17 Simple Truths That Will Improve Your Life and Make You Incredibly Successful

Memorize these words, and work their meaning into your life. Then, watch the results.


There is no single secret to success. If there were, and if it were straightforward or easy, everybody would do it. But everybody doesn't do it.
That said, there are certainly habits and strategies that can make success more likely. I've learned many of them.
Then, I've forgotten many of them and had to learn them again. But I do keep coming back. Here are some of the habits and strategies that have served me best, written in pithy, easy-to-remember formats. 
(By the way, No. 17 is the most mind-blowing and interesting on the list. I put it last because if you don't know it, and you haven't read the others, I think it's less likely you'll be in a place to truly believe it.)

1. Remember: "Tragedy plus time equals comedy."

Mark Twain gets the credit for this one. There are very few hardships that can't justify a laugh once enough time has passed. Career troubles, startup woes, personal relationship issues: almost everything gets better eventually. Most things also get funnier.

2. Train yourself to believe.

Henry Ford said: "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right." That's a bit too absolutist for me, but there's a grain of truth in it. The more optimistic you are about your chances of success, the greater the likelihood you'll actually succeed.

3. Do the math.

Whether you're conjuring up a life goal or planning a new customer strategy, do the math. Is there enough time? Will you run out of money? Figure it out. Numbers don't lie. And when they reveal unpleasant truths, they're usually the ones you want to know quickly.

4. Make other people feel good.

To paraphrase Maya Angelou, People won't remember what you say or what you do, but they'll remember how you made them feel. So start with that goal. We're emotional creatures. Create legions of people who will remember you for making them feel good, and who will then want you to succeed. 

5. Celebrate small victories.

Warren Buffett talks about wanting to step over one-foot hurdles instead of leaping over seven-foot walls. Prevailing against long odds might be dramatic, but if you want to succeed in life, it's easier if you try to adjust the odds in your favor. Then celebrate those victories as if you just won the World Cup and Wimbledon on the same day.

6. Tomorrow's another day.

It's a cliche. Like a lot of cliches, it's also true. If you live to be 80, you'll get about 29,200 days on this planet, not counting leap years. Each new sunrise is a chance for a new beginning.

7. Failing is fun.

If you convince yourself your road to success will be marked with failures, you turn failure into a game. Each new failure becomes an inevitable step toward ultimate success. Failing becomes playful, success becomes more likely, and the whole thing becomes a bit more fun.

8. Ships rise faster when the tide comes in.

Look at the forces around you, and use them to your benefit. One of my favorite examples: Jeff Bezos started Amazon after realizing internet use in the 1990s was growing at an insane annual rate, with millions of people discovering it each week. That was a pretty good time to start an internet retailer.

9. The 80/20 rule rules.

You're probably familiar with the Pareto Principle, the notion that 80 percent of yield comes out of 20 percent of effort. Actually, I think this is probably more like "95/5." The trick is to analyze, reflect, and have the courage to focus on the 5 percent. (Remember: Do the math.)

10. "Job done" feels better.

I get overwhelmed when I have a lot of things to do. The only route to success I know is to tackle the shorter, easier things first. (I'm literally doing that right now, by finishing this column before tackling other tasks.) Plus, nothing feels worse than 20 half-completed jobs.

11. Just ask.

Oh my God. How many times do I have to learn this one over and over and over? I am constantly surprised to learn how much you can get in life just by asking. The trick is most people don't have the courage (or maybe the insight) to ask for what they really need.

12. Multiple anecdotes do not equal "data."

Related to doing the math: Don't mistake your personal experience for universal truths. Just because you like something doesn't mean there's a market. Also, just because something comes easily to you doesn't mean you can't charge a premium for it.

13. Friends matter, and family is a choice.

They say you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. My colleague Jessica Stillman wrote recently about a study that suggests your brain can only focus on 150 people in the world at any one time. Choose them wisely. Meantime, whether your family is the one you were born into, or the one you've created, cherish them.

14. Take care of your health.

I'm not going to tell you to watch what you eat or drink, or to exercise, or even not to smoke. You can figure all that out by yourself. I'm just going to say a healthy body is the one thing we all take for granted until we don't have it anymore. Take care of it while you can.

15. Sometimes it's a sprint.

You know how people say life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon? That's only sometimes right. Sometimes, life is about rushing to meet a goal, or beat the sands of time, or even to outlast a challenging situation. Sometimes, it's even about beating somebody else. Sometimes, it really is a sprint.

16. Eventually it all ends.

Everything ends. Your life will end, mine will end. Time is the only resource that people don't ever figure out how to make more of. More money? Yes, at least sometimes. More people? Sure, we can do that. But time is finite. (Except that maybe there's something pushing infinity in No. 17.)

17. There are 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

I get anxious. I get worked up. When I'm at my worst, I try to remember this truly life-changing number: 70 sextillion.
That's a seven with 21 zeroes after it, like this: 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, and it represents the low estimate of how many stars we believe exist in the universe.
That means that there are one trillion stars for each person on the planet. It's weirdly and wildly comforting to me, because it makes me focus, at least for a second, on how insignificant my problems and challenges are in the grand scheme.
Then I get back to work. Because tomorrow's another day. 
Tamer El Sagheeer
SkillInside
source:inc

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Make-Or-Break Career Skill No One Talks About

Image
It goes without saying that you have to be responsible and alert to succeed in your career, no matter what your career path is. You have to be reliable, of course, and you have to be a good team member. No one can really act surprised if they miss out on a promotion and their boss says "We all like you, Stan, but you have a tendency to let us down when it matters, and that's not something a supervisor can do. I gave the promotion to Anjali, because I can always rely on her in the clinch." There is another, critical career skill that makes or breaks careers and that we don't talk about as often as we should. It's a muscle that we don't grow just by getting older or by going to school or even by taking on more and more responsibility over time. It is possible to reach a ripe old age without growing this muscle, and it always a shame when that happens. At Human Workplace we call this must-have career muscle "Fast Learning." What does it mean...
Read more

22 Characteristics of High-Potential Employees

Image
  Even if your team is made up solely of supremely talented individuals, there are always a few employees who stand out from the pack.  According to the  Harvard Business Review ,  these high-potential employees  account for an average of 5% of any company’s workforce.  High-potential employees (HiPos) excel in their current roles, but they also possess the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in managerial positions and senior roles, too. Importance of identifying top talent for employers High-potential employees need to know that you recognize their potential. In fact, a  recent study  showed that 77% of HiPos feel that being recognized as high-potential talent is important to them.  These workers want help in identifying a career path and they also want support in carving that path. For these reasons, it’s critical that managers identify HiPos early on in order to retain them and keep them engaged.  Employers who identify top tale...
Read more

Eight Entrepreneurs Share Their Best Sales Closing Technique

Image
Many people who work in sales face a lot of rejection, especially early in their careers. That’s why there’s no better feeling than closing the deal with a new prospect. As you learn and grow as a salesperson, you start to figure out the most effective techniques for moving a potential lead down the funnel and turning them into a paying customer. We asked members of   Young Entrepreneur Council   to share their best tips for closing a sale, along with anecdotes of how they’ve put it into practice. Here’s what they had to say. 1. Paint A Picture Starring The Customer   The best way to close a sale in my experience is to gather a great deal of information about a customer, tie that information to aspects of a particular product/service, then create a visual in the customer’s head of how implementing this product/service can benefit their lives. This was an extremely effective technique I found in one of my earliest jobs selling cable subscriptions. I would ask ...
Read more