In this post, I’ve gathered four powerful secrets of success from top of their field people —a scientist, a professional athlete, a rock musician, and a CEO of a major corporation. Each story reveals a mindset or practice that has helped them achieve extraordinary results.
These same principles can work for you too, once you understand how to apply them.
Let’s begin.
#1: Failure is valuable information. Don’t ignore it or miss its lessons.
For our first secret, we hear from Daria Hazuda, a biochemist who was awarded many times for her scientific work that has saved millions of lives.
For most of us, failure is a disappointment, but not for Daria. She explains her approach:
“For me, a failed experiment is actually a rich source of information. People tend to focus only on positive results. But if you look at people in the drug-discovery business who are successful, it is often those who also learn from the negative. They take all that information and synthesize it in a holistic way.”
One of Hazuda’s fellow researchers at Merck, Amy Espeseth, adds:
“What’s unique about Daria is that she’s a very creative, nonlinear thinker. A lot of people in science do things in a step-by-step way. With Daria, it’s kind of like a chess game; her moves show she’s thinking a few steps ahead of everyone else.”
For her part, Hazuda says she begins with simple curiosity.
“I really try to understand the basic biology and chemistry of how the different enzymes work. There were dozens of publications on enzymes that other researchers had discovered, but none of them worked against the HIV virus. I was trying to learn from what some really fantastic scientists had done. I tried to understand why those particular approaches weren’t successful, and then I used those lessons to develop a different approach.”
This different approach helped Hazuda develop one of the first successful drugs in treating HIV. Studying what didn’t work led to her success.
This mirrors a principle we return to often: the subconscious doesn’t distinguish between “failure” and “feedback.” It takes all input as instruction.
Hazuda succeeded because she didn’t give up. She stayed curious and kept feeding her mind better information. That mindset is one of the first skills we teach in the 6-Week Mind Power Program, where you learn how to direct your thinking, even in the face of setbacks.
Secret #2: Stay focused on success. Don’t let setbacks disrupt your progress.
For our next secret of success, we go to Adam Vinatieri, former kicker for the Indianapolis Colts.
Adam is considered one of the greatest clutch kickers in NFL history. In his 24-year career, he’s been a Super Bowl winner four times, and the most super bowl wins for a kicker. His grace under pressure earned him the nickname “Iceman.”
He explains the importance of focusing your efforts.
“I know exactly what I need to do to help me do my job. The older I get—and let’s face it, it’s a young man’s sport—I do a lot more stretching, including Pilates and yoga. I need to be flexible to avoid injury, and for my follow-through. I don’t have to run as long and fast and as far as a receiver does. It’s not my job. My job is to build fast twitch muscles so I can kick the ball a long way.
In my third year as a professional, I missed an important field goal that would have won us the game. I was down about it but my coach told me that everyone who’s great has missed a kick that has cost his team the game. It’s about how you respond after that which is the key.
Don’t get too high in the good times or too low in the bad because you will experience both. You must stay focused with the same intensity throughout every part of your job. Stay focused on success. Stay committed. Do what needs to be done to be successful. It’s really that simple.”
Simple, but not always easy. Staying focused through highs and lows is a trained skill. When you learn how to consciously choose your thoughts and energy, you’re less reactive and more in control.
This is especially true with money and career goals.
That’s why I wrote Money, Success & You, to help you train your mind to create lasting financial results from the inside out. Download your copy here.
Secret #3: Be inspired by others; let them lead you to greatness.
For our third piece of wisdom, we go to Robert Trujillo, bassist for Metallica.
Befitting a musician who has played in all kinds of bands, from hard-core punk (Suicidal Tendencies), to old school metal (Ozzy Osbourne), to his most recent place in Metallica, Trujillo listened to “almost everything” growing up. But he says he finds inspiration by watching masters in disciplines far removed from the music world.
“Muhammad Ali is inspirational for the way he had to use his smarts and the way he moved. I love Kelly Slater, the surfer who’s the Michael Jordan of the sport, and author H.P. Lovecraft, who had an amazing creative influence on so many. All of them fuel me when I’m playing. I feel the magic of those and others when I’m performing. It’s an injection, a mixture of all those that moves me.”
Those of you who have been longtime viewers of this website know well the importance of role models in helping us achieve our success. This is another form of mental programming. We all need to do this. If you’re not consciously choosing your influences and influencers, your subconscious is still soaking up everything, good or bad.
Secret #4: Be creative in your life and be comfortable with change.
For our final secret of success, let’s go to Hector Ruiz, former CEO of Advanced Micro Devices.
His piece of wisdom is to embrace ambiguity and change.
“Part of my job is to make people comfortable with change and ambiguity. That sounds counterintuitive. A lot of people think CEOs have to be absolutely crisp and perfect on what they want. Quite often my people push back, but I don’t like spelling out exactly what people need to do. I think that boxes them. I challenge them to go off in different directions and to experiment.
You can never be really creative unless you are comfortable with taking on new challenges and going in directions that have no defined goal or benefit, but you do them simply to see where it leads you.”
Almost every successful person I know will echo these sentiments. We need to be comfortable with change and the best way to demonstrate this is to be constantly creative in work, play and every other aspect of our life.
This final lesson reveals an essential secret of success: your thoughts create the conditions for what shows up in your life. When you train your mind to think creatively and stay open to possibility, you begin to attract new paths and solutions.
Success is not reserved for the lucky or the few. It follows those who learn how to use their thoughts with purpose and intention. In the 6-Week Mind Power Program, I guide you through this process step by step. You can begin today by downloading Lesson 1 for free.
