Taylor - 8 Attributes of Great Achievers

8 Attributes of Great Achievers

Cameron C. Taylor

Other Books by Cameron C. Taylor

Does Your Bag Have Holes? 24 Truths That Lead to Financial and Spiritual Freedom

Twelve Paradoxes of the Gospel

Available at bookstores and on authors website

www.DoesYourBagHaveHoles.org

Copyright 2009 Cameron C. Taylor. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission.

This book is a work of:

Does Your Bag Have Holes? Foundation.

Phone: 1-877-No-Holes (664-6537)

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Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Attribute 1: Responsible

Chapter I: Choice and Consequence

Chapter II: The Power to Choose

Attribute 2: Creator

Chapter III: The Story of the Farmer and the Thief

Attribute 3: Independent

Chapter IV: Avoid Harmful Help

Chapter V: Take the Initiative

Attribute 4: Humble

Chapter VI: Continually Seek Improvement

Chapter VII: Be Teachable

Chapter VIII: Be Humble

Attribute 5: Honest

Chapter IX: Integrity Pays

Attribute 6: Optimistic

Chapter X: Solutions or Excuses

Chapter XI: Uplift Others

Attribute 7: Vision

Chapter XII: Write Down Your Goals

Chapter XIII: Visualization and the Worlds Fastest Man

Attribute 8: Persistent

Chapter XIV: Success Is a Process

Chapter XV: The Power of Persistence

Conclusion

Introduction

As I have studied the lives of hundreds of great achievers, I have found that they each have possessed or currently possess certain attributes that were foundational to their achievements. Sometimes we see those who have achieved great success and think they are somehow uniquely gifted or talented and that we could never duplicate their success; however, great achievers are not simply born, they are developed. Each great achiever has worked to develop attributes throughout their life. For example, as a young man, Washington copied out in his own handwriting the code of a moral life and strived to live by it.

Benjamin Franklin recorded in his autobiography the desire to possess thirteen virtues. He then described the process of reviewing and working to develop each of these virtues, writing, My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix one of them at a time... I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day. I determined to give a weeks strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened and its opposite weakened that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue.

This book will help you develop the character attributes that lead to greater achievement. In determining what makes organizations great, Jim Collins, author of Good to Great , discovered that the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge or work experience. Working to perfect the 8 character attributes discussed in this book will help you achieve sustained, superior performance by helping you develop your most valuable resourceyou.

Attribute 1: Responsible

The price of greatness is responsibility.

-Winston Churchill

Chapter I

Choice and Consequence

Every choice carries a consequence. For better or worse, each choice is the unavoidable consequence of its predecessor. There are not exceptions. If you can accept that a bad choice carries the seed of its own punishment, why not accept the fact that a good choice yields desirable fruit?

-Gary Ryan Blair

Every time we make a choice, we are either obeying or disobeying a law of success. As we obey the laws of success, we move to a more successful state of happiness, peace, power, freedom, and prosperity. As we disobey the laws of success, we move to a state of sadness, weakness, bondage, and misery. Each moment we are progressing toward one of these two states. This gift of choice is like fire: if properly used, it can create warmth and life; if improperly used, it can burn or even kill.

With each choice comes a consequence. No amount of rationalizing or complaining will alter the consequence. If you pick up one end of a stick (choice), you also pick up the other end of the stick (consequence of that choice).

Farm Metaphor

On a farm, you reap what you sow. If you plant corn, you harvest corn. You cannot plant corn and harvest watermelon. Similarly, we reap what we sow in life. Our choices are the seeds and the consequences are the harvest. At times, we may attempt to choose the consequences of our choices or misunderstand what the consequence of a choice will be. We might want to eat 10,000 calories a day, but not gain weight. We might want to smoke cigarettes, but not get lung cancer. We might want to disobey laws of success, but still have freedom and prosperity. This is as foolish as a farmer planting corn and expecting to harvest watermelon. Some might also expect financial abundance but learn nothing regarding the laws of wealth. This is as silly as a farmer not planting and expecting a great harvest.

There is a human desire to be miraculously delivered from the consequences of an action. We tend to seek a rescue from consequences with little or no effort on our part. This tendency can easily be seen manifested by those who have incurred large amounts of debt and then seek to be delivered from the bondage and obligation of repayment through bankruptcy, or those who seek deliverance from a disease of choice by taking a pill to treat the symptoms instead of changing the behavior that causes the symptoms. We should seek to change our actions because we cannot choose the consequences. We must accept responsibility, which is the willingness and ability to recognize and accept the consequences of our actions.

Number of Choices Paradox

We have all heard someone describe freedom as, No one can tell me what to do. I am in charge of my own life. To be free one must not be bound by laws. The laws of success are not restrictive, but are a road map to joy. The violation of these laws is not freedom, but bondage, pain, and misery. Those who know and live the laws of success enjoy freedom, joy, and prosperity. Thus, obedience to the laws of success brings freedom.

The correct use of our power to choose will result in more choices. The misuse will result in fewer choices. Each time we make a choice, we either gain more freedom as a result of our increased choices or digress toward bondage as the result of our diminished choices.