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Does your business success or failure depend on what you do? Or what the world does to you?

Your answer will depend on what your own personal "locus of control" happens to be. Locus of control is a psychological term first coined by Julian B. Rotter in 1954 and it refers to how much individuals believe they can control events that affect them. Psychologists believe it's an essential element of all of our personalities.

Your locus (a Latin word meaning "place" or "location") can be either internal or external. If you have an internal locus of control, you think you're in charge of your life. If you succeed, you take the credit and if you fail, you blame yourself. If you define yourself with an external locus of control, however, you believe other people, your environment or a higher power controls what happens - you're helpless. That means it's easy to point the finger at everyone but yourself.

Obviously, most of us don't operate with a locus that's completely internal or external. But generally, we're more on the scale towards one or the other - and each have their own characteristics.

If you have a primarily external locus of control, you're more likely to:

* Believe luck, chance and/or fate decides what happens to you.

* Be negative and give up more easily when setbacks.

* Not reach out to create new relationships or try to repair old ones.

See the article here:
How Your Locus Of Control Impacts Business Success