The Winning Side: How to Associate Yourself With Success

The winning side – what is that exactly? To me, it is taking the appropriate courses of action (or inaction, as the case may be) to ensure we are affiliated with successful people and successful groups. One of the things I’ve learned over the past year is that if you want to be successful, you must be associated with successful people.

How did I learn this? The hard way, of course. Over the past 7 years I’ve had to do a lot of networking, both socially and in business. In fact, when I first moved to Arizona in 2002, I didn’t know a soul (except for a few relatives). By identifying successful people and attempting to network with them, I began to meet successful people in Arizona. In other words, I identified the side I needed to be on and then joined it. That is how I became successful in Arizona.

Over the past year, I have expanded my network even more. I realized that if I only associated with people in Arizona, I was cutting myself off from the rest of the country and the rest of the world. After much thought, I did a nationwide driving tour. In a 2 month time period, I visited over 30 states, spoke with over 80 highly successful people and drove 10,292 miles. Since that time, I’ve written a book about the journey and the people (which should be out in the next few months) and expanded my network. All this started by me identifying the winning side and then taking my stand there.

How You Can Learn To Be On The Winning Side

Probably the best way to make sure you’re on the winning side most of the time is to develop the ability to identify the right people and observe them. Watch their actions and learn from them.

As you observe their actions and learn from them, you are positioning yourself to take advantage of the three best ways to affiliate yourself with the winning side. Those three ways are:

1. Being lucky;
2. Doing whatever it takes to make sure your side wins; and
3. Predicting the future course of actions, and using your foreknowledge to predict which side is the appropriate one for you to join.

Which Do I Prefer?

I actually believe all three methods are tied together. If you develop the ability to foresee how things will turn out before they actually happen, you can identify the winning side (in advance) and then line up on that side. Also, by foreseeing the future course of events, you will be able to identify what actions need to be taken in order to make sure your side wins. When others see the good fortune you receive, they will call you lucky.

So, all of this ultimately ties into being able to develop the ability to foresee how things will turn out, in advance.

How Does One Develop the Ability to Foresee How Things Will Turn Out Before They Actually Happen?

By paying attention and noticing things that others do not notice, that’s how. The following is a personal example that illustrates this.

In my office I have noticed, on more than one occasion, that employees have frequently asked me to use up their vacation days at the last minute.

My experience has been that most people will normally plan their vacations weeks, if not months, in advance.

What I’ve learned is that when they want to use up their vacation days at the last minute it frequently means they want to use this time for something else besides their vacation.

What might that be? Looking for another job, that’s what. By noticing they were taking their vacation days at the last minute, I have successfully predicted, on many occasions, that I would soon be looking for replacement employees. As a result of having predicted their future actions, I was better prepared when they left the company (i.e., I made sure I had copies of their notes, that they finished their open projects, etc.).

Can We Learn To Predict The Future?

Certainly. We all can learn to predict the future with a reasonable degree of certainty. All we have to do is pay attention to signs and signals that are all around us. Unfortunately, learning to see things most others do not see is NOT something that is usually taught in our schools. Instead, it is something we either have to learn for ourselves (through experience), or if we are fortunate, we may have one or more mentors to guide us.

How Will We Benefit From Being Able To Predict The Future?

We will benefit in countless way. Take the current economic crisis going on in America. Many months ago (if not longer), there were signs and indicators that the current crisis might be on the horizon.

For example, I believe people have been overpaying for their homes and real estate for several years. I also have observed that many people have mortgaged their homes to the max and used that extra “found” money for things such as vacations, cars and such. I attended many real estate seminars where promoters were telling people to mortgage their homes to the max and then invest that money into highly overpriced investment real estate. In every one of their models, they also showed what happened if real estate prices continued to rise. Never once did I see them explain the problems that would be caused if prices stopped rising or heaven forbid, started to fall.

I knew all of this was a recipe for disaster. People were going into debt to acquire money that they only had “on paper” (as it was tied into the then current value of their homes). Furthermore, they were using that “play money” for frivolous things such as vacations and highly speculative real estate. When the house of cards began to fall, I was not surprised.

As a result of not being surprised, I was able to avoid that trap. By being able to predict future events, I was able to come out on the winning side!

What Do You See Ahead?

I ask you, what are some of the trends you see over the horizon? I’m asking you to reflect on both good trends and bad trends. I would love to know what you believe is going to happen in this world over the next 5 years.

This guest article was written by Stanley F. Bronstein. Stanley is an attorney, CPA , author and professional speaker who writes about Achievement IQ™ and the Laws of Positioning™, both of which are based upon his analysis of having interviewed highly successful individuals. Stanley writes on these matters, and more, in his blog at StanleyBronstein.com.

Images from Roger Smith and Amir Fathi.

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