Too Busy for These 5 Basic Things? Then Kiss Achieving Success Goodbye

A lot of people ask me how to achieve success. They usually use kind of a hushed tone as if I am about to whisper a magical secret back to them.

Truth is I get asked this question not because I am so successful but because I talk to a lot of people who are extremely successful. A lot of people think that through hanging out with successful people this magical secret was whispered to me at one point or another.

But the truth is there is no secret.

There are a thousand different ways to achieve success. It's usually achieved by a combination of grit, sweat, luck and stubbornness.

Here are 5 basic things you need to produce winning results:

1. You need to be healthy. I don't mean you need to run marathons or look like you can do Iron Man. But you do need to take care of yourself first. I've learned first-hand what not taking care of yourself means when you're running at 100 miles per hour. That kind of behavior almost always backfires and sets you back. Plus, if you can't take care of yourself, how exactly can you be trusted to do anything else? Always think to yourself: health first and then everything will follow.

2. You need to be comfortable in fear. Believe it or not, a lot of successful people have fear. They just know how to not let it stop them from obtaining their goals. Fear is very uncomfortable. It can drive you to do stupid things; and it can also stop you from doing anything. Knowing you will be confronting fears on your way to glory helps you manage those emotions.

3. You need to be persistent. Part of what drives fear is the failure that you're guaranteed to face. Every single person who has succeeded has also failed. Many times. In fact, successful people probably fail more than other people. The magic is that successful people persist. They continue. They move on. Founder and Levo CEO Caroline Ghosn said to me that persistence is the single differentiator that investors look for in an entrepreneur.

4. You need to listen. Listening is the critical skill you need to succeed. It's the backbone of communication. Nido Qubein, president of High Point University, describes the process of successful communication beautifully: "Building bridges of understanding with others and acknowledging that that bridge must start with where they are, what they believe, what they want, what they value, and then build it toward where you are, describing what you offer." I couldn't agree with this more. Whenever people ask me who are the CEOs I like interviewing the most, I always mention it's the ones who actually listen to my questions and answer them directly. They hear what's being said versus what they want to be said. They're not in their own world. They want to learn about other people and through that, they grow.

5. You need to embrace the thing that motivates you. Every major character in a story has to have a motive. Without it, there's nowhere for anyone to go. Similarly, you're the star in your own story and you need a motive. What drives you? People tend to automatically say things like, "What motivates me is I want to be rich so I can live comfortably" or something along those lines. Yes, riches can be a motivation but that doesn't explain why very rich people continue to strive to succeed. Often, successful people are driven by an unexplained "chip" on their shoulder; maybe they were not the most popular person in school so they strive to excel. Or they grew up poor. Or they had a tremendous setback in life and now they're out to prove they can thrive and succeed. Whatever it might be, successful people have something that motivates them. Rather than see those drivers as negatives, turn them into positive energy and succeed. Embrace who you are and go for it.

I hope these points have been helpful to you. If you have any of your own tips for achieving success let me know! (I love reading your comments!)

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