5 Essential Ingredients To Success With Your Own Business
do it. Fewer still make a success of it.
Why?
What are the essential ingredients if you want to succeed with 
your own business?
1.Desire
If you look at any successful businessman, from the sole 
trader to the billionaire entrepreneur, you find that the one 
element that is always present is burning desire to do what 
they are doing and to succeed at it. It is not a vague wish, 
it is not a hope or a dream. It is a deep felt, motivating 
desire. It is what takes him through the difficulties and the 
set backs and the failures along the way. Do you have this 
desire? 
2.A Plan
You cannot and you will not succeed unless you have a well 
thought out plan. You must know where you are going and how 
you intend to get there.
You must concentrate on the route you have chosen and not be 
distracted along the way.
3.Knowledge
You must know what you are doing. You must know your chosen 
field. There will be others competing with you for the same 
markets and the same customers. You must be up with them. You 
must strive to be ahead of them. But the beauty of knowledge 
is that it can be aquired. If you need to know something you 
can learn it – if you have the desire. There has never been a 
time when it has been so easy to find the information that 
you need. You just need the motivation to get it. The need 
and the desire. 
4.Hard Work
Its true. You cannot get away from it. The fact is that if 
you are to succeed in your chosen business then you must work 
hard at it. It is not a pass-time or a game (although if you 
are doing what you have always wanted to do it can seem like 
both). But the great thing about running your own business is 
that you enjoy your work. Otherwise why do it?
5.Luck
Luck? Is that it, then? The other four items are in my 
control. I have the desire, I have a plan, I can get the 
knowledge, I am prepared to work hard. But luck? What can I 
do about that?
Actually quite a lot. Luck is really the wrong word, but it 
is what people use. It is what other people must have had 
when they succeed. It is what unsuccessful people think they 
never have.
But you can make your own 'luck'. Successful people have 
often failed many times before they have their 'lucky break'. 
But they have that burning desire and they have pick 
themselves up and start again. They redraw their plans and 
set out once again. They start again with a little bit more 
knowledge than they had before. And they work hard to succeed 
this time.
Substitute the word 'resiliance' for the word 'luck' and you 
are much nearer the truth. It is the abiliity to hang on in 
there and stay with it when things go wrong. 
So follow your desire, make your plans, keep learning, and 
work hard. You can succeed. And......Good luck! 
(c) Copyright 2004 
 About the Author 
Arthur Cooper is a writer and publisher.
For more of his articles go to:
http://www.arthurcooper.com/
For articles ebooks and courses go to: 
http://www.barrel-publishing.com/