Need Some Direction? Encouragement? Take 360 . . . (Seconds That Is).

Pinching pennies may be the first step in making ends meet. The second, and most important, is increasing your EARNING CAPACITY.

Ever wondered why some people seem to have all the money, success, opportunity, etc., yet you feel you have to struggle all the time? Ever thought that achievement was only the stuff of dreams and not of reality — at least for you? You are about to have your eyes opened wide — in a really good way, and your life could soon be on a very positive track — without gimmicks and mantras and affirmations and visualizations and psycho-babble.

The following excerpt is from Chapter Two of Jack Zufelt’s second book, The DNA of Success Stories – How to Maximize Success in Your Life (used by permission).

In that book, each chapter is contributed by a different author, one who has become an expert in his or her given field. The featured article below is by Brian Tracy, speaker and author of some 45 books. His chapter is entitled, “Your Most Valuable Asset”.

(When you get Jack Zufelt’s book and read it for yourself, you will learn what Brian Tracy says IS your most valuable asset.)

Meantime, because we at LiveSmart 360 are dedicated to helping you Live Life Better, we thought that you would greatly benefit and be encouraged by the following. (We’ve taken the liberty to add some emphasis along the way.) So take about 360 seconds and gain some encouraging perspective.

. . . Income Gap Versus Skills Gap

There is a good deal of talk today about the income gap in our society. But Gary Becker, the 1993 Nobel Prize-winning economist, has pointed out that we do not have an income gap as much as we have a skills gap.

The more highly honed your essential skills, the higher will be your earning potential. The key is your commitment to developing the necessary skills.

The people in the top 20 percent are simply those who have learned the essential skills they need to achieve a high level of earning ability. The people in the bottom 80 percent are those who, having had the same opportunity, failed to develop those skills. Many people have gone from rags to riches by realizing this critical fact and then dedicating themselves to become very good at what they do. You must do the same.

Every person who is serious about their future, especially their financial future, should commit to being in the top 10 percent of their field. Anything less than a commitment to excellence condemns a person to being mediocre.

It seems as if there is a default setting on human performance. If you don’t decide to become the best, you simply become average. Nobody sets off in life to be average or below. But by failing to dedicate yourself totally, especially in the formative years of your career, to becoming absolutely excellent at what you do, you default into the bottom 80 percent, where you worry about money all your life.

In the twenty-first century, you are a knowledge worker. You do not work with your physical body, making and moving things. You work with your mind, applying your intelligence and personality to your world to make a valuable contribution that others will pay you for. The key to becoming an effective knowledge worker is for you to continually upgrade your knowledge and skills in the work you have chosen to do.

Key Result Areas

In each job, there seems to be about five to seven key result areas that account for performance, effectiveness, and results in that job. You may perform dozens of small tasks in the course of a day or a week, but there are seldom more than five to seven key tasks that determine your success or failure.  . . .

In selling, for example, the seven key result areas are (1) prospecting and getting appointments, (2) establishing rapport and trust, (3) identifying customer needs accurately, (4) presenting your products persuasively, (5) answering customer objections and concerns, (6) closing the sale and getting the customer to take action, and (7) getting resales and referrals from satisfied customers.

This is what we have discovered: Your weakest key skill in your field determines the height of you income and your success. Your weakest essential skill is what holds you back from performing at your very best in all other areas. By identifying your weakest skill, and them becoming excellent in that area, you can often surge ahead rapidly in your career and move up into the top 10 percent.  . . .

Join the Top 10 Percent

The key to earning is learning. But often, the most important skills to learn are NOT taught in the classroom. Which means that ANYBODY can learn them if they just commit to doing so!

When I first learned that I would have to be in the top 10 percent in my field to enjoy the highest possible income, I immediately felt discouraged and disappointed. I had never been so good at anything before. I had been kicked out of high school in the twelfth grade and had worked at laboring jobs for several years. When I got into sales, I knocked on hundreds of doors, cold calling, and made almost no sales at all.

Now a top sales professional was telling me that I would have to be in the top 10 percent to enjoy all the riches and rewards of the selling profession. Then I learned something that changed my life. I learned that everyone who is in the top 10 percent started at the bottom 10 percent. Everyone who is doing well was once doing poorly. Everyone who is at the top of your field today was at one time not even in your field, and did not even know that your field existed.

Here is a great discovery. All business skills are learnable. All sales skills are learnable. All management skills are learnable. All business-building and entrepreneurial skills are learnable. All success skills and money-making skills are learnable.

Average skills will never result in greater than average earnings. Don’t envy those who earn more. Learn more so that YOU can earn more!

Everyone who is good at them today was at one time poor in every area. But they made a decision, set a goal, made a plan, and worked on it, over and over again, until they mastered the skill. And what millions of other people have done, you can do as well.  . . .

There’s more very valuable information in Brian Tracy’s chapter as well as in the rest of Jack Zufelt’s book. Get it and read it for yourself. You and your financial future will be glad that you did.

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Both Jack Zufelt’s excellent books — The DNA of Success and The DNA of Success Stories — are available in your LiveSmart 360 BackOffice.