Secrets of Success in 8 words and 3 minutes

Often, when people think about success, they ask the same question: What does it take to become successful?

Although there are numerous ways to achieve success, sometimes it helps to get a simple answer and put things in perspective. Richard St. John does an excellent job of answering this question in his presentation. After about a decade of interviewing about 500 successful people, he was able to extract the key qualities that lead to success and has nicely refined them into 8 words and 3 minutes. Watch the video and read my synopsis after.

To recap, the words St. John used are: Passion, Work, Good, Focus, Push, Serve, Ideas and Persist. I think that these words are great at generally explaining what it takes to be successful and provides a good base to focus on the elements that most successful people share. Here are my thoughts on these words.

1. Passion

I think this is the most important of them all. Doing something that you truly love is very crucial to achieving success. It makes the positive difference in how well you do things, your point of view and your attitude. Can you imagine doing something you really dislike? Think of how that would affect your whole approach to things. Doing something for love will increase your chances of succeeding because your passion will help overcome the obstacles that everyone faces on the path of success. Richard St. John says, “Do it for love, not for money. When you do it for love the money will follow.”

2. Work

Of course, this is a no brainer. However, I have noticed that there so many people in the world who have the attitude and expectation of “getting something for nothing” or wanting to become an overnight success. I think this is evident in massive amounts of money people spend on gambling with lottery tickets and casino games. Hoping to be rich and successful is perfectly alright, but be realistic in your approach and know that hard work will ensure success.

3. Good

Richard St. John also states that becoming good at what you do is another important element to success. Becoming better or even the best at something will differentiate you and set you apart from the next person ( your competition). St. John points out that practice is the key to getting good. However, I would like to take it to another level and say that “perfect practice” is the key. Not only should you practice, but practice with a sense of awareness and discipline. This will encourage good habits that can help you in the long run.

4. Focus

I think focusing yourself to one thing is important for different reasons. Mainly, it will help you get the best return from the amount of time you have spent working on something. Also, being extremely focused can help you achieve your goals more effectively. Without a good focus, people tend to get distracted and stray from successfully completing their goals.

5. Push

This is an element of success that people do not really address. I think to “push” really means to face your fears and insecurities head on. Generally, people get through their fears and insecurities by avoiding it completely. But being able to recognize those fears/insecurities and deal with them accordingly is where you can make a change. To push your self to a level where you might be scared or insecure is where you really initiate a break-through. This initial experience of change is the only way to get started in conquering your fears. It also helps to surround yourself with a good “support group” of people, such as trusted colleagues, friends and family. As Richard St. John states in his presentation “its not always easy to push yourself, that is why they invented mothers”. lol.

6. Serve

Initially St. John talks about how success can be measured by helping others with your talents and skills. However, he continues to say that if you want to be rich then you will have to serve others something of “value”. Of course, people will only pay for something that is valuable to them. You can generate value by creating a product or service that will solve other peoples problems or fulfill their needs.

7. Ideas

Basically, generating ideas is simple task if you carry out these common things: Listen, Observe, Be curious, Ask Questions, Problem Solve and Make Connections. I think that all of these are good and are all significant in uncovering ideas. However, I think the most important is to be effective in problem solving, it will usually be directly connected to the new idea (solution).

8. Persist

Finally, the last word that Richard St. John uses a secret to success is “persist”. I agree completely. Persistence is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. Usually, people assume that a constant daily motivation is enough and I think that being able to do this is excellent. However, I think that what really sets you apart is the ability to push through the most difficult times that you are faced with. Persistence through failures and external forces (that are out of your control) can be the deciding factor of whether you will be successful.

So that’s pretty much it, Richard St. John’s Secret to Success in 8 words gives a superb insight on the main elements on what makes people successful. Certainly there are other various factors that can build success, but if you ever need a quick recharge, this video clip is very inspiring!