Many people don’t consider themselves successful. Whether they are not making enough money, they hate their career, or wish they had gone a different way with their life, many people just do not feel successful. While there are outside factors that are beyond your control sometimes, more often than not, YOU are the only person that determines whether or not you will be successful. On top of that, you determine just how successful you will be.
So, do you really want the exact recipe for success?
The Recipe for Success
Work hard. Seriously, that’s the recipe. Now to actually give you a little more information, I will explain to you ways that determine whether or not you are actually working hard.
Have a Day Job?
Great! However, with information technology, it’s very easy to see how much your employees are actually working. At some of the larger companies, it was uncovered that on average, a 40 hour/week employee, is only really working for 18 hours. Yes, that’s 22 hours of ‘wasted’ time. If you are sitting on Facebook for 22 hours/week at work, you are not working hard. If you are able to get your scheduled work done in 18 hours, ask your boss for more work and absolutely blow their mind with how productive you are compared to your colleagues. Imagine who will be looked at first for the next promotion?
Trying to Build a Business?
Whether you have a day job or not, if you are trying to build a business, you probably know the sacrifices you need to make to be successful. You know that working 15 hours/day is not out of the question if you are really trying to make it happen. If you are working 15 hour days, then you are working hard. There is definitely an argument as to whether or not working hard or working smart is better. However, if you are working smart and hard for 15 hours, it doesn’t get much more hardcore than that.
You an Internet Marketer?
How many campaigns do you build per week? How much time of research and development goes into those campaigns before you launch them?
You know there is always somebody out there who is working harder than you. You can be that ‘other’ person.
Somebody is researching the niche in more depth, building their campaign out with more split-testing, or has spent more time analyzing the current competitors. This ‘somebody’ is the definition of hard work.
Sacrifices
If you REALLY want to be successful, you must make sacrifices.
- Sleep – Don’t expect to get your 8 hours of beauty rest every night if you want to have a life and be successful. Eventually, of course, but it takes dedication to become the top dog. Could you function on 5-6 hours of sleep? I honestly would not recommend anything less than that for a long period of time as that is not good for your health.
- TV Shows/Movies – Every now and then, wonderful. Do you like to spend 2 hours/night watching TV shows? Good luck.
- Spending money – Sometimes you just have to re-invest your booze money into your business or personal development. It’s not easy, but it is definitely necessary at times. Don’t worry, you will raining champagne in a couple years if you can show some dedication to your goals.
This post might seem a little direct, but the real secret to becoming successful truly is hard work. I spent money on products and systems when I was starting out, and none of them taught me anything I could not learn on my own. However, it is VERY difficult to teach someone to work hard. That has to come from within.
Do you have what it takes to be successful? How do you define success?
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Jeremy,
I am not sure if we need to work extra. Most of us don’t make a good use of those 8 hours of dedicated work time. Is it possible to spend 8 hours on pure productivity and be successful? Or are you saying you need 8 hours of pure productivity + more hours on your own..?
Of course it is possible to be successful on working 8 hours. However, most people’s definition of working 8 hours is really only working 4-5, with breaks and stoppages for whatever reason.
However, if you are working a day job and trying to build your own business, it takes an extra level of dedication, which would mean additional hours on your own on top of the 8 hours at work.
I think many people forget to realize just how much work goes into building a business, and want all the glory without putting in the effort.
Very truthful advice, I couldn’t agree more! Another tip: Try to work hard building systems/automation so in the longer run your cash flow becomes as automated as possible. This will cause even more sacrifices in the short run, but sets you up for an amazing long run.
hard work is the way to go… maybe throw a couple specks of lucks, and you’ve got a sure fire away to the top!
Thanks Ian, definitely agree. It’s amazing how you start viewing things differently and how your perspective changes when your mindset changes about your “business” versus a “hobby” – Great comment!
Do you have a hidden camera at my work?
lol no – actually an executive working with some major corporations told me they pulled data from their ERP systems and it showed those figures. Crazy stuff!
@Dino – I agree with that, but hard work generally brings about luck (or what seems to be luck).
I still don’t know why every comment of yours is being flagged as spam. Weird.
@Yasagun – Thanks for stopping by, I’m glad you are going to look at my recipe!
hahah nooo!!! wordpress thinks im a spammer! ahahah
Yeah, it’s really frustrating too!
You blog is cool but this is another “work your arse off to be successful” crap. This is pure crap! The real secret to success is to create (or find) as much value as possible while spending as little time as possible.
And if you don’t sleep less than 8 hours an day you will turn to shit pretty quickly and in turn your business will turn to shit.
It doesn’t take hard work to be successful?
6-8 hours has shown to be plenty of sleep for healthy adults. On top of that, you should be able to gauge your body pretty well and listen to it to determine how much sleep you truly need.
On top of THAT, if you actually read what I posted, I said you will eventually be able to sleep for 8+ hours if you want, but it surely takes dedication and hard work to get there (maybe not according to you).
Haters gonna hate.
the point of working online is to maximize fun and profits at the same time as minimizing the amount of time worked. I disagree with a lot of points of your post but for most people (who are lazy bums who do _nothing_) it is sound advice.
you can ball the fuck out and own many business working only 3 hours a day.. but I do agree that if you are a newb trying to get “in” then you will have to bust your balls until you “get it”
Exactly. This post wasn’t targeted towards seasoned marketers at all.
Obviously the end goal is to OWN the businesses and not RUN them.
I was just trying to light a fire under peoples’ asses – these type of posts really motivated me when I was starting out.
Thanks for the comment