A very smart investor (Howard Marks of Oaktree) once wrote a book titled “The Most Important Thing” which contained 17 chapters, each chapter titled… “The Most Important Thing”! The point being it is very difficult to boil down complex situations to a single “most important” variable. Even if you do, the moment you address/solve THAT variable, another factor pops up to the top as now being the most important, the most critical and so on forever.

So, when I began to ponder on what might be “The Difference” that “Makes the Difference” in achieving success (however one may choose to define it) in life, many things came to mind:

  • Focus
  • Drive, Motivation and Enthusiasm
  • Intelligent Persistence
  • Awareness/EQ
  • Willingness (Burning Need?) to Grow and Learn

Simply “wanting” success is not enough, we all want many things that never come to be. Taking “action” is not enough, to even have a chance of success, action must be purposeful and intelligently directed. Even that is not enough, action frequently fails, one must continuously learn, refine, adapt and grow. To succeed beyond the norm, one must become more effective than most. You must want to become stronger, put forth more effort, for a longer period of time, all the while being willing to continuously re-create yourself. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Desire is the but the first step on the stairway to success.

Closing Quotes:

“The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.” – Orison Swett Marden

“The first principle of success is desire – knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of your seed.” – Robert Collier, 1885-1950

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – General (Ret.) Colin Powell, former Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pele

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier