I get several e-mails each month asking for my advice on how to become successful.
The e-mail’s are always the same “Please share the secrets of your success”.
Success rarely happens overnight. It is a series of wins and losses, good and bad decision that play out over years.
We all know what it takes to make it.
Hard work, Smart decisions, and that certain factor that some call good luck, or being at the right place at the right time.
There is no replacing these.
Too many people look for a quick answer, quick success.
Success has to be measured over a lifetime.
While many people ask about how to become successful everyone seems to miss the harder question, which is how to stay successful.
The hardest thing to handle in life is success.
A successful businessman once told me this and it always stuck with me.
The more I see of life the more I appreciate how insightful the statement is.
We all know people who seemed to have it all, success in business, success in their person life, then lost it all.
Those in the public whose stories of speculator falls from grace are so well know they are known only by their first names, Brittney, Lindsey, Mel, Paris, Anna Nicole, OJ.
People who had wealth, fame, couldn’t handle their success.
There are many temptations in life.
The more success you have the greater access you have to those temptations.
For most people a “just say no” approach to all temptations doesn’t work.
The key is moderation.
What maybe a great experience on rare occasions will ruin your life if you let it get out of control.
Once some people get a few bucks in their pocket they lose all the good sense that put it there.
Other’s lose the work ethic and the drive that made them successful.
Once some people experience some success they get comfortable. Too comfortable.
They expect good things will continue to happen to them.
They feel entitled. They feel invincible.
All are serious flaws.
The only way to try to keep you success it to do it the same way and with the same dedication and drive.
Here the answer to how to stay successful in song by a guy who came from nothing and made himself into a reported net worth in the 100 Million dollar ++ range:
“””Just stay busy, stay working
the key to this joint
The key to staying, on top of things
is treat everything like it’s your first project….
just stay hungry
Y’all wanna know, why he don’t stop
Y’all wanna know, why he don’t flop….
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as when I came….
take advantage of the luck you handed
Or the talent, you been given…
Ain’t no, half steppin, ain’t no, no slippin
Gotta get it while the getting’s good
Gotta strike while the iron’s hot….
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as when I came
“My 1st Song”
Jay-Z
The Black Album
Good post.
Think some might need a visual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiF1dXopPBo
In a domain context, someone goes “when are you going to sell one for a million?” how many people look at things ‘lottery mindset’
I respond with something like “well selling 10,000 at $100 each would be a better approach, or 1,000 at $1000”
I know some buy a 1 mil property and sell for 2 mil but
Sell 10 million pens at dime each
2000 mattress at $500 profit each
More realistic road to success.
From the surface it is a GREAT post – SUCCESS is a state of mind made out of the good stuff (POSITIVE mindset – dump the negative stuff out of the head – stay away from NEGATIVE people they tend to mess you up in the negative stuff they are in).
It is not how many people you meet or know in your lifetime what matters is if you can have a dozen of TRUE friends in your lifetime that is ALL that matters – this is how I see it.
It is not the quantity that matters it is the QUALITY that is MOST IMPORTANT.
Really good post. It is good not to focus only how to get successful but how to stay successful too – probably it’s even more important in long term run. I also remember I once heard at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. from Rick Schwartz that “You can earn one million $$$ by earning $1 x 1,000,000 times”. And I definitely like this idea – that’s why I rather not buy tickets at lottery 😉 Best regards from sunny Warsaw! 🙂
You are missing integrity. Money can buy many things, but integrity, proper manners, class, humility, ethics, etc. cannot be bought. These are earned and worth more than money. Combine them with passion and persistence and chances for true success (measured beyond money) increase.
JBlack
I don’t disagree with you but that was not the purpose of the post.
The post was not to discuss what is important in life or how one should conduct themselves, only that instead of worrying so much about hot to succeed the real question is to keep success from ruining you.
Success does not ruin anyone; they ruin themselves usually by lacking integrity or other value larger than money. Thus, success cannot be separated from values like integrity.