Invited firm: Francisco Alcaide Hernández

Expert in Personal Development and Management
www.franciscoalcaide.com | @falcaide

If there is one variable that sets successful people apart it’s a commitment to achieving their goals.And that means doing what is necessary for as long as necessary. Specifically, commitment can be divided into five types to ensure success. These are:

1. COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
Excellent people are offered excellent opportunities. Normal people are offered normal opportunities. And bad people are not offered opportunities. Leave mediocrity aside once and for all. Always ask yourself how you can add more value to what you do: be faster, cheaper, offer better quality. Don’t settle for average work. It’s easily perceived and works against you. Remember: be so good at what you do that it’s impossible for others to ignore you. When you do something (lecture, post, workshop, class), give it your all. Life gives you back what you give it: the more you give to others, the more you’ll get back. As David Schwartz says in Aprendiendo de los mejores (Alienta, 6ª edition): «There is never competition at the top; competition is at a mediocre level».

2. COMMITMENT TO LEARNING
You can’t win more by giving less. If you want your life to improve, you need to improve. Never stop investing in yourself and your business. Always assign resources to your personal development (books, seminars, audiobooks, meals with interesting people) and what you do: improving the website, the sales channels, the PR, the advertising, whatever. Part of your income should always be allocated to that type of investment. Today, he who does not advance, retreats; he who doesn’t improve, worsens. In brief: Do you want to earn an above average income? Then become an above average person. Your personal development is your goal. Your income can only grow as much as you grow.

3. COMMITMENT TO SOLUTIONS
Successful people are focused on solutions. Unsuccessful people are focused on excuses. The problem of looking for excuses is that if you look for them, you’ll always find them. It’s never hard to find someone to blame. Life is about managing problems, one after another: problems with suppliers, with clients, with collaborators… Not having problems is a real problem, because it means that you’re not doing anything, and that’s really bad. Problems never go away, but then neither do the solutions. It’s all about focus. Where there’s a problem, there’s a solution, because a problem without a solution isn’t a problem, and isn’t worth worrying about. Concentrate one hundred percent on finding alternatives for obstacles that you find in your way.

4. COMMITMENT TO OTHERS
As the proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. To be successful, being talented, intelligent and hard working isn’t enough. Success is achieved by teams. No hermit has ever been an example to others in life. Therefore, you must have a positive attitude to people. On your own you’re very restricted. We all have weaknesses that we need to compensate with other people’s strengths. What you know is always outweighed by what you don’t know. Furthermore, new ideas always spring from contact with others. Many things are resolved in informal chats. Look after and cultivate your network of contacts. And that means three things: staying in touch, connecting with people and contributing value.

5. COMMITMENT TO 
You’re never going to find all the answers all at once. No biography, either personal or professional, is a straight line. There will be bad times, like there are for all other successful people. When things don’t go your way, there will be moments of doubt when you’ll have less confidence in yourself. What truly has merit is struggling on when you’ve had enough. Most people give up. It’s essential to be strong mentally. He who resists, wins. Being successful is about persevering when others give up. 90% of being successful is insisting, trying time and again to be where you want to be.