Henry Ford famously said that “Getting ready is the secret of success”
While some people believe that this quote is about expectation – that is, you should ‘be ready’ for success to happen to you – I think that misses the point.
Ford is really saying that success isn’t due to a single masterful action. You need to pave the way carefully, and only that preparation makes the action decisive.
In short, the focus here is on what happens before the master-stroke.
Every joke has a set-up before the punch-line and every sale frames the deal before the clincher. Ford understood that success is no different.
I also made use of this principle when using NLP to model excellence. In fact, when Bandler and Grinder undertook their first modelling experiments, creating the foundations of NLP, they used this principle too.
They video-taped sessions with Virginia Satir and when they observed a change in a client, they rewound the tape to find out what Virginia had done to pave the way for that change.
I have also found this principle to be useful for Public Speaking though not just by rehearsing. Preparation is a well-understood part of athletic performance; everyone expects that athletes have undergone a rigorous and thorough training program before competing.
Success is no different, yet many still expect it to be a one-shot deal – they try once or twice, fail and then give up. Now imagine a complete novice learning the high-jump. Is it reasonable for them to give up after only a few days of failing to break the world record? That would be foolish.
Getting ready requires preparation, practice and learning. However, it doesn’t need endless repetition.
What series of exercises can you do to prepare yourself for success? To ‘tone your mental muscles’ so to speak?
Take some time to think about that and you may find your own answers. For those who want a short-cut, I’ve created my Mastering Success course and written my Goal Mastery book as a compilation of those methods.
That’s why I think this quote from Henry Ford is so important. It shows a successful man letting you in on his secret. Isn’t it time you got yourself ready too?
