Why Am I Successful?

byDavidQ

152 followers

Updated 10 years ago

No, not me! But I've just been reading an article in the Irish Times newspaper titled “The Secrets of our Success”, where they asked a wide range of so-called successful people what had helped them to succeed.

Some people in Wealthy Affiliate ask, directly or indirectly, “How can I succeed?”, or they raise the issue of dwindling motivation.

I’ve selected some quotes from the people interviewed, which may help or even inspire you if you have either of the above questions in your mind.

Footballer Mick O'Dwyer: "You shouldn't do anything in life unless you give everything to it ... I left no stone unturned in my desire to be the best I could."

Sharon Corr, singer: "My favourite success quote is: 'The harder I work the luckier I get' by Samuel Goldwyn."

Kealan Lennon, Cleverbug CEO: "If you solve a problem for your customers it becomes a winning formula ... a relentless commitment to getting it right, both for the customer and for the business."

Anne Gribben, celebrity make-up artist: “I was incredibly naive when I started ... but I believed in myself and was very determined.”

Footballer Pat Spillane: "I wasn't the most gifted footballer, not blessed with a wide array of skills but I trained hard, savage hard."

Don O'Neill, designer: "I believe the secret of my success is taking care of people ... I work long hours to make sure that all women feel included in my design world, each given the opportunity to look and feel gorgeous in my dresses, so that they feel loved and taken care of." [Apply that, perhaps, with the appropriate modifications, to an affiliate marketing website!]

Karen O'Flaherty, businesswoman: "When things go wrong ... try not to view it as failure but rather develop a different perspective."

Michael Smurfit, entrepreneur: "You must never, never give up. It's like a football match: if you go out to lose you're going to lose. You've got to go out with a winning attitude.”

Louise Phelan, Vice-President Paypal: "One of the most important pieces of advice that I ever received is to not let setbacks set you back."

Some of the interviewees said, in different ways, that they did not see themselves as being successful. In other words, they did not want to puff themselves up with a sense of their achievements. But that also implies: Keep at it, keep going, never give up.

If any of the quotes gives you a new idea about your project and how to move ahead, perhaps the advice of entrepreneur Sean O'Sullivan will help you take it further: "Strip the idea down until it is naked ... Complexity delays decision-making."

That's a very useful principle. If you think of a great slogan, you can see that it's an idea that has been stripped down to a handful of words, with maximum impact. Add extra words to the slogan and you destroy it. You recognize a great slogan instantly. In the same way, it should be possible to express the winning formula (for, say, an affiliate website) very briefly, and, when you describe the idea to someone, they should say something like "Wow, great idea!" rather than "Can you please explain?!"

I’ll end with two of my favorite quotes from the newspaper interviews:

Golfer Paul McGinley (Ryder Cup captain): "In my experience, the most common mistake people make is to become obsessed with results, with things they can't control, rather than doing the simple things that will give them the best chance of success. By being over-analytical, they climb the wrong branches of the tree."

Gay Byrne, broadcaster: "It is amazing the extent to which quiet persistence in following a dream pays off."