Everyone wants to succeed in life. The real question is, what is driving them? Is one driven to succeed because society tells them, or does their passion come from within? Sometimes when trying to become so-called "successful", society can really hold you back. In the world we live in, everyone wants instant results. Our advertising  (something I know a little about) is driven by instant results...

But actual success, in any area of your life, is not instant. It takes years, sometimes decades. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, says 10,000 hours at least.  Some writers try to sugarcoat stories of individual success like it happened overnight (people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg). What they don't understand is success usually happens when an individual finds something they are obsessively passionate about for a long period of time. The earlier they find this passion in life the more successful they usually are. The more like-minded people they surround themselves with, the better the momentum will be.

People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you do, and it's totally true. The reason is because it's so hard that if you don't any rational person would give up. - Steve Jobs

It's hard to wake up in the morning...

if you are not passionate about what you do. Tony Hsieh (the CEO of Zappos.com) talked about this in his book Delivering Happiness. Before he sold Link Exchange to Microsoft, he talked about it was nearly impossible for him to wake up in the morning. Every one of us knows how that is. Are you excited to go to work in the morning? When the passion is gone, you are part of a house of cards. Society will tell you that it's alright not to be passionate or happy about what you do because worse comes to worst, you can get a quick fix. You can watch TV to see how bad other people's lives are. You can gossip to distract you from your own life. You can drink excessively. You can lie to yourself. You can shop for self-esteem.

"You like to watch our lives because you do not want to face your own" (and because it's damn hilarious) At the same time, society gives you all these tools for distractions it will also paint a picture of what success looks like. Isn't that a bitch? Yes, yes, my friend, it is. If you want to succeed, you must find your purpose, train your brain and not participate in society the way 99% of people do (you have to participate in society at some level, just not how others are). That doesn't mean locking yourself in your room and doing nothing. What does it mean, then? It means everything is an investment. You could be watching something mindless on TV, or you could be reading a book that will get you closer to success. You can gossip about other people, or you could go out to network with people that offer true value. The list goes on and on. Your ability to make small decisions ultimately decides where you end up in life. The shit is hard. It's not meant to be easy. No one wants to talk about it until they get old and realize they fucked up by wasting so much time. Sorry to be so blunt, but you don't get a second chance.  So, you better find your purpose and passion sooner than later because everything builds from that base.

I'll leave you with this video I watched a year ago...