Top 10 Success Principles to Learn from Sandeep Maheshwari

When we talk about the best motivational speaker in India, one man always stands out from the rest. And his name is Sandeep Maheshwari. Not only Sandeep is one of the fastest-growing entrepreneurs in all of India, but he is also a motivational speaker and famously known for his free motivational life-changing seminars that he conducted across India.

Like many others, Sandeep did not come from a rich family. He used to study at Kirori Mal College and was doing business communication there. However, in his third year into college, he chose to drop out due to personal reasons. His family was into aluminum-related business, but the business collapsed and the onus falls on him. And like many other young people, Sandeep tried to do as many things as possible, from joining network marketing companies to trying to manufacture and market household products, he tried whatever he can to make a living.

And it was during this time when Sandeep found his passion, which is the informal education about life and success.

Thus, he ventured into the modeling career, but it did not turn out good. Sandeep witnessed the harassment and exploitation experienced by other models. It was then he decided to help those struggling models and created a 2-week course in photography. It was then he set up his own company called Mash Audio Visuals Pvt. Ltd., which a couple of years down the road, he founded ImagesBazaar, the world’s largest collection of Indian images with over a million images and more than 7,000 clients across the world.

What makes Sandeep a different entrepreneur than others is his intense passion to inspire and help others. This is also why he ventured into the personal development realm by giving free motivational seminars from time to time.

Sandeep says that money is not his motivation. In fact, he believes that when you have enough, you should give it away to help others. And back with his strong purpose, he has the vision to ignite and inspire the entrepreneurial spirit of tomorrow’s leaders and help them succeed.

In this article, we are going to discuss the top 10 success principles anyone can learn from Sandeep Maheshwari. No matter you are looking to live a better life or to be successful in whatever you do, there is something you can learn from him.

Principle # 1. Do Not Waste Time

One of the most commonly shared success principles by Sandeep is not to waste time. Sandeep believes that time is the only commodity that we cannot trade with anything else in this world. And he also believes that your time is your life.

Most people treat time lightly because of the illusion of the daily cycle. You choose to put things off and choose to waste time by doing things that do not matter because there is always a tomorrow. If you have only 24 hours to live, things will be very much different. Suddenly, you will never waste any moment on games or check updates on social media because your time is limited.

When you know that your time is limited, you will never waste it lightly. You will only spend your time on things that truly matter to you. In fact, your time is limited in this life. You will never know when your last day will be and you can never tell the future. However, because every day seems to be repeating itself, we tend to take things for granted. We think that if we do not do it today, we can do it tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow may not always arrive.

Therefore, follow Sandeep’s advice, do not waste time, and choose to spend your time wisely. Spend time on things that matter to you and things that you value the most.

Just like what Bruce Lee, the famous Hollywood martial artist says, “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” Focus on your priority and do what is most important to you from now on.

Principle # 2. Practice for Improvement

Another important key that Sandeep often tells his audiences is to always practice for improvement. Sandeep is the man who truly shows this quality in his life. He started from nothing and builds his businesses to stardom. Today, he is not just an entrepreneur, but also a mentor, a coach, and also a motivational speaker. And he is able to achieve all the stellar success because he is willing to learn, practice, and improve each and every area of his life.

This is what you must do as well. There is no way you can reach a higher ground without practicing and becoming good at what you do. The only way you can command a higher price tag is by improving yourself and becoming the best in what you do. When you consult a general doctor, the fee is lower than a specialist. A specialist is able to ask for a higher fee because he or she is one of the best in the fields.

Look at Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, and all the successful people out there. You will notice that they are successful because they are the best in their industry. Warren Buffett is one of the best investors in the world because he constantly practices, learns, and improves his investing skills. The same goes for Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, and the rest of the extraordinary people who have achieved amazing success in their lives and career.

It does not matter where you are right now or where you come from. Even if you have zero knowledge and skills about something, you can practice and learn them. This is exactly what Sandeep did and this is also how he managed to build successful businesses from the ground.

Principle # 3. Never be Afraid to Fail

Once, in his seminar, Sandeep tells his audiences that he has gone through many failures in his life. He continues to explain and say that when he dropped out of college, he failed. He failed when he cannot perform in his career. He started a few businesses, but many did not produce any fruitful results. Many of his businesses have gone to bust, but that does not make him a failure.

Sandeep says that failures are an important part of success. In fact, one cannot be successful without going through failures. He says that success comes from experience. And experience comes from failures. While failures may seem inevitable in your venture, there is no need for you to be afraid of them because anyone with a strong determination can turn their failures into successes, just like how Sandeep did.

If you are serious about becoming a successful entrepreneur, running a few businesses, inspiring others, and making millions of dollars each year, you must not be afraid to fail, rather, be willing to fail.

The more you fail, the more you will learn, and thus, the faster you can produce the result you want and get to your ultimate goals. Just remember that failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, with more intelligence.

Every master was once a beginner. And the only way a beginner can transform into a master is through tons of practice and going through failures after failures. Of course, you should not be discouraged when you fail. Instead, treat your failure as your feedback. When you do something and you fail, learn from the process, and treat failure as your feedback to improve. Your failure is telling you something is not right and you need to change.

When you improve your strategy and do it again, you will get better results. Failure is not a person, it is just an event. If you fail yesterday, it does not make you a failure today. You will only become a failure if you choose to succumb to it, accept your defeat, and give up trying.

Principle # 4. Adapt to Change Quickly

Another key element to Sandeep’s success is his ability to adapt to change quickly. Too often, people are afraid to change. And even if they choose to adapt to the change, they are not doing it fast enough.

When Sandeep’s family aluminum business collapsed, he has to think quickly and adapt to the change that comes along. In the end, he chose to drop out of college and went into businesses himself. Of course, he chose to venture into the modeling world and started his career as a model at age 19. However, things did not end here. Sandeep witnesses the hard truth of the modeling world and feels sad for the models who have experienced harassment and exploitation. Again, he then chose to adapt to change and turned to help those struggling models.

With a mission within, Sandeep started small. He creates a 2-week photography course all by using just a normal camera he had with him during that time. Things were tough, but he chose to move quickly. After some time down the road, Sandeep and three of his friends started a photography company but closed down just after six months later.

Again, Sandeep faced with failure, but he is able to adapt to the situation quickly. He went on to create a world record by knocking down a juggernaut task of taking more than 10,000 shots of 122 models in just 10 hours and 45 minutes. This gives him the confidence he needs and eventually lead him to start ImagesBazaar. He attributed his success to his ability to adapt to change quickly. And Sandeep also advises his audiences to do the same.

Sometimes, in order to build a successful business, career, or in any of the opportunities you encounter, it is about the speed and how fast you can adapt to the change. The faster you are able to adapt to the situation, the faster you can change the situation around to your advantage.

Principle # 5. Focus on Your Strengths

When it comes to living a successful life, a lot of people misunderstand and thought that all they need to do to become better is to get rid of their weaknesses or improve them. This is not good advice to follow as what Sandeep suggests.

You should focus on building your strengths instead of improving your weaknesses. There is a reason why you are weak in a certain area. And because you are weak in that area, it will take you more time to learn, practice, and improve that area to become normal. It is extremely difficult to shine in an area that you are weak.

Rather, choose to focus on building your strengths. Ask yourself where you are good at and where you can win and perform better than other people. Focus on building that area so that you can become a specialist. The saying, “jack of all trades master of none” clearly shows this principle.

Think about it, if Warren Buffett tries to learn to invest, start businesses, goes into building technology company like Apple, and grow a website like Facebook, do you think he can become good in every one of these ventures? Not at all, because if he did this, he will spread his energy thin and loses his focus.

This is exactly what Sandeep suggests to everyone. He says that you should focus on your strengths and grow them, not your weaknesses. Lionel Messi, one of the best footballers in the world is able to outperform many ordinary players because he focuses on his strength, which is dribbling.

What about you? Where can you improve and how you can grow your strengths to become even better at them?

Principle # 6. Stay Happy All the Time

This may sound like an unorthodox success principle, but this is exactly what Sandeep tells his audiences in his seminars. He says that it is important to stay happy at any moment because when you are happy, you are able to perform better, think better, and hence, produce greater results. And Sandeep is so right.

A lot of people misunderstand by thinking that they need to be successful and wealthy first before they can enjoy their lives and be happy. This is not right and completely opposite. You must be happy with your life right now and enjoy what you do before you can be successful. This is because when you are passionate about what you do and when you are happy, success will come to you automatically.

More importantly, never let physical items or outside circumstances to determine your happiness. You do not need to depend on a luxury sports car to feel happy and you do not need to have a million-dollar in your bank account only to be happy. Happiness is a choice. When you choose to think about happy thoughts, you will become happy. When you think about something sad or negative, your mood will be affected and your happiness level goes down.

Therefore, choose to be happy by focusing on the positive side of things. It is true that sometimes things will not go according to your expectation, but there is a positive in every negative, you just need to search for it.

Principle # 7. Adopt the Right Attitude

Adopt the right attitude if you want to be successful like Sandeep Maheshwari. This is easier said than done. Sandeep believes that it is our attitudes that determine our lives. If you do not have the right attitude, you cannot amount to something significant in life.

Look at Sandeep, he did not think that he failed when he has no choice but to choose to drop out of college. And when he failed at many of the businesses he attempted, he did not give up. Sandeep chooses to continue to move forward and pursue his dreams with a burning desire.

On the contrary, the majority of people out there do not have the right attitude. They treat things and events differently. They react in a negative way than positive. When they face challenges, they choose to give up instead of commit themselves to learning. When they have the opportunity, they choose to stay comfortable and within their own comfort zone. As a result, they are not moving forward in their lives. They stay the same.

It is your attitude that will determine the results you get in your life. If you want to know whether your attitudes are helping you succeed, just take a minute and look at your life right now. If you are not producing the result you want, you know what is going on and you should choose to change your attitude.

Principle # 8. Be Honest

This may be a common success principle, but according to Sandeep, this principle is the most difficult to practice in real life. Everyone can be honest when someone is watching, but things will be different when you are alone and nobody knows what you do.

Imagine that if you found a bag full of money and nobody is around, will you choose to send the money to the police or will you choose to keep all the money to yourself? Honesty is easier said than done. And to be a successful entrepreneur, says Sandeep, you need to be honest in everything that you do.

The reason is simple. When you are not being honest, people can tell it. And when it comes to doing business, if you are not honest and you try to cheat someone, you will never stay long in your business. People will find out sooner or later, and eventually, your partners, clients, and employees will run away from you.

Highly successful people are successful because of their honesty. They are honest and they treat their business partners and clients with integrity, this is why their business can grow because people love doing business with them. Thus, practice integrity and be honest in your journey.

Principle # 9. Believe in Yourself

When Sandeep decided to drop out of college and started his own business, nobody believes in him, except one, which is himself. He says that it is important to believe in yourself because if you do not, nobody else would. You must believe that you are able to do what you are going to do because it is the very first step to achieving it.

Think about it, if you do not believe that you can do it, do you think that you will do it with your best? The answer is no. When you do not believe in something, you will do it with a half-hearted attempt. And if you are doing things with a half-hearted attitude, you will never produce the amazing results you want.

Things are hard and challenging for Sandeep when he first started to build businesses. Many people told him that it is impossible to achieve what he wants, but because he believes in himself, he chooses to keep moving forward and ignore the naysayer. Eventually, Sandeep proves them all wrong and goes on to achieve outstanding success in his business and in life.

Principle # 10. Never Give Up

The final success principle you can learn from Sandeep is to never give up. He also always tells his audiences and students to not give up no matter how hard the situation is. Remember, a winner will never quit and a quitter will never win.

When you try something and you fail, try again, and improve your strategy. The moment you choose to give up and quit, it is the moment you succumb to failure. Just like what Nelson Mandela says, “It is not important how many times you fall, but how many times you rise.” You can fail to produce the result you desire for ten times, but if you choose not to give up and continue to work on the solution, you are never a failure.

Michael Jordan has an inspiring quote for not giving up. He says, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. 26 times I have been trusted to take the gaming winning shot and missed. I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Thus, be like Michael Jordan and Sandeep Maheshwari. Never give up when times are tough, instead, choose to strive forward and keep on taking action until you succeed.