Summary: Synopsis Fulfilling your personal desire is success by any reasonable definition. The measure of your success is how well you use your productive time to achieve the goals that are important to you, not how you stack up to everybody else. Given that success is so ephemeral, how do you go about achieving it? There's no generic formula, but the phrase Dr. Misner uses in his book Masters of Success is "the uncommon application of common knowledge." If everyone knows what it takes to be successful--and most people who are asked, from college students to millionaires, give the same answers--then why do so few people succeed, even by their own definitions? For one thing, even people who work hard don't always make good decisions. For another, many people are impatient, and don't want to put in the long hours of hard work that success requires. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 319 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio, in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you this week? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am working from my lake house up in Big Bear this week. I have an office up here and I like to spend a couple weeks over the summer working up here. It is beautiful. On my Facebook page, my Ivan Misner public page, I will make sure there is a photograph of the view from my office. It is a great place to write. I do a lot of writing up here. Priscilla: Oh, that's great. So what is this topic that you have brought up- what is success? Ivan: I am often asked about the success of BNI, my success and what does it take to be successful ever since I wrote the book, Masters of Success. We define success. We all pursue success in some way. We have desires to strive and achieve them. Out desires may all be different and we may not consider achieving them necessarily- somebody else's definition of success, when they achieve that, we may not view it as success. We all have a different definition. We look around and we see people whose success we envy. What is so and so doing that puts him so far ahead â money, friends and influence. Why is he successful and I am not? Why is he living in a big house and raising three perfect kids and I am looking for a mate? Why is that guy's cardboard box bigger than mine? Where did he get that shopping cart from? The truth is that without knowing all the facts, without being inside the mind of another person, you can't say whether that person is more successful than you or not. He may be worth millions but is unhappy because his goal is to, who knows, be a governor by the age of 40. He is growing tired of the frenetic pursuit of power and maybe you are not as wealthy as you want like to be, but on the other hand, you may have made it through some great personal difficulties. You are pleased to have kept your finances or your family in tact. Which one of the two of you are more successful? It's hard to say. Fulfilling your personal desire is success by any reasonable definition. The measure of your success is really how well you use your productive time, I think, to achieve the goals that are important to you- not how you stack your goals compared to everybody else. How well you have used your abilities and resources to achieve your goals that you have, however humble, however big. You know, who knows? That governor may be watching you and going, âI am miserable. I don't like what I am doing.âTodd Medalonde put it, âFrom the outside they look successful, but on the inside they are miserable where they are at.â Dictionaries define success as the achievement of something that is desired planned or attempted.
