Are You Ready to Commit to Success?

The fact that you’re reading this — that you opened the material and you’re still here — tells me you’re the kind of owner who actually implements. So let me ask the question that decides everything: are you ready to commit to success? Not hope for it, or plan for it, or prepare for it. Commit to it.

Give Yourself a Great Excuse

Here’s a little secret behind a lot of my success: I’ve always looked for a great excuse to fire up my staff and students. A new movie, a season, a community event — any good reason to get everyone out of bed earlier and market hard. You may not strictly need it, but having a compelling reason to convince yourself and everyone around you that “now is the time” for record enrollments and renewals becomes a marvelous self-fulfilling prophecy. I’ve always tried to have at least a quarterly reason to go all-out filling the school. A good excuse for peak results is a real sales-management tool.

What Actually Guarantees Success

I hate to keep banging the same drum, but the fundamentals don’t change: price your tuition at $397-plus per month, fix your sales ratios, deliver continually better service from your students’ perspective, and market, market, market to add 20-plus new students every month. The difference between owners who thrive and owners who don’t isn’t knowledge of those fundamentals — it’s implementation. I’m endlessly amazed by how many people pay lip service to wanting success and then do little or nothing.

Two Quotes That Lived on My Desk for Years

The first: winners remember results; losers remember reasons. I constantly talk with owners who can recite a long list of reasons my suggestions won’t work in their town, for their students, with their style. If they poured one-tenth of that energy into simply going and doing it, they’d accomplish something real. The excuse of the day is always “the economy” — even as the same consumers happily spend hundreds on the latest gadget.

The second is about commitment. W.H. Murray, writing about the Scottish Himalayan Expedition, captured a profound truth: until you’re truly committed, hesitation rules and you can always draw back. But the moment you definitely commit, things shift — a whole stream of events, assistance, and unforeseen opportunities flows toward you that never would have otherwise. As the Goethe line he loved puts it: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.” Wait-and-see always leads to failure; you have to be an active, committed participant in your own success.

Believe What’s Possible

Years ago, when the industry’s top operators first started publicly sharing their real numbers, it created instant social proof. Suddenly owners could see one peer running a $75,000-a-month single school and think, “That person’s no smarter than me — if they can do it, I can too.” That belief is extraordinarily valuable.

I see the opposite all the time, too. I once watched an owner proudly describe his “very successful” school doing $15,000 a month — not realizing that other owners with the same style and clientele were grossing $35,000 to $100,000 a month. Very successful depends entirely on your perspective. If you only ever talk with owners at your level — or below it — you’ll never grasp your school’s real potential. That’s exactly why you must surround yourself with people doing better than you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to “commit” to success as a school owner?

It means moving past hoping and planning to decisive action and public goals. Committed owners implement the fundamentals consistently; uncommitted owners collect reasons why things won’t work.

What are the fundamentals that drive a school’s success?

Premium tuition (around $397+ a month), strong sales ratios, excellent student-focused service, and relentless marketing to add 20-plus students a month. The differentiator isn’t knowing them — it’s implementing them.

Why does my peer group affect my results?

Because you can’t aspire to what you’ve never seen. Surrounding yourself with higher-performing owners provides proof of what’s possible and pulls your own expectations — and results — upward.

Ready to Add 100 Students to Your School?

Commit, then execute with a proven plan: get your free copy of Six Simple Steps to Add 100 New Students to Your School at SimpleSteps.com.

And to deliver the service that turns commitment into retention, study Extraordinary Teaching at ExtraordinaryTeaching.com.

Stephen Oliver, MBA, is a 10th Degree Black Belt, the founder of Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, and is known industry-wide as “The Millionaire Maker.”