Regardless of what you have been told or even what you may have told others, failure does not primarily happen for most of the reasons people believe. It's not because you are lazy, intelligent, can't follow through, lack self esteem, in the wrong business or that your manager mistreats you. People fail, first and foremost, because failure is actually promoted in our society as the norm and success, the exception. We are made to believe that the successful are ‘others’ that were just plain lucky, more intelligent, better connected, got that special break or just in the right place at the right time. We even perpetuate concepts like the 80/20 rule to somehow explain productivity failures.
The reality is that success and failure, wealth and poverty, the happy and the unhappy come from all walks of life. Those that are successful at their physical condition, finances, business, marriage, goal attainment or whatever you can imagine share common practices and those that fail do as well. This topic has been discussed for thousands of years with people blaming everything from self esteem to government subsidies, and even mommy and daddy. These “wrong why’s” can be dispelled by examples of those that did make it despite the very issues we have used to explain failure.

I have been intrigued by success for over 40 years and spent as long studying it. Not just in the auto business but in many businesses in different industries. Here is what I have observed to be the top five reasons people fail:

1) Failure is promoted as the norm and success the exception. From our family ties to education to the daily dissemination by the media, the overwhelming message is that success is scarce, limited to the privileged, the lucky, and always someone else. But interview any of those people that have made it and they will tell you that is not the case. The reality is each of us has been instilled with enormous potential, intelligence and unique gifts that are never utilized. There was a time when people from all races came to this country with the belief, “if I only work hard enough I can succeed” that no longer exist in our culture today.

2) Individuals underestimate the amount of action(s) necessary to accomplish what they want. New businesses often run out of cash because they underestimated the number of obstacles, situations, resistance, time and energy that would be necessary to obtain what the company’s goals and then became disillusioned and/or broke. In this age of ‘instant everything’ it appears more and more prevalent that people underestimate the amount of effort necessary to accomplish any worthy goal. All of this is compounded by entitlement programs, bail outs, free credit, rewards provided with no exchange and the the obsession with get rich quick. Success in the real world regardless of your politics requires massive amounts of action followed by consistent and more massive actions. My new book, “You’re Either First or You’re Last”, which by the way is tracking sales numbers that will place it on the NY Times Best Seller List, covers this topic in detail.

3) Lack the right degree of motivation/desire to make your goals a reality. Look, like my daddy told me, “if you run out of gas, you ain’t going to make your destination.” Success requires a particular ‘gas’, called motivation and regardless of how much you have you must refill. Most people lack the proper amounts, don't know how or where to refill and then believe they lack the ability to produce. Walking on fire, with my friend, Tony Robbins will give you an immediate sense of power but you must learn the skill of creating, managing and regenerating motivation at will especially through failures. There are exact strategies that I have practiced to get me through hundreds of failures over the last 20 years. One simple example, my wife and I meet daily to discuss our life’s goals, (also done amongst my company’s staff). This is an exercise I look forward to doing daily, refocusing me, my wife and my staff on the future we desire to create. This simple drill offsets the failures and refuels our interest in the destiny we desire to create.

4) Surrounded by mediocre influences. Take your five closest friends/associates, add up what each of them have accomplished and divide by 5, and you will find yourself right amongst them. The same drill can be done with physical goals, quality of your marriage, spirituality, money and anything else you can imagine. People are experiencing failure unnecessarily because they surround themselves with others that have settled for mediocrity and believe failure to be commonplace. Why do you think most places have outlawed smoking indoors? Because it is proven that secondhand smoke causes damage, but I assure you being surrounded by the mediocre has killed more dreams, goals and careers than wars have killed soldiers.

5) Lack confidence and motivation. This is NOT a self-esteem issue. Confidence, motivation and self worth are the products of winning in life. I suffered much of my life from what others labeled a self-esteem issue and the only thing that has handled it is making sure I win more often than I fail in those areas of my life where I suffered the low self esteem. Self confidence requires, not gimmicks, but consistent training, education and daily coaching that actually increases a person’s sense of belief in their abilities to create success. The most successful people and organizations train, educate, practice, drill, rehearse, provide feedback and coach as a priority and a ritual. Management check out our new online web based virtual program where I am available to not just train but re-motivate and rehabilitate sales people during difficulties.

A car dealer once told me, "Grant if you could just be here everyday to keep everyone motivated and provide them with the right thing to do and say you would create a product everyone would want and need. Imagine being able to access the exact right solution, the right close, the right action 365 days in any situation with any customer and get what you need in 20 seconds. This by itself starts to validate the exact topic of this article. Failure can be eliminated with the right tools and is not a result of all the other reasons you have used to justify it. Click here to check it out.

Get the five items above handled, and make #5 a ritual and I assure you will discover that winning in life is your right and is available to anyone that is willing to work for it!

Grant Cardone, Author of Sell to Survive

Also look for Grant's new Book First or Last, How to Dominate the Competition. This book is on track to hit the NY Times Best Seller List. Grant will be the first automotive trainer since Joe Girard to accomplish this.