Why are only very few people successful? Why are most people broke, depressed and unhappy? The answer is simple; because it’s very difficult to be successful.
The road that leads to success is filled with several difficult things and only very few people can go through those difficulties without losing faith.
In this blog post, we’ll share with you 3 difficult things only successful people do.
- Going against the crowd
There’s this thing the psychologists called “Social proof”. Social proof is the human tendency to always do what everyone is doing. For instance, if at age 17 all your peers are going to college, the natural thing for you to do is to go to college. If at age 27 all your peers are buying new cars, you naturally will feel the pressure to do the same.
Beyond your circles of friends, as humans, you’re much more likely to go with the belief system and norms of the society you grew up in. For instance, if the most respected people in your immediate society are lawyers and doctors, you’re likely to dream of becoming a lawyer or doctor.
To keep my long explanation short, 99% of human beings don’t use their brains most of the time. What they do is look at what everyone else is doing and simply join the bandwagon because it’s super easy to live that way. But successful people do the opposite. Even though it’s difficult to do, people who end up being successful think with their own heads and go against the crowd whenever the need arises.
While everyone in society is usually conditioned to think and behave like everyone else, those who end up being successful often sit back and question old-age assumptions.
While everyone else usually believes that any institution or norm that has been in existence for several years should be right, those who end up being successful don’t believe that.
Even though the school system has been in existence for hundreds of years, they could still challenge why it’s the way it is.
Even though many customs and norms have been in existence for ages, they could still decide to kick against them. Because they are thinking with their own heads, successful people can easily challenge the status quo and create a new way of thinking or doing things.
The math is actually very simple. You think about it. To be successful in life, you have to create a significant solution to some human problems.
Your solution may be in the form of a revolutionary idea, a valuable product, or a creative service. You just have to change something and create a new path, a new road, and a new way of doing things.
To do this, you cannot afford to think like everyone. Though you’ll face great opposition and go through several difficulties by thinking differently, the path of honor is the path of horror.
The only way to live a meaningful life and make a significant contribution to the human race is to use your head and think with your brain, even if everyone else goes with the public opinions.
This is very difficult but you have to do it if you want to be successful.
- Discipline in the secret
It’s easy to be disciplined in public. We all can go to the gym if we’ll go with our best friends. We all can read good books if we’ll be with a few other book enthusiasts.
We all can do anything; no matter how difficult it is, as long as we’ll be in the midst of other people. When we get alone, however, only a very few of us summon the courage to do what we ought to do. Those few individuals are the movers and shakers of our world.
Those who end up being successful know what they want and what they have to sacrifice for it and they are willing to make those sacrifices, whether they are in public or in their bedrooms.
For instance, truly successful people don’t need anyone to force them out of bed. If they think they need to wake up early to read for an hour before everyone else wakes up, they do it with no external motivation.
If they think they need to work extra hours and weekends for the next one year, they don’t need anyone to motivate them. If they think they need to lose weight, saying no to the pleasure of some meals won’t be their problem.
This is not so with everyone else in the world. Most people are simply not self-motivated. The only time they do things that require great discipline is the time everyone is watching or when they are paid to do it. I know so many people who are doing very difficult things their employers ask them to do.
These people are motivated because of the paycheck, but if they have to do a similar thing on their own, they’ll take the easy way out. Successful people are willing to do difficult things with no external motivation.
If you really want to be successful, you have to be disciplined, whether a hundred people are looking at you or you’re alone in your bedroom at 3 am. It’s about your life. It’s not about the public.
- Forgetting today
Look around you and see how most people live. You’ll obviously see how everyone is living for now. For today.
An average human being would rather enjoy $100 today than have such an amount turn into $300 in the next 6 months. They would rather go for that car right now than delay gratification and invest such an amount.
They would rather buy a new watch right now because they will take a photo of it and post it on Instagram than buy some great books that will change their future.
The only people who can forget today are successful people. People who are strong enough to delay gratification are people who end up becoming successful in life.
You can’t live today and tomorrow together, just as you can’t eat your cake and have it. You’ll have to choose one.
If you want to go with the pleasure you get by having your friends envying you now, then you can be rest assured that they will leave you tomorrow when you’re broke and unsuccessful.
In conclusion, it’s childish to expect life to be all rosy. If success were easy, everyone will have it.
The reason only very few people are successful is that it’s only a few people that are willing to think with their heads and question the status quo. Stay disciplined, whether in private or in public and delay gratification so that tomorrow can be better.
If you want to be successful in life, go ahead and try all the 3 difficult things as stated in this blog post.
Thank you.