A wise person once said that you will not meet the ‘right’ person to marry one day until you yourself become the ‘right’ person.

True words indeed. Similarly, I believe that it also applies to business. You cannot have a successful (‘right’) business until you yourself acquire similar thinking and habits of successful (‘right’) entrepreneurs.

You have to have business role models like Richard Branson and in my case, I wanted to become a Raymond Ackerman (I also studied the life story of Harry Oppenheimer). Raymond has always fought for customer service and he believes that you should always place people above profits. Read the latest newspaper article about him here- Former Pick n Pay CEO says people are a priority - Weekend Argus 24-11-2012

At the start of my business career, I was obsessed with making money and paid only lip-service to the importance of client service. When I saw my client, I saw money. I did not care much about the service they were getting from my teaching. I cared little if they understood the functions and tools of the particular computer programme which I taught. I was already calculating the profits I was going to make from my next student.

Three years later, (1996) I lost my business and I had to start all over again. I learned some hard yet valuable lessons. I then got myself a mentor and he suggested that I get a business role model and study that person’s life.

I had to learn from the life stories of successful leaders, the business principles they applied and I had to strive to do the same.(years later, I still regularly meet with my mentor to discuss business growth as well as my personal growth).

Once I had adopted the principle of ‘always place people above profits’ I had to change my inner-world (thoughts) until I truly believed it with my whole heart.

This was a slow process at first, but I knew I had to change. I was determined to become the ‘right’ business person.

Today, I can truly say that I have a passion for my students. I have the compulsion inside of me to see that each and every person that I teach will always walk away understanding 100% of what I have taught them. That is why today, I focus only on one-to-one training and FREE consecutive repeated classes until all course content is fully understood and the student can apply it. For some students this takes 3 weeks and for others it might then take 6 weeks and yet they pay the same course fee.

This is to illustrate the length I will go to for my student.

You see, I not only had to change my business model, but I had to change who I was as a person.

Gentle reader, if you want success in your business, you must be willing to CHANGE. This change has to come from within which is vital for success.

If we are not prepared to adopt similar thinking and habits of

successful entrepreneurs, we will probably experience a longer

and tougher road to success.

The good news is that you can change who you are by...

changing the way you think and then by

changing the habits you form.

Adopt the thinking and behavior (habits) of your own business role model.

You and I can change who we are if we really want to; we are not robots -we are not "programmed".We do not purely follow our instincts and habits like animals. We have free-will; we can make our own decisions.

Choose to become the ‘right’ business person….right now.

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