What motivates you?

"I have a willingness to improve and always learn," said author Amy Tan, best-selling author of the Joy Luck Club.

This quote was highlighted by Richard St. John in his book, Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich.

St. John's premise is that successful people keep improving and the story is a great follow-up to the book 8 to be Great where he describes the eight simple steps success. This is one of my favorite posts from last year and probably the quickest Ted Talk you'll ever see. Click over for three minutes to learn What leads to Success and I bet you, like me, will want to check out his next installment aimed at helping people be the best they can be.

Spoiler alert: The big word this time around for St. John is serve. As an Optimist Club member volunteer, I understand the desire to serve others and I can relate to how we are all serving someone else in our lives and careers. And that is what drives me to continue to improve myself; my desire to make the world a better place to live.

Do you have a secret to your success? Please share it with us. We'd love to know what motivates you to always improve.

Don't be afraid to learn and you will succeed

I don't always agree with Seth Godin, and that's okay. I still read his blog every day because his musings generally make me think or give me an idea to try or a reason to improve on something.  You don't have to agree with everyone and everything in order to learn and grow. In fact, the very definition of learning might be the opposite of unabashed agreement and acceptance because in order to learn, one must know how to ask questions, perform research, develop an informed opinion, be willing to demonstrate and defend their position, and be flexible enough to change their mind.

I think that Seth's Blog has three excellent posts this week that back up my opinion and illustrate my thinking in minimal words as only Seth can do:

• Questions or Answers 
• Dissatisfaction Guaranteed
• I need you to see things my way

Of course this post is really about change: not being afraid to try new methods, champion new ideas and lead the way even when others don't agree with you. It is difficult to turn your back on naysayers, but sometimes that is the only thing that will allow the next best thing to happen. Don't be so afraid of your own success that you allow yourself to embrace their negativity for fear of failure. You won't fail if you try, learn, and try again.

What leads to success?

One of the benefits of social networking is that our friends, acquaintances, and people that we may never meet but follow on Twitter anyway, post links to articles and information that they find helpful, interesting, thought provoking or amusing. Sometimes we want to share that information with others. I decided to do that today with this presentation that came to me via my friend Don Crall on Facebook.  Please take a look at eight simple words that add up to success from Richard St. John on Ted.com.