How to Be Successful

1. Planning for Success

1.1. Imagine becoming successful. Einstein said that "Imagination is more important than knowledge". The more vividly and accurately you imagine your success, the easier it will be for the rest of yourself to follow through. The same way engineers first imagine a bridge and then build it, you can be the engineer of your success, too. Find the purpose or goal of your life. Identify the things you love to do, the things that give you satisfaction. Once you identify what you love to do, use this information to find the purpose of your life or the objective of your life.  Define the meaning of success as you see it. You cannot have success if you do not know what it means for you. Everyone views success differently and using someone else standard for success is like eating another person's lunch and expecting to love it. Set clear goals and be realistic.  Set a timeline for when you want to achieve your objective. If you don't know when you will achieve your objective by, then it's hard to know whether you have failed. Give yourself a timeline that is difficult but doable. Winning a Tour de France from scratch in two years is not reasonable, but booking a comedy gig in front of at least 20 paying customers probably is.  Be curious about life. Many successful people have an insatiable curiosity. If they don't understand how something works or don't know the answer to a question, they find out. Often, this takes them on a quest of self-discovery, one in which the journey is just as important as the destination. Use the last example as a template; to become a great speaker, you need to improve voice and presentation skills as these are the basic skills needed for a speaker. But if you are lacking speech writing or subject knowledge skills, you can try to outsource them to an expert. This is called working smart. Many great leaders don't write their own speeches; they focus on delivering it right.

2. Execution

2.1. Execute your small objectives, focusing on your main objective. Don't find reasons to procrastinate. Jump headfirst into the challenge and start chipping away. You never know what problems will present themselves before you step into the arena. Stay away from distractions as much as possible. Distractions are either the spice of life or the forbidden fruit, depending on your perspective. But let's be clear: it's almost impossible to be 100% focused on your task 100% of the time. Distractions are okay in low doses. But when your goals start taking a backseat to petty distractions, it's time to banish them.  Surround yourself with other people who are successful. When you're surrounded with people who are highly-driven, it's encouraging. You can bounce ideas off people, and they can even  connect you with other people. Surrounding yourself with driven, successful people is a way to create a culture of success. Trust other people to do their job. It's hard to be successful if you don't trust the people around you. You're constantly micro-managing everything, leaving yourself spread thin and the others miffed about you not giving them a chance. Being successful is partly about assembling an able team around you. If you can't trust others enough to let them do their job, you probably won't succeed at that.

3. Redoing

3.1. Be persistent. You're going to fail — that much is a given. What will define you is how you pick yourself up after you've fallen. Don't give up. If your first attempt didn't work, don't quit. Accept that life is unfair. It's a fact. You can moan about it and wish that it were different, or you can go out there and do something about it. So stop wasting time about the unfairness of it all and think how to use the situation for your benefit. Newton could have complained about the apple falling from the tree and hitting his head. Instead, he identified the law of gravity and is now known as the father of physics.  Remember that success does not guarantee happiness. Success is equated with achieving a goal, but don't assume it will always bring happiness. Many people make the mistake that if they accomplish this or that, they'll be happier. Fulfillment and satisfaction have a lot more to do with how you approach life than with what you do in life. Keep that in perspective.  Remove fear and doubt from your way of thinking. Focus on staying positive in every situation. You will be surprised how effective you can be when your thoughts are guiding your actions, not the other way around. If you fail, don't be fearful about starting over; be happy that you've been given a chance to be even more successful.