselves. And make sure you don’t start enjoying cleverness for its own sake…
Tip 2: Consider taking our How Self Confident Are You? quiz to find out how self-confident you are already, and identify specific strategies for building self-confidence.
These 5 facts on goal setting can help make it easier to set and reach your goals:
1. Specific, realistic goals work best. When it comes to making a change, the people who succeed are those who set realistic, specific goals.(For Success) “I’m going to recycle all my plastic bottles, soda cans, and magazines” is a much more doable goal than “I’m going to do more for the environment.” And that makes it easier to stick with.
2. It takes time for a change to become an established habit. It will probably take a couple of months before any changes — like getting up half an hour early to exercise — become a routine part of your life. That’s because your brain needs time to get used to the idea that this new thing you’re doing is part of your regular routine.
3. Repeating a goal makes it stick. Say your goal out loud each morning to remind yourself of what you want and what you’re working for. (Writing it down works too.) Every time you remind yourself of your goal, you’re training your brain to make it happen.
4. Pleasing other people doesn’t work. The key to making any change is to find the desire within yourself — you have to do it because you want it, not because a girlfriend, boyfriend, coach, parent, or someone else wants you to. It will be harder to stay on track and motivated if you’re doing something out of obligation to another person.
5. Roadblocks don’t mean failure. Slip-ups are actually part of the learning process as you retrain your brain into a new way of thinking. It may take a few tries to reach a goal. But that’s OK — it’s normal to mess up or give up a few times when trying to make a change. So remember that everyone slips up and don’t beat yourself up about it. Just remind yourself to get back on track.
Rags to riches stories always motivate and inspire people. Even if you don’t want immense wealth, these stories will demonstrate to you, that with action and perseverance, you too can have what you desire.
Some of these stories you may have heard of, but it’s good to be reminded.
1. Chris Gardner
Like most rags to riches stories, Chris Gardner’s consists of many ups and downs. When he was a child, his father left him. His mother remarried, to a man who was anything but a father figure. He made Chris’ life and his mother’s life a living hell. Chris was chased out of the house and really had nowhere to go. He eventually found a place in the Navy.
After the Navy, he became a medical supplies salesman. He then had a child with his wife, Sherry. His career in the medical industry was doing well for him then, but the future was uncertain. The industry was changing, so Chris had to look to somewhere else for employment.
One day Chris saw a man parking a red Ferrari. He went up to him to ask what he did for a living. The man told Chris he was a stock broker. That’s all Chris needed to hear. Now he wanted to pursue a career as a stock broker.
Chris left his job as a supplies salesman. He had little money and his wife left him. Chris had no job, no money, no wife, and no home. But he did have his son. His son gave him immense motivation to do what he had to secure a better life.
The two of them were homeless and slept wherever they could, including a bathroom at the subway station. While they were homeless, Chris studied for the licensing exam, which he passed.
They were still struggling, but they had more hope than ever before. Chris got a job at Bear Sterns in San Francisco. He made cold calls to get new clients and worked as many hours as he possibly could.
As Chris worked harder, their situation began to get better. They were able to find a place to live and Chris was starting to earn more money. In 1987, Chris was able to start his own brokerage firm called Gardner Rich & Co. in Chicago.
There is much more to Chris’ story, enough to fill a book and make a movie out of. I recommend you research more about him. 2. Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey was born in Ontario, Canada. He grew up with his mother and father and with an older brother and two older sisters. In the beginning things for the Carrey were doing okay. Jim’s father, Percy was supporting his family as an accountant. But when Jim was a young teenager, the family’s situation began to deteriorate.
They all had to relocate to Scarborough, another town in Ontario. To help make ends meet all of them took up jobs at the Titan Wheels Factory, including Jim. They worked in the janitorial and security departments. While working an eight hour shift Jim was still attending school.
They eventually moved on from the factory but things still didn’t get any better. The family was living out of a camper van. Jim decided enough is enough and took a shot at comedy, his main passion.
Jim did a few stand-up routines at local comedy clubs and was instantly hooked. At sixteen he dropped out of high school and performed celebrity impressions. Then he made a major choice to move to Los Angeles.
In LA he performed a regular gig at The Comedy Store. His talent impressed many people including Rodney Dangerfield.
Jim didn’t stop at stand-up. He began to look around for work in other areas of entertainment. He landed a part on a short-lived sitcom called The Duck Factory. After that, Jim played a few more parts in some movies.
Jim also did a film entitled, Earth Girls Are Easy. One of his costars, Damon Wayans called his brother Keenen. Keenen was creating a show called In Living Color. Jim joined the cast of In Living Color. This became Jim’s breakout role because of his many memorable characters.
After this show, Jim moved into bigger film roles. His hits included Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. Jim became one of the highest paid comedians and actors in Hollywood history.
3. H. Wayne Huizenga
Wayne was born in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois to Harry and Jean Huizenga. When Wayne was in his early teens, he along with his father, mother, and younger sister moved to Florida.
His father, Harry, wasn’t an ideal male figure. He was abusive to his wife Jean. They were close to a divorce until they moved to Florida. The move was Harry’s plan to save the marriage and start over.
But Harry didn’t really want to change. He still was abusive to both Jean and their children. It was tough for all of them but Wayne didn’t let this stop him. He used it as motivation to get a better life.
After high school, Wayne moved back to Chicago and tried attending college but dropped out after about a year and a half. Wayne then enlisted in the Army reserves. He trained with them for about a year.
After Army training, Wayne moved back to Florida, where he moved towards the waste management industry. He bought a truck and began to take out the garbage in Broward county. Broward was seeing a huge population boom at this time.
In less than ten years, Wayne grew that one garbage truck into a fleet and a successful business. The business stretched across much of the southern part of Florida and eventually grew into Waste Management Inc.
WMI became one of the largest waste management firms in the United States. Wayne wasn’t settling down though, he wanted more.
Wayne set his sights on a new industry. One of his friends mentioned a small company called Blockbuster, which at the time only had a few stores. Wayne was intrigued when he visited one of the stores and decided to buy the company.
Wayne again turned another company into a huge success. Blockbuster grew and grew and eventually merged with Viacom for $8 billion. Wayne moved on to pursue more ventures, many which also have become very successful.
Through his career, Wayne has founded three Fortune 500 companies and has owned three professional sports teams.
4. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey’s rags to riches story is probably one of the most well-known. Oprah was born to unwed, teenage parents in Mississippi. After Oprah was born, the two teenagers broke up.
For the first six years of Oprah’s life, she was raised by her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee. Her grandmother was poor and couldn’t provide much, but did provide Oprah with a great ability, the ability to read before the age of three.
When Oprah was six, she moved to the inner city of Milwaukee to live with her mother, Vernita Lee.
Oprah still didn’t have much except her academics. She excelled in school and was even awarded a scholarship to attend Nicolet High School.
As Oprah grew older, she became a rebellious teenager, running away from home. Her mother decided to send Oprah to live with her father, Vernon in Tennessee.
Oprah continued to do well in school and other areas of life. Her success impressed WVOL, a local black radio station. She got a job with them to do the news part-time. This was Oprah’s first taste of the media world. She liked it very much and chose that as the industry where she wanted to pursue a career.
After the radio, Oprah moved to television. She worked as a news anchor for WLAC-TV in Nashville. There she was the first black female anchor and the youngest ever. Oprah then moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she became an anchor of the six o’clock news. Then she co-hosted a local talk show called People Are Talking.
Oprah then moved on to Chicago where she hosted a show called AM Chicago. At the time, the show was very low rated. Ms. Winfrey however took it to a whole new level. It became the highest rated talk show in Chicago.
After the success, the show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and became nationally broadcasted. I guess you could say the rest is history.
Oprah has been nominated for an Academy Award, runs a successful magazine, TV show, website, and will launch her own cable network in 2009.
5. Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was one of the titans of the industrial age. But before this time he was a poor boy from Scotland.
His father, William, was a hand loom weaver. When the industrialization of society began to spread across the world, William’s job became obsolete. The family had difficulties making ends meet. Then like most people of their time, they decided to start a new life in America.
In 1848 when Andrew was thirteen, they arrived in the US. Andrew quickly got to work at a cotton mill. He worked six days a week and twelve hours each day. Three years later Andrew got another job as a telegraph messenger for the Ohio Telegraph Company.
Andrew quickly excelled at the job and showed a great work ethic. A man from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company offered him a job as his secretary and telegraph operator. With each new job, Andrew worked harder and harder and earned more money.
Andrew quickly became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the railroad company. Thomas Scott, the man who offered Andrew the job became his mentor. Thomas helped him with investing. Andrew early investments were very successful. With each profitable investment, Andrew put the money into another company.
These investments gave him enough capital to continue investing in other businesses and industries. Andrew remained with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and continued to advance his career there.
Andrew eventually started investing in the steel industry. Andrew moved away from the railroad industry but kept his contacts with those he met in the industry. His investments grew into a steel company that became one of the largest in America.
Andrew’s company was eventually bought out for the equivalent of 120 billion in 2007 dollars.
After this, Andrew became a philanthropist and donated a large amount of his fortune. His donations went to build schools and libraries across the country and the world.
Their stories may be different but they all demonstrate that your current circumstances cannot prevent you from where you want to be in the future.
6. Richard Branson
Branson was born to a decent family in Blackheath, London. He had two parents and a grandfather that was the Judge of the High Court of Justice. He received a good education, but he didn’t do well in school. Instead of focusing on school, Branson decided to put a lot of his time into growing Christmas trees and raising budgerigars. However, both of these projects failed. At 16, Branson was able to publish a magazine and then set up a record mail-order business. In 1972, he was able to open several record stores, which he called Virgin Records. In the 1980s, his record stores were able to flourish. Branson created the Virgin Atlantic Airwaves while expanding Virgin Records, which became a music label. After starting off a poor student and not having the greatest potential in life, Branson is now the 245th richest person in the world. He also opens an island as well as land on different islands in the Carribean.
7. J.K. Rowling
Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, which is near Bristol. She attended school and found her love for writing fantasy stories. She would often write stories and tell them to her sister. Rowling moved from village to village many times and often traveled. In December of 1990, Rowling’s mother died, and she moved to Porto, Portugal in order to teach English as a foreign language. Before her mother’s death, Rowling had already begun writing her famous Harry Potter novel. In Portugal, Rowling married, but the couple separated in 1993. However, she did have a daughter and the two moved to Endinburgh, Scotland. During this time, Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression and often contemplated suicide. She was unemployed and living on welfare. She was able to write and complete her first novel by going to several different cafés. Today, J.K. Rowling is worth about $1.1 billion and has been able to sell over 400 million books.
8. Ozzy Osbourne
Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, U.K. His father was a toolmaker and his mother worked for car components. His parents worked hard each day in order to support Ozzy and his five siblings. Osbourne didn’t do well at school because he was said to be dyslexic. Because of this, Ozzy looked towards extracurricular activities, such as music and plays. At 15, Ozzy dropped out of school and became a construction site laborer. He switched jobs between being a plumber, toolmaker, slaughterhouse worker, and then a car factory worker. Osbourne sometimes got into trouble and was accused of burglary of a clothing store. He was not able to pay the fine so he spent time in prison. Eventually, Osbourne would go on to become the singer of a local band, and many would recognize his talent. Soon enough with the help of friends, Ozzy was able to create his own band, Black Sabbath. Throughout his lifetime, Ozzy has struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse. He has been banned from certain cities, arrested many times, and even abused his wife, Sharon. However, he has still been able to produce nine studio albums, three live albums, and many singles that were able to top charts.
9. Liz Murray
Born in the Bronx, New York, Murray’s life started off on a bad note. She was born to HIV-infected, drug-addicted, poor parents that were not able to provide for her. At nine years old, Murray found herself and her family living in an extremely dirty apartment. At the young age of 16, Murray was left alone once her mother died of AIDS. Her father also abandoned her, moving to a homeless shelter. She went to high school, but often found herself sleeping in subways, park benches, or at a friend’s home. Without a great education, Murray was able to graduate in only two years and was able to attend Harvard. Today, Liz is an inspirational speaker who speaks out about determination and how no matter how hard life is, you have to move on and continue to work your way through the battles. Many movies have been created about her life.
10. John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York and was one of six children. His father was a traveling salesman and was a foe of conventional morality. Throughout much of his life, Rockefeller’s father tried to find tricks and schemes he could use in order to avoid hard work, or any work at all. John’s mom struggled a lot in order to keep stability in the home, especially when her husband was gone for weeks at a time. Rockefeller’s family soon moved to Moravia and then to Owego. John went through school and got a job as a bookkeeper where he made about $50 in three months. In 1859, Rockefeller decided to produce business with a friend named Maurice B. Clark. The two established a firm and built an oil refinery. The refinery was run buy two other men, but soon after, Rockefeller bought out the Clark bothers’ firm and renamed it Rockefeller & Andrews. Soon his brother also bought into the oil business. By the end of it all, Rockefeller was able to find the Standard Oil Company and became the world’s first billionaire.
Feeling the need for a little inspiration on the road to wealth building? I always love to read about people who have beat the odds and made a dramatic rise in their financial situation.
What follows are the stories of 10 billionaires who started with nothing and now have it all. Ingvar Kamprad
Net worth: $31 billion
World’s richest retailer and founder of furniture store Ikea.
Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy, selling matches to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds and later ball-point pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a reward for succeeding in his studies. He used this money to establish what has grown into IKEA.
The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and the nearby village Agunnaryd.
Kamprad has admitted that his dyslexia played a large part in the inner workings of the company. For example, the Swedish-sounding names of the furniture sold by IKEA were originally chosen by Kamprad because he had difficulty remembering numeral stock-keeping units.
Reputed to be quite frugal: flies economy class, frequents inexpensive restaurants, furnishes his home with Ikea ware. Li Ka-shing
Net worth: $26.5 billion
Li fled turbulent China in 1940 and resettled in Hong Kong. Li’s father died in Hong Kong.
Shouldering the responsibility of looking after the livelihood of the family, Li was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he labored 16 hours a day.
By 1950, his hard work, prudence and his pursuit of excellence had enabled him to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li led and developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Roman Abramovich
Net worth: $23.5 billion
Orphaned at age 4, Abramovich was raised by his uncle and grandmother. He dropped out of college and eventually made a fortune after taking over Russian oil giant Sibneft, which he later sold.
Roman, was gifted with a talent for business and being in the right place at the right time as he started his career as an entrepreneur just as Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms permitted the opening of small private businesses.
He began his business career selling plastic ducks from a grim Moscow apartment but, within a few years, Abramovich’s vast wealth spread from oil conglomerates to pig farms, and secured his place within Yeltsin’s inner circle. However, even today, his task force of bodyguards and armoured Mercedes testify to the high-risk nature of capitalism in post-Soviet Russia. Sheldon Adelson
Net worth: $26 billion
The son of a Boston cabdriver, he borrowed $200 from an uncle to sell newspapers at age 12. Later, he dropped out of college to become a court reporter. Now a casino and hotel magnate, Adelson took his Las Vegas Sands public in December 2004.
He worked at a young age selling newspapers on local street corners and owned his first business by the time he was twelve. In the years that followed, he worked as a mortgage broker, investment adviser and financial consultant. He started a business selling toiletry kits, and in the 1960s he started a charter tours business with two friends. He went to college at City College of New York but did not complete a degree there.
The basis for Adelson’s wealth and current investments was the computer trade show COMDEX, which he and his partners developed for the computer industry; the first show was in 1979. It was the premier computer trade show through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1988, Adelson and his partners purchased the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the former hangout of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, in order to bring Las Vegas to a new phase of business centricity through the exhibition industry. Amancio Ortega
Net worth: $20.2 billion
Son of a railway worker Ortega apparently got started as a clerk in a shirt store. With $25 and help from his then wife Rosalia Mera, now also a billionaire, he began making gowns in his living room.
In 1975 he opened the first store in what would grow into the enormously popular chain of fashion stores called Zara. Kirk Kerkorian
Net worth: $16 billion
Son of Armenian immigrants, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade and took up boxing.
Kirk Kerkorian was born on June 6, 1917 in Fresno, California, to Armenian immigrant parents. Dropping out of school in 8th grade, he became a fairly skilled amateur boxer under the tutelage of his older brother, fighting under the name “Rifle Right Kerkorian” to win the Pacific amateur welterweight champion.
After the war, having saved most of his wages, Kerkorian spent $5,000 on a Cessna. He worked as a general aviation pilot, and made his first visit to Las Vegas in 1944. After spending much time in Las Vegas during the 1940s, Kerkorian quit gambling and in 1947 paid $60,000 for Trans International Airlines, which was a small air-charter service which flew gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
He then bid on some war surplus bombers, using money on loan from the Seagrams family. Gasoline, and especially airplane fuel, was in short supply at the time, so he sold the fuel from the planes’ tanks, paid off his loan - and still had the airplanes. He operated the airline until 1968 when he sold it for $104 million to the Transamerica Corporation.
Later, he made billions buying and selling movie studio MGM. Today his MGM Mirage owns more than half the hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip.
“I just lucked into things. I used to think that if I made $50,000 I’d be the happiest guy in the world.” Kirk Kerkorian Oprah Winfrey
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Born in rural Mississippi to a poor unwed teenaged mother, and later raised in an inner city Milwaukee neighborhood, Winfrey was raped at the age of nine, and at fourteen, gave birth to a son who died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19.
Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.
Winfrey became a millionaire at age 32 when her talk show went national. Because of the amount of revenue the show generated, Winfrey was in a position to negotiate ownership of the show and start her own production company. By 1994 the show’s ratings were still thriving and Winfrey negotiated a contract that earned her nine figures a year.
Considered the richest woman in entertainment by the early 1990s, at age 41 Winfrey’s wealth crossed another milestone when with a net worth of $340 million, she replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400. Although blacks are 12% of the U.S. population, Winfrey has remained the only black person wealthy enough to rank among America’s 400 richest people nearly every year since 1995. Micky Jagtiani
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Jagtiani flunked out of accounting school in London and took up driving taxis and cleaning hotel rooms to pay the bills and support a bottle of whiskey a day habit. He then lost his entire family to illness in the span of one year.
Just 21 and alone in Bahrain with $6,000 of his and his family’s savings, he took over the retail space his brother had leased before dying of cancer and started selling baby products. Chain is now one of the most profitable retail groups in the Middle East.
Thirty years after he landed up in Bahrain the Dubai-based CEO of Landmark group has built himself one the largest and most profitable retail chains in the Middle East, with more than 280 stores, 6,000 employees and an estimated $650 million in revenues. Richard Desmond
Net worth: $2 billion
After his parents divorced, Desmond lived with his mother in a garage apartment. Quit school at age 14 to become a drummer and worked in a coat-check room to help pay the bills.
His first job was for Thomson Newspapers, working in classified advertisements. He moved on to another company and by the age of 21 he owned two record shops. He acquired an interest in publishing and in 1974 published a magazine called International Musician and Recording World.
Started his first magazine at age 22 and now owns dozens of titles, including celebrity rag OK!. J.K. Rowling
Net worth: $1 billion
British writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series.
Rowling moved to Portugal after the death of her mother from multiple sclerosis. She returned to the U.K. a single mother and lived on welfare while finishing her first Harry Potter story. Now one of the world’s most successful authors, she published the seventh and final installment of the boy wizard series last July.
She progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years.
I hope you found these stories inspiring. It is difficult for me to relate to people who are wealthy but started out with family money or won the lottery. But these stories prove that anything is possible and it is interesting to see how each rags to riches story is unique.
This article was based on the Forbes story In Pictures: Rags to Riches Billionaires. And was featured in the Carnival of Personnal Finance at the Budgeting Babe.
Being successful is not an easy task; you will come across a lot of obstacles, ups and downs in your road to success. Many people want to achieve great success in their life, but most of them fail to do so. This is simply because they do not have a clear road map to success and how they can follow through.
If you are looking for the ways how you can achieve your dreams and goals, this is the right place for you. You are about to discover the ultimate road map to success. By simply following all the steps that I am going to outline soon, you will be able to achieve anything you want as long as you follow through...
1. Find out what you really want to achieve in your life. Everyone has a dream; find out what your dream is about is the first step in your road map to success. Do you want to become a millionaire? Do you want to drive luxury car and live in a big bungalow? Do you want to be healthy and have great relationship with your love one? Identify what you really want to achieve in your life...
2. Once you know what you want, you need to develop a burning desire for it so that you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. You can do this by finding out the reason you want to achieve it. If you want to become a millionaire, why do you want it? Remember, it is the reason behind that will drive you into action. If the reason is strong enough, you will create a burning desire for it.
3. After you have gone through the 2 steps, the next thing you need to do is to write down your goals and develop strategies how you can achieve your goals. For example, if you want to be a millionaire, how are you going to do it? Are you going to get yourself into stock or mutual fund investment? Are you going into real-estate? Write down your goals and develop strategies.
4. Finally, all you need to do to make your dreams come true is to take massive amount of action according to your action plan which you have developed. Nothing is going to happen without taking action. Action is the only key that produces results. Do not worry if your strategies are wrong, you just have to change the strategies and go for it again. Remember, success will never fall from the sky, so take action now.
These 4 steps will serve as your road map to success. As long as you follow through, you will be able to achieve anything you want in your life. Success is about getting things done, if you are not doing anything, you will never achieve anything.
Every successful person knows about goal setting and the make use of it. This is the main reason they successfully created amazing results in their life. If you want to be successful as well, you will have to follow this strategy as well, set your own goals.
The problem with most people is that they do not know how to set their goals. Even if they do, they are doubtful about what goal setting can achieve for them. Most people underestimate the power of goal setting, and that is why they live a mediocre life. Below is the step-by-step goal setting activities that you can follow through in order to achieve what you want in your life...
1. Before you even set your goals, you must first find out what you really want to achieve in your life. You need to identify your destination before you start your journey.
2. Know why you want to achieve your goals. If your goal is to become a millionaire, why would you want to be a millionaire? It is the reason behind your goal that will drive and motivate you. So make sure your reason is strong enough to propel you into taking massive of action.
3. Write down your goal on a piece of paper and paste it somewhere you can see often. By doing so, you will constantly remind yourself about your goal and this will sink the idea into your subconscious mind.
4. Visualize about achieving your goals every night before your sleep and every morning after you woke up. This will keep you focus and motivate you. Most people fail to achieve their goal because they don't take enough action, and the main reason for the lack of action is the lack of motivation.
5. Take massive amount of action to make your goal come true. Goal setting is not a magic wand. If you are not taking any action, don't expect to see any results. It is impossible to achieve your goal by just writing it down without doing anything.
These are the step-by-step goal setting activities that you can follow to achieve what you want in your life. Goal setting is not complicated, but it does require your action to make it work.
