From: alexhormozi
Achieving success is not a straightforward path, often requiring individuals to navigate significant challenges, endure setbacks, and maintain unwavering commitment. The journey demands a specific mindset that embraces both failure as a learning tool and perseverance as a fundamental driver [00:40:47].
The Inevitability of Failure
Success is rarely a smooth ascent; instead, it involves periods of trial and error, where initial attempts may fall short of expectations [02:09:50]. The inherent difficulty of any worthwhile task is proportional to the reward it offers, meaning if it were easy, everyone would achieve it [02:09:50]. Therefore, expecting the path to be hard, long, and costly is a realistic expectation, not a sign that the goal is bad [02:43:00]. This acceptance of difficulty builds resilience, making the individual stronger once the challenge is conquered [02:11:09].
Failure is not a deterrent but a prerequisite for taking action [00:40:55]. Anyone who has failed has inherently taken more action than someone who has done nothing, thereby increasing their likelihood of success [00:40:57]. When one fails, they receive crucial feedback, which in turn leads to improvement and a higher chance of winning [00:41:02].
“Everyone loses before they win.” [00:41:14]
This concept is likened to Neo’s first jump in The Matrix: “Everybody falls the first time” [00:41:35]. The first business, product, or attempt is unlikely to be the final success, but the act of starting and learning from these initial ventures is paramount [00:41:46]. The second attempt, though emotionally more challenging, often requires half the actual effort due to the knowledge gained from the first failure [00:42:17].
Top entrepreneurs are characterized by their “failure resumés,” indicating they have embraced setbacks as part of their growth [00:42:48]. As Jeff Bezos stated, in business, “Big Winners pay for so many experiments” [00:44:01], incurring the scars of failure on their path to significant achievements [00:44:07].
Overcoming Initial Setbacks
The path to success involves recognizing that an initial lack of success doesn’t stem from an innate personal flaw, but often from a lack of prerequisite skills [00:34:07]. Just as one cannot learn calculus without understanding arithmetic, individuals may need to step back and build foundational skills before advancing [00:34:21]. This period of “sucking” is a necessary cost of greatness, which must be embraced [00:29:29].
Furthermore, an individual’s identity is not fixed but is shaped by their actions [00:37:30]. Therefore, if one desires to be different, they must “do different things” [00:37:42], even if it means initially appearing foolish to others [00:11:28]. The opinion of those with “mediocre goals” should not deter actions that lead to greatness [00:07:15]. This is a core aspect of overcoming societal and personal challenges to achieve success.
The Power of Perseverance
Perseverance is the unwavering commitment to continue, even when faced with significant obstacles. It’s about staying alive in the game long enough to outlast others [01:07:08].
The Marathon of Success
Success is more akin to running a marathon than watching one [02:37:08]. While watching a marathon quickly reveals the start and end, running it involves hours of continuous effort, often without a clear finish line in sight [02:38:43]. The key is to keep running, even when the finish line is unknown and one must run alone [02:41:10]. The typical mistake is to “sprint” at the beginning, fueled by the illusion of quick results seen in “highlight reels” [02:44:51]. True success requires a sustainable pace, recognizing that it will often “take longer” than anticipated [02:49:51].
Delaying Gratification and Intelligence
The ability to delay gratification is a direct function of intelligence [00:08:14]. More intelligent individuals can expand the “reinforcement window,” understanding that rewards may be delayed but are still linked to initial actions [00:08:40]. Actively delaying the need for immediate results from work increases one’s rate of learning [00:08:51]. This underscores the Role of Patience and Action in Success.
Eliminating Distractions and Embracing Focus
To achieve significant goals, one must eliminate distractions and cultivate focus [00:04:04]. This means making deliberate choices about where time and money are invested [00:27:50]. Commitment is defined as the “elimination of alternatives” [00:07:07], meaning prioritizing the main goal above all else. This requires saying “no” without remorse to opportunities that do not align with one’s primary objectives [01:02:59].
Staying focused is a continuous battle, like overcoming addiction, fought daily against constantly morphing distractions [01:01:44]. True focus is not about pushing harder, but about removing everything else until only the task remains [01:17:19].
The Value of Hard Work and Learning
Hard work is paramount, especially in the early stages when skills are fewer and more volume is required to compensate for ineffectiveness [01:18:32]. Working “30 days straight” for “10-12 hours a day” can reveal one’s true capacity and build resilience [01:12:54].
A key aspect of lifelong learning and cyclical nature of success involves continuously investing in oneself by acquiring new skills [00:45:23]. This means spending money on education, mentorship, and opportunities that accelerate learning, effectively “buying time” and pulling the future forward [00:55:57]. This investment in skills guarantees compounding returns, as each new skill builds upon others [00:47:22].
Success is about getting “better” through an “improvement loop” with raw effort [00:48:45]. It’s about doing enough repetitions to internalize skills, moving from “knowing about” (declarative knowledge) to “knowing how to” (procedural knowledge) [01:08:50].
The Cyclical Nature of Growth
The journey to success is a continuous cycle of learning, applying, failing, and improving. Goals are not finish lines but “mile markers” [01:09:09]. As one achieves a goal, “the mist lifts,” revealing new, higher mountains to climb [01:09:28]. This continuous pursuit of growth defines a “legend,” who “doesn’t know how to stop” [01:10:50].
“Find what works, do more of what works. Find the thing that’s preventing you from doing more of what works, solve that thing, and get back to doing more of what works. Then repeat.” [01:26:49]
This iterative process of consistent effort and adaptation is how one achieves success [01:28:06].
Practical Application
- Don’t complain: Complaining is a “net loss” that wastes energy and diminishes respect [01:29:43].
- Embrace the pain of repetition: This pain forces individuals to seek improvement and gain skill [01:28:52].
- Focus on what works: When things are easy, “do more” [01:09:50]. When they are hard, “do different” [01:09:53].
- Question timelines aggressively: Eliminate waste and gaps between actions required to win [01:21:03].
- Prioritize personal growth: Invest in oneself, as it is the highest returning investment [00:50:50]. This leads to consistent behaviors and lifelong learning.
In essence, the path to success requires a fundamental shift in mindset: seeing failure as a necessary stepping stone, cultivating relentless perseverance, and embracing a lifelong learning approach to overcome the challenges of becoming successful.