Inspiring Success in Others

We have all heard the saying: birds of a feather flock together. When it comes to success, nothing could be more true – successful people surround themselves with other successful people. Furthermore, successful people typically have role-models whom they have worked very hard to emulate in their own lives. This week’s story by Dr. Tony Alessandra, discusses the idea of inspiring success, the importance of the company you keep, and how valuable it is to both have your own mentors as well as becoming a mentor for others. If you want to be more successful, one of the best things you can do is help others achieve the same. So read on! Dr. Tony has the answers and insights you seek.

Inspiring Success in Others

by Dr. Tony Alessandra

There is one thing that nearly all successful people have in common that is critically important. They are almost never solitary individuals. On the contrary, they are usually deeply involved with their families, their colleagues, and quite often with their enemies and rivals. Successful people are usually surrounded by other people. Not just by yes men, either. Indeed, a significant quality of successes is their power to bring out the success in others.

How can you accomplish this? Well, many personal development programs stress the importance of finding role models or mentors. That is very important, but for bringing out success in the people around you, that perspective needs to be reversed. You should be a mentor. You should be a role model, not just find one for yourself.

Successful people in nearly every field have certain characteristics in common. Successful people are inspired, they are resilient, they are focused — and most of them read a lot! Think back to successful people such as Einstein, Edison, Churchill, and Lincoln… It would hardly come as a surprise if you were to choose one of those successful people as your role model.

Here is a more pertinent question: when it comes to role models, would people choose you? Successful people are inspiring success in those around them.

These common characteristics do not occur by chance, they are an integral part of success.  It is worth your time to analyze the constructive characteristics of people who are now where you would like to be – role models.  These are people to admire and emulate.  Your choices can include people who are dead or living, as long as you are familiar with their personalities and accomplishments.

Harry Truman knew the value of role models.  When he was in the White House, he often went into the Lincoln bedroom, looked at the late president’s picture and asked, “What would Lincoln have done now?” The answers gave Truman the insight and direction he was seeking. It worked because Truman felt Lincoln was a man worth emulating. Do people feel that way about you?

In becoming a role model that can inspire success in others, the following guidelines can really help:

First, keep off the pedestal. People will admire and emulate you because of what you have accomplished.  That is good.  What is not good is putting yourself above them and trying to appear larger than life. We are all human. We all have strengths and weaknesses.  You must not lose this perspective on yourself, or others will turn away from you. Remember: isolation is contradictory to success.

Second, focus on people’s strong points. When inspiring success, you need to see what an individual might need to emulate, and make a conscious effort to model those qualities. It is a responsibility – not unlike being a parent – but it is one that so many successful people have willingly taken on. Edison had a whole army of assistants and colleagues, as did Walt Disney. Many of them went on to do great things in their own right.

Above all, remain yourself – and give others freedom to do the same. Often, the tendency when admiring someone, is to try to become his or her clone. A successful person does not encourage that. A successful person wants to be around other successful people, not wannabes. That is why the ability to bring out the success in others is so rewarding.

So – go for it! Put this into action and let it take you where you are destined to go. Make the journey your intention, not the outcome.

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Dr. Tony Alessandra has a street-wise, college-smart perspective on business, having been raised in the housing projects of NYC to eventually realizing success as a graduate professor of marketing, internet entrepreneur, business author, and hall-of-fame keynote speaker. He earned a BBA from Notre Dame, a MBA from the Univ. of Connecticut and his PhD in marketing from Georgia State University (1976). Known as “Dr. Tony” he’s authored 30+ books and 100+ audio/video programs. He was inducted into the NSA Speakers Hall of Fame (1985) and Top Sales World’s Hall of Fame (2010). Meetings & Conventions Magazine has called him “one of America’s most electrifying speakers”.

Dr. Tony is also the Founder/CVO of Assessments 24×7. Assessments 24×7 is a global leader of online DISC assessments, delivered from easy-to-use online accounts popular with business coaches and Fortune 500 trainers around the world. Interested in learning more about these customized assessment accounts? Please contact us.