by Larry Richman
October 4, 2006 2:02 PM

The most important element is passion. You must love what you are doing. Not necessarily the process of selling, but the products you are selling. If you really believe in the products, if you really have a passion for what you are asking people to buy, that will go a long way to your achieving success.

That is the first step, to find something you love to share with others. There must also be a market. That is, people must want to buy the product(s). One sure path to business success is: "Find a need and fill it." If you can do that, the rest will fall into place.

So those are the 2 main factors in determining if you will succeed: your passion for selling the product and the market need for it.

Then there are less important factors, but important nonetheless. Things like price, quality, ease of purchase (website layout), shipping, customer service, etc. You must compare what you are doing with what other, similar businesses are doing. What are they charging? How easy is it for people to buy from them? Do they care about the customers, and how do they show it?

Those are the basic business principles which will guide you.
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Your mindset is critical. You must remain positive and focused. Here are 6 steps to maintaining the correct mindset:
1) Have a sense of urgency (NOW NOW NOW);
2) Stay away from negative & cynical people (in one ear & out the other);
3) Suck it up when things don't go your way;
4) Have a dream (big picture);
5) Concentrate (focus);
6) Get serious (have fun but with a sense of purpose).

Here are some other pointers that will help guide you:
1) You know that you deserve success. Successful people refuse to allow negative people to fill their minds with negativity.

2) Have faith, courage, and enthisiasm.

3) Most of the arguments you will have will be with yourself, so when you get stuck, use the GOYA formula: get off your a** and just do something.

4) Your attitude now will determine your success in the future. You must walk, talk, act, and believe like you are already successful.

5) And the most important point to remember: you are not judged by the number of times you fail, but by the number of times you succeed. And the number of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times you can fail and keep trying!

I used to have these written down (substituting the word "I" and "my" for "you" and "your." I would recite them every morning. That helps some people. You may have done this before: we call those "affirmations." They really do work.