How To Succeed in LIfe

As a young 22-year old, I came accross this essay published in 1903 in the Pittsburgh Bulletin by Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie is regarded as the second richest man in the history of the US behind John D. Rockefeller. And besides the great rules for living found below, he had the smartest wealth and legacy buidling strategy ever. I give that to you at the end of this BLOG.

Everybody wants to preach to the young, and tell them to be good and they will be happy. I shall not enter far upon that field, but confine myself to presenting from a business man's standpoint of view, a few rules, which, I believe, lie at the root of business success.

First--Never enter a bar-room. Do not drink liquor as a beverage. I will not paint the evil of drunkenness, or the moral crime; but I suggest to you that it is low and common to enter a bar-room, unworthy of any self-respecting man, and sure to fasten upon you a taint which will operate to your disadvantage in life, whether you ever become a drunkard or not.

Second--I wish young men would not use tobacco--not that it is morally wrong, except in so far as it is used in excess and injures health, which the medical faculty declares it does. But the use of tobacco requires young men to withdraw themselves from the society of women to indulge the habit. I think the absence of women from any assembly tends to lower the tone of that assembly. The habit of smoking tends to carry young men into the society of men whom it is not desirable that they should choose as their intimate associates. The practice of chewing tobacco was once common. Now it is considered offensive. I believe the race is soon to take another step forward, and that the coming man is to consider smoking as offensive as chewing was formally considered. As it is practically abandoned now, so I believe smoking will be.

Third--Having entered upon work, continue in that line of work. Fight it out on that line (except in extreme cases), for it matters little what avenue a young man finds first. Success can be attained in any branch of human labor. There is always room at the top in every pursuit. Concentrate all your thought and energy upon the performance of your duties. Put all your eggs into one basket and then watch that basket, do not scatter your shot. The man who is director in a half dozen railroads and three or four manufacturing companies, or who tries at one and the same time to work a farm, a factory, a line of street cars, a political party and a store, rarely amounts to much. He may be concerned in the management of more than one business enterprise, but they should all be of the one kind, which he understands. The great successes of life are made by concentration.

Fourth--Do not think a man has done his full duty when he has performed the work assigned him. A man will never rise if he does only this. Promotion comes from exceptional work. A man must discover where his employer's interests can be served beyond the range of the special work allotted to him; and whenever he sees his employer's interests suffer, or wherever the latter's interests can be promoted, tell him so. Differ from your employers upon what you think his mistakes. You will never make much of a success if you do not learn the needs and opportunities of your own branch much better than your employer can possibly do. You have been told to "obey orders if you break owners." Do no such foolish thing. If your employer starts upon a course which you think will prove injurious, tell him so, protest, give your reasons, and stand to them unless convinced you are wrong. It is the young man who does this, that capital wants for a partner or for a son-in-law.

Fifth--Whatever your wages are, save a little. Live within your means. The heads of stores, farms, banks, lawyers' offices, physicians' offices, insurance companies, mills and factories are not seeking capital; they are seeking brains and business habits. The man who saves a little from his income has given the surest indication of the qualities which every employer is seeking for.

Sixth--Never speculate. Never buy or sell grain or stocks upon a margin. If you have savings, invest them in solid securities, lands or property. The man who gambles upon the exchanges is in the condition of the man who gambles at the gaming table. He rarely, if ever, makes a permanent success. His judgment goes; his faculties are snapped; and his end, as a rule, is nervous prostration after an unworthy and useless life.

Seventh--If you ever enter business for yourself, never indorse for others. It is dishonest. All your resources and all your credit are the sacred property of the men who have trusted you; and until you have surplus cash and owe no man, it is dishonest to give your name as an indorser to others. Give the cash you can spare, if you wish, to help a friend. Your name is too sacred to give.
Do not make riches, but usefulness, your first aim; and let your chief pride be that your daily occupation is in the line of progress and development; that your work, in whatever capacity it may be, is useful work, honestly conducted, and as such ennobling to your life.

To sum up, do not drink, do not smoke, do not indorse, do not speculate. Concentrate, perform more than your prescribed duties; be strictly honest in word and deed. And may all who read these words be just as happy and prosperous and long lived as I wish them all to be. And let this great fact always cheer them: It is impossible for any one to be cheated out of an honorable career unless he cheats himself.

Wealth Building:

Carnegie believed in using his fortune for others and doing more than making money. He wrote:

I propose to take an income no greater than $50,000 per annum! Beyond this I need ever earn, make no effort to increase my fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes! Let us cast aside business forever, except for others. Let us settle in Oxford and I shall get a thorough education, making the acquaintance of literary men. I figure that this will take three years active work. I shall pay especial attention to speaking in public. We can settle in London and I can purchase a controlling interest in some newspaper or live review and give the general management of it attention, taking part in public matters, especially those connected with education and improvement of the poorer classes. Man must have an idol and the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry! No idol is more debasing than the worship of money! Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately; therefore should I be careful to choose that life which will be the most elevating in its character. To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery. I will resign business at thirty-five, but during these ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in receiving instruction and in reading systematically!

Principle #5: Self-leadership means evaluating how you are doing in the areas that are important to you.

Make improvement your initiative.

Self-evaluation is not easy to learn, nor is it easy to do. It takes true humility to admit that things may not be going so well—that you are off course. But self-evaluation is a key asset to sound self-leadership. It is something that never really ends, but that continues to develop over time.

My good friend John Maxwell said, “Success is a continuing thing. It is growth and development. It is achieving one thing and using that as a steppingstone to achieve something else.”

In order to achieve and move on to something else, you must be able to evaluate your progress. The strong leaders are the ones who are always making improvements in their personal and professional lives so that one harmonizes with the other.

Achieving professional success doesn’t mean that you’ve arrived, rather, that you’re always moving toward your next project, your next opportunity for success. As Winston Churchill asserted, “Success is never final.”

What about you? Are you simply living for temporary success? A true self-leader is always striving to better their craft, grow as a person, and find success in whatever avenue presents itself.

Make Finishing Your Focus

Principle #4: Self-leadership means completing what’s important to you.

Make finishing your focus.

If you have ever participated in team sports you have probably heard a coach say, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” This is excellent advice—not just for a game, but for life. We all know the person with the ideas; always spinning their web and starting things but never seeing it to fruition. This is poor self-leadership.

This principle dovetails nicely with Principle #3 in that it takes discipline to do what is important to you, but it also takes discipline to see those things through. It has been said, “We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt.” So true. You do not get Brownie points for ideas that sit on your to-do list. And you certainly do not receive accolades for the project you started but then shelved for lack of discipline.

The strong self-leader knows how to finish and finish strong.

He is governed by a confident passion that stems from his clear vision of what matters most to him. She is a person of values. Because she has such a clear vision, she knows how to schedule her life in a way that empowers her to achieve tasks designed around her strengths. His clarity and passion are key to finishing a project.

If you want to be coached by the best, then listen to John Wooden: “It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes.”

Make Action Your Asset

Principle #3: Self-leadership means doing what’s important to you.

Make action your asset.

Don’t be the type of person who goes through life living for someone else. When you perform just to please others you can get caught in a trap that steals away your identity. If I went through life always allowing my priorities and passions to be defined by others, I would cease to be the person I was meant to be. I pursue the things most important to me because I believe they were placed inside of me at birth. Throughout my life they have been refined and honed to be what they are today. I do what is important to me because those things define my purpose.

But you cannot keep your eye on the important things in life without a heavy dose of discipline and positive self-speak. You have to live on purpose, striving after your purpose, believing that your purpose matters and will ultimately give you deep self-worth. The teacher in the book of Proverbs said, “He who neglects discipline despises himself” (15:32 NASB).

The wisdom here is simple: if you are not intentional about pursuing what is important to you, then you lack discipline, which makes you a self-despiser instead of a self-leader. This passage by my friend Og Mandino says it all:

I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, every day, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing; and the action, which follows, becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now.

I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have.

Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.