The Surprising Habit That All Successful People Share — And How It Changed My Perspective If you're "stuck," simply taking action isn't enough — follow this advice to increase your chances of success.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Early in my career, I was very fortunate to be exposed to some of the greatest "success educators," such as Earl Nightingale, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, Napoleon Hill, and the more contemporary Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn. More recently, for 10 years, I had the opportunity to frequently appear as a speaker alongside Rohn, Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, and others like them.
There's a point Jim made that stuck with me when I first heard him say it as a kid, and it still resonates today. It breaks the code of the highly successful person, taking all the mystery and mystique away. When you closely examine a highly successful person in any field, you walk away saying to yourself:
Well, it's no wonder he's doing so well. Look at everything he does.
Success isn't much of a mystery. In that respect, it's actually disappointing to a lot of people who want it to be very complicated, who, as we discussed earlier, prefer a good alibi. But it's just a reflection of what you are doing with your time. Success comes from the execution and implementation of a lot of things directly linked to one's goals and objectives — not random actions. The top achiever is fully booked.
I would now add to Rohn's statement, "...and look very closely at the one, two, or three things he gets done without fail, every single day."
I can predict what your bank balance will be a year from now if you provide me with the following information:
- What's in the account today
- What type of content you consume regularly
- Some information about the five people you spend the most time with
- An analysis of how you spend your time during an average week, half-hour by half-hour
For 90% of people, predicting this is a no-brainer. The correct guess is: the same as it was last year.
If you're "stuck," simply taking action isn't enough. Jim Rohn called this "the principle of massive action." When you look at highly successful people, you'll find they are massive action takers. They don't just try one solution to a problem; they implement 20 solutions all at once.
I once had a dentist call me after attending my weekend seminar. He told me: "I've made a list of 300 things to change in the practice." Every week, he completed 10 of them. After 30 weeks, he had implemented everything on that list, big and small. Without a penny increase in advertising, without spending any more on marketing, in the same office, with (almost) the same staff, his practice had more than quadrupled in volume. He took massive action.
When I share this story, the usual, predictable reaction is astonishment and dismay: "Three hundred changes? I'd never get 300 things done."
Hopefully, armed with the information and strategies in this article, your answer will now be different.
This story was excerpted from the book No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Guide to Time Productivity and Sanity. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Buy the book now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble
As an Entrepreneur+ member, you get 20% off all books from our website. Buy this book now for a discounted price. Use code SAVE20.
