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When you read business profiles, are you sure you’re paying attention to the right parts of the story? When your competitors are successful, are you looking for flaws, or how they achieved success? You could be cheating yourself out of valuable lessons without realizing it.

Studies show that we learn more from success than failure. There’s a reason coaches have their players watch footage of the greats. Seeing others maximize their potential makes it easier to improve our own behavior. Next time you come across a success story, don’t focus on the superficial.

Get proof that it’s possible.

While our own dreams seem unattainable, some people make success look easy. More often than not, a lot of hard work is going on behind the scenes. When successful people talk about how they became who they are, pay attention to the obstacles they faced along the way. How are they similar to the issues you are dealing with? Focus on how the individual overcame their obstacles and think about how you can apply that to your situation.

Get a motivational boost.

Nothing gets you off your butt and ready to take action like seeing your peers passing you by. Instead of giving your friends and competitors the side eye, use their success as a motivator. Forget looking for the negative. What strategies can you borrow from their progress?

Learn from someone else’s mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes. Thank God! Because learning from the missteps of others can keep you from repeating them in your own life. Look for lessons others have learned. How do they get themselves in a bad situation and how do they get out of it?

Find out how successful people think.

Success often requires making high-risk decisions. Pay attention to how successful people manage these risks. How do they weigh the pros and cons of their decision? What steps do they take to reduce negative consequences?

Get new sources of inspiration.  

If you admire someone, find out whom they admire. This gives you insight into how your role model became who they are, and how their brain works.

Warning: Notice your differences.

Every trick doesn’t work for every person. Pay attention to how your situation differs from the person’s story you’re studying. Do you have a smaller market, lower budget, or a more conservative audience? Take those differences into account as you strategize how to apply their strategy to your situation.

Repeat success; learn from your victories.

Don’t put all your attention on what other people are doing. You’re making some pretty impressive moves yourself. When you achieve something, analyze what made you successful. Learn what your strengths and abilities are so you can call on them to get over hurdles in the future.

You’re ready to consume success stories like never before. Check out profiles and business spotlights like those featured on Madame Noire whenever you can. Read autobiographies of the people you admire (and the people they admire). Subscribe to the blogs of people who have the job you want. A major perk of our over-sharing culture is that people are giving away their secrets to success for free.

These strategies aren’t just effective for succeeding in business. Whatever you want to accomplish – losing weight, buying a house, changing a habit – there’s someone who’s been there, done that, and ready to show you the way.

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C. Cleveland is a freelance writer and content strategist in New York City, perfecting living the fierce life at The Red Read. She is at your service on Twitter (@CleveInTheCity) and Facebook (/MyReadIsRed).

Image: iStockphoto

Starting a new business can be frustrating, stressful and taxing. But  believe it or not, according to  a new study, entrepreneurs are the happiest — whether their business is a success or a failure.

The  study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business surveyed 11,000 graduates of the school’s MBA program, who were asked to rate their happiness with their career overall, their current job and their work-life balance, small business owners. About 20 percent of the graduates started their own businesses.

Although the study did find the more money someone earned, the happier they were, it also discovered “the role entrepreneurship played in a person’s overall career satisfaction,” reports The Street. “If money really was the key to happiness, you would expect the high-level execs at financial firms to rate themselves as happiest. But that wasn’t the case. Grads running their own businesses ranked themselves happier than all other professions, regardless of how much money they made.”  Only 56 percent of  the Wharton grads who started their own businesses actually made a profit.

The entrepreneurs in the study also felt they had more control over their time—even if they worked endless hours getting their business off the ground. “Grads running their own businesses also rated themselves higher than any other profession when it came to work-life balance,” writes The Street. “An entrepreneur can choose to take a break to attend a daughter’s soccer game or son’s school play, even if that means working late into the night afterward.”

Victoria’s Secret has long stood as the brand for Hot, alluring and must-have lingerie. Its parent company, Limited Brands, was named “The Most Admired Specialty-Apparel Retailer” by Fortune Magazine last year. In addition, Limited Brands reported a 27 percent increase in earnings last quarter, thanks to the lingerie brand. With 90,000 employees, thousands of stores nationwide, the Columbus-based brand has managed to stay on top and avoid a potentially damaging scandal. But how? CNNMoney gives the details.

First, Victoria’s Secret owes its success to its annual over-the-top event, Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The televised fashion show costs $12 million to put on and attracts worldwide attention. Last year in November, the show drew over 10 million viewers to CBS boosting the channel’s ratings and featured celebrities Kanye West and Jay Z.

Secondly, Victoria’s Secret has mastered the art of re-invention. Customers can’t seem to get enough of its “Miraculous Bra,” the best seller that adds two sizes to its wearer. The company has been able to capitalize on its success by using the same colors and patterns of the best-selling bra for its non-push up bra styles, adding a boost to their sale as well.

Thirdly, what sticks out about the brand is its resiliency to controversy. When Bloomberg News put out a report claiming Victoria’s cotton came from a farm in Burkina Faso that used child labor, Limited Brands disputed the claim and has so far been able to avoid the negative press.

Lastly, Victoria Secret has been smart about international expansion. Keeping the pitfalls of overexpansion carefully in mind, the company opened several stores in London Heathrow Airport in 2004 and has monitored them for eight years before deciding on its current plans to establish one hundred more in the global market. This year, two Victoria’s Secret stores will launch in Britain, one in Kuwait and two in United Arab Emirates.

(Businessweek) — Small business owners who declare personal or business bankruptcy face restricted access to credit and higher interest rates for years. But those who persist with a new or reorganized company can become just as large and profitable as counterparts who have never declared bankruptcy. That’s according to a new report released by the U.S.Small Business Administration, “Beyond Bankruptcy: Does the Bankruptcy Code Provide a Fresh Start to Entrepreneurs?” The research was done by Aparna Mathur, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington. Mathur, who specializes in economic research on small business, bankruptcy, and tax policy, spoke recently to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

Karen E. Klein: Why did you choose to study small companies that had declared bankruptcy?

Aparna Mathur: I had studied bankruptcy and small business as a PhD student. I realized that no one had studied entrepreneurs in a post-bankruptcy scenario. I wanted to know: How do companies that have gone through a bankruptcy compare with those who have not?

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by Alexander Cain

While many people are fans of the book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” many of us struggle to ingrain those principals into our lives. It takes an estimated 21-28 days to transform an action into a habit. For close to a month, one must remain diligent about both his attitude and actions in order to adopt these 7 worthwhile habits. What I hope to provide is a basic overview of each of the habits, as well as a few actions you can do right now and in the future in order to instill these life lessons into one’s everyday life.

Habit #1 Be Proactive

Proactive is often a word we hear being emphasized by people in various management positions.To be proactive is to go beyond the commonplace definition of taking initiative, and to be responsible for one’s own decisions and behavior. Many people take a reactive response where they blame the environment for their misfortune. How many of us have said phrases such as, “ If only my boss wasn’t a jerk, I would be doing better” or “My life is terrible, no one appreciates anything I’m doing.” Rather than taking a reactive response to everything, the book encourages its readers to take responsibility for their behaviors. One’s behavior is based on one’s attitude so in order to change the behavior, one must change their own attitude and not worry about any external factors.

Tips To Being Proactive:

1)   Listen to the language you use during the week.  When you hear yourself using words/phrases such as I can’t or if only, write down two thoughts that are more proactive ideas- I can, I will, I prefer, etc.

2)   If a stressful situation arises, use the MASTER acronym to assess the situation and come up with the appropriate response

Measure the importance of the situation from a scale of 1 to 5

Asses your initial reaction

See how you would normally respond in this situation

Think of a more proactive response

Engage or exit- leave the situation or use the appropriate proactive response

Review your response to ensure you are making the right decision

(Second Act Careers) – If you’re ready to start a business as your second act, the best time to do it is while you’re still working a full-time job. In this recession economy, many people are not making ends meet with their paychecks, so launching a side-hustle business is a great option. Right now, baby boomers are becoming business owners faster than any other group. It’s best to start planning your business at least 12 months before you launch.

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by R. Asmerom

Can we respect the filmmaker for his business savvy, without paying mind to his sub-par artistic skills?

In his column for AOL Black Voices, Dr. Boyce Watkins recently brought up the persistent issue of Tyler Perry’s worth to the black arts scene. “Do Tyler’s films, which possess a somewhat predictable recipe involving the church, black women, a man in a dress and muscle-bound men with sweaty bodies represent the good, the bad or the ugly of the African-American community?” he asked. “Some, like Spike Lee, have gone hard on Tyler, saying that he presents the kind of minstrel show that racists in America are always willing to pay money to see.”

It’s obvious to most that Tyler Perry films’ don’t necessarily evoke quality – even The New York Times subtly avoids doing full on reviews of his work; but, they are undeniably popular. Very very popular. And Perry is confident. Very very confident. So confident that he’s managed to withstand the overwhelming negative criticism of his work as a filmmaker, continue to churn out cringe-inducing dialogue and unrealistic plot lines and build a lucrative media empire in the process.

So what is it that Perry can teach us? Not the art of film-making certainly but his career does shed light on the power of confidence in business. Like Kanye West, Perry lacks self-doubt and that signifies his empowerment. “Doubt can be a great barrier to business success,” said Dr. Mark L. Frigo , director of the Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University. “It’s like trying to drive your car with the parking brake on.  Doubt results in inaction [and] hesitation.  Doubt is the enemy of success.”

When Spike Lee criticized Perry for producing “coonery and buffonery,” he  implied that Perry purposely exploit blacks for his own gain. I think there are many other artists who are more worthy of that accusation. It would be safe to say that Perry actually believes in his work and his righteous mission and is, in essence, a good salesman. He believes in his product and the marketplace continues to support his inventiveness.

Psychologist Gayle A. Davis attributes Perry’s success to his “doer” nature. “Present thinking people are “doers” who think from a present orientation and focus there every action on staying in the moment and attending to the details of what they are doing and why,” she said. “Dreamers mainly operate from a future thinking position and opt to spend a lot of time playing “what if” and “how about” rather than taking action.” This, in part, explains his prolificity.

In any case, Tyler Perry will continue to trigger conversations about blaxploitation, business, and art for many years to come. While it’s not appropriate to respect all entertainers and businessmen for “doing it” because they are making money, it’s not fair to lump Perry with other public figures who set out to be walking hypocrites.  Perry does set out to make “uplifting” films and although he has a far way to go with pleasing his many critics, he is a testament to the power of confidence and action.