(Reprinted from an article by Richard Gabel)

All this planning, passion, blood, sweat and tears are over-rated when it comes to entrepreneurial success. Obsessive compulsive worry-wart planning fanatics really need to chill out. For God’s sake, trading your freedom for success is a line no one should cross. If you can’t just go with the flow, but must march to some predetermined plan, what kind of success is that? Passion has its place, but for the life of me, I just don’t see it in business. That’s how people have heart attacks. Not advice I’ll be giving out anytime soon. As far as blood, sweat and tears are concerned, when’s the last time you saw a picture of a CEO on the cover of Fortune or Forbes breaking out in a sweat, crying or covered in blood. Correct, never happens. What you see the big boys doing is golfing, sailing and pontificating with their feet up on the desk.

Let me offer up a couple real world ways of achieving entrepreneurial success without really trying:

Success is always a function of where you’ve set the bar. Hello, lower the bar. Wake up in the morning, success! Give yourself a gold star. Make toast without burning it, you are a sensation. Go to a networking event and convince someone you’ve actually ever sold anything, you’re a phenomenon. Don’t sweat the big stuff, savor the sweet smell of success with the best of them. Get that bar down to a point you can walk over it. Let the rocket man next door shoot for the stars. Be smart and keep your feet on the ground and your goals too.

If you’ve made it through life without really trying so far you probably already know the next best thing to success is having good reasons why failure wasn’t your fault. You actually succeeded, but someone else screwed it up. Just the right spin and it’s sweet success. Just don’t reach for the tab after pulling this one off at the local watering hole. Let Mr. or Mrs. Rugged Individualism pick that one up. Self-reliance and personal responsibility will keep you awake at night. Give your business a try, but the smart money always has their excuses lined up and ready to go.

What a wonderful segue into the ultimate formula for success. Forget the Horatio Alger stories. The one sure fire way of avoiding failure and guaranteeing success is to not try in the first place. Far more fun to sit back and make fun of those that crash and burn and discount the success of others. You’ll always know that had you tried, you would have done it right and have shown all those clowns a thing or two. Visualizing success is far easier than putting it all on the line.

There you have it friends, three solid alternatives to risking your money, dignity and easy-going life style pursuing some entrepreneurial dream. Don’t try, claim success if not for the unfortunate intervention of people and events beyond your control or set your goals for a no lose proposition. I’ve shared with you the secrets of success, if you screw-up don’t come cry on my shoulder.