The Secret of Success

Actually it is not a “Secret” anymore,

but why do only so few

use this simple & powerful success strategy?

A Survey of Success

In 1953, Harvard University famously conducted a detailed survey of its graduating senior class.  The questionnaire that each of the three thousand students filled out specifically asked that participants look deeply at their expectations of life.

In 1973 another questionnaire was completed by each of the two thousand remaining ex-students that were contactable.  In many areas of life the results were quite predictable.  In some, there were a number of surprises; however nothing had prepared the researchers for the shock they received when appraising the respondents’ net worth.

Shock Number One arrived in the form of a 97% to 3% split.  Any one of the 3% (sixty people) selected on their own, had a net worth greater than the other 97% combined.  Put in everyday language, any single one of these sixty people could have bought and sold the other 1940 individuals combined.

Shock Number Two was the realisation that these sixty people did not constitute the ‘cream’ of the graduating class.  Their positions in their various classes at graduation turned out to bear no relation to their successes in life.  It was not the geniuses who had succeeded financially.

Shock Number Three was that the 1953 survey unknowingly predicted this 97% to 3% split.  The students of 1953 had predetermined their own success levels, and the information lay dormant for twenty years.

Before any further consideration of this amazing material, let us consider the following state of affairs in Australia: six of Australia’s ten wealthiest people do not have university educations; three of the remaining four failed university at their first attempts; the last graduated having taken five years to obtain a three year degree and none of the four with degrees actually use it directly in the production of their income.  So, if you think that you aren’t academically inclined, you’re in the right company!

If you could find out a secret that would guarantee your success in everything you attempted, would you treat it like a valuable tool and commit yourself to using it, even if you did not understand how it could possibly work?  If it was the silliest thing you ever heard of, but you knew that it worked well for others over extended periods of time, would you stick with it anyway?

So, What Was the Secret?

What was it that these sixty people had in common in 1953 that brought them enough wealth to live on happily ever after, even if they never worked again?

These people – and most successful people, for that matter – didn’t just think about what they wanted.  Anybody can sit and consider what they would like to have happen in their future, but it takes a brave human being to actually commit it to paper and say to themselves, “this is what I am making a stand for in my life; this is what I want to do”.  Essentially, the difference between a dream and a goal is the written word.

Time and again, sociological experiments have demonstrated that specific, challenging goals result in better performance than vague goals, no goals, or people simply trying to “do their best”.

Putting things down in black and white is the key.  There is a magic that mobilises the brain when we set a goal on paper.  In simple physics (which has nothing to do with the magic) when you write down a goal, it makes its first step into the physical plane.  Before this time, your goal has existed purely in the esoteric thought patterns that rattle around inside your head.  Consequently, writing down your goals is one of the most basic secrets of success, whether you like it or not.

If the secret to success is so simple, is there any reason why you shouldn’t start doing it today?