President's Message: Success - It's a Choice!
December 2003

The last eighteen years have been exciting and full of great experiences and discoveries. I am grateful for the thousands who have joined us in our mission of enhancing lives through helping people reach their goals. We have made so many great friends and learned so much about life, about success, and about overcoming obstacles.

Probably the most profound thing that I have learned is about how different each individual is than another and how each person responds differently to any given situation than the next. Some people only dream about success, yet others act to create it. Some get discouraged easily, others seem to meet the same obstacles or the same failures with greater resolve. Some will consistently see the glass half empty, others you can depend on to see it half full, and to also always find something positive about every situation. These responses to life’s situations are not an individual’s predestined fate, but are almost always the result of how an individual chooses to respond. And yet almost every individual usually chooses to consistently respond in an almost predictable manner.

It is also evident that the principles of success are universal - persistence, hard work, never giving up, the ability to stay focused, taking personal responsibility, faith in oneself, a positive attitude, hope, love for others, specific goals, and a passion to achieve them. These are consistently the traits of those who experience success. Those who choose to exercise these traits seem to always come out on top.

On the other hand, those who lack focus, lack purpose, lack passion, give up quickly, become easily discouraged, always find something wrong, blame others, lack work ethic, and lack confidence in themselves seem to always fall far short of reaching their dreams.

One fact that should give everyone hope is that passion, hard work, persistence, and faith in oneself will always outperform intelligence, good looks, a great education or wealthy parents. It is of significant importance to realize that these traits that make up the successful person are the result of our choices. In other words, we can decide to exercise these traits or to respond in this way.

The fact that you can often accurately predict how an individual whom you know well will respond to any given situation does not mean they are predestined or that they must respond in that manner. It just means that they tend to be consistent in their choices.

It is refreshing to see someone break out of the mold they have created for themselves and to decide to begin to respond differently to life’s situations. Such a change is obviously very difficult to make in oneself, as it seldom happens. When it does happen, it is a day worth celebrating.

We are extremely grateful for the many thousands who constantly exercise hard work, persistence, and other principles of success. Indeed, we owe our success to them! We agonize over how to help those who dream about success, but who do not choose to exercise the principles that would create it. After 18 years of observing and working with those who consistently experience success as well as with those who consistently experience failure, it is clear that the only difference is the daily choices of the one versus the other.

Sincerely,

Frank