I think the principles of success don't change much over time....

Here's what Joe Cossman found separated the SUCCESSFUL business-people from those who were NOT so successful....

Joe Cossman is a very successful businessman, and I high recommend his books and other materials. I mention him a lot, so you can probably tell I'm a big fan!

Anyhow, here's another educational Joe Cossman story....

He already had decades of successful business experience when he was offered the opportunity to take a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA). Joe Cossman had never attended college, but his world experience was considered to be plenty for him to jump straight to the Master's program. He decided to take it up.

In order to complete his Master's degree, Joe Cossman had to write a thesis. What topic could he write his thesis about?

Well, at the time he had been running his "Cossman Entrepreneur's Program" for several years -- where he taught people many of his business techniques and strategies.

He decided that he would write a thesis on the difference between successful and unsuccessful students of the Cossman Entrepreneur's Program. In order to keep the group focused, he decided only to survey those former students who lived in Southern California.

Joe Cossman invited 1000 former students of his to a reunion in Hollywood, California. Each attendee was given a special questionnaire to fill out, to determine whether that student had been successful or unsuccessful, and some of the characteristics that student had.

Before the surveys were filled out, here were some of Joe Cossman's thoughts. He thought that success could be due to possibly ALL of the following factors: maybe the age of the person, their environment, maybe what their father did, their religion, and maybe their education....

Using this method, he accumulated two years of study in this thesis.

He was shocked and surprised by the result!

He found that age, religion, education, and environment had NOTHING to do with success. There were successful graduates in all age groups, religions, education levels and from all sorts of environments.

The ONLY thing that he found stood out was that the successful graduates DID NOT QUIT.

Here's what Joe Cossman himself says....

I cannot give you any more conclusive proof and evidence of success than this two-year study. These successful people absolutely did not quit; they hung on! Sure they had disappointments! They had dead ends! Sure they had losses, but they always bounced back. In fact, the average successful graduate reported that he was able to increase his income by 40 percent or more after taking the course. This proved conclusively that money-making is a skill you can learn.

(From How I made $1,000,000 in Mail Order by E. Joseph Cossman, p. 216.)

I like to read widely about success stories, and I've noticed this pattern again and again....

Whether it's Richard Branson, facing one crisis or another (he's had plenty), he always perservered and won out in the end.

Or whether it's Joe Sugarman, who had failure after failure after failure (as he explains in his book Success Forces), he perservered and ended up making many millions of dollars.

I also recently read the story of Debbi Fields, the founder of Mrs. Fields' cookies.

The first day she opened her first Mrs. Fields' cookies store, nobody bought her cookies!

But she perservered and walked around the shopping arcade giving away cookies for free, and she found that many people came back to purchase more....

If she had given up, where would she be today?

So if you're feeling down, beaten, or defeated, remember that ALL successful people have felt like that at one time or another too....

But they NEVER allowed themselves to give up, but continued to pursue their dream....

Which is how they got where they are today.... :)

Have you had an experience which you felt had you beat, but which you "bounced back" from? Please share it.... I have a pretty good story from my own life, which I'll tell later.... :)

Dien Rice