Written by a human, for humans, always.
Do you want to be successful?
Most people will answer yes to that question.
But will you "be" successful?
Most people believe that they will...
Yet the statistics reveal the truth of the matter...
They will not.
By the end of our lives...
About 98% of people will be lying on their deathbeds feeling regret.
Most people...
At the end of their lives...
Feel like they failed.
That is the reality.
The question becomes...
How do we avoid that fate at the end of our lives?
What will allow us to obtain the success that so very few individuals ever experience?
I have five factors that are incredibly important...
Some of which you may understand or have heard...
But which I am going to frame in a way you likely have not heard because most people fail to understand what these actually mean.
The first factor...
Is skill.
You need to have a skill...
Or a series of skills...
Use those skills consistently...
Cultivate those skills...
And expand upon those skills.
Being skilled alone is not enough...
And most people who believe they are skilled and talented...
Either are less skilled than they believe (not always completely their fault when considering institutional failures and sycophantic individuals in their lives)...
Or are not actually using their skills in reality.
Using and developing your skills needs to be a lifelong pursuit.
It is not enough to get a degree or hope to work in a field of your choice...
It is not enough to have the dream to pursue something someday...
You need to actively utilize the skills...
Ideally, every day...
Or at the very least, 5 times a week.
You do not need to be doing it for pay or through a job or business (but often, that is the ideal)...
But you do need to be actively working on the skill.
If you are not using the skill...
The reality is that it will likely diminish...
And because of how habits work from a psychophysiological perspective...
The less you do something...
The less likely it will be that you do it in the future.
So you need to be actively using your skills and cultivating them...
Even if your current situation is less than ideal.
If you can only do a little bit...
That is better than nothing.
What happens for most people...
Is that a little bit builds up...
Then begins to grow into more places of our lives...
Until we gain the opportunity to prove our skills...
Which, if you have been using your skills prior to the opportunity...
Makes it vastly more likely that you will succeed with the opportunity...
Unlike most people who fail because they have not been utilizing their skills at all.
What all is needed for success?
Differentiation.
Now, this one is going to have some context-specific definitions.
For instance...
If your definition of success is to rise the ranks of the corporate ladder...
You need to differentiate compared to others who are vying for the same position in your office...
As well as differentiate compared to those who could come from outside of your office currently.
If your definition of success is to build a business...
You need to differentiate in one of two ways...
Either designing a niche that is a subcategory which only you fill...
Or by designing a new category that you can prove is valuable.
(No - you "thinking" something is valuable is "very" different from proving it "is" actually valuable).
Those are just two versions of success that people have...
And even within those contexts, differentiation can become highly individualized.
The point, regardless of context...
Is that you need to stand out as a positive example...
Unique and firmly within your greatest capacities...
In such a way that others view you as successful within that domain...
And simultaneously you view yourself as successful.
For instance...
If your definition of success includes being a good parent...
You do need to see yourself as a good parent...
But if your children absolutely despise you all the time...
Then you are not really a successful parent.
Alternatively...
If your children think you're a good parent because they always get what they want...
But you are always struggling, and you question if giving them what they want is actually good for them all the time...
(Hint: being a sycophantic parent does not benefit children in the long term)...
Then, in all likelihood, you also are not being a fully successful parent.
You see this struggle play out when new parents claim they "will not be like their parents", only to either become exactly like their parents or swing in the complete opposite direction and fail in a completely unexpected way.
The point...
Is that you need to differentiate within your context in such a way that there is agreement between yourself and other parties that you are successful.
What is the next factor?
Living your values.
But...
There is a caveat to this one...
The values that you must live into...
Need to match with how your psychophysiology works.
This is where most people go absolutely wrong.
For instance...
Many people claim to be devout followers of a religion...
But everything about how they practice their religion causes them fear inside.
When you look at psychophysiology...
Living in constant fear is actually horrible for your health.
Now, in this context, there could be a couple of explanations.
The entire religion you follow may simply be really unhealthy from a psychophysiological perspective...
It could be that it is just the specific subgroup within that religion that has something wrong, which is working against how humans are designed...
Maybe the religion you are following is actually targeting and weaponizing fear, which is not beneficial...
Or any number of other reasons.
But what is important...
Is that the values you live by need to align with optimal human psychophysiology and health.
If they do not...
You will never feel successful...
Because you are constantly fighting against how the human body is designed...
And that will consistently cause you to act and move in ways that will actively prevent you from moving toward success in life.
This is also not just applicable to religion...
It is equally applicable to politics, family-building, business or career building, and everything else in life.
Your values must align with your human psychophysiology...
And you must actually live in alignment with those values.
This brings us to the next factor...
Contribution.
Individual success never sustains us...
And there is a reason for that.
We are, inherently, interdependent as humans.
Both in the micro-scale and macro-scale...
We are not individuals...
But rather parts of communities.
If we look at our bodies...
We are composed of living cells and microbiota.
Their health determines our health.
When the cells do not function optimally...
When our gut microbiota become unbalanced...
We become sick and lose access to various psychophysiological functions that are necessary for success.
In the same way...
To reach the highest levels of success...
We must utilize our strengths alongside others with different strengths.
If we do not...
We end up utilizing our skills less often...
Forced to work in areas of our weaknesses...
Which limits what becomes possible for ourselves.
Instead...
We need to combine with others...
So that they can use their strengths where we are weak...
So that we can focus on using our own strengths...
Often where they are weak.
This allows us to maximize our potential...
But further...
When we also find that the individuals who feel the most successful in life...
Are the ones who contribute to others at the highest levels.
In research studies, what we consistently find...
Is greater levels of happiness, fulfillment, gratitude, and more...
When we contribute more greatly to others.
It is important to note...
That we should be wary of contributing "beyond" ourselves...
To a point where we end up harming ourselves.
The nature of contribution...
Is that there should be give and gain...
Not give and take.
What is "gained" is not always what many would consider "valuable"...
And at the same time, what many would consider "valuable" ends up taking vastly more from you than you should allow.
True success is generally not measured by what society considers "successful"...
Which is part of why most people die regretting their lives...
They chased things that never could provide what they needed...
And they ignored or never pursued the things that would have actually made them feel successful at the end of their lives.
Contribution is a higher calling than most things in the world.
This brings us to the final point...
Overcoming attrition.
What most people do not realize...
Is that true success...
Often is a game of attrition.
Skill is important...
But many of the most skilled individuals fail to make it far...
Because they fall off the map.
They believe that their skill alone will take them to the highest places...
Then...
Some people hit a wall, and they give up...
Others give up a little while later...
Then there is another struggle where people believe they can fast-track their success...
So they allow their health to decline...
Which then causes them to burn out, become chronically ill, and worse...
Causing them to lose the game of success despite their skills.
One of the most powerful factors in the game of success...
Is to play the long game.
While most others either quit or are forced to give up because of other factors...
The person who stays in the longest...
While maintaining the other factors of the game...
Are often the ones who win.
True success is not a single event...
Not a single deal...
A single promotion...
A single moment.
True success is a long series of events...
Some of which go as we hoped...
Others that go horribly wrong...
With perhaps a few that are greater than we could have imagined...
But all of which only happen...
If we are able to stay in the game long enough to experience them.
You cannot win if you do not stay in the game.
You have to beat the attrition...
And that is where so many people end up failing without realizing it...
Until it is too late.
There is a reason that most people fail to feel successful in their lives...
And when you understand these factors...
It is easy to see why.
Very few people approach life in this manner...
And it shows.
They are constantly struggling...
Always feeling like they could become more...
But never feeling like they are moving toward whatever that more could be...
Everything feels like it is wrong all the time...
Even when they believe they are doing everything right...
And the things they believe are supposed to make them finally feel right...
Fail to provide anything at all.
That is the life that most people live...
And that is why 98% of people end up regretting how they lived their lives.
The question is...
Is that really how you want to live your life?
Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?
Tired of Broken Algorithms and AI Slop?
Excited to Dive Deeper into Psychophysiological Mastery?
Want to Change The World?