How does a contractor grow his business? Where does he get his next job? How can he be looking for a new job when he is in the field installing a pond?

These are the same questions that I’ve heard over and over from contractors.

What’s the common denominator of all those who have done it? Recently I reviewed several successful contractors. They were pond, paving stone, electrical, cabinet builders and a chimney company. I found an interesting thing. It was something common to all of them and without that all the marketing sales techniques and organizational schemes and plans are of no avail.

It was the determination that they could make it happen. The idea that they could do an action that would affect their environment and could “cause their stat to go up.”

I don’t mean thinking that maybe they could do it. I mean pure determination that a thing will be done. We have all had this at some point in our life: the idea that “No doubt about it I am going to pass that class” or go to the senior prom or score a touch down or write a story or marry that girl. It is that feeling you can make a certain thing happen.

Of course, having the right tools will help one know he can create the desired effect. You would feel much more causative standing in front of a large tree with a chain saw than you would with a table knife. But if you had that drive and determination and you only had a table knife you would recognize the table knife wouldn’t work and you would go find the right tools.

There are those that have a table knife in their hands with a chain saw near by and they never recognize they have the wrong tool. But as your determination to succeed and get the job done increases, so does your willingness to look for the right tool to use.

How do you know if they are the right tools and that you shouldn’t look further? Because they work when applied, they give you the correct result and they work all the time. Then all that’s needed is the determination of the operator of the tool that he will indeed get the job done, and he will be smart enough to sharpen the saw, change the oil, add gasoline and bring it in out of the rain. He will also realize that things can always be improved: there may be a new model of chainsaw, or a better method of felling trees.

I cannot over-stress the importance of the individual’s determinism as the common denominator to success. I am writing a series of ten articles for a weekly e-newsletter that will give you the basic tools that successful companies have used to grow their businesses, market more effectively, and sell their jobs. There will be a lot of information on how to put systems in place that will make you more money and give you more time with your family.

But no matter how good the tools are, you do need one thing: your determination that you can do it and there are “no excuses,” period! “No excuses” means that you can’t say: “I had a bad year because it rained too much,” or “The truck broke” or “The real estate market is down” or “The refinance wave is over.”

As soon as you say that, or something like it, you are placing your business success in the hands of a realtor or Mr. Bernanke (Chairman of the Fed). We have all done it, but it is the most dangerous and deadly thing we can do. To assign another person, company or activity as the cause of your success or failure is tantamount to signing your own death warrant.

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Terry Morrill is the CEO of Pacific Outdoor Living Pro Division (http://www.propondswest.com), which is a distributor of Aquascape pond installation products. The company is located in Sun Valley, CA. Pacific Pavingstone, also owned by Terry Morrill, has twice been listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in America, and this year is listed on the Inc. 5000 list.