As I have told you the only press I read is Dealbook, so I might be sending you something you already saw weeks ago or in this morning’s Dealbook.
But it is so interesting to me, such a rare and candid account of what it takes to create extreme success, that I want to pass it along.
The secret to success is obvious to me: It is the willingness to do the hard things that most people will never be willing to do.
This often includes working around the clock, but as I write in The Guide, “Look at the world around you. People who work harder aren’t necessarily successful. Truly successful people do hard things.”
Highly successful people set outrageous goals and they never stop advancing!
It does come at a cost. These people tend to have personality “flaws,” those who truly know them know they are often the crazy ones, but it is their vision, passion, and willingness to do whatever it takes that sets them apart from the 99.999%.
Here is the response from the first wife of Elon Musk on the website Quora to the question: How can I be as great as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson?
These are some of the ideas that jumped out at me:
- Extreme success results from an extreme personality and comes at the cost of many other things.
- These people tend to be freaks and misfits who were forced to experience the world in an unusually challenging way…They don’t think the way other people think. They see things from angles that unlock new ideas and insights.
- Be obsessed. Be obsessed. Be obsessed. If you’re not obsessed, then stop what you’re doing and find whatever does obsess you.
- It helps to have an ego, but you must be in service to something bigger if you are to inspire the people you need to help you.
- Don’t pursue something because you “want to be great”. Pursue something because it fascinates you, because the pursuit itself engages and compels you.
- Extreme people combine brilliance and talent with an *insane* work ethic, so if the work itself doesn’t drive you, you will burn out or fall by the wayside.
- It helps to have superhuman energy and stamina. If you are not blessed with godlike genetics, then make it a point to get into the best shape possible.
- Learn to handle a level of stress that would break most people.
- They do not fear failure — or they do, but they move ahead anyway…When they fail in ways that other people won’t, they learn things that other people don’t and never will. They have incredible grit and resilience.
- They are unlikely to be reading stuff like this…They are more likely to go straight to a book: perhaps a biography of Alexander the Great or Catherine the Great* or someone else they consider Great.
- Surfing the ‘Net is a deadly timesuck, and given what they know their time is worth…they can’t afford it.