In his book The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale says that success is defined as the progressive realization of a worthy goal. I think that's the best definition of success. The key is that it's a “progressive realization”; we have to tackle success on a micro-level, a small level. For instance, I consider writing this section of the book today a success. Focus on these micro-successes or micro-wins and compound on them throughout the day. We always have temporary defeats and minor losses throughout the day, but we also have successes throughout our day that move us toward our worthy goal.

I had the chance to meet and be interviewed by business mogul and New York Times best-selling author Grant Cardone on his show “Power Players” a few years ago, and he asked me how I defined success. My answer was exactly what I just said. The funny part of the story was that I fumbled through it and one of the camera guys helped me piece the quote together. Grant and I have similar yet also very different philosophies about business, but you cannot deny his success as he defines it. I was reading one of his blog posts recently in which he said something to the effect that he never wanted to be rich, but he always wanted enough money so that if he ever made a mistake in business it wouldn't matter or affect his way of life. He has met the progressive realization of that goal for all intents and purposes and I admire his drive and passion! If you're interested in what Grant Cardone has to say about success, check out my podcast The Alden Report. I ask him the same question.

Success to you and to me are two different things. Some people believe that in order to be successful in life they need a nice car, a nice house with the two kids, the white picket fence, the dog, and the soccer mom. They're able to take a vacation once in a while. That very well may be success to you. You don't need to worry about what other people think as far as whether or not it's successful to others. It comes down to what you want and the goals that you set in your life.

Often people gauge their own personal success based on what they see in the media, what they see on television, and what they hear about the rich and famous. That isn't necessarily success for you. If that's something you want, if you want to be a box-office hit, or a successful singer, or an actor, or whatever your goal is, success is the progression toward a worthy goal. Each step that you take in the direction of that goal is also success. When you break down what Earl Nightingale said, it's really about getting there.

Each day, day in and day out, as you accomplish things and you get closer to your goal, you are a success. That's it. It's not the millions of dollars in your bank account. It's not the nice watches, the nice cars, and everything else. It's the step-by-step, day-by-day, goal-by-goal progressive realization of success.

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell seeks out a definition of success. He looks at some of the most successful people throughout modern history. What's the key characteristic they all have? Every single one of them worked their ass off. Success isn't just given to someone. Success is something you work toward every day. You can't be afraid of that work.

In the United States we often demonize the successful people. We look at some of these rich people and we say, “They're bad people because they're so rich,” or “They have everything that they want.” They have everything that they want because they worked for it. Are there a few exceptions of people who hadn't worked that hard and are super-rich or “successful” in society? Sure. There's always an exception to the rule. Those are the ones that usually do fall off and don't maintain success, but the ones who really work hard are not afraid of what success brings.

The Beatles played for three hundred days a year for two years before anyone even knew who they were; they went on stage day in and day out. In Outliers, Gladwell talks about the 10,000 Hour Rule, which The Beatles personified. Basically, he says that in order be successful in whatever field you choose, you need 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to really become an expert and then, ultimately, become “successful” at it. 10,000 hours. That's a lot of hours of work. It doesn't happen overnight.

I see a lot of young people in this day and age who feel entitled, as though they deserve success. Why do you deserve success? Let's say you're twenty-seven years old, you're a couple of years out of college, you're working some job, and you're doing okay. What gives you the right or the sense of entitlement if you haven't worked toward the progressive realization of a goal? Now look. You can be very successful at twenty-two or nineteen years old. Again, look at the people who are micro-successes in college, high school, and middle school. You can be very successful on those levels, but you need to pay attention to those successes and compound on them.

There are many things you need to do and experience in order to find success: a lot of heartache, struggle, difficult times, and temporary defeats. That's the path you have to walk down in order to be successful.

EVERYTHING I TOUCH TURNS TO GOLD

A while ago, I was at a private beach here in Beverly, Massachusetts, talking to a friend I hadn't seen in a while. She pulled up in her Land Rover. She's pretty successful herself. So is her husband. I had told her about Emory Vodka. I said how well it was doing. She said, “Mike, everything you touch is gold.”

That is the complete opposite of the truth. Most everything I try doesn't work. Look, it's difficult to talk about failure. It's difficult to wake up in the morning and be excited about that fact that something you put your heart and soul into, for which you put your best foot forward, didn't work. I like to call them temporary defeats something I learned from Zig Ziglar. I'm the type of person who doesn't like to give up on things. Sometimes there is a point where you have to realize the law of diminishing returns, that whatever it is you tried isn't going to work. It's okay to realize that. It's not giving up. It's realizing that maybe you need to step back, stop the clock, reevaluate, and go in a different direction. It's NOT failure.

Often if the first thing you try doesn't work, something else comes of it. Emory Vodka started when I backed an artist, Blake Emory. I love his art. I put him in galleries all over the country, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, New York. His art has found acclaim, but financially it's still not working. I asked, “What else can we do?” So we launched Emory Vodka, which is doing well, but of course in these early days requires consistent work, constant hustle. I'm out there selling the stuff myself because I'm so excited about it. I want to learn more about the business.

As in any business, you need to learn the business from the ground up. That's what I'm doing because that's what I know works: understanding the business, learning about the business, growing the business, and then compounding on those micro-successes. That's really what success is. When you're trying to figure out what you want to do, what some of your goals are, what some of the things you want to accomplish are, set those goals. Work toward those goals.

Real, long-term success, the kind that builds legacies, takes a lot of hard work, heartache, and tough decisions, the decisions that most people won't make.

IS ALDEN ESSENTIAL?

I recently had a tough time making the decision of calling it a day with a particular advertisement that we created. It's an advertisement for our product called Alden's Essentials, an all-natural, vegetarian multivitamin offered by our sister company CloiXonné and it's selling well within CloiXonné. It's an awesome product, and I loved the advertising my team had pulled together.

Then we tested it. It did horribly on television. That's a gut-wrenching feeling, seeing something you love not work. Now we have to step back, look at the results, make tweaks, and see if we can improve it. At some point, it just might not work. Then we move on to the next thing. I'm not afraid of failing, but don't misunderstand me. Failing sucks. The human psyche feels it. Everybody feels it. You have to remind yourself that when you fail, a new door will open. Something else will come about as a result of it. Failure is part of the journey; I look at things not working as temporary defeats. Temporary defeats are learning experiences that ultimately will make you better. Alden's Essentials just didn't work on television, but it is doing extremely well in CloiXonné and helping people all over the world. One door closes another one opens.

FAILURE ISN'T FAILURE

Again, I like to call what many people call failures, temporary defeats, and it happens to everybody. It's part of the progressive realization of a worthy goal. Throughout that journey, you're going to have missteps. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to have things not go your way. I remind myself of that every day. Sometimes things aren't going to go your way, but if you truly have a goal and you want to be successful by accomplishing that goal, then you need to push forward. You need to recognize that things sometimes aren't going to go your way. In Chapter 8 we discuss failure in depth.

The most successful people in the world work hard at accomplishing their goals. Don't be afraid to do the work to get there. Don't be afraid to climb to the top.

When you see successful people, ask yourself, “How did they get so rich? What did they do? What sort of goals did they set? What sorts of struggles did they have?” Internalizing the fact that success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal, and accepting that there will be multiple speed bumps and challenges along the way, will help you grow. When you put your heart into something and it doesn't work, there is no other way to describe it—it sucks! It hurts. It happens to me almost every day! But this is what entrepreneurs do. We keep pushing. Understanding this will not make the pain go away, but it will help you move forward.

WINNING THE LOTTO DOESN'T MAKE YOU A SUCCESS

I have a friend who hit $10 million on a scratch ticket. He was a police officer who hit $10 million on a scratch ticket. But he knows that money doesn't make him a success. He was a successful police officer. What will ultimately make him “successful” in life is what he does with that $10 million, how he manages it. He retired from the force, but he sought out a new line of work as a professional painter. A guy who hit for TEN MILLION is out there still working. His success will come from what he does with that money, and how he manages his time.

He loves fishing. He set a goal to become a professional freshwater bass fisherman and one of the top bass fishermen in New England. I asked him, “What's your goal? What do you want to do?” You see, even if you hit the jackpot, you need goals. You need some sort of benchmark. You need to know where you are. Ask yourself, “What's my endgame? Where do I need to go in order to be successful?”

My friend the lotto winner is working toward his goal of becoming a top bass fisherman. He's entered competitions. He's getting out there every day. He's learning about the ins and outs of fishing. He's discovering the science behind the types of lures, rods, boats, and the times of day. He's working toward that goal.

Just working toward that goal makes him successful because it's the progressive realization of a worthy goal. I don't know if Earl Nightingale would believe that worthy goal is becoming a professional fisherman, but whatever is a worthy goal to YOU is a worthy goal. It's not defined by what others think. You may read this and think that becoming a professional fisherman is a complete waste of time. That's fine, but that's a goal that he set. That's a goal that he's working toward.

I've started dozens of companies and grown them from nothing to entities generating millions of dollars. You know what? There's really no secret. There's no secret formula behind success, but there is a method.

There is a mental state, but there are certain fundamental things that you can do that most people don't do. You don't just become successful. It doesn't happen. You're not going to wake up tomorrow and be successful. If you truly want to take your business and your life to the next level, then internalize what you have learned in this book thus far and in future chapters.

It's not bullshit. It's not theory. It's not abstract thought. I'm not teaching a business class at a junior college and never been in business. I'm doing it right now. I continue to do it day in and day out.