Why is it that some sales professional are more successful than others? Why is it that some sell more in a month than many sales reps sell in their career? What separates the winners from the losers? The answers are simple but not easy.

In my experience working with everything from Fortune 500 companies and their top executives to individuals on social assistance attempting to enter the workforce for the first time, I have found that the difference is as simple as taking complete responsibility for your life. My experience with individuals who are not successful is that they constantly look for the magic pill, the hero on the white horse that rescues them from their dreadful life, while the leaders take complete responsibility for where they are and where they are going. There is no magic pill (sorry); no one is coming to rescue you. You can change jobs every 6 months hoping the 'next' one will be better, but it won't. Your results from your present sales career will 80% of the time follow you, if you are the top sales rep at your current company, you will be the top sales rep at your next company. If you are struggling, frustrated, and unsuccessful where you are you will carry that to where you are going as well. So how do you change your current results? This is where things can get exciting or frustrating depending on whether you think this is a magic pill article or a tool you can use to reach the top of your career. Tools can be helpful ONLY if they are used. A shovel sitting in the garage cannot be blamed for the hole not being dug.

First of all, commit to taking 100% responsibility for your life - no more blaming, no more excuses, it is your life and if you want to achieve superior results it will be up to YOU! Quit whining, get away from the others in your life that bitch, whine and complain about how they are hard done by. 99% of your success will be determined by your relationships. Be very careful with your relationships, they can be toxic or nourishing.

Second - Commit to becoming a life-long learner. Our public education system is set up to give you a minimum education on success principles. You will learn how to survive, but not thrive. No one cares how successful you become, they just care enough so that you do not become a drain on the public assistance trough - that is it plain and simple! If you want to reach the top you must learn from the experts in your field that have achieved the results you are looking for. Imagine a child coming home from his last day in grade 3 saying to you that he is done learning, has learned all he needs to learn. That is ultimately what 99% of the people do when they graduate from high school or college, they quit learning.

Third - Define your outcome. What is it that you are trying to achieve? Be specific, very specific. In my workshops I have heard people say they want more money, that is their ideal outcome. When I walk over and hand them a nickel and tell them they have now achieved their goal, they get upset. Why? Isn't that what they wanted? No, of course not. The problem is that your subconscious mind will set out to achieve the goal or outcome you set, however, it won't do much more than that either. Be very clear and of course WRITE IT DOWN. Now, in my workshops I talk about how important writing down your goals is and show all kind of statistics verifying the results of writing down your goals. Next day guess what happens? We go around the table and ask how many people wrote down their goals the previous night, want to guess how many have? Zero, none, zippo. Again, waiting for the white horse (ain't coming). WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS. Fourth - Take action, do something everyday that moves you towards your goal. The key here is to separate the learning component from the actual day to day activities that put money in your pocket. Too often people consider learning an action but it is not. The application of what you have learned is the action. - DO SOMETHING EVERYDAY.

And the final component is... NEVER GIVE UP. Life is tough - for everyone and always will be. It is tough to be a loser and it is tough to be a winner (but a lot more fun to be a winner!). You will face difficulties every step of the way and your commitment to overcoming them will determine your results. Babies don't stop on their quest to walk or talk and neither should you stop trying to achieve your objective. That in a nutshell is a roadmap to success (or conversely, failure). The choice is YOURS - now what are YOU going to do about it ?