Richard St. John's 8 Secrets of Success

8 Secrets to Success

I just listened to Richard St. John talk on TED about what he thinks that a person should have to lead to success. I personally think it's great how he cut down a two hour presentation down to three minutes.

He said what made him start to think about this is because a high school student asked him once, "What leads to success?" Richard felt really bad because he couldn't give her a good answer. That was when he started to ask other people what they think leads to success. So, after 7 years and 500 interviews, he came up with a conclusion.

The first thing is passion. I don't just believe, I know that this is true. All the people that excel in their fields are all passionate about what they do. Because of passion, work isn't work anymore. Freeman Thomas said: "I'm driven by my passion." We willingly go do the things we are passionate about because of love, not because of money. Carol Coletta said: "I would pay someone to do what I do."And, if you do it for love, money comes in anyways!

The second thing is work. This is the thing we all know that helps lead to success. If you don't work hard, how are you suppose to get anywhere? Rupert Murdoch said: "It's all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun."

The third thing is to be good at something. If you want to succeed, then you better be damn good at something! Alex Garden said: "To be successful, put your nose down in something and get damn good at it" There are no tricks or shortcuts to this, it's just practice, practice, practice. Passion and hard work helps a lot here.

The fourth is focus. If you don't focus on what you are doing, how are you suppose to finish anything? Without focusing, you can't even finish one thing, let alone becoming successful. Norman Jewison said: "I thin kit all has to do with focusing yourself on one thing"

Fifth is push! You have got to push yourself to become better and better. You must push yourself to see where your limits are. You must push harder than anyone to succeed. David Gallo said: "Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you've got to push, push, push." Push though your shyness and self-doubt. It's not always easy to push yourself, that's why we have mothers! Frank Gary said: "My mother pushed me."

The sixth is serve. You must learn how to serve others before anything else. Sherwin Nuland said: "It was a privilege to serve as a doctor." Many people want to become rich, but you have got to serve others something of value, and when people want that value, that's when you become rich.

Number seven is ideas. You must have new ideas all the time, that is how to get and stay in front of others. Bill Gates said: "I had an idea - founding the first micro-computer software company." Coming up with new and fresh ideas is quite difficult of course, but there are things we can do to become creative. Such as, listen, observe, be curious, ask questions, problem solve, and finally, make connections.

The last one is something you must do if you have all the things above. The eighth one is persist. Joe Kraus said: "Persistence is the number one reason for our success." You have got to persist through failure. You have got to persist through CRAP. Which means criticism, rejection, assholes, and pressure!

If we manage to do all of the seven things consistently, then we will mostly likely have a much higher than of succeeding than if we don't.

Watch Video Here: Richard St. John's 8 Secrets to Success