There are so many myths swirling around the issue of success. And perhaps, the biggest one is the myth of the self-made man or woman. There is no such thing. And I say that as someone who has often been described as just that; a self-made man. Yet, the truth of the matter is that my success wasn't made by my efforts but rather the efforts of countless others. I've benefited tremendously from the assistance of others and so has anyone who has ever achieved anything great.

This is true even for people involved in activities that are normally regarded as solitary activities, such as painting, sculpting and writing. Let's take, for instance, J. K. Rowling, the author of the enormously successful Harry Potter series of books and movies. If there was ever a self-made woman, she is it, right? Wrong! Sure, Rowling has the ability to create the stories all by herself but her success (and resulting riches) comes from the ability to get those books in the hands of her loyal readers. And this process requires the work of literally hundreds of people. Team Rowling consists of editors, literary agents, publicists, lawyers, distributors, promotional assistants, merchandising professions and of course, the numerous people at her publishing company who take her manuscripts and turn them into finished books.

Now, you may not have aspirations of creating an international phenomenon but even more modest goals require teamwork. For instance, if your goal is to be the best parent you can be, you're going to need help. The old saying that it takes a village to raise a child is largely true. If you want to raise healthy, happy and prosperous children, you're going to need a lot of help in the form of nurturing teachers who bring the best out of your child and adult family members who provide strong role models and a sense of identity. In fact, you'll even have to depend upon your child's peer group to an extent to encourage the right behaviors and discourage the wrong behaviors. In a very real sense, there's no such thing as a single parent. Nor is there anything such as a sole practitioner, sole proprietor or solo act; at least, not if they plan to be successful.

For many people, this is a difficult pill to swallow. After all, many people have been raised on phrases like "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." As a result, they're reluctant to trust others to help them in the pursuit of their dreams. Sure, they might let others handle menial tasks for them, but they resist when it comes to letting others handle more important tasks. As a result, they end up spending too much of our time engaged in activities that could be better handled by others with more skill, experience and inclination. Their unwillingness to trust others keeps them from making the kind of progress that they'd like to make in our journey.

The simple truth of the matter is that if you're going to go places in life, you must let others take the wheel from time to time. For example, in the last 72 hours, I've been on six different airplanes. As you can imagine, I didn't pilot a single one of these aircrafts. I simply sat back and left the flying to the pilots. I trusted that they had received the proper training, that the airplane had been properly maintained and that someone had bothered to put enough fuel in the plane I literally put my life in the hands of complete strangers.

When you think about it, this doesn't make much sense. After all, I didn't know these people. What if they had somehow slipped through the cracks and were incompetent? Or what if they were just plain lazy? Or what if they were suicidal? How could I put my life completely in their hands? The answer is simple: Because I had somewhere I wanted to go and I wanted to get their as quick as possible.

And you make a similar trade-off whenever you get behind the wheel of an automobile. You're trusting that the manufacturer built the car properly and that the steering wheel won't come off in your hands as you make a left turn. You're also trusting thousands of other drivers on the road to not run into you. This is a lot of trust to put into complete strangers, all of whom have different destinations than you do.

So if you can put trust in these complete strangers, then you can certainly trust the people who share your same sense of direction and purpose. In fact, if you're going to get anywhere at all in your dash, you must begin to put your trust in others. Sure, from time to time, others will let you down but you'll never get off the ground at all without their help and assistance in the first place.