Remember the children’s story of “The Little Red Hen?” The Hen found a grain of wheat (opportunity) and decided to make bread (success). She then proceeded by taking the proper steps to [tag]plan[/tag] and prepare for her desired result. She planted the grain, tended, watered, and harvested it. This is nothing but action on display. She took the wheat to the mill to be ground into flour. She made the dough, let it rise, and, finally, put it in the oven to bake.

At each step in the process, she asked her neighbours, “Who would like to help me . . . ?” And each time they responded, “Not I!” Finally, the bread was ready. She set it on the window sill to cool and its sweet scent floated up and down the street. “And now,” she said, “who will help me eat the bread?” All her neighbors responded enthusiastically, “I will!”

“No,” said the little red hen, “I will eat it myself.” And she did.

You may think the hen was rather harsh in not sharing the bread with her friends. But, in reality, no one can give you success. So many a times, you depend on some other people to be successful. You have conditioned your mind to always be at the mercy of others. You want people to decide on a destination, design the map to the destination and probably set the ladder for you to the destination. Some people even only want to join them at the destination.

You do not want to do anything. You just want to start that [tag]business[/tag] hoping that everything will fall into place without you having to do much. You just want to wake up one day and found yourself a successful businessman with no concrete action steps from your side.

No one can do the [tag]preparation[/tag], [tag]planning[/tag], and the work for you. If you are to achieve true excellence, you must take responsibility for your own [tag]success[/tag] and do the work to make it happen. Nobody can help you to do this. Everybody has got to create the kind of future he or she desires. Your parents, pastor, [tag]business coach[/tag], relatives or even friends can only help you on the way. They can not do the main work for you.

So, decide today to take responsibility for your action. Stop blaming people (your employees or customers) for your business failures. Remember, “You are not a failure until you start blaming people for what happens to you”. DREAM, PLAN, PREPARE, PERFORM, PERSIST… then, the sky will be just the beginning.