Selling and teaching demand that you develop your intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills. You must be able to communicate with yourself as well as with others in a way that makes them buy your offering or benefit from the knowledge you want to impart.

Bathing is not negotiable! So is brushing your teeth and washing your underwear, so that you always have a fresh inviting scent around you. People should want to be around you, not avoid you because of unfriendly odours coming out of your mouth, shoes or armpits. Do the best with what you have; even the old can be made clean and hygienic to improve your image.

Be punctual; it shows your respect for other people.

Slipping into bad attitudes and habits is like a beautiful queen growing older and uglier compared to the defined mission and personal standards. Time and again everyone who is serious about making their success more deliberate needs to stop by the mirror in their own mind and ask, “Mirror, mirror in my mind, am I still on course to succeed in life?

You should be able to criticize and evaluate yourself before others do it. Check for congruity between your defined mission, vision, values and your practiced attitude, behaviour and habits.

The best way for reflection and self-assessment is to hold meetings with yourself. I will pardon you for missing some other meetings, but you must never have an excuse for missing the board meetings you need to hold with yourself – I call these “board meetings between me, myself and I”. The three of us in one place, in a no-holds-barred meeting, where life-changing resolutions are reached to craft my journey to success. As board members we give each other honest feedback.

Once you make the requisite personal commitment to make your success deliberate, that commitment must translate into a definition of higher personal standards meant to depict the true impression of what you have become or are becoming within.

You first compete with yourself before competing against others; if you cannot beat your last best result, do not be surprised if it seems difficult to compete against external competitors.

Generate great impressions. This is a direct result of setting higher standards for yourself in your speech, dress, living environment, grooming, etiquette, study, research and commitment.