What it Takes to be a Success
I’ve just been listening to a podcast on what it takes to be a success delivered by Ilan Ferdman. Along with his brother Guy, Ilan runs Satori Prime. Aside from running their own very successful marketing company, they work as mentors with SFM and DEA delivering marketing masterclasses and training for Elite members of that SFM community.
On the podcast – The Performance Enhancing Podcast – Ilan talked about what it takes to be successful in any endeavour. He referred to a guy called Tai Lopez and what he has to say about the subject. I’m not that familiar with Tai but I do know he’s a 20 something founder of 12 multi-million dollar companies, a self made millionaire and member of MENSA.
In his book How To be A Billionaire he gives lots of examples of what well-known, mega successful types did to get there. Along the way he has a friendly go at the Timothy Ferriss book – the 4-hour work week. If you’re not familiar with that book it’s basically about how to train yourself to learn and get things done much quicker in the digital economy.
What it Takes to be a Success – 17 years for the average Billionaire
Tai’s point is that in studying a cross section of the worlds wealthiest and most successful people its obvious that these guys don’t work a 4-hour week! He cites examples people like Bill Gates who worked 16 hours a day for 10 years and Warren Buffet who reads 8 hours a day. Another mention goes to Michael Jordan who apparently built a basketball court in his house so that he could practice non-stop. That’s what it takes to be a success. On average it takes billionaires 17 years to get there.
The list goes on and the point is simple. All of these people show us what’s needed if you want stratospheric success in any field. It’s not a 4 hour working week. What they have in common though is that they have found their purpose in life and they love it. If there is a secret answer to what it takes to be a success that is definitely it
When you find that the hours just don’t matter anyway – there is nothing else you would rather be doing. Guy makes the very valid point that everyone should be striving for that feeling. I agree wholeheartedly.
What it Takes to be a Success – Bust Your Ass
He says that if you are doing something you hate – living only for weekends and holidays – you are just doing it wrong. If 5 minutes of your working week feels like 4 hours YOU ARE DOING THE WRONG THING. When you do something you love things change: 4 hours feels like 5 minutes. Ask any successful entrepreneur, musician, writer or artist.
To quote Tai and Ilan – If you really want something bad enough what it takes to be a success is to bust your ass. But: the big take away from all this is that we are not talking about 16 hour days of mind numbing, tied to a desk tedium. This is about doing things you love. Deliberately NOT doing things you hate.
It takes a big change in mindset, some courage and determination and you need to get rid of the “entitled” mindset that so so many people have. No one will hand success to you – huge effort is involved.
So based on what these guys know – and they walk the walk – what it takes to be a success is: Find your purpose, your raison d’être and go at it hard. If that sounds like too much hard work it shouldn’t – as discussed. It’s not all going to be plain sailing but if you can find that magical equation you have found you.
Another two very successful guys who can back this up are Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek of the Six Figure mentors and Digital Experts Academy. You can get a series of free videos explaining their journey to success on the link below.