I've been thinking today about business, life, and both professional and personal achievement.

Why do some people continually succeed and others seem to continually fail? Is it their background, upbringing, socio-economic status, quality of friends and personal relationships, ability to interact with others, being an extrovert, being an introvert, pedigree of education, etc.? Could it be luck�...good and bad?

It seems to me it is all of the above and none of the above.

I believe what separates success and failure is whether or not a person accepts failure as a possible outcome. It sounds oversimplified, but eliminating failure as a possible outcome only leaves success as an option.

The reason I believe most businesses fail to grow their revenue and thrive is because at some point the buyout, severance, job-hop, or business ending alternative becomes acceptable. It's somehow okay to not succeed. Once you accept failure as an acceptable outcome, creativity ends.

It may sound overly simplistic and I'm sure some people will read this post and find my thoughts naive or void of their reality, but if you eliminate failure as a possible outcome, almost anything is achievable.

Once your mind is free of failure as an outcome, creativity leads the way. You can only succeed.

Have you eliminated failure from your thought process? Do you have the determination to pursue every possible avenue and conceivable pathway to success? Or are you comfortable with failure and find it okay not to succeed?

Jim Logan