How To Succeed

If I had to layout a surefire recipe for success, it would look like this.

1. Bigger Vision: Success begins with your vision. The bigger your vision, the greater your success. If your reality falls short of your vision, you are still far ahead of where you would have been had you lived with a smaller, limited vision. If you keep after your vision, your reality often catches up, and from there you can see a greater vision for yourself.
2. Pay the Price In Full: You can’t have success until you pay in full for what you want. You have to make payments, as if you are buying success on consignment. Most people underestimate how much success costs, but they underestimate how the small, consistent payments build over time until you experience the breakthrough. Most of the overnight successes you see come after about a decade of diligent, relentless work.
3. Hustle – Act with Urgency: Success avoids people who don’t hustle. “Hustle” here means to act with a sense of urgency. It means that you work with haste, like time is your enemy and already winning. I love the Eisenhower matrix that Covey used to show that we spend most of our time on what is urgent and not important. But if you are going to act with urgency, that effort and energy should be spent on the most important thing you need to do now. A small percentage of what you do translates the real results you need.
4. Be Resourceful: Success doesn’t come without obstacles. In my new book, 17 Elements, I call Resourcefulness the linchpin attribute for success. You are going to have to be creative. You are going to have to use your imagination. There is no path to success that doesn’t require that you figure out how to get certain outcomes where there isn’t a definite answer.
5. Invest In Yourself: Ask successful people what they listen to and what they read. They will tell you they read success-oriented and wealth-oriented books, magazines, blogs, and websites. Ask them what they listen to and they’ll rattle off content from the same categories. They’ll also tell you about how they are reading non-fiction books and magazines. Successful people seek and edge, and to find it they invest in their personal development. They believe that they are the best investment and most effective asset they have for generating the success they want for themselves.