Hollywood is chock full of stereotypical career-oriented men and women. They’re usually very intelligent, good-looking, sociable, emotionally stable, well-off, and fashionable. They can balance their time between their perfect family and dream job, do several things at once, and do multitasking to fit 36 hours’ work into a single day.

But you know that you’re probably not that kind of person. Heck, nobody’s that kind of person. Sure, you’re intelligent to some degree and possess a mix of the characteristics above, but you’re probably nowhere near any definition of ‘perfect.’ The image of a perfect employee might get you up the company ladder the fastest, but using a bit of your social skills ranks right up there with it.

The Pros of PR

Many of the most successful people in the world are probably intelligent, but you can bet that they didn’t get to their current stature using only intelligence. A person’s social skills very often contribute a lot to that person’s success in life. Finding the right connections, building the right relationships, and making friends in the right places might sound a bit unscrupulous to you, but they’re very legitimate business practices.

Business and employment is all about a give-and-take relationship between provider and client, so it’s no wonder that social skills can play a big part in both. Maximizing your connections for your success can range anywhere from getting a friendly tip about which job to get to asking for favorable feedback for promotion. It won’t do your career any good, even if you’re really intelligent, if you’re not sociable to your superiors, your coworkers, and your subordinates.

Gaining with a Group

Another big reason why sociability is effectively required in building your career is that you’ll most probably end up working with a team or group. Many of the projects and tasks you’ll encounter along the way are probably too large for you, so you’ll have to join or form a group to tackle it. If the other members of that group aren’t even on friendly speaking terms with you, it’ll be a wonder if the project you’re working on will take off. Whether you’re leading the group or working along with it, you will have to bring out some of those social skills to make your methods more efficient and your work easier.

If you thought that socialization was only for those with too many words to say and too much time to spend, you were under a very big misconception. Because you’ll obviously be encountering a lot of other people in the workplace, your social skills become an important factor in the speed of your progress. That is, if you didn’t think they were important in the first place.

Let’s face it, whatever field your business might be in right now, there are a lot of key players, and some may be even better than you – for the time being.  In any business endeavor, it is always a must to know your competitors, from their movements to strategies; your market, from their needs to income bracket; and the latest trending in your industry.

These are important factors to consider when formulating your next move or coming up with innovations to make your product or service more appealing to your target market.  Bear in mind that your market has changing needs, and any type of industry is forever shifting their focus, so to keep up to date with the changing times, you have to go with the flow without compromising your quality and uniqueness.

Marketing Strategies

Don’t overlook the importance of your marketing strategy in achieving the goals you have set for your company.  Often, people think that putting money in marketing is a waste of resources because they believe that their product or service alone can already speak for themselves.

Often, too, this same misconception leads to the demise of an otherwise promising product or service.  Understand that most successful companies pay a lot of money to advertising agencies and marketing consultants to ensure that not only is the right market targeted but that the same market will take the bait and avail of whatever it is you are offering.

Customer Satisfaction

Besides putting effort in conceptualizing and implementing your marketing campaign, you should also put extra effort in training and developing your Customer Service Department because this is where your customers will run to should they encounter questions and/or problems about your product/service.

A disgruntled customer, whose questions were left unanswered or whose phone call was queued up so long that they end up putting down the phone, will never return to get more of your products or services.  Worse, they could tell their family and friends how poorly they’ve been treated by your company and that could lead to the end of you.

In the end, showing your market the difference between you and your competitors can either spell success or failure for you.  Lower costs, better quality, effective marketing campaigns, and customer satisfaction are all key factors in the success of your business.

It’s a collective effort that your market will find irresistible if you know how to mix everything in one perfect blend.

A pessimist will see every situation and circumstance as a plot for him to not achieve whatever it is he has dreamed of in life. An optimist will see everything else as an opportunity to be more, grow more, and get closer to his goals. No matter what social echelon you were born in, if you are a pessimist, chances are, you will never amount to anything; and if you are an optimist, the sky’s the limit when it comes to fulfilling your dreams.

How many success stories have you heard or read about where the protagonist didn’t finish school, was bullied in school, perhaps beaten black and blue at home, and barely had anything to eat most his life? Yet, the same protagonist beat the odds and emerged victorious in that he not only has financial freedom now, but he also has built a happy family where there once was none.

Born with a Silver Spoon in the Mouth

However, let us not ignore the fact that people who are born into rich families do have better chances of gaining financial success early on in life because they either go into the family business or they have more than enough means to build their own businesses.

They also have better opportunities to finish school in prestigious universities and go after any type of education they want because money is no object. But, without the right frame of mind and the kind of focus that success expects from all of us, any opportunity can turn into a total waste of time, effort, and resources.

From Humble Beginnings

Then there is the other side of the story where someone from a totally different background, one who didn’t have the same opportunities as even the average person, someone who’s situation seem so desolate that we think if we were in the same situation we would rather die, turned his life around and became one of the most successful people on the planet.

Think Oprah. Think Bill Gates. Both from different backgrounds, both faced with insurmountable obstacles early on in life, and both emerging as two of the most influential, not to mention rich, people in the whole world.

While it is true that people who are born rich may have better financial freedom to chase after their dreams, having money is not enough to achieve success in any aspect of your life. Success is looking at the storm as an opportunity to sell umbrellas instead of wishing for better weather.

Patience is a virtue, as the saying goes. In any aspect of your life, your patience will always be tested, and it is in how you respond to these tests that will ultimately affect the outcome. Act harshly, and you pay the price. Be patient and think things over, and reward is yours. The same thing can be said when it comes to businesses, especially new businesses or companies.

The Long Road Ahead

Success cannot be had in terms of seconds or minutes or hours or days. It will take months or even years before you can truly say that success is yours and that you had it through your sweats and tears.

For new business owners, however much they have prepared for their business, they should always think that success will not happen overnight. Your first day might be great as there are curious customers who will want to know about you, but if you do not keep their attention, then you will lose their interest. So, give your business some time to grow and be successful, and do not expect that great things will happen that quickly if you have only sat on your seat and waited for the apple to drop. It takes two to tango, as they say, and your new business will need your patience in order to survive and be successful one day. Always study the market and grow with it.

Working It

Diligence and a lot of patience is what any business should have. You will come against so many obstacles at first that it might make you fall on your knees in despair and will make you want to give up, but do not be overcome by this. Instead, stand up, breathe deep, and face whatever it is. Do not hide from it as hiding will not make it go away. It only prolongs the agony, and you will still have to decide.

You have to know that trials and obstacles come with any new business, be it small or large, and it is in knowing this that you are given the power to decide on the outcome that you want. Give up or fight. If you want to fight, then start working hard. Double your efforts and lengthen your patience. Think with a clear head and not give up. In the end, your success will be sweeter especially if you gained it through sweat and tears.

Every Wednesday, I will try to interview a person who in my opinion is working to be successful or has become successful. I will be doing this to show you that being successful is a choice! Today we are going to speak with Jason Pereira about his success so far in online money making. Like him you can choose to start working towards making money online

Gaetano - Thanks Jason for accepting our invitation and agreed to be interview by SuccessfulFootsteps.com. For our readers who are not familiar with you could you please introduce yourself?

Hey Gaetano – sure, no problem. Doubt anyone would be familiar with me, but anyways, here we go J. I’m Jason Pereira, a sixteen year old University student. I live in Dubai, and run my ever growing blog The University Kid Dot Com.

Gaetano - Great! Could you please go back to the very start. Can you recall the first time you got interested in making money online? What was the first attempt to make money and how did it go?

I had some time to kill in the summer, so decided to spend it trying to make some money online. One of the (only J) skills I am blessed with is a gift for writing, so I thought I might as well put that to good use.

My first experience at making money online was not a good one. I ended up writing those spammy articles only for SEO at a mere $2/500 words – they were not fun to do, and did not improve me in any way either. They did however allow me to get the necessary start up capital for my first domain name and hosting, and it was a valuable learning experience to get rid of my naivety at that early stage.

Gaetano - Today you blog at theuniversitykid.com for money. Can you please tell us something about theuniversitykid.com and what business you have you tried? Could you summaries your success for our readers?

I don’t really blog at TUK for money, to be honest – the cash I make out of it relative to the time I put in is minimal. I do however blog to try and gain a (slowly increasing) community of valued readers, ones that I can hopefully help learn some ways to make money online.

The University Kid was originally started on a whim, as part of a contest between friends (that has now died down). After settling down, I ran a couple of contests (one of which for $150 is going on at this moment) in order to build readers, RSS subscribers, comments and various other metrics that define a successful blog. It is currently a medium sized blog… I’m going to take it much, much further.

Gaetano - What was the biggest challenge you have ever faced in making money online? How did you go about solving it?

The biggest challenge I faced was probably my naivety, and working for rates way below what I was worth just because I was too inexperienced.

Not knowing the workings of the Internet is probably another thing – I had no idea what GoDaddy was or that we could actually buy a domain name. Hehe !

Gaetano - Jason, what do you suggest to our readers who are trying to startup their own online business?

I’d recommend they go slowly, do one thing at a time, and engage in a little bit of the ‘dirty work’ they need to get their initial capital up. Not at the low level that I started up, but things like forum posting, paid blog posting services and various other low capital activities like domain flipping can help a total beginner to the online world.

I’d also recommend they find someone that will help them along, and stick to that person like glue. There are a lot of scammers and other dishonest people on the internet, and without experience a complete newcomer can suffer.

Gaetano - Jason, what is in your opinion the most common mistake that online startups do?

People try to do too many things too fast. People aim at starting the next million dollar website, when they first need to look at the next hundred dollar website.

Also, don’t get too much into the whole online thing. Take a break every so often, go out and do stuff. Remember, if you’re not having fun, it’s not worth doing.

Gaetano – Jason, thank you very much for accepting our invitation. Everyone go to www.theuniversitykid.com

No problem, and cheers for the multiple plugs. Good luck with the site! J

People have different definitions of success.  Success can be based on how close a person is to his/her goal.  We cannot fully comprehend the meaning of success as only the person who achieved his optimum mission and goal in life can say that he/she is successful.

Different Success for Different Stages in Life

Success depends on one’s own sound judgment and decision-making as well as his/her perseverance and enthusiasm to achieve one’s goal.  A person plans on different goals in life that will satisfy his personal, social, financial, and spiritual aspects of his life.  A person makes decisions in every step he/she takes in order to move on to the next stage of life.  What do I mean by this?  A baby strives to creep, crawl, stand, walk, and eventually have the capability to run.  The baby uses the capacity of his body for endurance, and with the aid of his parents, he will be able to achieve the success of having the power to run.  From the perception of a child, this is one success in the journey of life.  When a child enters school, he learns how to decide for himself.  He studies hard to achieve recognition, acceptance, and reward from his parents, teachers, and friends.  When the child reaches graduation day and passes with flying color, he experiences his own success.  If an adult finishes his studies, have a splendid career, and have a loving family, he becomes comfortable and satisfied in the life he had pursued.  That’s why a person will say that he is successful.  But how can we measure success?

Measuring Success 

We can never measure success with the use of tools and equipment, or even calculating success with the use of formulas.  It depends on how the person perceives and measures his own success.  If a person does not perceive himself to be successful in the future, then chances are, he will never reach his goals in life.  In order to become successful, you must remember to aim high and reach the top of your dream.  There is really no harm in dreaming.  Dreaming is free for everyone, so dream big while you can!  Life is like a car!  You need to learn how to drive it in order to reach your destination.  Learn from every step you take and grab the opportunity to change for the better.  Think positive and believe in yourself.  Everything will fall into place.  Life is full of challenges, so you need to become equipped with knowledge, dedication, and self-confidence.  Success only comes from within you!  Make your own destiny!

This has been a question asked by many people throughout the years - can success make you happy?  A lot of people can attest that, yes, it can make you happy, but then again, a lot of people can contradict those who said yes and instead say that success made them more miserable than ever.

Different Reactions to Success 

There is no denying the fact that our mental health affects a lot of things in our lives.  As such, our mental health also affects the way we feel about success.  There are people who are very successful, but with their success come depression.  Because of their depression, they forget to appreciate what they have.  Instead, they think that they still lack success, which, in turn, makes them want to have more.  The more they have, the more depressed they feel.  In this case, success will definitely not make a person happy.  To get past this, they will need professional help and medications to understand the way they feel and cope with it.

But then again, there are people who are happy with their success.  They are aware of how they got it and appreciate how they reached the pinnacle of their success.  These people are those who are content with what they have.  Because of this, they set new realistic goals to further enrich themselves, all the while thinking positive thoughts that they will achieve their new goals.  Their happiness is derived from the fact that they can conquer obstacles and make things happen, unlike those people above who think that success is equals to having more.  The more they have, the more they will want more of it that it is going to be a vicious cycle.  But for those who are comfortable and happy with their success, they understand that their happiness stems from the fact that they got what they aimed for and are happy with how they got it.

Success and Happiness 

For an emotionally balanced person, success can definitely make him happy because it felt good when he got what he has dreamed of, and in the process of getting there, there was progress happening in his life, and he knows and appreciates it.

Being happy with your success is not just about getting there, but it is also about the journey of how you got there.  It is the process that makes everything worthwhile and meaningful.

Whatever field you’re in, if you study your market carefully and take note of the market trending, you will observe that, while other companies’ successes started with one simple idea that other players may not have thought of, others merely expounded on what is already out in the market and made it more appealing.

If you are out to conquer your market, you must remember two important things:

1. You don’t need a new idea to be able to succeed in business. Improving on what is already available can be your way to success.

2. The success of your new ideas is, most of the time, by trial and error only.

You don’t need a new idea to be successful.

It is true that some successful businesses we see now started as an offbeat idea that took years for others to catch on, including their target markets. However, you must not discount the fact that there are more thriving businesses now that were simply innovations of old ideas to make them more palatable to the modern taste of the masses.

You don’t have to be Bill Gates to build an empire as big as Microsoft Corporation. While others despair at the thought that they are not smart or witty enough to come up with something so extraordinary that others will want to pay them for their brilliant idea/s, you, on the other hand, can spend a little time doing a feasibility study on the market including demographics and their needs, and the economy.

The success of your new idea is by trial and error.

Again, you don’t have to be a genius to be able to come up with your own conclusions about your feasibility study. You need only a lot of patience and openness to understand what is going on.

From here, you can already surmise what it is the market has an immediate need for, what products or services are there to answer this need, and what you can do about it. The best way to test the satisfactoriness of your improved idea is by putting yourself in the shoes of your target market and using it yourself before selling it.

Bear in mind that the first try isn’t always going to be successful. You will definitely have a few misses before you hit the perfect formula. This is where your patience and perseverance should come into play. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Editor’s Note: Picture taken from

Success is a relative term.  Depending on how you look at it, your version of success can be entirely different from that of another’s.  In broader terms, one can say that one has lived a life of success where one has achieved true happiness, fulfillment, contentment, and a more welcoming and open acceptance of life – hurdles, victories, losses, and all.

Now, how to get to the achievement of such happiness, contentment, and all its shenanigans thereabouts is moot and academic.  When you consider what all the great philosophers have been driving at concerning success, everything is relative.  It’s all in your head - figuratively – that whatever you perceive about success and life is all up to you.

What does it Mean to be Successful?

In business terms, to be successful is to achieve the goals you have set for your company - sales targets, customer satisfaction, people empowerment, retention, and, naturally, monetary gains.  Fame can also be part of it – you know, being known as the top brand in such and such.

In any business field, raking in the big bucks is part of the achievement of success.  After all, money is a huge factor in running your business and keeping your people satisfied, although it is not the only factor to consider in maintaining a successful business.

In the business world, the more money you make, the more people will see your company as a successful venture, and the more you will be respected in your field.  However, in a more personal level, this may not contribute much to your personal success.

The Other Side of Success

As mentioned earlier, there is another side of success that a majority of people will find more meaningful and worth every effort to achieve it.  On a deeper level, personal success means that you have achieved what others spend most of their lives chasing after - personal fulfillment and happiness.

Ever wonder why some people you know or have heard of who seem to have everything in life are often the saddest, loneliest bunch?  In this regard, it is true what some of the wisest people have said, money can’t buy happiness.

Since the meaning of success is relative, it cannot be contained in one definition, but perhaps the closest thing we can ever say about success is that it is a fusion of a little bit of everything we have included here, the ratio of which depends on your priorities.

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