Discover Why The Activities of Success Really Aren’t That Hard

~Joel’s Blog

The core of this article comes from Joel’s book-in-progress called Prepare For Rain; The Ten Essential Steps for Creating the Life You Want.

Activity precedes success

Intention is similar to purpose. They’re related but not quite the same. People with a passion for impacting their world can still lose their way. They are fully capable of losing their focus and drive, just as much as they are of making progress. So, it is intention is what makes all the difference. And the primary clue that intention is present is activity.

In the world of sales, it’s almost an incantation: “Activity precedes success.” But what does this mean?

At first, it struck me as incredibly stupid when my sales manager declared this in my first week as a financial planner. Of course, I thought, if I’m not doing anything I can’t expect to win. It turned out I was incredibly stupid. The key word in his short declaration is activity. I made the nearly career-ending mistake of believing I understood what he meant by “activity.” Because I didn’t, I initially suffered at succeeding in business. Once I wrapped my head around Brad’s meaning, things got much easier. As I observed my colleagues in the office, certain patterns emerged. Everyone was busy, bustling around, “getting things done.” Everywhere I looked, there was activity. Lots of it, in fact. But there was a wide variety of success. Eventually, I realized there must be something about the type of activity that was influencing the success of some and, by extension, the lack of it for others. (more…)