Why so few people are willing to pay the price to be successful

Are you on the path to success?

What does it take to “Be successful” and why is it that so few people seem to make it?

While this is a complex question and each and every one of us have different definitions for our own success, there are a number of reasons why so few people are willing to pay the price to be successful.

Let’s look at the top 9 reasons why so few people are willing to pay the price to be successful.

 

1. The path to success is not easy

 

Talk to anyone who has attained the level of success they set out to accomplish, and they will tell you that they knew from day 1 that deep down inside that they would be successful. But it wasn’t easy.

There were days, weeks, months, and even years where they were working 2 jobs (or more), had bills they either barely were able to pay, or left unpaid. And don’t forget the times they failed. The many, many, many, times they failed. There were times of doubt, times of deep soul searching, and times where they thought about giving up, but just couldn’t do it….

No, becoming successful doesn’t happen overnight, it takes much patience and persistence. Often many years of hard work, through many dark nights and hard times.

This leads us to number 2 on our list.

 

2. They lose Faith or run out of patience.

 

Much like the Bamboo tree, it takes lots of care and effort before you see any results on your way to success. But when you finally do reach that critical mass, or breakthrough point, it often comes with increasing intensity, and even ease. While the media want us to believe that one can “be an overnight success story” this is, in fact, B.S.

Every single “Overnight success story” will tell you that it took a long time to get to the point where they either got their break, finally got the ingredients right, or their products target audience was ready for it.

From Apple and Spanx to FUBU and Google, they each took years to develop, pushed through lots and lots of failures and dark nights, and held strong with rock solid faith through it all.

Pushing through when everything is going against you and others are telling you to quit, but you KNOW this is where you belong & what you need to be doing, your faith and resolve only strengthens. You dig in, looking to make sure you’ve got the right team around you and that you don’t have any weak spots that aren’t being addressed.

But even then…

 

3. You will fail on your path to success, numerous times

 

And you’ll be upset, surprised, perhaps even a little bit angry or bitter for a brief moment…but it won’t last long, because you know that you’re going to learn quickly from the failure and build yourself back up even better, smarter, stronger, and more focused than before.

This is where so many others quit and throw in the towel. They fail a few times, sometimes big, sometimes small, and then they hear the voices of those around them….

 

4. People will tell you you’re wrong, stupid, naive, or dumb

 

And those who quit will let those voices and opinions take a hold and eat away at their faith.

People who quit will allow those who don’t believe in what they’re doing or their ultimate goal to dig at them, slowly eroding their self-confidence that things WILL happen, and their vision will come true.

Living a life being directed and influenced by others….Failing to live the life you both want and are working towards….what kind of life is that?

Your ambition has led you to take massive action towards the life that you desire. You’ve stopped wishing for the life you want, and instead have taken life by the horns and are working to make it happen.

Don’t let those who are too scared to go after what they TRULY want, deter you from getting that which you want, and deserve.

If just being ambitious were enough, we wouldn’t have the hard times we endure, and anyone who wanted would be successful.

 

5. It’s HARD to keep going, especially when it feels like nothing is building

 

Especially when everything seems to be falling apart, and even those who are very close to you- perhaps a spouse, significant other, or a long time best friend, says that “maybe it’s time to get a full time job/ let this go for a little bit. You should work and do something you can see progress on and then come back to this later”.

But you refuse to let it go. You know that you’re on the right track. Perhaps you’re missing something, so you go out and find another team member or mentor to help you build.

Or maybe you do pick up another job, but it’s something that eases the financial burden a bit and helps take the worry about the bills down a few levels while not draining you of your precious energy and focus that your dream requires.

Because you know that the only way to get gold of higher purity is to put it through a hotter fire, and that’s exactly what life is doing FOR you right now. It’s helping you become the highest level of YOU which you can become.

Isn’t it funny that all the hard working, smart working, committed, persistent, and diligent people are the ones who make it to be successful after all?

But it’s not just having the above characteristics that you must poses, and this seems to be where so many fall off the track of success, as they think simply cultivating the above characteristics and practices is all they must do.

But they don’t realize there is a whole other dimension they are missing…

 

6. You must get comfortable with discomfort

 

Those who quit on the path to success can’t handle getting comfortable with the discomfort of growth and challenge.

They don’t like being different, sticking out, or doing things differently. They can’t “handle the heat in the kitchen”, so they get out.

Sometimes, this discomfort comes from their “Norms” or self-developed paradigms of “How things work” which gets challenged, flipped upside down, or smashed, which leaves them with the realization that not only do you have to get comfortable with the discomfort of doing things differently, but that you have to relearn a lot of things. Including…

 

7. You have to re-learn how to learn

 

This is one of the worst realizations for some entrepreneurs and successful folks on their path to success…That what you learned in school, the approach of “How to learn” being that of memorizing something to regurgitate it on a set date, at a set time, in a set format, is next to useless on the path to success.

In fact, it’s like trying to use a wet noodle to cut glass.

Staying in the “School mindset” of learning is leaving you far behind everyone else who’s got the right tools, and has learned to re-learn how to learn & apply new knowledge.

Memorizing information to regurgitate it in a neat, clean fashion is nice and all, but let’s face it, outside of academia it can leave you far behind everyone else.

If you square up to this huge challenge, and realize that you have to be more creative, learn to tie together thoughts, ideas, and concepts from different areas, and even seemingly non-related fields, in order to McGuyver together a highly valuable and impactful final product, you will not only be successful in your life, but you’ll begin to taste some of the finest experiences that life has to offer: The experience of creating change, and something that has not been done before.

Some of the most well known entrepreneurs have done exactly this: From Richard Branson starting an airline, and turning the paradigm on its head when he knew nothing about the airline business, to Gary Vaynerchuck starting a media company when all he had known for most of his life was Wine… If you want to be successful, you’re whole idea of how and where you learn, and especially how to use that knowledge, will be flipped upside down, inside out and spun around with a jetpack strapped to its back in outer space.

Take the time to open your mind and let your imagination and creativity be unleashed…and the world will be your oyster.

 

8. The more you learn, the less you realize you know

 

So many people believe that getting your degree or diploma is the end of your learning. But as we just recognized, this is far from the truth.

Those who manage to get through the minefield of re-learning how to learn often capsize and sink when they come to realize: THERE IS SO MUCH MORE ABOUT MY SPECIALTY/ AREA/ MARKET THAT I DON’T KNOW.

Why do so many people go “At Irons” and stall out or sink at this part of the success journey, especially when they’re sailing so close to the Treasure Island that is success?

Because it scares the living crap out of them.

They’ve spent all these years, all that money, and invested so much energy into becoming “THE expert” or “THE go to guy/gal”, that to recognize that there is more out there than they can possibly comprehend and learn, they hit a mental “Chute” in the game of life, and slide all the way back to #1 or #2 on our list.

Some would call this a part of the process of success, and other would call it “the seasons of life”.

 

9. The seasons get them

 

And yet, if you’ve made it through all of these obstacles to accomplishing your success, and you get to where you think “You’ve DONE IT!”, the seasons of life come knocking on your door, and push you all the way out into the “Sea of the averages”.

Life has seasons, much as each year, yet we tend to forget this hard fact.

On your path to success, we all tend to start in the autumn- We know that there is something that is calling us, perhaps from deep within us it is an urge to DO SOMETHING…so we start, we begin to learn, first volunteering and reading, then move on to doing. This is our planting the seeds for success, working the “earth” by taking the time to learn from others whom have come before us.

But it’s not a straightforward path to success, we will have “spring times” where we move one step or one big leap closer to that which we are seeking. These are followed by the summertime where we enjoy these steps towards our “big success”.

But those who quit after having “some success” often forget about these seasons. This leads them to quit after experiencing this one, small summer of success. Perhaps they give up on attaining the success they are after because they neglect to celebrate and enjoy these summer times as they come, or because they fail to recognize the cycles in life.

The path to success it NOT straight, and you will have more autumns and winters to come. You will fail more often than you succeed. But if you understand these 9 common themes of those who aren’t willing to pay the price for success, you will be able to keep pushing on and to keep doing the work that you need to, in order to get to the success you’re seeking.

Do you need a little help, or perhaps some guidance to either quit or keep pushing? Check out these three books. They’ve helped many before you to do what they need to, in order to reach the success they know they are.

The Dip By Seth Godin

The Obstacle IS the way By Ryan Holiday

 

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