7 Secrets to Success Ever wish you had a cheat sheet for starting a great business? Icon Brian Tracy's 7 core principles are as close to it as you can get.

There are seven essential principles that you must practice as an entrepreneur throughout your business life if you are to achieve maximum success. They have been taught and repeated in thousands of books and articles over the years, and here they are.

1. Clarity: You must be absolutely clear on who you are and what you want. You need written goals and plans for every part of your life. As Zig Ziglar would say, you must become a "meaningful specific" rather than a "wandering generality."

Begin with your values. What do you believe in and stand for? What is most important to you in life? What would you pay for, fight for, suffer for and die for? What do you really care about? Someone once wrote, "Until you know exactly what you would do if you only had one hour left to live, you are not prepared to live."