Take Your Ladder Of Achievement
To A Higher Level of Success
A ladder of achievement represents a series of achievements in which each achievement is based on the achievements that went before it.Moving Around
Take for example our ability to move around getting from one place to another.As toddlers, driven by our sense of curiosity about the world around us, we learned to crawl in one fashion or another to get some where else that seemed more interesting.
As our confidence increased, so did our ability to move around.
We walked and then we ran.
Continuing to be driven by the sense of curiosity about our ever-expanding world, we started to use mechanical devices such as tricycles, bicycles and then motor vehicles to move ourselves around.
Each of these advancements in our mobility represents an achievement. And each achievement is based on those that went before.
In other words, each achievement was another step up the ladder of achievement.
Crawling was the first step on the mobility achievement ladder, followed by walking, then running and then using mechanical devices.
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New Skills For New Achievements
The same 'ladder of achievement' concept applies to the development of other skills, including those related to self-employment and running your own business.Take for example the business function of marketing—generating more new business for your business.
Planning issues aside, market segment research is the first and most basic step of your achievement ladder.
It's like starting to crawl...invariably it's awkward and clumsy. It takes a while for us to make progress and when we do, we sometimes falter and fall.
But by keeping at it, eventually we 'get it' and feel comfortable enough to take the next step on our marketing achievement ladder...prospecting.
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Once we start searching for leads, again we
experience the frustration of
beginning something new...such as crawling or researching our niche
market.However, like crawling and market research, if we keep working at prospecting, the unfamiliarity and discomfort will be replaced by a sense of confidence.
The achievement of learning how to apply the elements of effective prospecting, we have a new sense of confidence. This confidence allows us to the next step on the marketing achievement ladder...networking.
Once again we feel the unfamiliarity and discomfort of trying and learning something new as we move to higher step on the ladder.
But from experience, we know that by sticking at the new challenge, we can over come it and re-experience the joy of the confidence we feel in developing new skills.
Confident in our new networking ability, we are ready for the next step up the marketing achievement ladder...generating referrals.
After this step might come Internet marketing...in which we enjoy the support of mechanical devices and machines...computers.
And so it goes with a ladder of achievement.
Each step leading to a new and higher step.
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A Different Kind Of Ladder
There however an important difference between a mobility achievement ladder and a marketing or business ladder.Until we start to use sophisticated machinery like motor vehicles, movement up the mobility achievement ladder is automatic.
It's part of our evolutionary process to move from one stage to another....from crawling to walking and so on.
In many respects, marketing is a natural process.
It is however, not a process that happens automatically.
Effective marketing requires proper planning.
Successfully moving up your marketing achievement ladder requires a personal marketing plan that has been carefully developed and conscientiously implemented.
The good news is that with a good marketing plan and a sound commitment, you are not limited by some one else's decision about about how long the ladder should be.
The only limitations on your ladder of achievement are those that you set yourself.
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