Let’s say you know the sales closing rate is one out of three and you make $100,000 per deal. If your goal is to make $1 million, then you’d better go see more than 30 prospects. Visit 22 instead of 30 and a funny thing may happen. You may go six for 22. And you may go four for eight on your next eight calls.

Businesses fail for all sorts of reasons, many beyond our control. But if you don’t put forth the effort and do everything you can to make yours a success, the only person you can blame is yourself. And the bitter taste of “If only I had…” will last a long, long time.

[Ed. Note: Your best chance of making a business succeed? Getting "insider secrets" from experienced business-builders.

Author and businessman John L. Herman Jr. ("Herman"), who has owned more than 20 companies, has become an expert on why businesses fail. The above article was adapted with permission from Hermanisms: Axioms for Business and Life.

For more information about Herman and his business writing, please visit Hermanisms.com.]

What was I talking about? They had no problem. Hell, the company had lived on this precarious edge for years. This time was no different from any of the other bad spells. It would all be over soon. After all, they had always recovered before.

If you own a business, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have enough money in the bank to pay one month’s worth of bills?
• Are my sales going up or down?
• How are my margins?
• Is my bank considering pulling my line of credit?

If you don’t own a business – and we all do, really, because we are all a “business” of a sort – then check your bank balance against your credit card debt. Are you living over your head?

The most successful businesses recognize when they have a problem and do something about it, quickly. Whether it’s to a new strategy or to a completely new venture, they move on.

[Ed. Note: The best way to keep your head above water? Start your new business on the side, while keeping your day job. Begin your own business for under $100 right here.

Author and businessman John L. Herman Jr. ("Herman"), who has owned more than 20 companies, has become an expert on why businesses fail. The above article was excerpted with permission from Hermanisms: Axioms for Business and Life. For more information about Herman and his business writing, please visit Hermanisms.com.]

Naturally, bigger goals get a bigger rush. They also usually require more pain.

But succeeding makes the pain seem unimportant. If that were not true, would women ever have a second child? They know the birth will be painful, and still they want to bring that second life into the world. As a father, I am grateful for that. After all, the births don’t cause men any pain. (We feel the pain later, when those babies have grown into moody teenagers.)

As sports fans, we celebrate when our team wins the pennant. But we can’t possibly feel as good as the players do – because we didn’t experience the pain it took for them to get there. I have never heard a winning athlete say "It wasn’t worth it. The practices were too hard. I was away from my family too much. Keep the trophy. I don’t want it." No. They cry, they leap into the air, they blow kisses, and the team members hug each other in the sheer exhilaration of that winning moment.

At the moment of success, we forget the cost.

Do we ever go too far? Or pay too high a price? You bet we do. Because we are flawed and sometimes ignore things we shouldn’t. In relationships, for example. Any joy in a success after a break-up will be tempered by the loss. But there will still be joy.

The ideal is to achieve success without paying too high a price. The person who figures that out gets the biggest rush in the end.

[Ed. Note: You can speed up the time it takes to succeed with the help of a Personal Life Coach. "Hire" your own for $1.25 a day right here. [link to TSAP] ETRgoalsetting

Author and businessman John L. Herman Jr. ("Herman"), who has owned more than 20 companies, has become an expert on why businesses fail. The above article was excerpted with permission from Hermanisms: Axioms for Business and Life. [link] ETRgoalsetting For more information about Herman and his business writing, please visit Hermanisms.com.]

Set aside your ego. Recognize that someone may be better than you are at what you do. Admit it – and then set your sights on becoming even better.

Who else makes what you do, sells what you do, or provides the same service you do – and is more successful at it? If you don’t try to understand what they are doing better, you don’t really want to win.

You see, another business fact is that sometimes number one slips and becomes number two or number three. Find a competitor that is more successful than you. Identify what they do better, combine that with your strengths, and then work harder or smarter. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be number one someday.

[Ed. Note: Author and businessman John L. Herman Jr. ("Herman"), who has owned more than 20 companies, has become an expert on why businesses fail. The above article was excerpted with permission from Hermanisms: Axioms for Business and Life. For more information about Herman and his business writing, please visit Hermanisms.com.]

Learn sales techniques from a successful salesman. Learn bookkeeping from a CPA. Don’t waste time trying to reinvent the wheel. Benefit from someone else’s years of experience.

Go to a bookstore or library. Pick up any damn book you can find and study.

The simple effort of reading will put you ahead of those who don’t read. For one thing, it allows you to learn from the mistakes of others before you make them yourself.

When I was young, there was a saying among the inner-city kids: "Stay in school and get a million bucks free." Even those little kids knew that what they could learn by reading and studying would get them further in life than kids who never cracked a book.

[Ed. Note: Author and businessman John L. Herman Jr. ("Herman"), who has owned more than 20 companies, has become an expert on why businesses fail. The above article was excerpted with permission from Hermanisms: Axioms for Business and Life. For more information about Herman and his business writing, please visit www.Hermanisms.com.

And for expert advice on how to achieve all your business and professional goals, sign up for ETR's Total Success Achievement program. Learn all the details here.]