In this week's episode of the I Hate Numbers podcast, we're exploring the fascinating journey to success. What do Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Seuss, Michael Jordan, and other renowned figures have in common? Contrary to popular belief, their success wasn't an overnight phenomenon. It was the culmination of years of relentless effort, resilience, and a winning attitude.

Understanding Success: Breaking the Myth of Overnight Success

We've all heard stories of individuals who seemingly skyrocketed to fame and fortune having overnight success. However, upon closer inspection, we realize that their success was anything but instant. My experience working with thousands of business owners has revealed a universal truth: success is a result of consistent hard work and dedication.

The Reality Behind Overnight Success

Let's debunk the myth of overnight success. Success doesn't happen overnight; it's a journey filled with ups and downs, failures, and lessons learned. Each setback is a stepping stone toward eventual success. Therefore, it's crucial to adopt a long-term perspective and understand that true success takes time to achieve.

The Seven Key Ingredients

Based on my observations and experiences, I've identified seven key ingredients that are essential for long-term success:

1. Hard Work: Success requires relentless effort and determination.
2. Perseverance: Despite challenges and setbacks, it's essential to keep pushing forward.
3. Resilience: Bouncing back from failures and adversity is critical on the path to success.
4. Continuous Learning: Embrace a growth mindset and never stop seeking knowledge and improvement.
5. Positive Attitude: Maintaining a positive outlook fuels motivation and resilience during tough times.
6. Adaptability: Success often requires adapting to changing circumstances and seizing opportunities.
7. Purpose: Having a clear sense of purpose and passion drives sustained effort and commitment.

Conclusion: Embracing the Journey to Success

In conclusion, success is not an overnight phenomenon but rather the result of years of hard work, determination, and resilience. By incorporating these seven key ingredients into our lives and endeavours, we can navigate the journey to success with confidence and purpose.

Therefore, let's embrace the process, learn from our failures, and keep pushing forward. Remember, overnight success is a myth, but with the right ingredients, we can achieve our goals and fulfil our dreams.

What do people like Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Seuss, Michael Jordan, Mark Zuckerberg, Madonna, Levi Roots, Vincent Van Gogh, James Dyson, to name but a few, all have in common? Well, they're all renowned. They're all recognised. But they also have their overnight success after several years in the making and a number of failures behind them. In this week's I Hate Numbers podcast,

I'm going to be looking at the idea of success and why overnight success typically is preceded by several years of hard work, application, and attitude. And in fact, there are seven key ingredients that I've discovered over 30 odd years working with thousands of business owners that I could distill down to identify what is it that makes people's overnight success several years in the making and they actually get to where they wish to?

Now, there may be many more identifying features. There may be many more ingredients to add to the list. And if you think I've missed some out, please, by all means, add a comment at the end, let me know, and I'll be interested in your thoughts on that one. Let's crack on with the podcast.

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers Podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

One key ingredient in terms of being successful, however you define success is you've got to have something that people want. That may sound stating the obvious, but if you're selling something for which there's no demand, if you're selling something for which nobody wishes to buy it, there's no problem to solve,

there's no transformation, there's no need to be fulfilled, you could be banging your head against a brick wall, and therefore having something that people want if they don't necessarily know it themselves, it's something that's got to be certainly part of that magic ingredient list. But there are lots more to add to that as well.

Patience. As I go through this list, by the way, this is not in any idea of importance. All of these blended together contribute to eventually reaching that idea of what your success is set out to be. So patience, building a business, having business discipline is something that requires patience. Getting there overnight is a very, very rare outcome

and if it does happen overnight, by the way, it tends to be not sustainable, it tends to be a flash in the pan, and you won't necessarily be here next year doing that same thing. So having patience with yourself, having patience with others that you work with. Most business owners that I know want things to happen like yesterday, to happen, you know, in the immediate time frame but that isn't going to be realistic.

So be patient with yourself. Be patient with others that you're working with. That's not saying you should be completely passive, by the way, some degree of activity and chewing along is certainly worthwhile, but make sure you've got a reasonable idea of how long things take. Things tend to take longer than we expect,

they also tend to cost more than we expect as well. And people will let you down in the process. But patience, not without any good reason, is certainly a virtue. In business, you will get lots of knocks, lots of setbacks, lots of disappointments. People will disappoint you. People will let you down. You may be talking to the wrong type of customer.

So you need the ability, and you need to have resilience as part of your business DNA. Now, resilience isn't just being strong for strength's sake. Resilience requires you to not only cope with those vagaries, not only to cope with the financial challenges and business challenges that lie ahead of you, but you need to be able to dust yourself off and get up and start all over again.

Doesn't mean you can't have your off days, certainly those are going to be plentiful during your business journey, but resilience is certainly key for you, and most business owners I know I include myself in there what they have in spades is a degree of resilience. All those people that I mentioned you at the beginning of the podcast have had setbacks, disappointments, failures, letdowns, upsets, but they've managed to get where they are today by having that resilience as part of their business DNA.

So, we've got something that people want. We've got this idea of patience. We've got this idea of resilience. What else should we add to the mix? Tenacity. Being tenacious, keeping an eye on the price, being focused and moving along, especially when those setbacks happen, to me is a really important element that makes up a successful business

person. Now, you could say entrepreneur if you prefer side hustler, whatever term takes your fancy, but being tenacious focusing on what you want or not letting go. It's not being dogmatic. It's not effectively being tenacious for the sake of it. But if you have strong belief, if you've got certainty as far as anyone can be certain about the future, if you're certain what you're offering has a transformation, then stick at it.

Obviously underpinning that. Make sure that what you're offering is realistic. Make sure your aspirations are realistic for you, not for anybody else, but be tenacious and that will certainly help. Now, I love this one next. Well, I love them all. Focus. Too many of us in business get easily distracted. We have this idea of what's called shiny bauble syndrome.

We have this idea, in my experience, too many people have too many aspirations and goals to set themselves. And if you have too many and you spread yourself too thinly, you end up achieving nothing when you want to try and achieve something. So, have some focus, whether that's in the singular or three or four.

So, if you've got objectives, if you've got outcomes you want to achieve, don't overload your intray. Make sure you keep within that lane that you set yourself. Certainly look outside occasionally, but you need focus, and you need to make sure that what you need to do in terms of your activities, in terms of your interactions, in terms of the business that you're building, you focus on achieving that.

Try not to have that like the electrician's famous wiring all over the place, nothing's working, they're not being joined up to junction boxes. Make sure you focus, whether you're somebody who achieves one thing at a time, or you love to switch tasks, which is a false economy, but focus is certainly a key ingredient.

A couple more I would add to the list as well. Now, underpinning all of this, there's an assumption that you have some talent in what you're doing. But, the next thing you need, you need a plan. Now, I'm a big fan of planning and plans. Now, this is not straitjacketed type planning, but if you do not have an idea of what your end goal is, your end object is, your Northern Star, and you haven't figured out what you need to do to get to that stage, if you don't have an underpinning plan, if you don't have a way to monitor your activity, then you're going to be chasing your tail and going round and round in circles.

So, planning, folks, is absolutely key to tie this all together. And what's ingredient number seven? Now, you might be surprised by this, but I think in business, if not, a thing I know is that you need to have a sense of humour, a sense of fun, a sense of being able to relax. But having a sense of humour to me is a key ingredient to a) maintain that sense

of well-being to keep that balance. There's a constant battle going on between your ears, and it can be quite deliberating and it can be quite demoralising. So being able to laugh at situations, being able to have those lighter shades and not everything is gloomy, being able to see the fun in things sometimes, and I'm recommending that you laugh at failure, but if you don't have a sense of humour, if you don't have that sense of relief, you don't have that light that comes into the darkness, you'll find your business will be a grind as opposed to something to enjoy.

So folks, let's summarise what we're talking about, what those ingredients are. Have something that people want, that solves a problem, that has a transformation, gives them what they want. But if there's no need or want, what is it you're actually offering? Patience and resilience, tenacity, focus, a plan and a planning mindset, and a sense of humour, to my mind is absolutely critical. So folks, what do you think of that idea of those seven ingredients?

What do you think of the idea of that overnight success being several years in the making? I'd love to hear your thoughts, until next time, be tenacious, retain that sense of humor and be resilient in pursuing your idea of success. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show.

We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.