Everyone wants to succeed yet everyone has a different perception of what success means and what it will bring into their lives. It is a means of gaining financial freedom for some and for others it means a healthy, happy family life. There are others who define their success by the power that their job title brings and others who feel successful when they believe their leadership skills excel above others.

There are so many generalized definitions of success and within these generalizations, there are many sub-categories. Everyone has their own definitive perception(s) of what success means and how to manipulate it to gain a sense of well-being in life, yet all too often all these differing definitions are culturally stimulated as we seek to ‘do’ whatever it is that we ‘think’ will bring success into our lives.
So, who is really doing the thinking? Is it truly our own clear mental process or is it influenced by our culture, our parents, our peers, and everyone else but our true self? The problem lies when we forget that success of any kind begins and ends within our own personal architectural design based upon our own unique, talents, abilities and skills.

Looking outside ourselves and perhaps even following someone else who appears to have discovered the mystery of success and happiness only confuses the issue. No one can emulate the success of someone else by following their footsteps as we are all unique. Amongst this diversity lies the true strength of our genius. Certainly, we can learn from others but when it gets down to moving toward success, we need to be crystal clear that we are stoking our own furnace and not someone else who has influenced us, whether negatively or positively.

The first authentic step toward your personal freedom and the success that you define for yourself is to "...know thyself...” Constantly seeking truth and attempting to find your own success by looking outside yourself is undoubtedly a process of futility. Even if someone seems to have very similar talents, goals, abilities and strengths who have received a level of success, if you ask them if they are happy or satisfied, they will all too often tell you, “No.” There is good reason for this. There is something missing in their lives.

No matter what we pursue in life. No matter how focused and concentrated upon our success and no matter how hard we work toward its achievement, if we don’t know ourselves well and specifically zero in on activating our own unique measure of talent, skills, knowledge and ability, we will not find our process pleasurable nor will we find sustainable success. Seek your personal genius.

In knowing ourselves, we also realize that there is a Universal Law of Life that never allows us to remain satisfied with one level of success for long. Success cannot be stagnant. Life is not stagnant! Yes, we may revel in our success for a moment or two, but then find ourselves driven toward another level of success, however we define it.

There is no arrival time on the success train. There are pit stops along the way for refueling, but the destination is unknown as it is ever growing, expanding and pushing out further into the unknown while forcing us to step out of our comfort zones to encounter greater and greater success. The landscape along the track becomes quite different and although, it may be beautiful, it forces us to learn how to adapt to this new terrain. Learning to adapt in life is key to success.
Success is a driving force that has no space available for thoughts of failure, set-backs or dysfunctional malaise. One cannot experience success without some failure or set backs and if we allow our Minds so full of creative genius to get stuck on the obstacles of the journey, then our success train comes to an emergency stop. If we don’t quickly refuel our Minds with positive, creative and dynamic thinking, our vision and our mental capacities for furthering our goals become stagnant and die. It just passes away, sometimes yelling and screaming and at other times, quite silently but that worthy vision and the momentum that you created stops right in its tracks!

Adapting to new terrain and stoking our own furnace are two key factors in riding the success train along the journey of life. Other factors to be considered in our success journey as leaders include the following:
1. Self-responsibility–Successful men and woman embrace responsibility. They don’t run from it by projecting it onto someone else when the track gets a bit bumpy or an obstacle appears and a detour must be taken. Leadership means taking responsibility and thriving on it. By taking responsibility, you are building momentum for a successful outcome.

2. Decisiveness–The wise one gathers support and ideas from others yet the final decision is yours. Gather knowledge and be decisive. Not making a decision means failure has already occurred. Be well-informed, make a decision to plow through the obstacle on the track or to find an alternate route. Leaders know how to get through the chaos to the core of a problem and make well-informed decisions without hesitancy.

3. Accountability- Leadership IS accountability in action. Success for power leaders in any industry means taking responsibility, gathering credible knowledge, making a well-informed decision and standing by the decision. Leaders recognize that not all of their decisions are going to be successes. Some decision may be down and out mistakes Other decisions may be right on target and still others may be partial successes.

Yet a Leader who understands the dynamics of success is accountable for the successes as well as the failures. Sometimes she can revel in the success and other times, be steeped in a moment of confusion as to why the decision wasn’t successful or was only a partial success.
In scenario #3-Accountability: Let’s say the Success Train has completely derailed. The leader took responsibility, made what she thought was a knowledgeable decision and yet, when implemented discovered dire disaster that caused her company or department or team to jump off the tracks.

Everyone was on board. Each team member was invested in the process and morale was high. Now that same movable force has lost its momentum. Yet, now, they are no longer ‘stoked’ and their furnaces are cooling off fast. They are dragging around feeling poorly about themselves and complaining with one another about how hard they worked to make this scenario a success while trying to find someone, anyone to blame. Morale takes a nose-dive as the furnace that fuels your engine cools off even