Everyone wants to be a winner in business and in life. But success isn’t just something that will come your way without a little work. If you really want to get ahead, there are certain practices you need to put into place.

To truly succeed in business, you need to cultivate good habits, develop a strong work ethic and adjust your overall mindset. Here, are six ways to really succeed in a business that you can put into practice right now:

1. Know what you want.

The first step to succeeding in business is defining what success means to you. After all, everybody has a different definition of what success looks like. What could you hope to achieve in your career that would make you feel as if you’ve “made it”? To do this, you’ll have to take a long, hard look at what it is you hope to achieve and why. This exercise will allow you to set specific goals which will give you direction in your career. This direction and focus are necessary to keep you motivated to improve, achieve and perform.

2. Be willing to do whatever it takes.

Once you know what you want to achieve, it’s time to get to work. If you want to really succeed in business, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true.

No, I don’t mean that you should be ruthless or unethical in your efforts to get ahead. But I do mean that you have to be willing to work longer and harder than anyone else you know. You need to do the tasks that nobody else wants to do. You need to make personal or social sacrifices so that you can work toward your dreams. You must make sure you’re working the right/efficient way. Are you willing to do these things?

3. Get a mentor.

Steve Jobs was a mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and just look at what he went on to accomplish. If you need proof of the power of a mentor, consider that.

A mentor is someone who is walking a similar career path to you, but who is further along in their journey. They have been through many of the same trials and errors that you will face. Learning from their experience is like hitting fast forward on progressing your career. Having a mentor can motivate you, give you direction in your career and help you from making mistakes. It’s a not-so-secret key to success.

4. Forge your own path.

Yes, it is important to look for guidance from a mentor and to look at what other successful people are doing to gain direction and inspiration. However, it’s important to discern that you should never try to follow someone else’s path exactly. After all, there will always factors in another person’s success you can’t duplicate, so why try? It’s a far better idea to gather all of the information and gain all of the knowledge that you can so that you can forge your own path forward in your career. Like Oscar Wilde is purported to have said, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

5. Learn from criticism.

It’s a simple fact: as you continue in your career, you will undoubtedly encounter negative feedback at certain points. Instead of dismissing or shying away from criticism, try to learn from it.

Often enough, when you really take the time to consider criticism, it informs you about some way in which you could improve yourself. If you’re willing to make these improvements, you’ll ultimately become stronger and more powerful as a person, and this will shine through in your achievements.

6. Keep going.

Success rewards consistency. This means that even when things get tough — actually, especially when things get tough — you need to keep going. Do what you can to keep yourself motivated, including creating goals, networking, meeting with your mentor. But don’t give up. Success is truly the result of diligence and steady practice.

This article was originally written by Timothy Sykes and appeared here.