The Secret Code for Succeeding in America

Millions of people are very successful in the USA. Why not you?  Many of them came here from other countries.  In fact many of our most successful in America are people who owe everything to this nation. Yet many people even though they won the lottery by being born in the USA never seem to find their way out of failure, lack, poverty, want, despair and marginalization.  They wonder why.

There are always excuses: poor education, racism, unfair job market, income inequality, dysfunctional family situations growing up and a dozen other lame excuses that trap people in a poverty mentality of "What's the use of trying, it won't work, (fill in your favorite scapegoat) is against me". Anyone can say that and people that never win in life do.  The system IS against you.  You must work to beat the system.  There is always a way.

There are 7 Codes to unlocking the secrets for success.  You must own them, live by them, and never doubt the truth of them.  If you hold them as your core beliefs you will succeed.  If you do not, you will fail.  There is no compromise. There is no half way.  It's all or nothing for you to win.  Every single person who succeeds in business or commerce in the USA, every millionaire that got it on his or her own holds these truths as their worldview.  There are no exceptions. If you do not embrace all 7, you fail. It's that simple. You must believe this to make it:

1.  The USA is a nation of great opportunity.  This is why people come here.  To find a better life, To find opportunity, to figure out a way to make it in America.  People come here from Nigeria, The Caribbean Islands, Cuba, China, Japan, Korea, India, Russia and a dozen other nations of the earth with one goal in mind... To make it.  They are convinced that if they work and plan well enough they will succeed. It is this core belief that sets them above those who do not make it. They succeed because they believe they can succeed. Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.

The idea that the system won't let them, that there are no opportunities is a roadblock to success.  A person MUST see this nation as a fertile place to find and achieve your dream.  You must believe there is no limit to the one who tries and fails but tries again.  A person with this dream and belief is unstoppable. He sees a pile of horse manure and believes there is a pony in there somewhere so he dives right in and starts digging thru the poop.  There are no secret pacts from others that makes a penniless Mexican man with a family a millionaire 30 years after he crosses the border into the USA.  He saw opportunity and made it work.  I know hundreds of such men and women personally.

2.  Capitalism with all it's flaws is the only economic system that works.  To use this code you must reject anything that comes against the basic core belief in economic freedom.  This means doing without to make it work.  There are no government programs nor education to supply you understanding of this.  You must acquire it and have faith in the system of capitalism over any other.  Yes there are people who get rich on other people's money, mostly they are in government.  Much of that is crony capitalism and rent seeking. That's not capitalism.   All economic systems are not equal.  Many politicians proclaim that you can pick one and it will work for you.  Not true.  You cannot expect to doubt the system that makes people wealthy, that of finding a need and filling it at a profit, If you doubt the power of capital you will go broke.  Those who speak against capitalism are poisoning your mind and robbing you blind.  Educate yourself on good economic theory and cooperate with it. 

3.  There is a culture of success and a culture of failure.  Know the culture of success and it's requirements and then meet them.  This means things like knowing and speaking the language well.  English is the language of economics globally.  Speak it professionally.  If you have a problem with it, get help.  Learn to write well.

Having good manners and courtesy, knowing how to act in polite society is a part of good culture.  Dress well, not outlandishly.  If you are a woman, use makeup to help not hurt. You are not here to draw attention to yourself, you are here to find your place in the culture of success.  Be a man or woman of your word every day.  Never cheat.  Never scam. Successful people understand the value of time. Once they commit to doing something, they would never cancel.

Be careful not to try to import your ethnic culture into your efforts at succeeding.  This is where many people from Islamic countries fail.  This is why many people of African American descent (not recent immigrants) fail.  They try to keep one foot in thier culture and it pollutes their success. You can't talk all urban and expect people to respect you.  People judge you by the words you speak, by the actions you take, by the way you present yourself.  Learn to fit in.. and adapt.  You can be Mexican or Russian at home later.  Now you are in the American culture.. fit in, adapt, assimilate.  Make friends, be friendly, network.  Most good things happen because of WHO you know, not so much what you know.

Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. People are attracted to them.  They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.  They have vision for the future and nothing about the past bothers them.  It's their culture.

4. Business and commerce is GOOD.  Businessmen and women for the most part are ethical hard working people.  Cheating and lying that many people think of in business goes on mostly in the movies.  It's not real. Most of us out here are just folks trying to make a good living.  It's not that hard to grasp.  Read books on good moral businessmen and women who made it.  In business, not show business or sports.  Don't believe what you see on TV about business.  You need to re-educate yourself if you have doubts that business is good, healthy and worthy of duplication.  Read good books by good business-people.  Learn from them.  They want to share a legacy with you.  Don't expect it all on a sliver platter.  You may need to read a hundred till you change your mindset.  The idea that business people are crooked and slimy is a mindset that stops more people from getting out of the Ghetto than anything else. When you start thinking business is bad... evil or destructive you on the edge of failure and you need to back up.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Learn and study business like you were becoming a doctor or lawyer.  Never quit. Learn the language of business. You can't do that watching sports on TV, playing video games or going to the club.  Every Doctor attends seminars to learn to become a better doctor and reads journals of the latest discoveries.  Business is the same way.  It's constant education and improvement.

Beware of advice about successful people and their methods. For starters, no two situations are alike. Your dreams of creating a dry-cleaning empire won't be helped by knowing that Thomas Edison liked to take naps.  There are millions of myths about doing business.  Learn the truth.

5.  Your Breakthrough is out there and you can find it.  Look beyond your inner circle for fresh ideas, methods, techniques, strategies, business plans and business development.  Get out of the bubble around that this is an echo chamber of stale ideas. This is a real trap.  In Asian cultures, they try to use Asian strategies and they stay in an Asian ghetto. In Mexican cultures there is a tendency to try to learn from and adapt Mexican cultural sensitivities. Some never get off of Cicero Avenue. The trap is that just because Jay Jay is black and has a good MLM he is promising you, doesn't mean you can or should buy into it. If Jay Jay or Ray Ray have been so successful why do they change MLMs like they change socks?  I know people who have been part of 25 different MLMs in their life. Get real please.

Business success and economics is the most racially blind or culturally neutral thing on the planet.  If you try to rely on people from a culture that you are comfortable with, you will become handicapped and halted in your quest.  You might be able to sell a few, you have a circle of friends, but you will never go big time.  Most cultural appropriations that become a small business that is popular today are out of favor in the next cycle.  Look at how Mexican food was all big.. and now.. something else is.  Look at how the Black Culture in Music and such was all the rage for a while but now has died off.  If you try to stay in your cultural circles you will never find success.  If you can't sell it or service it to everyone on the planet, you won't last long.

A prefabricated business idea (read that most MLM's and many franchises) being pitched to you isn't going to work.  It's a wealth transfer effort, from you to others.  Get out of your culture and learn how business really works in the wider world.   Discover your unique factor and capitalize on it.  We don't need another Asian buffet or Mexican restaurant selling tacos.  If you try to stay in your own little circle.. nothing will ever happen.  You'll stay stuck and broke.  Break out and break through.

6. RISK is your friend.  No one should expect to get it right the first time.  Get out of the boat.  In fact most people who succeed fail a few times first.  Risk aversion, playing it safe is the enemy of business.  It's the way it works.  If you fail, get up again and try again.  Try a new approach.  Don't worry what others think.  You are only responsible to YOU.  Keep asking yourself, "In what ways can I do it better this next time". The freedom to fail is vital if you're going to succeed. Most successful people fail from time to time, and it is a measure of their strength of character that failure merely propels them into some new attempt at success.

Think outside the box.  Become your own problem solution.  You have nothing else but you.  Prayer is good, Prophecy is good, but experience is the best schoolmaster.  Learn to walk before you run.  Start at a level you can handle.  Swinging for the fences seldom works in baseball and almost never in business..

Cash Flow is king. Take some cash in, do something with it and generate income above that cash input.  That's called capitalism.  Do that again and again.  It will grow.  Let it.  Don't judge your success by anything other than your impact as a businessman or woman. Successful people make money. It's not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.

Your culture and your friends may in fact be your enemies as you try to do this.  They will tell you a hundred reasons why it won't work.  Smile and shut your ears to them.  Find good mentors, Read books on business, go to business conferences, watch shows like Shark Tank, The Profit, Bar Rescue and all those kinds of shows where someone comes into a business and fixes it.  Don't believe the fairy tales, lies, old wives tales and all kinds of other foolishness people will try to tell you about overnight success.   They aren't true.  They will hold you down. You will end up going back to those golden handcuffs called A JOB you once had and you'll never get out.  You can do this, but you must practice, try, refine and try again.

7.  There is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme, you have to pay the price to win.  Any time you find yourself subject to thinking there might be, slap yourself on the forehead.  Anything that seems too good to be true probably is and probably will make you poorer. Pay the price in this process or stay broke.  Work is NOT a four letter word.  Discipline is not hard when you bring it on yourself.  Even for the very few that make it in professional sports and music, there is a discipline and hard work that got them there.  Sure they were talented, but they also dedicated their whole lives to becoming what they ultimately became.

There is a tendency of believing that there are "easy" ways to gain success. Any promise that starts with "work only a few hours a week" is a scam.  Succeeding means living below your means, way below. No you don't deserve a break today.  You can't treat yourself to a nice vacation. You might end up sleeping on someone else's floor or in your car for a while. This means every dollar you earn goes back into the business.  No eating out- ever.  Keep your eye on the goal.  The ability to focus is a thread that runs through so-called successful people. And that's something that can be developed. It can be self-taught.  Successful people make a habit of doing the things failures don't like to do.

If you hire someone, you pay them first, you only get money out of the surplus.  There are no weekends, work seven days a week, go to church but work all the time.  Tithe ONLY on the increase but tithe.  If you have a thousand dollars come in, but your expenses to get there were $990, tithe one dollar. 

Most important, don't look for help from anyone else.  I'm not talking about borrowing money if you need to, I'm talking about expecting help from the government, a grant, SBA and all that.  It's all a scam. Many good potential business people get trapped into believing there is a government grant of some kind, it's a myth and only enriches the grant writer.  You are all there is.  No one will help you.  The government is the worst kind of help.  Those who get help from the government become a slave of the government.

Don't look to the entertainment world for your model of success.  Sports and entertainment are a myth and it is short lived.  The bankrupt ex basketball player or rock star 5 years after they became rich is legendary.  Make the business work and then scale it.  That means, build it up, make the wheel turn faster and bigger.  First learn to make money and then scale it up.  This isn't for everyone, but it is for more than are getting there.  The culture is your enemy, it wants to keep you from winning. Win anyway.

Now you know the secret code.  What are you going to do with it?