Once upon a time, being on board of the plane a teenage girl asked a businessperson and millionaire Richard St. John: “What do you need to do to succeed in adulthood if you do not study very well in school?” Richard took a thought but could not find an answer at once and went into a full-scale study of success for ten years.
He spoke with hundreds of people who have achieved outstanding results, including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and Joanne Rowling.
He asked all of them the only question: “What leads to success in reality?” Here is what came of it.
5 Secrets of Success
Taking 500 interviews and spending ten years on it, Richard identified 300 factors that contribute to success. Five necessary primary qualities are amongst them. These five qualities are like a magic tablet. They form the basis of success in any industry. What about 300 others? They help, but you can do without them. For example, communication skills are valuable. However, many successful people, including well-known businesspersons and scientists, do not have developed skills in work and interaction. However, this did not stop them, because they had the five primary qualities.
Passion
All know this: a guaranteed way to achieve success is to your passion. Much more important is how to find it. Richard divides people into “fighting” and “seekers.”
The “fighters” are those who are lucky: they have already met their passion and now go to the goal. Moreover, the “Seekers” are trying to find their passion.
Robert Munch said that he had tried many professions before finding his passion: I studied as a priest, but nothing came of it. I worked as a sailor on a ship. The ship sank. I was looking for myself for many ways but in vain. “However, I did not give up. And suddenly I found something worthwhile for myself”.
And this is really “something worthwhile”. Having opened a passion in himself for writing books for children, Robert already has 40 million copies of his works sold in 20 countries of the world.
Follow the advice of Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind man to conquer Everest: Look for your passion. Look for her in the dark alleys and in inaccessible places. She will bring you happiness.
Not workaholics, but “hard working”
The second overall quality of successful people is hard work. When Richard asked Martha Stewart what helped her to achieve phenomenal success, she replied: “I have always worked hard. I always work, work and work. Never believe that someone will do your work for you. Labour is the entrance fee to the territory of success.”
According to Larry Page, work has become the key to Google’s success: “We started working on this search engine eight or nine years ago when we were still at Stanford University.”
And they always worked on it very hard, 24 hours a day. One inspiration for success is not enough. It consists of inspiration by 10% probably, and 90% – from work oneself up into a lather.
Ability to focus
All successful people can concentrate their attention and do their favorite thing for hours.
Probably many of you are now clutching at the head and thought: How? How is this possible? Especially in our world, where every third person suffers from attention deficit disorder? Richard is sure that in most cases attention deficit disorder is a deficit of motivation and interest. If you cannot help but be distracted from your work for a while, you are unlikely to love it that much. What to do? As Don Norman said, the author of the Design of Habituals book: You will never finish a single business unless you focus on it in a proper way.
When you collect the sun’s rays in a beam with a magnifying glass, they will have enough energy to burn something. Use the same principle in life. Focus all your energy on one thing, and it will help you achieve success.
The ability to overcome yourself
It is unlikely that you will find at least one successful person who is not tormented by self-doubt. Everyone periodically thinks that what he or she is doing is no good. Richard is sure that the whole secret is to be always between self-confidence and doubt. This approach allows you to create something grand. Doubts should be considered as an occasion to become even better. “The nuance in the application of this technique is to balance between confidence and doubt constantly. You cannot stay on one side for too long”, Richard writes.
Teacher and tormentor
Of course, you need to have a mentor, or teacher, who will guide you in the right direction and support.
However, many prominent people confess that they had not only teachers but also torturers. We offer you to find such people for yourself.
Torturers can mock you, make fun and even punish you. You may even hate them, but they should be a powerful incentive for you to move forward. Sometimes anger and a desire to prove something to other people lead us even stronger than anything else does!
The great violinist James Ehnes says that he owes his success to his tormenting teacher:
My teacher in New York was a real torturer! He drove me to such anger that I was moving towards my goal like mad. I worked very hard because I would die if someone thought that I was not able to succeed. I wanted to prove to the world that I can do more.
Success is not a one-way street. It is a life-long road. Moreover, five qualities that unite successful people help not only to achieve it, but also to preserve it. I wish you success, no matter what you understand by it!
According to the book of Richard St. John’s eight secrets of success.
