Success is learnable and predictable — "as predictable as the sun rising in the East." Research shows no correlation between success and intelligence, education, luck, contacts, or appearance. Two requirements: (1) decide to exceed all previous levels of accomplishment; (2) learn how.
The seven ingredients
- Peace of mind — the starting point; freedom from fear, stress, anxiety, want, guilt. Without it nothing else is enjoyable.
- Health and energy — 80–90% of ailments are psychosomatic ("psycho makes soma sick"), traced to disrupted peace of mind.
- Loving relationships — ~85% of life success is determined by how well you get along with others. Measurement: how much you laugh with a person — laughter is the first thing to enter a happy relationship and the first to leave a failing one.
- Financial freedom — enough money that you don't worry about money.
- Worthy goals and ideals — Viktor Frankl's logotherapy: humans need meaning and purpose; ~80% of people have little direction.
- Self-knowledge — facing yourself honestly, "warts and all."
- Personal fulfillment — Maslow's self-actualization; a result of the other six.
Why most people underachieve
- Average person functions at 2–3 out of 10 of potential; 84% of workers are underemployed; 80% would rather do something else.
- At retirement: only 1% wealthy, 5% financially independent, 15% with some savings, 80% dependent — after lifetime earnings of $0.5–1M.
- Root cause: we arrive with no instruction manual for the mind. Humans have a success instinct (the drive to be, have, and do more), but never learn to operate it.
Master formula
Understanding × Effort = Results — improve both: do things right and do the right things.
Quotes
- "Success is as predictable as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West."
- "It was like getting a blank check on the future."