I love talking to successful people.

It might be an entrepreneur I read about in a magazine, a biography, someone I saw speak, the top sales person in a large company, or someone I just heard of.If its someone I admire I usually try to talk to them and ask questions about how they “did it”. The great majority of these people are happy to talk about what they did wrong, right, well, mediocre, and what they would do differently.

I used to be particularly interested in “overnight successes”, as I was very impatient to be a “success”, and often berated myself for the fact that these other people could do it “overnight” whilst I was persistently working harder and harder, and sometimes feeling I was spinning my wheels.

One thing all the “overnight successes” had in common, the one thing they consistently scoffed at, was being called an “overnight success”. They all agreed that IT TAKES YEARS to be an overnight success. In one form or another, their journeys all took years to unfold, it was only that other people actually took notice once they had achieved a certain level of success, hence the “overnight success” label.

The perception was that the idea/business/achievement was like a light bulb going off in their head, the reality was that in most cases it was dogged determination & sweat to achieve a long held goal or dream.

The lessons I learnt from all these successful people:

1 Have a tangible goal/dream

2 Figure out the obstacles and ways to overcome them (be prepared)

3 Work tirelessly and doggedly to achieve that goal

4 Set your own timeline and definition of success, its your journey, no-one else’s, therefore you must have your own measuring stick of success

And who knows, in 10-15 years we could both be “overnight successes”

Bren

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