Let’s take a hundred men. By the time they’re 65 one will be rich. Four will be financially independent. Five will still be working, 54 will be broke [and the remaining 36 are dead, presumably].
Earl Nightingale, the author of The Strangest Secret, made this statement in 1956. Today - almost 70 years later - the numbers haven't changed much. A handful of people will be successful, not just financially but in other aspects of life, and the overwhelming majority won't be.
Why is that?
Five percent of people will be financially well of while the other 95 percent are not. It's a bold claim. One would assume the numbers have changed by now. Given the advances in healthcare, living standards, and overall increase of wealth it only sounds plausible. The percentages should have shifted from 95/5 to less extreme values, maybe 80/20 or 70/30. More than just five people should be rich or financially independent, less should be broke or dead. The sad reality is that not much has changed.
How can it be that, after forty years of working hard in a job, most people will have to dependent on a meager retirement fund or others to support them? If you ask any of these hundred men at age 25, as Earl Nightingale points out, each one wanted to be a success. He would tell you that he did [want to be successful] and you would notice that he was eager towards life, that there was a certain sparkle to his eye and erectness to his courage and life seemed like a pretty interesting adventure to him.
What happened along the way?
Before we answer this question, we need to clarify the definition of success. In today's culture, we often tend to equate being rich or financial independence with being successful. But that’s too short-sighted. Financial success is merely one metric in the bigger picture of success.
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal - Earl Nightingale
Success, in the words of Earl Nightingale, is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. If a man is working towards a predetermined goal and knows where he is going, that man is a success. If he’s not doing that, he’s a failure. A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a predetermined job because that’s what he decided to do deliberately. But only 1 out of 20 does that.
The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity - Rollo May
So what happens to the 25-year-olds who are eager towards life? Rollo May, an existential psychologist, offers a possible explanation. He famously stated that The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.
Sadly, the courage of the 25-year-old is replaced by conformity. Most of them conform to the rules set out by the majority (i.e., go to school, get a nine-to-five job. How else will you pay the bills?). They neither pursue deliberate goals, nor have they forged clarity about their purpose.
If you belong to the majority, you’re playing for the losing team.
People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going, as Nightingale succinctly puts it. Yet despite the advances of the past seventy years, this still seems to be a realization that’s reserved for only small percentage of people – the five percenters. Should you be part of this minority, you’re going in the right direction.
For the struggling majority, The Strangest Secret provides the key to success and failure, too.
We become what we think about.
What goes on in our minds determines what’s manifested in the real world. A negative attitude towards life will inevitably lead to negative results. How could it be any different? You wouldn’t plant weeds in your garden and expect them to grow into roses. The same principle applies for your mind. If you plant negative thoughts, you cannot expect them to grow into success either.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind - William James
This is where theory must turn into practice. Both aspects - goal-setting and mastering your thought process - can be transformed into action steps. With the SMART-R2 goal-setting technique you will gain a powerful tool to progressively realize your worthy ideals. The ANTS/MATH process will help you master your thinking patterns.
