I bet when you read the title, you figured you’d read some sappy article on being successful, something like “10 successful habits of billionaires” or “How to become successful in 5 easy steps” — well, you thought wrong. You want to know about success? Define it first. What is success to you? If you’re the type that follows the herd, then success is what other people define it to be, no matter if that success is relevant to your success. To be completely honest, chances are if you’re reading this you are most likely not successful, which is okay…you have more important shit to focus on, like surviving. I totally get it but get this, you need to wake up.
Wake up and smell the roses, if you don’t you’ll work forever and let others define your life. Does everyone like cilantro? No, some people say it tastes like soap but what if I told you success meant owning a cilantro farm? It sounds pretty ridiculous now but I hope you’re getting my point. To truly understand what I’m trying to say you have to go back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and point to where you currently are. If you’re in survival mode, all this success stuff interests you on the surface level but not in actuality; it’s an idea you enjoy thinking about but not living it.
Now if really want to be successful you have to understand that success is something you can create, out of thin air. I’m not talking law of attraction, I mean by redefining and putting a twist or your own perspective on things people like. Things that capture their attention. We as humans like stories and we like things that have a backstory, it increases their value, their sentimental value. In this modern time, we can create a social following based on pictures and stories — you only need a product that catches people’s attention. The popular blog Humans of New York is one prime example, it’s literally just pictures and stories and it’s wildly successful. Someone saw the need to share other people’s stories and it struck fire, creativity and timing helps too but those can be honed through practice.
There are no more excuses. The market is free to enter, all you need to do is create a thought product that offers new insight, something fresh that the people haven’t seen before. If you want to be successful, define it first and then take measurable steps to achieve it. If you don’t, you’ll never be successful — it’s as simple as that.
