“It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, Doc. Everyone knows that,” the patient, who was having all kinds of financial trouble, said to me. “If I didn’t compromise and cut corners and do a little shortchanging here and there, I wouldn’t be able to make it in the marketplace.”

Let’s examine these principles and see what’s involved. This patient’s first illusion was that he had to compromise because he was close to bankruptcy. The truth was he was close to bankruptcy because he had been a compromiser of the principles of integrity all along. That’s why his business was in trouble.

What about competition? That is what is inferred by the use of the analogy of the business world as a jungle. The truth of the matter is that success is relatively effortless. It is the simple expediency of overcoming the illusion of what competition is in this world. In the first place, there isn’t any real competition of which to speak.

What do I mean by that?

In the world of those who are committed to excellence, the non-compromise of integrity, and principle, there isn’t any competition. There are so few at the top of this pyramid that those who are there write their own tickets.

If we’re the best mechanics in town, do you think we’ll have any problem with competition? No. The problem is going to be that of overwork. Once our customers have experienced the quality of excellence, they will never be satisfied with anything less.

Now, by excellence, do I mean expertise? Do I mean exceptional ability? No, I do not mean that at all. Customers will make all kinds of compromises in their expectations if they know that they’re getting honesty and integrity in return. They will forgive us all kinds of mistakes if we work legally and are totally honest about it. They may be a little disappointed, but they won’t go elsewhere, so long as they get the honesty of our intentions.

For instance, if we bid on a contract, and after landing it find that we can’t complete the project as we had hoped because we underestimated, the customer will forgive us if we say, “Look, in order to stay with this bid price, we’re going to have to compromise on the quality of a certain material.” Allow the customer to have the option of the decision here. That way they cannot fault us later or undermine our reputations.

Build a fine reputation; reputation that builds success.

Ah, there’s that word: reputation. There’s the secret right there. We don’t have to knock our brains out to beat the competition. Our reputation effortlessly does it for us. This doesn’t mean that marketing gimmicks, publicity, and all the rest don’t have their place. But let’s remember that those are only attention getters.

Once we have the attention of the potential customer, we have to follow it up with integrity, quality, and a feeling of genuineness, which cannot be created unless that genuineness is actually there.

True success is so effortless, so easy, and such a snap, it’s sad to watch people out there struggling away, exhausting themselves, selling themselves out right and left, trying to “make it.” Their problem is that they think that success is “out there.” Success is automatic to a person who has made it. “Has it made” is an inner attitude. Once we have that attitude, success is automatic. It’s not a “so what?” It’s an “of course.”

Is success measured by making a lot of money?

Isn’t success making a lot of money? Isn’t that the common presumption? Success may or may not be accompanied by making a lot of money. To those who are successful, it doesn’t really matter that much. Have we ever realized that when we were completely and totally satisfied and happy with our successes, how much money we made was almost irrelevant? We need enough to pay our bills and provide for a reasonable standard of living for ourselves, but there isn’t that need to make a lot of money, which is actually compensation for lack of success.

If making a lot of money is what motivates us, then we don’t have the key to success. Money is, in fact, a substitute for the satisfaction that truly successful people get out of every job or operation that has gone well for them. Many of my greatest and happiest successes actually brought me no financial profit at all. When success is something within, it doesn’t require anything “out there.”

Making a lot of money is by its very nature “out there.” It would, at best, allow for some extra conveniences and pleasures in life, and perhaps validation about the accuracy of one’s financial theory in a given matter. Satisfaction and a feeling of success can be complete and total without anything at all happening “out there.”

That’s what I mean by transcending the world, by no longer being dependent on the effect of it and the victim of “out there.” Successful people have so many areas of satisfaction in their lives that they don’t have any areas of vulnerability. Thus, if the expected result does not occur, they don’t go into an emotional reaction about it.