#15 - How to Create and Sustain Long-Term Success

I'll never forget when I first made six figures. I was in my early twenties, and it was my main goal for when I graduated college. I remember some of my friends from home were blown away. Many of them were still making minimum wage, and so was I just a few years earlier.

It's wild to think about. From the outside, it must've appeared like I went from eight dollars an hour painting houses in Maine to a six figure salary selling industrial automation equipment almost overnight.

How did it happen so fast? How did I jump the pay scale so quickly? Well, like with all successes, it didn't happen nearly as fast as it appeared. From the outside, it looked sudden. From the inside, however, the journey took far longer and was far more treacherous.

On the internet, we often see people's successes exploding like a volcano seemingly out of nowhere. In reality, however, it was almost always brewing beneath the surface for decades prior. That's how success works. It's an accumulation, and rather than it happening overnight, it's nearly always just the inevitable byproduct of consistent hard work compounded over time.

That's what this blog's about. It's about the long, arduous and often deeply painful climb toward success that most people never see and rarely talk about. While reading, though, please remember that this was far easier to write about than it was to live, and I'm excited to share it with you. Let's dive in.

Setting The Stage

In hindsight, I was kind of an odd child. I always had super large goals and dreams. Not the cute, "I want to be an astronaut when I grow up", kind of dreams; but rather, the, "Is this kid out of his mind!?", kind...

I'll never forget the bug repellent my friend and I tried to invent with my science kit or brainstorming the video game another friend and I wanted to create, "Musket, The American Revolution". I'll never forget contemplating whether I wanted to go down the, "Lawyer, Politician, President", career path, or the, "Engineer, MBA, CEO", one. I'll never forget telling my teacher, Mrs. Pucket, I wanted to be an Abercrombie model one day or genuinely considering professional gaming when Halo was big on Xbox.

Truth be told, those are just a small fraction of the goals and dreams I've had, and as an adult, it's been hard to realize how rare that is. These weren't just wild fantasies or empty words for me. These were honest aspirations I was genuinely considering. Back then, I thought everyone believed in themselves like me and had huge dreams they intended to pursue. Unfortunately, I was very wrong...

I turned thirty-five this year, and I now realize how naive that was. Having coached hundreds of people all over the world, I now understand how odd and rare those thought processes really were, especially at that age. All kids talk about big goals and dreams; yes, but most really are just dreaming. To put it more directly, very few ever did the mental and emotional work in advance to reverse engineer what those dreams would actually require of them, and even fewer decided in advance to make whatever sacrifices would be necessary.

This became particularly evident at one of our recent Meetups on, "Setting Clear Goals for 2024". In preparation, I stumbled across some research indicating that only five percent of people ever set goals, and only eight percent of them actually achieve them. To put this into perspective, that means for every thousand people, only fifty set a goal and only four ever achieve it.

Isn't that mind blowing? That's like being in a massive packed stadium where only one tiny subsection in the nose bleeds ever sets and achieves goals. As someone who's been setting and achieving goals my entire life, my first reaction to that was shock, but now I can look at goals and dreams with a new level of reverence, compassion and understanding I couldn't before.

On podcasts, I've often talked about how natural gifts come with a massive blind spot, and how all great strengths walk hand-in-hand with a less obvious but equally dangerous weakness. For example, confidence walks hand-in-hand with potential arrogance, humility walks hand-in-hand with potential timidity, and natural talent walks hand-in-hand with the potential of complacency, just to name a few.

For me, I'm grateful for my ability to easily reverse engineer specific outcomes, but that's also caused a massive blind spot. I had no idea how challenging that is for others, and I never understood why more people weren't setting and achieving goals and dreams because of it. Unfortunately, this caused me to unintentionally project my abilities onto others, and to ensure I'm not doing that to you right now, I'd like to first check in on a few things before we continue.

Pre-Flight Check In

After careful analysis, research, and decades of observing human behavior, I've come to understand that there are two main types of self-belief. This is also referred to as, "self-efficacy", in the scientific literature, and it's important to gain clarity on where you're at in each type before digging further into the 5 S's of Success.

The first is a belief in one's own ability to execute against a given set of behaviors. In other words, can I follow through on the behavior? The second is a belief in one's own ability to choose which behavior to actually do. In other words, which behaviors that I do now will lead to the ultimate outcome I want? The first is about doing the work, and the second is about determining which work to do.

1. Self-Belief (Part 1) - From 0 to 10, how much do you believe in your own ability to consistently execute against specific behaviors, even if they're hard or scary?

2. Self-Belief (Part 2) - From 0 to 10, how much do you believe in your own ability to figure out which behaviors will create the specific outcome you want?

Statistically speaking, the first is usually higher than the second, but not always. I did this with a business client not long ago. Her answers were 10 for the first and 2 for the second. This exercise helped her and I understand that her true level of self-belief was actually a 6. For clarity, I provided the math below:

10 + 2 = 12

12 / 2 = 6

Before understanding these two different types, I never fully understood where my high self-belief came from. How could you know you have something when you didn't even know it was a thing? I realize now that having super high self-belief in both types is extremely rare. Unfortunately, most people who are high in one are also low in the other. Let me explain.

Similar to how everyone's righty or lefty, when it comes to the two types of self-belief, it's almost as if we unconsciously compensate with one at the expense of the other. Self-belief part one is correlated with working hard and self-belief part two is correlated with working smart, and it's rare to find someone who practices both equally.

Have you ever met someone who works really hard but never focused on developing their intellectual side? Similarly, have you ever met someone who's really "book smart", but they rarely work hard? This is also where the dogmatic blue collar versus white collar identities come into play, too.

I was guilty of this as well. As a kid, I was far more focused on working smart than working hard. My gift for being able to reverse engineer finish lines and strategize the best path to success made things easier for me. Unfortunately, I did a lot of resting on that gift, and hard work didn't come as naturally. I could skate by with very little effort, and I didn't understand the long-term detriments of that mindset. Fortunately, my car accident at twenty-six shook that poor mentality right out of me, and that's when things really started to pick up.

So, what's my point? Why am I talking so much about the two types of self-belief? First, it's so we can all increase our self-awareness. Second, the truth is that I now understand what I didn't understand. I get it now why I always had such big goals and dreams compared to my peers. It wasn't because I was special, but rather, because I had an ability to reverse engineer finish lines that wasn't normal. As a useful metaphor, it's not hard to believe you can make a great chicken marsala when you're certain of the recipe.

Lots of kids have big dreams, but I now understand how few ever truly reverse engineered exactly what it would take to achieve them. For me, I never said, "I want to blank", until my brain first calculated exactly what I believed it would take in terms of time, effort, skills, and credentials. Then my brain also benchmarked those prerequisites against my current circumstances and resources to ensure the path was clear, possible, and probable.

A Great Metaphor

As a great metaphor, when you plug an address into your GPS, it needs to know three main things. First, it needs to know where you currently are (current location). Second, it needs to know where you want to go (destination address), and third, it needs to have a fully updated database of the terrain (accurate data).

Imagine how bad it would be if you drove to the grocery store in Figure 2, but the GPS had outdated data about where the lake really is. You might drive right into the lake without even knowing it, and unfortunately, that's how a lot of us live our lives. We think we know exactly where we are, exactly where we're headed, and with fully updated data. In reality, however, most of us are really just wandering around aimlessly with outdated data that's been passed down from generation to generation. It's no wonder why so few of us ever achieve our goals and dreams...

To continue the metaphor, let's consider your current location to be your current level of self-awareness, your destination address to be the specific goal you want to achieve, and an accurate database to be your current level of understanding about how things work and why they work that way.

Put together, those three components pack a powerful punch. For example, let's imagine two people. Person one has no self-awareness, no idea what goals they want to achieve and no education, knowledge, or useful skillsets. How far are they going to get in life? Now imagine person two understands exactly who they are, exactly what they want to achieve and has a vast array of education, knowledge, and useful skillsets. How much better off is person two than person one, and who's more likely to achieve their goals and dreams?

The 5 S's of Success

The 5 S's of Success are Sacrifice, Struggle, Suffer, Success, and Sustain. Only one is easy and fun, and that's the least important. The others represent the hard reality about what it really takes to create and sustain long-term success. Since those early days as a kid, I'm grateful to say that most of my dreams came true; and while there are several I decided not to pursue, and even more I'm still pursuing, I can assure you that the ones I did achieve did require all 5 S's.

As you can see from Figure 1 at the top, The 5 S's of Success do not work alone and are part of an ongoing cycle. Each of them feeds off the others; and when working together, they're extremely powerful. Do you remember those cartoons growing up when a character got caught in a snowball rolling downhill? That's exactly how these 5 S's work. If you work at them; and stick with it, you might find yourself swept away by just how much you accomplish. Take any one of them out; however, and you will exponentially decrease your chances of success.

Sacrifice

While many things were far from ideal growing up, my mother always emphasized the importance of academics. By the time seventh grade hit, I was sick of it. I had an idea, and fortunately, I had the courage to ask if I could take eighth grade off. I'd still attend school; of course, but I wanted permission not to try so hard. I'd always done really well academically until then, but now I just wanted to have fun like the other kids.

Reluctantly, she agreed, but first she asked me to promise I'd get The President's Award in high school. I don't know if they're still doing this now, but back then that meant getting a ninety-five or above GPA on every report card for all four years of high school. Essentially, this meant I had to get straight A's on sixteen report cards in a row.

Intuitively, I knew I could do it. Academics always came easy to me; and as discussed above, I've always had high self-belief. My challenge wasn't whether or not I could do it; but rather, whether or not I wanted to. I had to make a tough choice. One entire year of having fun in eighth grade in exchange for four years of consistent challenge. Would it be worth the trade-off?

Before making my decision, I contemplated deeply. Isn't high school supposed to be fun? I was still in middle school; and like many of us, I had ignorant adults telling me, "These are the best years of your life". I vividly remember thinking, "God, I hope not!" Now I understand how ignorant and shallow that mentality is; but back then, they definitely got in my head...

I was worried shooting for straight A's would require too much sacrifice. I was worried I'd be giving something up I'd never get back. Fortunately, I eventually came to my senses and decided to go for it; but I didn't make that decision lightly. I knew this would require a tremendous amount of sacrifice, and I was ready to commit to the goal.

Not long ago, my girlfriend, mother, and I were going through my baby book, and all of my report cards were in there. As expected, up until seventh grade was straight A's, followed by an obvious dip in eighth grade of B's, C's, and D's. Then, as promised, I took it to a whole new level of academic excellence in high school.

It worked! I did it. I got straight A's for all of high school, and I'm glad I did. In fact, I still have the award signed by President George W. Bush hanging in my office today. As great as that is, though, that's not what's most important. What's most important is the decision to bet on myself and make the necessary sacrifices to accomplish the goal. That's how success really works; and whether we're conscious of it or not, it always starts with some form of sacrifice.

Struggle

Before my high school graduation, I'll never forget the Awards Ceremony. It was a magnificent dinner and celebration of academic excellence, and I was one of the annoying kids whose name got called so many times that, "I might as well not even sit back down." At my graduation party, my mother hung all of my awards up for everyone to see; which I appreciated. In big moments like that, though, all I can ever really think about is what's far beneath the surface.

In theory, graduating high school with straight A's, getting into your dream college, and receiving The President's Award seems like a great thing; and it is, but there's a dark side. Unfortunately, beneath every outward success is also a mountain of struggle no one ever sees. As discussed in previous sections, everything looks easy from the surface, and everything's easier to talk about than to actually do...

So, what was that really like? What did achieving The President's Award really take? Truth be told, it would be impossible to condense four years of academic struggle into one blog; but for context, I'll articulate just a few of the more notable challenges. As a few examples, staying in to study before a big test while others were out with friends, purposely focusing on academics more than sports even though sports were far more valued by my peers, and constantly scrambling to study in between classes and during breakfast while everyone else plays cards.

Imagine you're in high school, and everyone around you is having fun and enjoying themselves. Now imagine every time you don't get an A on a test, you're immediately behind, stressed out, and playing catch up for the rest of the term. Not just in one subject, but in every subject. Not being under constant pressure was a luxury I didn't have, and that's why consistent struggle is, and always will be, a necessary pre-requisite to achieving anything great.

That's a lot of pressure for a young man; especially one with troubles at home, and I never fully understood how rare that much pressure was until reflecting back on it in my thirties. Not a lot of kids make promises that put themselves that deep into the pressure cooker; and fortunately, I learned how to flourish under pressure, but it's been hard won over years and years of consistent struggle.

It's so interesting. During the Awards Ceremony, I remember seeing so much insecurity and jealousy from my peers and close friends. Ironically, though, I was the one feeling those same feelings of jealousy all throughout high school. I'd see my peers being lackadaisical with their academics, and it was almost as if they had a luxury I didn't.

That's another tough reality about goals and dreams. You always have something you're up against, you always have something to lose, and you always have challenges to consistently face way outside of your comfort zone. In economics, this concept is referred to as opportunity cost. With my goals, I had to take on the struggle, burden, worries, and responsibility of getting straight A's while my peers got to enjoy their high school experience.

That script flipped hard at the Awards Ceremony, though. The benefits of four years of hard work, sacrifice, and struggle were all wrapped into one evening, and I remember that night was a huge wake-up call for those who suddenly realized how lackadaisical they'd been with their academics. Yes, all of us were moving into the next chapter of our lives, but it became painstakingly clear that not all of us were headed to a bigger, better, and brighter next chapter.

Suffer

After high school, I was eager and excited to go to my dream college, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, more commonly known as WPI. I dreamed of going there since I was ten, and unfortunately, WPI was one of the most expensive undergraduate colleges in the world at that time. I mentioned earlier how hard high school was, but there were far deeper challenges I haven't mentioned yet.

When I was two, my father passed away in a car accident. He was twenty-eight at the time, and my mother was a stay at home mom. Concerned about how she was going to raise two kids alone, she got together with my step father. My real last name is McCorkle, and my step father's last name is Lazaros. I took his last name around age seven to help us feel more like a real family.

When I was fourteen, my step father left us; and unfortunately, he also took his entire extended family and ninety percent of the income with him. He got the yacht and the apartment building. We got the house and the dog. We did fairly well financially until then; but when I reflect back now, I often playfully refer to that chapter of my life as, "Boats and Bullshit".

My mom and Steve were partiers. They had tons of friends and never missed an opportunity to drink and "have fun". Unfortunately, that fun often turned south when they'd fight late into the night drunk. In addition to all of the partying, though, this was also back in the nineties and early two thousands when the economy was booming. Back then, it felt like everyone was winning. We took vacations often, stayed in fancy mountain hotels on ski trips, and frequently went deep sea fishing. We also had a ton of big toys like snowmobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and a big black truck to tow it all around.

At fourteen, however, everything changed. I went from a life of financial abundance getting expensive Christmas presents like Xbox and Dreamcast, to shopping at thrift stores and qualifying for free lunch at school because our income was so low. I went from excited to work hard and get into my dream college, to not knowing whether I'd even be able to afford it. Worst of all; and I didn't realize this at the time, but I'd basically lost three families by the time I was fourteen years old...

To explain further, once my step dad came into the picture, we sort of pretended he was my real dad and stopped spending time with my birth father's side of the family. After he left, he also took his entire extended family with him, and it wasn't long after when my mom and her sister got into a major fight, which ultimately got us ostracized from her side of the family, too.

It was a dark time. Imagine you're fourteen years old, and your entire life feels like it's crashing down around you. It felt like being caught in an uncontrollable storm that just kept getting worse, all while I was just trying to stay afloat and uphold my promise of getting straight A's in high school.

Fortunately, I somehow kept it together, stayed focused on academics, and we eventually reconnected with my birth father's side of the family, too. I'm grateful to say they were all very kind and welcomed us back with open arms. To this day, however, with only the exception of my cousin Jeff, I've still not seen a single member of my mom or step dad's side of the family...

Have you ever rewatched a movie as an adult that you loved as a kid? Isn't it interesting how much more you notice now? It's not because you're noticing something new in the movie, but rather that you're noticing something new in yourself. You notice more because you've become so much more. You're much more aware now than you used to be, and that's how it works in life, too. Ever since I was twenty-six, I've been metaphorically rewatching the movie of my own life each year; and while all of this is crystal clear to me now, I never fully understood the depths of my suffering back then until recently.

Success

I did it! I got through all of that, and I got into my dream college. I also did well academically to qualify for enough scholarships, financial aid, and no interest loans to actually attend. I was so excited, and it was a wild time. I was eighteen years old, and this was the first time I'd ever lived on my own.

I lived in a dorm called Sanford Riley my first year, and it was a school full of math and science nerds like me. Everyone was extremely intelligent, and everyone loved science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Everyone loved computers and video games, too. This felt like heaven on earth to me, and I finally felt like I found my people.

The overall experience was wonderful, but college had its own challenges, too. I often reflect on my past now and think about how going to WPI was one of the best decisions I ever made. Little did I know, however, I was in for another massive chapter of growth. I worked hard in high school and did great; yes, but I also had a natural proclivity for academics. Unfortunately, it didn't look like that was going to be enough anymore, and that brings us to our final, and majorly overlooked, S of Success.

Sustain

The ability to achieve success is one thing, but the ability to sustain it long-term requires a whole other level of dedication. Perhaps you're successful at having kids, but now you have to figure out how to take care of them on top of everything else you're doing. Perhaps you're successful at starting a company and hiring an amazing team, but now you have to ensure everyone's rowing in the same direction and can afford payroll. Or in my case, perhaps you finally got into your dream college with enough scholarships and financial aid to actually go, but now you have to figure out how to succeed in one of the most challenging Computer Engineering programs on the planet.

This brings us to the most important lesson in this blog, and it's what I've often referred to as, "The world's biggest lie." The world's biggest lie is that success makes life easier. The truth is actually the opposite. From the outside in, success looks enviable. From the inside out, however, it rarely feels like anything other than more pressure, challenge, stress and overwhelm. It makes your life better; yes, but not easier, and that's a critical distinction.

As a perfect example, do you remember how I won the high school award for highest academic excellence in physics? Well, it came naturally to me, so I was excited to take it again in college to boost my GPA. Unfortunately, everything we covered in high school over the course of an entire year was completed in literally the first two lectures at WPI.

It's funny now, but at the time it was scary, overwhelming, and emotionally devastating. I knew I was in trouble, and I knew this was an academic level I'd never played at before. This wasn't high school anymore. The stakes were much higher now, and my financial aid and scholarships were riding on my academic performance.

This was my life's dream, and there were hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. If I didn't keep my grades up; my dreams would crumble beneath my feet, and I could lose everything I'd worked so hard for. Every semester, it was sink or swim, flourish or flounder, and I wondered how I was going to handle it all. I wasn't suicidal, but this was the first time WPI's notoriously high suicide rate really started making sense to me...

This was an insane amount of mental and emotional pressure for an eighteen year old to handle; and I remember thinking, "How did this happen? How did I go from the very top of my class, receiving math and science awards, to just another face in the crowd?" I was in over my head, and I knew I was in trouble if I didn't do something fast.

From that moment on, I knew I couldn't succeed alone. I knew I had to squad up with the smartest people I could find, and that's exactly what I did. To this day, I'm grateful for my friends at WPI. We purposely took the same classes, partnered on the same projects, held constant study groups, and pulled more all-nighters than I can count.

This went on for years; and as my friend group matured and blossomed, we started to succeed more and more. As the years rolled on, we continued to succeed and had one hell of great time doing it. There were challenges and obstacles for sure, both personal and professional, but looking back we really did crush our goals together.

We learned everything together. Not just in the classroom, but also in life as well. We applied to jobs, wrote cover letters, created great resumes, and attended job fairs. We learned and practiced how to dress nicely, shake hands properly, and to interview and introduce yourself with confidence. Thanks to one bold decision to surround myself with the right people; by the time senior year came around, I went from, "How in the hell am I going to survive this?", to graduating with High Distinction and applying for my Master's degree.

I finished my Master's program in record time; and by that point, I'd already worked on amazing teams at various tech companies, too. During and after college, I worked for Tyco Safety Products, iRobot, Oz Development, Sensata Technologies, and eventually landed at a company called Cognex. Cognex sold machine vision equipment into large manufacturing facilities, and I started an Inside Sales Engineering team there. Not long after, I was promoted to Outside Sales Engineer responsible for all of the Western New England territory.

Do you remember the beginning of this blog when I said, "I'll never forget when I first made six figures." Well, that corporate journey described above happened extremely fast after college. During just a few short years, I went from an annual salary of $65K to $85K, then $85K to $105K, then $105K to $125K, and eventually landed just south of $200K.

From the outside, this must've seemed like the steriotypical "overnight success" I described at the beginning. After all, I was literally painting houses in Maine for minimum wage just a few years earlier, but what I hope is painstakingly clear at this point is how not "overnight" it really was. If you look only at those last few years in corporate, it seemed to happen quickly; yes, but it was actually decades in the making ever since my first dream of attending WPI at ten years old.

All Together Now

I know this blog's been a lot about my success story; and while I hope it's been inspiring, I also hope you've been reflecting on your own, too. Like me, if you look closely, I think you'll find all five of these S's of Success within your own journey as well. In fact, I challenge you to think of a time when you created real long-term success without them. I certainly can't.

Before we go, though, I'd also like to provide a brief synopsis of all five S's. I think it's important to see and understand them all together; not only so you can more easily identify them in your past, but also so you can more effectively design them into your future.

Sacrifice

There is no such thing as something for nothing. Whether it's giving up your time and effort to earn money or giving up your money to buy back time, everything has a price. In order to be successful, you must first make a conscious decision to sacrifice something. To build a great physique, perhaps you need to sacrifice time with your family to hit the gym. To build a great career, perhaps you need to sacrifice your presence by traveling more than you'd like. To purchase your dream home, perhaps you need sacrifice by working overtime to stay ahead on your mortgage. All successes in the future are first planted with the seeds of sacrifice in the present. To deny this inevitable fact is to live a life of constant frustration. We all have a choice. We can pay now and play later, or we can play now and pay later. It's up to you.

Reflection Question:

What's one thing you're willing to sacrifice today to achieve greater success tomorrow?

Struggle

Once sacrifices are made, the job isn't done. When embarking on a new success journey; the climb is always uphill and treacherous, especially if it's covering new ground you've never traveled before. Imagine a plumber doing their first job or a writer writing their first book. It'll always be an absolute struggle at first, and that's okay. That's to be expected. At this stage, you have two options, you either embrace the struggle and keep climbing toward success, or you give up and turn back. Once again, it's up to you.

Reflection Question:

What's one thing you're willing to struggle with today to achieve greater success tomorrow?

Suffer

Wouldn't it be nice if sacrifice and struggle were enough? Unfortunately, they're not. Why? Because during every success journey, there's always a point of pure suffering. A lot of people hate when I talk about this because it's an uncomfortable reality. They'd rather pretend they can achieve their goals and dreams without suffering, but that's simply inaccurate. Whether it's finishing those last few reps in the gym when you're way past exhausted, or writing those last few paragraphs after an insanely long day, success requires suffering. Even right now, it's nine o'clock at night, and I had nine back-to-back sessions today of coaching, podcasting, and team meetings. I'm genuinely suffering, but that's not going to stop me from finishing this blog. People often ask, "Why would you put yourself through all of that?" Because this is what it takes to be successful, and it's the willingness to suffer that separates those who make it and those who don't. Suffering is the S where most people quit. Will you? Again, it's up to you.

Reflection Question:

What's one area where you're willing to suffer today to achieve greater success tomorrow?

Success

Here we are. We made it! This is the promise land everyone wants to get to and live in forever, but honestly, this is the least important part of the equation. I know that sounds demoralizing, but it's the truth. Success is a byproduct of the other S's, not the other way around. Celebrate your success; yes, but don't linger here too long. If you do, you can say goodbye to it. Like a sports team that loses their hunger after winning a big championship, or a business owner who gets complacent after a huge pay day, you can't stop here. Nothing fails like getting overconfident after a big win. Success is created by climbing meaningful mountains. Once you hit the summit; celebrate the accomplishment, and quickly choose your next meaningful climb. Otherwise, complacency will set in, and you'll lose all of your momentum. Remember, Success can never be owned. It can only be rented, and the rent is due every day.

Reflection Question:

What's one area where you've succeeded, and what's one thing you're going to do to celebrate it?

Sustain

Welcome to the hardest of the five. Why? Because the climb to success was often so difficult and treacherous that the thought of doing it all over again; and forever, seems daunting... Achieving success once is easy, but sustaining it for a lifetime and consistently upping the ante is not. Remember, success is an infinite game and not a finite one. That's like the difference between winning one chess match versus becoming the greatest chess master you can be. One is achievable, and the other is a process that never ends. Remember, the purpose of a finite game is to "win". The purpose of an infinite game is growth, mastery, and to continue playing at higher and higher levels over time, and which game you decide to play is up to you.

Reflection Question:

What's one area of life where you want to start playing an infinite game instead of a finite one?

Before We Go

Okay. We've done it! We've made it to the end of this blog, and my hope is that you'll never see "overnight success" the same. My hope is that you'll never again think success comes easy or quick; and that you'll not only appreciate and celebrate other people's accomplishments more, but that you'll also be able to consistently cultivate and create more of your own.

This world's full of potential and opportunity, and unfortunately, when we have no idea how things are really created or how long they really take, it can be hard to manifest our dreams. That's when people feel hopeless, helpless, and nihilistic, and that's not the world I want to live in. Together, we can change that. Together, we can lead by example and decide to leverage the five S's of Success; not only to improve our own lives, but also to help improve the world around us, too. You have the formula now. You know what to do, and I wish you all of the luck in the world. Let's get to work.

Dear Reader,

I want to thank you for taking the time to read this. If you've gotten value or have any questions, please email me at alan@nextleveluniverse.com or visit our website, nextleveluniverse.com. If you enjoyed this, I also recommend you check out our podcast, Next Level University, for a daily dose of holistic self-improvement. You can find it on any podcast platform, including YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Thanks again, and I hope to hear from you soon!