What is the Secret Formula for Success in Silicon Valley?

Over the past six years I have participated in a number of seminars, sessions, coaching by some of the best ( Laural Langemeier, Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Allen) and read over 200 books to find out the secrets of success to help others. I have seen success come from a number of different angles. What is the common denominator? Funny enough, I found it was front of me my entire life. Passion - the formula that works for all the Entrepreneurs I have met over my life.

One of the concepts that was drilled into me when I was young by my parents was " Be careful of who you hang out with". I've been fortunate to live close to the Silicone Valley since it started and worked or met some of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time. For them and for us,
it all starts with Passion; what we are interested in, what we want to say or what we want to do. To have success, one of the first lessons will be to surround yourself with the right people to get good advice. I would not be as successful if I took advice or listened to people who didn't have what I wanted. To many times couples who are going through a divorce choose to go to a counselor who has been through three marriages themselves rather then going to one that is still married. The end result is a divorce. In all of my success's the first indicator that I'm on to something was people telling me "It wont work". If that were true we would have never been one of the only successful competitor to MicroSoft, first to synchronize many devises with one key stroke or release the first camera and phone to share picture over the wireless network.

Another concept is Passion and excitement are contagious. If you think about it, why would you ever start something or do something for a prolonged period of time if you are not passionate about it? Watch all the successful people in whatever they do and you will notice that they use business to live their lives. They don't live life to work. What we really want to do is to be spending time on the things we are really passionate about. Then these things will not appear to be work or chores but something we really enjoy and don't mind to use our valuable time for.

A good book to that I just finished is a book by Masaru Emoto called "The Hidden Messages in Water". In it he shows water that has been frozen when different influences are placed upon the water and how it is effected. Since humans are composed mostly of water, It gave me some new thoughts about "Be careful of who you hang out with" because he has shown how how we can be effected by others. Did you ever feel the passion of someone and get caught up in it?

The third concept is NOT to do it all yourself. What are your talents and skill sets? All the entrepreneurs I've worked with have never done it alone. Never. They have taken inventory of their skills and knowledge and then gone out and found the best and brightest to partner with that do the task they hate and the have the skill sets they don't. The fastest moving industry is Personal Franchising and it is the main reason many fail. They start their business for themselves and by themselves and try to do it ALL. Just like any other business, the focus should be to find others that are better at the tasks that you are not, build a partnership and share in the growth of the business. When this is done - businesses expand at fast rates! When you have the right people doing what they are good at and love to do, taking action or being fearful of mistakes vanishes.

Partnerships and relationships through association are critical. We call it networking in the valley. Whether you are a member at LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace, Xing, or any one of the other social networking site, it is important to be connected if you want to become successful. Use your networks to give you feedback, sell your product or services and better yet build partnerships with.

If you are new to all of this or you are looking for the next big thing? Take your passion, find a low cost of entry Personal Franchise, apply your talent and partner with others to learn the steps to success either in an incubator or developing your own franchise. If you are passionate about it, you are probably already talented in it, or can become a great talent quickly. When you take the above actions and throw in networking you can't avoid success.