3 Principles You Must Understand To Succeed In Life

You’ve probably heard the saying before that success leaves clues. And the truth of the matter is that everything leaves clues. Both success and failure leave clues. What I mean by this is that when you look at those who are successful there are traits that they are all going to share, likewise when you look at the unsuccessful there are traits that they are all going to share. Not just traits, but habits and principles as well. When you look at enough successful people you begin to see commonalities that are in all of them.

Focusing on these commonalities is wise as everyone has differences and to try to achieve success in the exact same way as another would be foolish. Rather you should look at the principles, adopt them yourself, and then express them through you own unique development. You should also be sure to watch your habits. For example every successful person is a voracious reader, which means it’d be wise to develop this habit yourself. And so on and so forth. Here I am going to discuss three principles that I have seen expressed across every successful person I’ve known or read about.

Principle #1 – It’s Not Out There

The victim mindset has poisoned the mind of the West. Everyone is in a competition to see who is the bigger victim. People have been taught that being a bigger loser is the way to get something in life and too get ahead. Even many movies promote losers being saved by benevolent people and portray it as that is the way the world works. Relying on charity is a guaranteed way to fail. You are not a victim and the circumstances of your life are your own fault. When you take responsibility for your life you also take absolute power for where you end up. Your salvation is not out there, it’s within you.

No one is going to save you other than yourself. Not you parents, friends, family, lovers, wife, girlfriend, church, political party, country, or anything or anyone else. You are responsible for how you end up in life, one hundred percent. Every successful person understands this they understand that “If it’s up to be then it’s up to me”. They take action and move forward unapologetically. Everything that happens to you is because of you. How high you rise is not because of good luck nor is how far you fall because of bad luck. It’s because of you. Everything is on you…everything. Winners understand this.

Principle #2 – You Can Never Know It All

Warren Buffett one of the richest men in the entire world spends a good portion of his time reading and a good portion of that reading time reading about money. The guy is worth over seventy billion dollars and he is taking the time to learn more about money. Let that sink in. Bruce Lee continued to practice martial arts and learn until he died. My point is you can never know it all and no matter how high you’ve ascended there is another level. That’s the great thing about life. There is no last level, you just keep going and going. You can keep reaching higher levels forevermore.

The successful understand this. They know there is plenty they don’t know and they are always in pursuit of more knowledge. Those who stop learning and growing wither and die. You must continually grow until the end, this isn’t a choice. Thinking you know “enough” or even worse know it all will get you killed. Depending on where you are and what you do this could be physically. But more likely it’ll be financially, spiritually, or mentally. Nevertheless a death in any of the areas is a tragedy that is preventable. You prevent it through growth. Grow far and grow fast, it’s the way forward.

Principle #3 – Skills Pay The Bills

Motivation, enthusiasm, and a good attitude are all great and all have a large impact on your overall development. However it’s skills that pay the bills, not anything else. Take a guy with a crappy attitude who’s been doing something for ten years and throw him against a guy a great attitude who’s been doing something for two and the guy with the crappy attitude is going to win nearly every time. Now if you started them both out at the same time the guy with the great attitude would be ahead, but that’s a topic for another article. Being positive doesn’t put meat on the table.

At the end of the day it’s cold hard skill that’s get you what you want. Skilled salesmen make money, skilled fighters make their way in life, men skilled in the understanding of women sleep with the women they want. It’s skill that ultimately gets results. Successful people know this, they know that there is no replacement for skill. Become a master of essential skills and you become just about untouchable. When it’s all on the line it is skill and skill alone that is going to put you through. Develop your skills.

Summary

So to recount keep these three principles in mind. First off your life is your own fault, take responsibility for it and then you’ll be in the driver seat. When you take responsibility for something it gives you power in it. Complete responsibility for your life equals complete power in your life. Never stop learning, you can’t know it all and never will. There is no last level. And finally it’s skills that pay the bills, everything else may be nice but it’s skills that separate people. Including the winners from the losers, the have from the have nots, the successful from the unsuccessful. Develop those skills.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.

-Charles Sledge