The number one thing you need to succeed in business is a successful attitude. A successful attitude means accepting that everyone’s life is not fair, but that everyone can still succeed if they take responsibility for themselves and their own actions, and don’t expect to be handed everything on a silver platter. You may have encountered all kinds of difficulties in your life, but you are not unique.

Each of us as human beings needs to struggle in order to grow, and luckily struggles are something that is impossible to avoid. Begin to look at your experiences and the difficulties in your life as gifts that have made you the strong, resilient, unique person that you are. Recognize that perseverance; wisdom and creativity result from overcoming obstacles, not avoiding them, or living a life free from difficulty, pain, or failure.

Failure is an important part of life, and handling failure successfully greatly contributes to making a person successful. We all experience failure. As the saying goes, "suck it up, buttercup" — learn the lesson and use the experience to grow wiser, not angrier, and more bitter or discouraged. Expecting to live a life without mistakes is not only unreasonable, it’s boring. Mistakes are one way we, as human beings, learn and grow. Every mistake made is a teachable moment, a moment to learn what you are made of and what actions don’t work so they aren’t repeated.

The wisest learners, however, will learn not only from their own successes, mistakes and failures, but from those of others. This is why we are writing this book: to share what we have learned along the way. We want to let you know that while you aren’t the first or the last to make mistakes, if you give yourself permission to be a lifelong learner and permission to fail, you will eventually succeed. Guaranteed. So read on. And when you fail, dust yourself off, regroup - and get back up on the horse.

Scott Says: There were times that I felt like throwing in the towel, but with self-employment you can change directions and proceed a different way when you need to.