How to Succeed in Any Field
Through studying books and observing successful people, I noticed an approach that helps increase our probability of success in any field. I would like to share this approach through this article.
To succeed in any field, you need three things:
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Knowledge - acquired through learning or synthesizing your own experiences.
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Experience - gained through personal trial and practice.
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Perseverance and resilience - forged through training and endurance.
Most people tend to adopt the following approach:
Action → Failure → Lessons Learned → More Experience → Synthesize Knowledge → Smarter Action.
The advantages of this approach are:
Deeply internalizing personal knowledge and experience because you yourself acted and experienced to draw those lessons.
Experiencing more failures → Better forging your personal endurance.
However, this approach also has several drawbacks:
Requires immense perseverance and resilience to withstand numerous failures.
Consumes a massive amount of resources, effort, and time to achieve success.
The probability of success is not particularly high.
Because of these drawbacks, very few people can truly persevere until they reap success → The number of people who succeed using this method is relatively low.
Therefore, we need a more effective approach to both save effort and increase our probability of success.
The Best Approach - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton
The main idea of this approach is:
Study how the best people do it → Imitate them → Fail (with a lower probability) → Learn lessons → Improve yourself → Smarter Action.
Let's dive into the specific steps below!
Step 1 - Find the Best People in the Field
Human knowledge is forged from failures of the past. If you want to be more successful than others, you either have to fail more than others... or learn from the mistakes of others more than anyone else.
There is no need to navigate a "minefield" alone in a domain you want to master. The best people have already walked it and left their footprints.
Success leaves clues.
By simply following the best, you might not become the second or third best person immediately. But one thing is certain: you will be far better than those stepping blindly into the "minefield" . Walking on a proven path (beaten by successful people) always saves significantly more time and effort than carving out your own way from scratch.
Step 2 - Deeply Understand the Mindset, Knowledge, and Actions of the Best
Once you have identified the top figures in your field, write down a list of their names and research them thoroughly:
Their mindset.
Their thoughts.
The motivations driving their actions.
Their specific actions in various past circumstances.
Find out why they achieved success in their domain. Deeply study the knowledge that shaped their mindset.
Step 3 - Cross-check Information Among the Best
Even a giant is still human. This means there are still flaws in their mindset, thoughts, and actions.
Minimize these flaws by cross-checking information and knowledge among the best people to discover:
Which perspectives are sound.
Which perspectives are flawed or unreasonable.
From there, extract the most complete knowledge framework for yourself. This is a key point in this approach!
Step 4 - Select the Mindset, Knowledge, and Views Shared by the Best
After cross-checking information and knowledge among the best, you will realize that:
There are certain pieces of information, viewpoints, or mindsets on which almost all top performers agree.
These are the exact insights and mindsets that, when applied, yield a very high probability of success. Why? Simply because they have been tested and validated by a majority of top experts.
Step 5 - Copy Mindset, Knowledge, and Imitate Actions
Once you have extracted the insights and mindsets that give you the highest probability of success, it is time to take action.
Apply their mindset to your own situation. Feel your own mind merging with the sharpest minds in that field. Copy and act like the giants.
Could you still fail? — Possibly; everything involves probabilities. But your probability of winning will be significantly higher!
Bottom lines
That is the exact method I apply to every field I enter. I hope this approach helps you achieve far greater success in your career.
Wishing you great success!
* Images in this article were sourced from Flaticon
Thank you for reading my article!
Kim,