What is Your Most Powerful Insight That You Want to Share About Success?

"Give, and you will receive."

That is one of the most powerful insights that have got me to where I am today.

"Never Be Satisfied"
"Always go that EXTRA mile!"

Take Action!

Here's something I wrote up a few months ago that is very relevant to this question.

Written February 21, 2013.

"I wanted to start Self Stairway back in 2011 and I kept giving myself excuses. Maybe there would be too much research involved. Maybe it wouldn’t go anywhere and I would be wasting my time. Besides, I was a college student so I figured I’d have better things to do. Does any of this sound familiar to you or any situation that you’re in?

All of these excuses just kept coming until I convinced myself it wasn’t worth the risk of failure. I was a fool over one month ago.

No More Excuses.

My favorite excuse was always money. It’d cost too much to pay for the domain and hosting per month, or at least that’s what I’d tell myself. Then one magical day, Dreamhost had an offer for new customers that advertised $20 for an entire year of web hosting plus a very small fee for domain registration. At that point, my heart sank as I ran out of excuses. I tried to come up with more but I knew I couldn’t. I had to take the first leap of faith.

I could no longer say it was out of my budget; there were no more monetary barriers involved in starting the blog. So there I was, having to dive head first into the unknown.

The Results

I dedicated hours and hours of research, maintenance, fine-tuning, and building connections. There were no more excuses holding me back from starting something real, so I took off with a full sprint.

You know what? Now I’m happier and busier than I have been in an incredibly long time. The website is doing great and my resume is filling itself up as I am learning desirable skills that people gladly PAY me to do. They want to pay me to do the things I love doing and using skills that I’ve taught myself in a few weeks’ time. They gladly offer me benefits and take me in as their own to hone my skills, all thanks to this site. They’re not paying me to make excuses, they’re paying me due to the fruits of my labor and because I had ran out of excuses.

In recent weeks, I’ve met professionals in the field of marketing, business, web design, and several others. I’ve had phone conversations with people who have made money doing what they love for years and they GLADLY passed on what they learned to me, an aspiring college student with tons of directions ready to take.

From all of this, I learned that excuses are the devil.

Who knows what you can achieve if you don’t even give what you want to do a chance? Stop making excuses for yourself about why you can’t do something. Stop making excuses and delaying your passion, goal, whatever you want to call it."

Thanks vincentnguyen for this inspiring story!

"No More Excuses." -> Right!

" Never let comfort be the discerning factor of your life and success. "

Live it, breathe it, think about it, do something about it.

Mickey Rivers was a pro baseball player in the 1970's. He had many great quotes. One of his best sums it up....

“Ain't no sense worryin' about the things you got control over, 'cause if you got control over 'em, ain't no sense worryin'. And ain't no sense worryin' about the things you don't got control over, 'cause if you don't got control over 'em, ain't no sense worryin'.”

I think we all worry to much and it causes us not to get the things done we need to be successful.

"Successful people do what they have to do whether they feel like it or not." -Brian Tracy

I find myself saying this over and over again. It is an absolue must to have goals and the self-discipline to beable to carry out the actions to reach your goals.

Shi* happens, get over it.

Never give up.

Simple, but powerful.

Keep going until you find success and you will never fail.

Think that rings true for a lot of people

What is mine?
Well it is short.
It is easy.
It is the best thing people will ever hear.
And for many it is the worst thing.

Every single person is Successful. Most are just not successful at the "things they think" they want to be successful at.

"Failure" is a bit of a myth. What people think of as failure normally is not. Most "Failures" are simply unconscious success.

If you don't believe me, and most won't because it means taking absolute responsibility for where they are in life, I will prove the point simply.

Let us look at one of the things that nearly every person says they fail at: Losing Weight. Honest question here.... Can you actually fail to lose weight? Of course not. Losing weight is a math problem. If you eat less you will lose weight.

So why don't people lose weight? Because they are Successful at eating and enjoying food. They have success at the short term: enjoyment instead of success in the long term: losing weight.

So take a moment and think about the last time you "failed" Did you truly fail? Or were you simply successful at something else? And that something else was likely what you really wanted. But learning what you truly want is best left for another post.

Remember we are all self made but only the "Successful" will admit it.

Yeah, man... I once met a buddhist monk that said that he lived by Forrest Gump precept of life, he even joked that it was the "Forrest Gump Buddism".

Someone already said it here, but, once again:
"Sh*t Happens".

That's it.

We tend to overconcentrate on the problems, making them look a whole lot bigger, overwhelmingly bigger, until we can't see a way out.

No need for that. S* Happens. Move on. Life is long. One week, one year of trouble is gonna seem like nothing in the big picture.

we all have the ability to achieve far more than we think

amen to that!!!

Your success is
directly propotional to what you do after you do what you are expected to do.

Regarding trying & failing, ask yourself:
When your kid tries to walk - how many failures you'll allow until you stop her from trying again and declare that she's done with trying to walk because it's not going to happen?

There's a reason why all healthy adults walk.

Stay Hungry , Stay foolish!
Success has a different meaning for all of us. Define your success in your own way.

I am a new member here ye all, still trying to learn this process, very good posts keep up the good work. Have a lovely day!!

Go hard or go home

That's so cute

Sparkling eyes, that's exactly what we all need to have in mind when thinking of success.

My biggest realization came when I achieved something that made me very happy and proud of myself (I'll not share the exact experience because it would require lengthy off topic ). However, some members of my family were very critical, and disappointed because they have expected something completely different. (from me)
Why? Because their vision of success was very opposite to my vision of success.
I believe that many people fall into the trap of trying to achieve success measured by other people expectations. Or what they think society and others value as success. Especially when it comes to money, it's easy to get caught in terrible misconceptions and frustrations. To me, success is something very personal. Follow your hart and that's all you need to do.
* the quote
I'd rather be hated for what I am, than loved for what I am not.

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has contributed here on this thread! Great to see so many of you guys jumping in and sharing some of your personal findings. Much appreciated.

I enjoyed your story Matrixler. Kids are the best!

There's so many good quotes and ideas shared here. Great thread!

I came upon one just last night that really strikes home for me,


That's your "Why"... The way I see it, it's not all about the money but, what grows you as a human being.

In that vein, I appreciate the perspective taught by Brendan Burchard, "Live, Love and Make a Difference."

Give more. "What you give away, you always get to keep." (Joe Schroeder)

From my own experience, pushing through the tough times, just make us stronger.
So... NEVER GIVE UP.

And yes, Sh*t Happens! Get over it and move on...

Thanks,
Steve

Have a goal - a long term strategy - and focus on that. Don't get hung up on the day to day tasks... they are merely a 'how' to a 'why'.

I was playing tennis the other day, a game I love and was always very good at, and I started thinking why I had given up playing... I realise as soon as I started playing competitively and was told to practice, I didn't have the motivation to continue because all the focus was on the immediate activity of practice... and I had no drive to do that. Instead I should have focused on WHY I had to practice. What is your WHY? If you have this set in stone, you will do what needs to be done. If I had focused on winning a local tournament, or qualifying for a team, I'm sure I would have practiced and maybe done quite well at the game..

My two cents worth. Great thread by the way

True success is found in the field, not the classroom.

Too often we spend our time engrosed in self help books,
without ever helping ourselves.

Expecting the book and the lessons we learn to be all we need to change.

Change happens with practice, training and experience and a deep desire to want to remember and retain the change.

Success is buried under a pile of failure.

Thanks for sharing!

For me:

Expecting to be successful + taking action + learning from mistakes and correcting course of action = Success

I know I've mentioned it before but for me it would be that success is a choice.

And that suffering can foster spiritual development. (I may write a post about suffering another time. I‘ve been through a lot and think I have something worth while to contribute.)

"Be a student, not a follower"

Don't just go do what someone says. Take interest in what someone says, then debate it, ponder it, and consider it from all angles. Then take action based upon your findings.

To have success, persevere relentlessly, utilize creativity, evolve a successful strategy and consistently, immediately and regularly take massive action that may be potentially effective in bringing on success.

Wow. What a wonderful thread this has been. I really love it. Thanks a lot matrixler for starting this thread.

The measure of success is not in how much you achieve, but in how much you enjoy.

Wow.! All inspiring posts by a great group of Warriors. Thanks!

The one thing that I can contribute, but has been said already is to TAKE ACTION. I'm not speaking for everyone, but I do think that most likely, many of us go through a period of where we lurk; we just watch what is being posted & and we buy a lot of what we think will be the one thing that will make us money. I admit that my hard drive and external hard drive has over 10K of Warrior and JV Zoo products just sitting there... read, but never used.

It wasn't until I realized one day that this craziness has to stop!!! Since then, I've been on a roll and feel really good about what I accomplish everyday.

So the one thing that I can say with confidence is to just 'take action' by focusing on one thing until you get good at it and then find something that will complement your business and build from there.

The other thing that a lot of people fail to realize is that IM is a business. Treat it like one. Set up a dba, open a bank account, brand yourself & set up a spreadsheet of how much you spend and how much you have coming in. Doing this will put you in the right frame of mind and when you see "on paper" how much you actually spend, you'll soon realize that you either should quit or, really get serious about it.

Great thread.

TerryH

I am so grateful, that I met such a great people online. They taught me some many things about success and money. There is nothing better to meet a rich person who stays on the ground and shares his tips and tricks in order to help you out.
Now I am on the same level, where I feel pleasure helping others and seeing them succeeding in affiliate marketing!

Very interesting thread in fact.

Mine one is
Be inspired
Be motivated
hard work
Take action

When you're going through hell - keep going!

Success is series of steps to achieve your goals.

Decide your end goal

Decide on steps to get there

Take action!

Success is now a case of when not if

"Don’t give up trying to find your way. But do remember that sometimes it takes bending to avoid breaking." -Katinka Hesselink

Believe you have already achieved what you seek and it will come. Without belief we rarely achieve.

Jeff

There is one lesson that I learnt from my dad which I find to be practical to this day. He used to tell me that when you plant a tree, you tend to it giving it water periodically and applying fertilizer so that it can grow.
After doing all that is in our power, it is only through hope that we believe that the tree will grow. According to my dad, you do not have to uproot the plant whenever you are tending to it as proof of the tree's growth. Uprooting the plant to find out if it is growing will kill the plant.

The lesson I took from the story is that as human beings we tend to question too much whether we are on the right road and lose focus of the destination of where we are going.
So simply put, take time to plan your path to success and follow strictly the laid down rules. Avoid going back to the past every now and then,only visualize the overall set goal.

As I read the post, I kept nodding. Short , concise and to the point.

Perseverance is the main key of success.To be a gainer you should have this quality.

Success takes hard work, skill, time, and consistent effort.

Persist, and be flexible.

The idea you start out with is probably not going to be what you end up making money with. Your business will likely morph into something else than what you originally envisioned it as. If you hold desperately on to your original idea, you'll probably fail.

For me it is to prove to everyone that I can do it.the greatest pleasure in life is doing what other peoples say you cannot do. prove them wrong and prove to yourself you are a winner.

I believe the three most important words in life have given me the keys to the kingdom.

"I can learn."

I can't tell you how far these words have carried me in the sense of having powerful insights into becoming successful.

LLS

When I went to meet Noah Kagan (appsumo.com) at his business retreat in Seattle in June.

I received an e-mail from him inviting everyone to come join him at the mansion- only 10 of us could go. The price was $2500 for a week long stay in a mansion where he and the whole appsumo team would help build a business/mentor you.

WOW! I thought! I NEED this!

Needless to say, it sold out in 5 minutes.

I opened my e-mail about 9 hours later...

DAMN! I thought.... but then I had the bright idea of texting him to see if he would open a spot... he replied (wow?) and said to e-mail him why I wanted to go.

Unfortunately, he opened up one more spot to one lucky winner. It was a random draw. At this point I figured I was pretty much destined to go- so I routed up a leave chit (military) to fly from Tokyo to Seattle, bought a non-refundable plane ticket. All of this was done PRIOR to me knowing if I won the competition or not.

I didn't win.

But I went anyhow.

I met Noah- and he is a great guy. Ultimately though, I FAILED! I was trying to stay the WHOLE week- I even brought $3,000 cash to give to him. He wouldn't budge. Regardless, it was a GREAT experience.

Biggest take-away: No matter what, YOU are in control of YOUR destiny. NO ONE can MAKE you rich. YOU have to do it YOURSELF!

Pics or it didn't happen:


Youtube video (a little rough!) Where I explain what I learned:

Being in business online for over 14 years has taught me a lot about life. I've also done coaching in 3 different niches and that has also taught me a lot about human psychology and behavior.

The most powerful insight regarding both financial and life success is that 98% of success is your mindset, 1% of it is having a plan of action, and 1% of it is taking consistent, meaningful action.

Your brain is the most powerful tool you have; it can be used to build yourself up or it can be used to sow the seeds of doubt, procrastination, fear, and inaction.

When you have the right mindset and you run into the inevitable obstacles that all businesses encounter, you won't let it stop you. You won't let unsupportive people in your life keep you away from your dreams.

You won't allow a few financial mishaps slow you down.

You won't allow negative feedback kick you off track.

The older I get and the longer I'm in this game, the more I realize that mindset is a major part of success.

While financial success is important, I cannot stress enough that having gratitude and helping your fellow human beings in one way or another is a big part of life success. I'm a big believer in karma the way I choose to believe in it and I believe we are all connected.

It could be something as simple as volunteering some of your time to an organization that needs you. I lost my 20 year old baby sister in 1997 to rhabdomyosarcoma cancer and donating to charities that do cancer research is top on my list.

I'm also big on blood drives and volunteer for the Red Cross and my local hospitals when they need people to get the word out. Donating blood and bone marrow does save lives and it only takes a couple hours of your time.

Those are my most powerful insights that I've learned from my mentors and from my life experience. I hope they serve you well.

RoD

Here is my insight on success. Basically, I started out doing free work for charities and people would be critical of me. They said, you are working for free. Well, that is so. However, we all need to gain exposure.

Let me give you an example of what subject I am speaking on.

Do this exercise. Like you will make more money in a month on 99 designs than on Fiverr. 99 designs is a contest site and you will get $300 on average. That is for every logo contest you win.

OK, on the other hand you will get from Fiverr $3.92 deposited in your pay pal account after a twenty day hold, but there you go.

If you are a good designer you will win over 1/4 of the contests you are in and that is $75 versus $5 per gig. Actually, you will probably see that most of the people who are no good leave 99 designs and head on over to FIVERR.

Do the experiment and do not tell me that you hate to work on spec. It is all about making money. People do not like to pay for junk logos or icons. They will pay extra to get quality art work and that is where you come in. Life is about competition and being number one.

Look at the latest article on tech crunch about 99 designs and you tell me.

Do you get inspiration and excellent ideas during the day? Then have ready a set of cards or a small notebook and a pen ready jot down these insights. Then when you are ready put these ideas in a central place whether it’s a Word document or a spiral bound special notebook and then review these precious insights from time to time.
Oliver Wendell Holmes so rightly said "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
This is such a simple nugget of advice but just often neglected. Don’t you think guys?

Do you get inspiration and excellent ideas during the day? Then have ready a set of cards or a small notebook and a pen ready jot down these insights. Then when you are ready put these ideas in a central place whether it's a Word document or a spiral bound special notebook and then review these precious insights from time to time.
Oliver Wendell Holmes so rightly said "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
This is such a simple nugget of advice but just often neglected. Don't you think guys?

Accept your mistakes and learn from it to become successful.

This rather broad question considering that success means differently to differently people. Tell me your overriding desire in life. That something I cannot do without and I can probably share with you what it looks like when you get there.

I think the most powerful thing I have ever learned about success is that it doesnt come quickly.

The minute I stopped pushing towards a quick buck, and started putting in time, things started happening for me!

Become A Go-Giver
Growing up I was told to be Go-Getter. When people have money to burn that might be ok. But, in today's economy people want to know how you can solve their problems.