Why finding the foundations of success isn’t helpful.

“We interviewed 100 millionaires – here’s what they ALL had in common!” – Random guru.

This results to this make someone believe that if they found the magic common fundamentals, they could have the secrets and be able to excel.

There is no case of success where all they were in total was a conglomeration of commonalities.

The stuff that is uncommon is what creates the successful part of the equation.

If you want to build a house and all you ever build is a foundation, you’re not going to be very pleased when try to go to sleep on a concrete slab.

If success was building a house, you have 2 options to build your own house:

1) Look at 10,000 case studies of houses to see what they all have in common. On a scale like this, it may be a very limited amount of things like “nails.” Then what they’d do is tell you to read 100s of books on nails, learning everything about “the secret commonalities of all houses!” Now you’re a nail master…but unlikely to be building a house anytime soon.

or

2) Look at 1 house, and build it as closely as possible to what you see already done and how it was specifically, and uniquely, built.

You’d obviously pick the 2nd choice. But somehow in other endeavors, we’re looking for those commonalities – those “secrets!”

You need the commonalities, but you ALSO need the extra things that are all unique to each case.

What things in your life are you trying to make hard by telling yourself you need some sort of secret, when the best answer is right in front of you on what to do?