How One Simple Secret Can Build a Successful Business

This is not about hard work, or marketing, or networking, or making yourself famous, or start-up finance, it’s simpler than all that, yet it’s helped me start and build a business that’s prospered for over 25 years.

When I started my own business I knew a lot about business — or at least, I thought I did. After all I’d been an executive for twenty years. That must count for something — or so I thought.

I soon found out there’s a big difference between working for someone who gives you a laptop, and a desk, and stuffs cash in your bank account every month, and sitting at home on my own with no work tools, no colleagues to chat with, no clients, and no forseeable income. I was seriously scared.

Yet, the freedom! Oh my god, that euphoric feeling of not having to report to an overbearing boss, of not having to catch the commuter train, of not having to be in the office by 08.30, of being able to create and implement my own ideas. Yes, there were compensations, and they had a value. But I was still scared stiff when I thought about the bills piling up.

I was saved in a totally unexpected way

It was my search for a way to stop worrying that led me to a personal growth technique famous for it’s ability to teach people to find peace and calm in their daily lives.

You may be thinking by now that this is totally crazy. “How can learning to be calm and peaceful be the secret of building a successful business?”

No, I didn’t become a therapist, or a monk.

What I did was learn how to use my mind, and my whole being, in very positive, creative and valuable ways. Let me tell you why this works so well/

How being relaxed enhances your chances of success

Tension is a great enemy in any field of endeavour. It cramps your muscles and fills your brain with worries so you can’t think and behave freely. It prevents you from being your natural self.

Simply by developing myself into someone who naturally lives in a more relaxed state I have managed to escape the chains of tension. As a result I can think more calmly and clearly. Unproductive worries about possible results hardly ever influence my thoughts and actions nowadays.

If you’re reading this with half your mind telling you, “Come on, get to the good stuff, don’t waste my time on all this crap about relaxation, tell me how to build a successful business,” you’re in the grip of ‘impatience tension’ and that is actually slowing you down. You’re not learning from what you’re reading, You’re just skimming the words. You need to relax to learn, to improve, to become the master of your world.

How focussing improves your understanding

When you’re tense you can’t focus for any length of time on what you’re doing. All the time your mind is fidgeting, searching frantically for some solution or some better way to get to where you feel you want to be. Your wide open to scams and the so-called instant solutions of pop gurus.

That’s a big part of the problem that you have to overcome in order to be successful, you’re not clear about what you want and how you actually want to feel. And this is where what I said just now about relaxation becomes even more important, you have to want to enjoy the feeling of being relaxed and happy.

When you focus on what you’re thinking about or doing in a relaxed, calm, and happy way success comes far more easily. When you focus on success you are in fact focussing on something that is really hard to define (what is success?) so you waste a lot of time trying to tell yourself what success is like. You may be imagining something like a palatial house, or a fast car, or partying on a yacht. But those are merely the trappings of success, they are not success itself.

You know what calm feels like and you know what happy feels like. You even know what relaxed feels like. So focus on these feelings and on what you’re doing and you’ll be in a far more valuable and productive space.

How feeling happy enhances your chances of success

Have you ever noticed how you feel when someone smiles at you?

When someone smiles you never feel threatened or tense. When someone smiles you feel welcomed. When someone smiles you believe they are in a good mood, in a good place.

So, when you feel happy, and tell the world about it by smiling, people believe you are doing well. They believe you are happy about the way your life is going. They perceive you as being together, in control. And the actuality is that you usually are in control.

Feeling right about yourself and what you are doing puts you in the right frame of mind to achieve good results regardless of what you’re doing.

It was when I managed to make myself feel happy and relaxed, rather than worried sick, that my business started to take off. People commented, “You look so confident and at ease, you must be doing well.” And in a sort time I did begin to do well.

How to get into the state of being relaxed, focussed and happy

What I do is simply sit still and breathe.

I do this is a very specific way called Zen. It’s not difficult to just sit down for 20–30 minutes every day and focus on your breathing. It just requires that you do it every day — that you’re disciplined about it.

I also wander around muttering “arigato” the Japanese word for “thank you” which helps me to focus on the present moment. And, by focussing on the present moment I am not able to worry about what might happen in the future. So I just do what I need to do right now to the best of my ability.

Zen sounds simple and it is. But it requires discipline and control of your mind. Practicing discipline and control of your mind brings the other benefits of being able to relax, to focus, to concentrate, to enjoy what you’re doing. And with those abilities you will soon become and expert in your chosen field of activity. And experts are well rewarded.

You, and you alone, are the master of your destiny. So you need to be able to steer the ship of yourself. And you need to make that ship the best ship it can possibly be. I steer my ship to personal health, wealth and happiness using the power of Zen.

I give detailed information about how the power of Zen will help you live a happy, healthy and prosperous life at: https://ThePowerOfZen.substack.com