The 3 secrets of success
There are no secrets!
When people ask me about the secrets of success, what they are asking was shortcuts to success. Sorry to disappoint you, they don’t exist.
However, there are a million ways. Three of them worked surprisingly well for me, and I would like to share them with you.
1. Pay attention to what you pay attention to
Attention is a limited and scared resource. We have a limited quantity of it available, and remember, your life only consists of things you paid attention.
Please choose carefully, and once you have set your mind on something, give it all the attention it deserves.
2. Quantity > Quality
Contrary to popular belief, quality is more important than quantity; in my opinion, the opposite is truer.
There was a brilliant ceramic class teacher. One day out of the blue, he decided to change the evaluation system. He divided the class into two groups. One group will be marked based on the quality represented by one final piece by the end of the term; however, the other group will be scored based on the total weight of their work in Kilograms. For example, if Tony produces 67KG worth of work, Leila did 50KG, Tony will get an A, and Leila will get an A- or B.
Interestingly, when the term came to an end, the teacher found all the great pieces are coming from the second group, which focused only on the quantity instead of quality.
The second group just kept on working on their craft day in and day out, and they didn’t have time to think about quality, they just kept working. They couldn’t afford to do a month paper sketching or planning, as those things won’t matter to their final score. Quantity is what they are after, not quality. In the end, they had the last laugh.
Don’t let the pursuit of perfection prevent you from being better.
3. Reset your default values
To succeed, learn to face failures with the right mindset first. The best way for me to convey the essence of this crucial idea is to tell you the story about juggling.
There are tons of videos on YouTube teach you how to juggle three balls. A lot of people tried and failed because they got frustrated and lost their patience eventually.
The correct way to learn juggling is to have three balls in your hand, throw them in the air, watch them fall on the floor again and again. Spend a good 20 minutes on that. While you are doing that, imprint this message to your brain - the balls will fall on the ground, which is the default. A realization like that will eliminate unnecessary frustrations and anxious later.
If you can catch one or two balls, that’s great too, because you have made a significant change to the default - from three balls on the ground to only one ball, that’s progress, which is the foundation of achieving your goals! All you need is just a little more time and effort before you master the technique to handle all three of them.
Change your default values to create small wins along the challenging journey of success, but remember, the last 5% is 100% harder than the 95% you have already achieved.
Good luck to you! Yes, you do need a bit luck too; however, that’s something out of our control.