The Road Map to Success

If you are new to work or in the early stages of your career, you're going to be looking for people who inspire you. That's only natural. In leading up to becoming an accountant, I read a lot of books about preparing for success. You know, those self-help books, the primary purpose of which is to make you feel uneasy enough about your prospects for success that you buy more of the author's books or take their seminars. Something told me the success associated with those books was the authors, and you, as their reader, were the primary fuel of that success.

Being successful is not as complicated as you might imagine. It also doesn’t have to be something that takes up a lot of your time.  What you need is some motivation and savviness to put the proper infrastructure in place.

I want to help others reach their goals and dreams. It's that simple.

That's what my blog's about. Preparing you for success, realistically, without promising you a Florida beach home in six months. It's going to be a challenge sometimes and slow-going. So the first thing I recommend is that you develop a plan.

I know. I'm starting to drift into self-help book territory by talking about plans. Here, I'm straddling the line between real help and goofy gimmicks. So, I promise you a few things this blog will never contain: A listicle of seven magical phrases that will close every sale, a launching of my own cryptocurrency, or a blog post about the boat I just bought. You won't see that here. What you will see is advice by a guy who's not very different from you: early in their career with some exemplary experience, someone who knows serving others is the best path to success, and a man who loves his home city of New Orleans. Ok, maybe you're not as crazy about NOLA as I am. But if you grew up here, you'd love it too. So, I promise, no boat posts, but you may get the occasional ode to The Big Easy.

For now, back to talking about your plans. First off, a map is not the road. If it were, our journeys would be straightforward with few surprises. Instead, a map is a visual list of places you have to pass through before getting where you're going. Many of us know the feeling of setting a goal, working hard for it, and then achieving it. That process is like passing through so many towns on a map on your way to Destination Success.

But many of us have goals (or rather dreams) that we feel are too difficult, so we never attempt them. So I'm here to tell you that goals often look unachievable because the goal is dangling there in front of you without a map. Being successful is about focus, choices, and the order in which you do things.

Small steps one day puts you in the position to be ready for a significant turn of events down the road. It's kind of like that expression, "You can't win unless you're playing the game."

When making important decisions about your life, look at the bigger opportunities down the road that may come from each choice. For example, let's say your goal is to own a construction business. Early in your career, perhaps while you're still in school, a good stop on your road map might be to work a low-level job at a construction supplier. Sure, it'll be a low-paying non-consequential job, but you'll gain insights into how the construction supply chain works that will pay off later when you make decisions about suppliers for the construction company you own.

Your best strategy for a successful plan is to design a journey to a fulfilling life by building on your natural preferences and strengths, guided by your true values and desires. And remember, everyone define success differently, and money is not the only definition of success.

So, put together a game plan, read on, and take action today!