Success is neither linear nor easy. In fact, when people set out to succeed, in many cases they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for. It varies, and everyone has their own definition of success. Some associate it with having more money; others (possibly the wisest) associate it with having peace in their lives.
But let’s not kid ourselves: to have peace in your life, you need to be at ease in every sense. And yes, it’s hard to have peace if you don’t have a certain degree of financial freedom. That’s why success is often associated with having a lot of money. And that view isn’t far from reality.
Be that as it may, success is nothing more than the set of habits and choices we adopt in life. When you have the right habits, success often becomes inevitable. It ends up being a consequence of what we do.
When we wrote about the 25 habits found in successful people, one of our most-read articles and one that other outlets have reproduced, and about the recent study on the personality traits found in successful people, we explained that every successful person has these habits, while people who, we could say, have not been successful (at least not financially) turn out to have neither the habits nor the personality traits.
That’s why we can treat it as a rule. But today we’re going further and focusing on some things you need to understand when you pursue success, beyond habits and decisions.
When you pursue success, you need to be very clear about these 10 things
Each point leads to the next.
1. If you want to succeed, you can’t rely on luck
We often get into debates about whether luck exists. Sometimes luck is described as opportunities turning up, although it’s more common to talk about luck as “being in the right place at the right time”. And yes, luck exists, just as bad luck does.
As an old businessman once said, “Success is hard work plus a little luck.” But if you leave everything to luck, you’ll get luck all right: the bad kind.
The truth is that after looking back over the careers of many of today’s most successful people, yes, they were in the right place at the right time, because they created the perfect moment and place themselves. In fact, every innovative entrepreneur started out precisely in the wrong place and at the wrong time. They made both things possible.
Likewise, the truly lucky are not blessed with the gift of opportunity. They create their own opportunity when it doesn’t show up. They are constantly working, looking for dozens of opportunities. They knock on dozens of doors, and probably only one of them opens. And that brings us to the next point.
2. To succeed, you’re going to have to fail (which isn’t the same as being a failure)
Although we talk about being a failure, the right way to describe it should be “failing”. Everyone fails at things, and most people admit it without a problem, but few people are willing to admit that they are failures.
Failure, seen this way (knocking on 10 doors and only one opening), isn’t so bad, because in this case it really is part of the process of success.
And although it may sound like a cliché, the truth is that you can’t consider yourself a failure until you stop trying.
Success is about knocking on many doors until one of them opens. Then the rest of the world will admire you for how you got that door to open, and people will forget how hard it was for you while you were knocking on the other 9 doors that didn’t open.
But all of that was part of your path to success. Some people will call it luck, but only you will know the effort and sweat it took.
“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” – Warren Buffett
3. Sometimes success comes by accident
Yes. Success often comes by accident. For example, someone is researching a treatment for angina and ends up creating Viagra by accident, one of the best-selling drugs in the world.
But success only comes by accident to people who are doing something. In other words, Viagra can’t be discovered by someone who isn’t working on a treatment for anything in the first place and is lying on the couch watching TV all day or smoking joints with friends in the park.
That’s why an old saying goes: “May luck find you working, because otherwise it will pass you by.”
As an example of success by accident, I like to cite Marc and Angel, a couple who found success after she was fired from her job and he was rejected, which allowed them to devote themselves to their dream. On the face of it, they had bad luck with two failures in a row. Anyone would have thought a black cat had crossed their path, but no. Those events led to success, because…
See also: This man invented the digital camera in 1975, but his bosses at Kodak didn’t back him
4. …you have to connect the dots
As Steve Jobs put it: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”
Successful people are able to see the whole forest, not just focus on the trees that have fallen. Today you are where your decisions have brought you.
Do you want to succeed? Then start from where you are, not from the misfortune of not being where you would have liked to be.
Start today, not when you feel like it or have the time.
And finally, use what you have, without complaining about everything you could have, so that you can get where you want to go. And for that you will need…
5. …clear, concise goals within one big objective
Nobody gets anywhere if they don’t know where they want to go. And speed doesn’t help people if they’re heading in the opposite direction. You have to set small daily goals. Every day we need to lay our brick to build that great wall little by little.
Big objectives divided into goals that must be realistic, measurable and achievable. Once we have the objective, all success comes down to taking a first step.
However, to achieve success, as we have explained more than once, it’s more important to create routines and have the discipline to stick to them. In other words, you have to set the big objective, but then forget about it and focus on the steps and efforts we need to make every day.
Read: Simple steps to reach your goals
It doesn’t matter if you can’t see the whole road. Start walking, and as you walk, you’ll see the rest of the way. – Anonymous
6. But keep track
Anyone with goals in life, whether professional or financial, should keep constant track of those goals so as not to lose sight of them.
In other words, if we have annual goals, we should sit down at least every quarter to assess whether we’re on the right track. If you are getting there, it will motivate you.
If you aren’t, it will motivate you to work even harder the next quarter. One way or another, successful people…
See also: 6 reasons why we fail to achieve our goals in life
7. …if you want to succeed, you have to trust your abilities
Most successful people achieved success because they trusted they would. Just as they were aware of their strengths, they were also aware of their weaknesses.
Installing the right belief system in your brain by rebalancing your thoughts can make the difference.
For that, I recommend reading our article Mind trick: how adding a single word to my thoughts radically changed my life.
8. To succeed, you need people you can count on
No businessman or billionaire is arrogant enough to say they achieved success working alone.
They often attribute their achievements to other people. In fact, there isn’t a single person in the world who can run a large company alone. So success also comes from the kind of people we are able to hire. And for the story to have a happy ending, we will all need…
9. …to persevere and commit. This is non-negotiable if you want to succeed
Success doesn’t come without effort. In fact, it isn’t easy. It requires a lot of persistence and commitment from us and from the people who work alongside us and for us. There are many people fighting to achieve the very thing you want to achieve.
And the only way to be better than them is to do your best and make an extra effort every day to improve what you already do well. Success comes from unwavering dedication.
10. Remember this view of the road to success
Think of the road to success as a path full of obstacles and traps, with snipers on both sides waiting for you to get distracted or fall so they can take their shot.
It’s a road where mistakes and falls are allowed, but where collapsing or falling asleep is not. It’s a road on which you always have to keep moving. Otherwise, they will finish us off.
It’s a road anyone can start, but only a few get to finish, and those who reach the end often share many habits and behaviours. In the same way, those who don’t finish or who fall along the way also have a lot in common.
That’s why it helps to know how those who made it along this road did it, as well as what those who didn’t make it did.
It’s a hard road. It isn’t easy to get through. It usually isn’t made for everyone, and those who make it usually find their reward. But the person who truly receives the greatest reward is the one who enjoys the road, whether or not they reach the end.
Further reading
- How to get rich according to Felix Dennis, in 8 pieces of advice
- 32 rules for becoming a successful entrepreneur
Featured image: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
