The “success” industry is worth billions of dollars a year selling seminars, videos, books and the like. They peddle guaranteed instant success formulas that for some reason first require you to fork out your hard-earned cash. Most truly successful people don’t apply any of this snake-oil, so what is it that they’ve discovered?
Several years ago, I found myself on the platform at a conference being interviewed about what it takes to create a successful blog. It was at the height of the SEO (search engine optimisation) hysteria and as I looked across the audience, I could see they were hoping for some formula that would guarantee they would become successful.
Maybe I would say that I incorporated a particular number of hot keywords into articles or ensured that each one was of a particular length. This would provide them what they needed to become successful!
I turned to the moderator and asked, “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes,” came the reply.
I looked across the audience and said, “It’s incredibly easy to create a successful blog.”
By this time the moderator was getting a little impatient and asked, “Well, what’s the secret?”
“Write two to three articles a week for ten years.”
A groan could be heard across the auditorium and the moderator looked at me with a particular level of disappointment. This isn’t what anyone wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that with a wave of my hand I could turn them all into successful bloggers.