Sometimes when looking for commonalities on the road to success it can appear that success is a unique thing. Meaning that each individual has their own unique way of reaching it. One person relied on those around them for support while another ignored everyone around them. One learned all that he needed to know from his father, another never had a father. And so on and so forth. If you really wanted to break it down it could be hard to find the key principles that lead one to success.
Sure there are things like tenacity, hard work, and other factors that play a part but what is the overarching concept or principle? There are tenacious people who will die broke losers, likewise there are hardworking people that will die broke and unfulfilled. They will die with the song in their heart still unsung so to speak like William Wallace said “All men die, few men ever really live”. The successful are the men who truly live and who have the freedom to do so.
The Trait All Successful People Share
The traits that all successful people share is what they invest in. I’m not talking about stocks or bonds or anything of that matter. Rather I’m talking about what they spend their most valuable assets investing in. Namely time and secondary money. The thing that successful people invest the most in is themselves. They invest in their education (a real education not the government indoctrination/waste of money called “education”). They invest in learning and improving themselves.
They are always looking to sharpen themselves and improve. To reach new heights and break old barriers and limits. To conquer today what seemed unconquerable last week. They use knowledge and experience to the best of their abilities and are always seeking out both new knowledge and new experience so that they can then take action on that new knowledge. By investing in themselves they build upon their worth. The same way someone invests in a business making it better and better.
How To Invest In Yourself
So now that we know what it is that sets successful people apart how do we go about doing it? How does one invest in himself? First thing’s first. Take care of yourself and put your needs first. Put yourself first. That is one of the key tenets of investing in yourself and living a successful life. As a man you need to watch out for yourself first and foremost. Society will drill it in your head that women, work, the government, and pretty much everything else come before you. Society is wrong, you come first.
In relation to put yourself first you should also take care of yourself. Work out and eat right. Dress nice or at least dress to express your personality and not to conform to what you are “supposed to”. Do the hobbies that you enjoy. Stand by your opinions and beliefs don’t give in to others around you just because you feel like you should. But this stuff is really just the beginning of investing in yourself.
What Really Makes The Difference
However there is one thing, one area that truly makes the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful. That area is knowledge. Knowledge is potential power. Knowledge combined with action is power. The best investment you can make is yes in yourself but in particular in your knowledge. Like Benjamin Franklin said “If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”. I’ll use an example to illustrate.
Let’s look at the incredibly profitable field of copywriting. There is an organization that has a course on copywriting that teaches you everything you need to know. It retails for something like five hundred dollars. Now the vast majority of people (the 99%) are going to look at it and only see the price but not the value. They’ll exclaim “500 dollars for a book?! That’s insane!” then go back to paying the same amount to go watch a football game in a crowded stadium.
They don’t see that one course can make them a profit just by getting one client. This holds true with marketing, getting girls, or anything else. People balk at the price never seeing the true value and honestly perhaps they don’t think they are worth that much of an investment. However you know better. The five hundred you spend can turn into a career worth five hundred thousand (and that’s not an exaggeration by any means). Successful people know to invest in their knowledge even if it means spending more than the average person. Successful people see the value.
Summary
So ultimately what separates the successful from the unsuccessful is that the successful invest in themselves. Particularly in their knowledge. The successful invest thousands (and then tens of thousands) into furthering their education (real education not school education) through books, courses, meetings, master minds, and experiences. They see the value in what they are doing and because of that accumulate power that they can then take action on. Bottom line invest in yourself, especially in your knowledge and you will soar above the ranks of the common man.
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
