Recipe For Success
You want one simple thing success: but you have to check a lot of boxes for them all to align to equal that success.
Let’s look at 4 “ingredients” to a repice for success.
- Hard work
- Good timing
- Network
- Luck
Hard Work
Hard work can really be broken down into one thing: discipline.
We always hear “work smarter, not harder”, but that’s just not necessarily true.
This doesn’t mean don’t use time-saving methods or easier ways of doing things, but you still have to put in the time and energy.
Two easy ways to make sure your work is productive is having a routine and setting goals.
On average it takes at least 60 days before habits became automatic for participants, but when people do have routines it has been shown to create a dramatic improvement in overall health and productivity.
The goals will set the direction, so you have to know where you are going in order for work to pay out. That is where the “smarter” part can come in.
Good Timing
Good timing is a little tricky. It’s something you can never really control, but you can at least be prepared.
Given the right opportunity, it can launch into the direction that kickstarts your success.
Timing can also come down to patience. Yes, you need to go out there and work for it, but some things fall into your lap or the pieces fall into place and it’s about getting that right opportunity.
In his book “When: The Scientific Secrets of Good Timing” Daniel H. Pink, discusses how life is not linear and breaking things into beginnings, middle period and endings, can you help you focus in on certain details at certain times.
He also brings up a good point about how everyone’s internal clocks aren’t the same, and it’s important to know yours so you can work at your best times and set yourself up for success on a daily basis.
Bill Gross, who has founded over 20 startups, analyzed the success of more than 200 famous companies on the Fortune 100 and this is what he found-
- 42% had great timing
- 32% a good team
- 28% an interesting idea
- 14% had great funding.
If you look at YouTube for example, that would’ve failed miserably if it were created 5 years before it originally was. The internet and population were not prepared at the time for something like that.
What does this mean? Just because you have a great idea, it doesn’t mean you will succeed and just how important timing is to your success.
Networking
The phrase “It’s not always what you know, but who you know” is becoming increasingly popular.
And while I don’t completely agree, it brings up a good point. If you don’t get your work in front of the right places or meet the right people, the effort you’ve put in can go completely unnoticed or undiscovered.
The Internet is a great equalizer of who you know. If you put out good work through storytelling, it is amazing who will see it and become a connection that could be life-changing.
Meeting the right person at the right time goes back to timing.
Is that luck?
Luck
Luck is the last part of the formula when preparation (your hard work) means opportunity (good timing and networking).
There’s a saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
It’s also a relative term.
Recently, I heard a story of someone having cancer, but also coming into a random fortune. The comment was made, “Wow, he’s so lucky.”
Is he??? Because of the money or because of the cancer?
It’s all perspective and if you pay too much attention to it you will become bitter and carry toxic resentment towards others’ success.
Life is not fair, and the sooner you can accept that, the more you are prepared to deal with bad luck, and appreciate good luck should it come your way.
Luck is oftentimes just you being prepared at the right time, so work hard and don’t miss that opportunity.
You may be lucky to just still be in the game.
Get these ingredients right, and the formula should come to fruition naturally.