"You know what it takes to be the best. You got to say to yourself, 'I will do what nobody else is willing to do.'" ~Dan Forrester in The Tomorrow War
Years ago, Albert E. N. Gray had a very disturbing realization by what he saw: many people work hard without succeeding and many people succeed without working hard. He became convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements.
Hence he set out on a voyage of discovery which carried him through biographies and autobiographies and all sorts of dissertations on success and the lives of successful individuals until he finally reached the point at which he realized that the secret he was trying to discover lay not only in what individuals did, but also in what made them do it.
He realized further that the secret for which he was searching must not only apply to every definition of success, but since it must apply to everyone to whom it was offered it must also apply to everyone who had ever been successful. In short, he was looking for the common denominator of success. And because that is exactly what he was looking for, that is exactly what he found.
The common denominator of success – secret of success of every individual who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that he or she formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.
It's just as true as it sounds and it's just as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can put it to the acid test, and you can kick it around until it's worn out, but when you are all through with it, it will still be the common denominator of success, whether we like it or not.
If the secret of success lies in forming the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do, let's start the boiling-down process by determining what are the things that failures don't like to do.
The things that failures don't like to do are the very things that you and I and other human beings, including successful people, naturally don't like to do. In other words, we've got to realize right from the start that success is something which is achieved by the minority of people, and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.
Take some of previous Principles we discussed as example:
Going through the steps in Universal Success Formula is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to go with the flow and simply accept what life gives you.
Taking ownership of your own decision, admitting and learn from mistakes is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to blame others when something goes wrong.
Learning new mental models, especially from new and unfamiliar fields, is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to laze on sofa and watch Netflix.
Repetitive deliberate practice, going out of comfort zone to train what is beyond your current capabilities is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to play to have fun.
Finding time to do important but not urgent things is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to clear all the urgent chores first.
Developing a Thick Face Black Heart is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to give in to societal norms even when they prevent you from reaching your goals.
Purposely courting and practicing failures is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to avoid failures and be comfortable.
Wanting to achieve big goals in life is hard and unnatural. It is more natural to want things that are easy to get.
Most of the Principles stated before are hard and unnatural. Most of the Principles stated after will be hard and unnatural too. However, if you want to win, if you want to be successful, you have to do things differently from average people. This will be a recurring theme in the rest of the principle: we examine what most people do and strive for a extraordinary strategy that will give us an edge over others.
"How successful you are depends on what you do in the two hours before going to bed." ~anonymous