Business success can be a fleeting thing. One moment you’re on top of the world and in a moment, everything can change. I experienced that first hand in 2013. At the time, I had a successful real estate company and then lost it all. I could have chosen to ride off quietly into the sunset, but instead I chose to dust myself off and get back to business.

Today I’m busy sharing the lessons I learned along the way through books and speaking engagements. It turns out my experiences can help businesses teach their employees to make better decisions. The foundation of my philosophy in life came directly from my parents. They taught me to always remain positive and expect to succeed.

When you expect success it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. There’s no substitute for hard work, but with the right focus and determination, that isn’t an issue. I never lost my drive to succeed even in the worst moments. There are some simple reasons why my story can help make employees more productive.

Increased Production

Every business owner wants the opportunity to triple their production, but not many know how to do it. There aren’t any guarantees in business or life, but my program gives businesses a strong foundation to achieve this type of growth. I do this by sharing my experiences without reservations. I don’t sugar coat things.

In school, there are teachers that give students plenty of breaks. That might be great for helping with their self-esteem, but it won’t help them succeed in business. A better approach is to teach students to recognize where they went wrong and embrace it. Then they can learn from it and move on.

Apply Simple Principles for Success

In business, we’re often looking for that next big thing that will make our own business a resounding success. The elusive Holy Grail of business doesn’t really exist. The difference between a successful business and a failure is a positive corporate culture and employees that believe in it. This sounds so simple, but it’s amazing how many businesses fail to apply such simple principles that can turn their business around.

Taking Responsibility is Hard Work

Mistakes happen. That’s a simple fact. Convincing employees to own up to them, even if they’re big ones, isn’t an easy task. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

Businesses that encourage a culture where mistakes are recognized as bumps in the road instead of identifying them as terminal illnesses have a greater chance of success. That’s one of the fundamental parts of my message when a business invites me to speak to its employees. I’ve experienced first-hand both the highs and lows of the business world.

It’s hard work taking responsibility for your own actions. It can be stressful for both the employee and his/her superior, but the opportunity to learn and grow from that experience shouldn’t be over looked. I firmly believe that a business that’s not afraid to embrace mistakes has a greater chance of success in the end.

Creating a Strong Foundation

By accepting mistakes as part of the growth process of a business, managers create a strong foundation for future success. It’s also important to provide employees with the tools they need to succeed. Proper training and growth opportunities are essential in any good business. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have always embraced this philosophy and it’s one of the main reasons they’re so far ahead of the competition.

I learned through experience that not having a strong foundation is a recipe for disaster. I knew very little about real estate when I made the switch after a golf cart accident forced me to change my focus. In hindsight, it’s clear that I didn’t take the time to establish a strong foundation for my business through applying the principles above. Speaking about my experiences allows me to help others avoid the same mistakes.

Sound Advice and Taxes

There is no shortage of people out there waiting to offer you advice. That doesn’t mean that you should listen to every one of them. The key to business success is being able to recognize what represents sound advice and what doesn’t.

Mistakes are Part of Business

As I said earlier, I never sugar coat my message when I have the opportunity to speak with a group of employees. I wish someone had offered me the same courtesy a few years back. I had to learn some hard lessons on my own after my conviction for willful failure to file a tax return. That included spending time in prison for my mistakes.

If by sharing my experiences I can help others avoid the same fate then I’m glad to do it. Prison doesn’t define who I am. It’s something that happened to me and like every other experience in life it’s something that I learned from and then I moved on. The ability to learn from mistakes and move on is important in business.

A Little Perseverance

I don’t want to suggest that making mistakes and owning up to them is easy. It isn’t. Accepting the fact that I made poor choices and that I deserved to go to prison has been a hard thing to come to terms with. It’s human nature to want to blame others for our own failings, but it’s something I’ve learned to do. What I’ve learned from the experience is that you can come back from the brink with a little hard work and perseverance.

I reached the top of the real estate world a few years back. I had famous clients and I was invited to speak on popular news channels such as CNN. Then it all ended. At least that part of my life did.

The easy thing to do would have been to stay out of the spotlight when released from prison. I chose to use my experiences to rebuild my life and share them so that others could avoid the same pitfalls. The right road isn’t always the easy road.