Persistence. Being smart and lucky. Hard work. Smart work. Genetics. The right environment. Learning. Growth. Mindset. Etc.

People will swear on all sorts of “secrets to success”.

Everyone explains it from their point of view, giving you what they deem the most valuable thing given their current mindset.

However, the secrets will change from person to person and from time to time, because here is the thing:

There is no secret.

There is no document you have to sign when you become successful that says “You may never tell someone else the secret of your success. Sign here.” There are no laws, no one swears on secrecy and there is definitely no “One Way To Success” either.

With so many different successful people in so many walks and areas of life there have been just as many “secrets” to share.

However, each of these “secrets” is just what has helped that person the most along their journey from their point of view.

That does NOT mean it will work for you or that it is some big secret!

Most successful people will share their “secrets” openly, it’s just that we do not fully understand it or apply it ourselves. We may not even believe it, but it doesn’t make it any more or less of a secret.

If someone tells you their most guarded secret and you do not believe that they were telling the truth, then it won’t change the fact that it was their most guarded secret.

The problem with the secret to success is that most of us will not believe someone else when it sounds too easy or too hard.

We are looking for the perfect secret. We are looking for one that is reasonable, slightly difficult, but achievable and manageable. We are all looking for the big, fat, red button that says “Success” on it.

But you will never find that button straight away!

To find the secret to success that works for you means a long road of ‘Trial and Error’.

There is no other way around it. You have to actually try things and see what works for you!

Most successful people share their secrets and their journeys, but it will still be up to you to follow them, apply them, and live by them.

That all being said, I also have “secrets to success” that have worked incredibly well for me.

In my opinion the two secrets to success are Persistence & Joy.

It doesn’t matter if you work hard or smart, as long as you keep at it you will make it. There have been so many people that have failed at being smart and failed at working hard because of various reasons.

The ones that worked through all those reasons and fought the problems were the ones that stood tall at the end.

Look at most successful YouTube channels and check out when they uploaded their first video. I doubt you will find anyone that has more than a million subscribers that has been on YouTube less than 3 years. If you do find one, I guarantee they have been successful in something else first before they went on YouTube.

But that is just one example. Athletes, Actors, Musicians, Artists, Businessmen and women all have had a long journey behind them that no one cares about.

If you persist you will eventually win.

Joy, on the other hand, is something that makes you win right now.

Think about why you want to succeed. Sure, you may want more money or fancier gadgets, but in the end you want those things for one reason and one reason only: To be happy.

The question is: Why are you trying so hard just to be happy?

You could be happy right now, do what you loved and you wouldn’t have to do all of that hard work.

Best-selling Author Paulo Coelho has a very fitting story to make this point clearer:

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”

The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”The fisherman asks, “And after that?”The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”

The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

You do not have to have all of these secrets to become successful. Success is something that you decide on.

For the fisherman success was what he was doing. He was already successful. And you can be too.

Ask yourself what it really is that you want out of life more than anything else, what it would take for you to feel successful, and then live by it today.

Have fun, persist in the thing until you get it, and that will be all you need.