If There’s a ‘Secret To Success’, It’s This: Make Your Work a Priority

If you don’t care about yourself, who will?

Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash

In everything in life, we must first do what’s important and only then what’s urgent. Fail to do that, and you might end up not ever realizing your dreams.

I often ask myself, “Why do some people make it — in arts, business, life in general — and others don’t?” When I was 18, I was searching for some “secret of success.” I quickly realized there is none. I saw people of all shapes and sizes who achieve success.

It’s not habits.

You don’t need to meditate, workout, drink smoothies, read a book a day, or listen to all the latest podcasts to achieve success. Among the people I saw, read about, or interviewed personally, there was no correlation between their habits and progress. Most of these people did start working on healthy habits — but only after they’ve achieved success. People who think that a vigorous workout or meditation regimen will make them more successful are confusing cause and effect.

It’s not education.

If you go through the list of the Fortune 500 and put an “X” next to each person’s name who’s got an MBA, you’ll learn something important about business education. It’s almost irrelevant. Most billionaires today are people with computer degrees, and I think that we’ll start to see more self-made entrepreneurs without any degrees at all.

It’s not talent.

Yes, talent plays a huge role — but you can’t control it. If you weren’t born with Beyonce’s voice, there is so much you can do.

Most of the advice, books, seminars, and courses in the “success” realm work on the irrelevant. They help you master the tactics, the little things — that have nothing to do with success. But if you write with Stephen King’s pencil, you won’t write like Stephen King.

But as I think more about this subject of success — in creative fields, mainly — I keep returning to the same conclusion.

People who achieve success can do anything and be anything. What they can’t afford to do — is waste time.

Important First, Urgent Second

It all comes down to Eisenhower’s matrix. You’ve got urgent things. And then you’ve got important things.

People who achieve success do the important things first.

They prioritize themselves, and their work — above all else.

To Become Rich, Pay Yourself First

People who save (and later, invest) money, “pay themselves first.”

Robert Kiyosaki talks a lot about the concept of bad debt and good debt in his books. When he was twenty-something, he was deeply in debt. To get out of it and correct his dire financial situation, he started to “pay himself first”: take a % of his paycheck into his savings, as soon as the check arrived.

His bookkeeper was furious. Creditors and banks were calling in, demanding payments. After paying himself and spending money on essentials, Robert rarely had spare cash to waste. His bookkeeper begged him to reconsider and take the conventional approach: pay your debtors first and then save money. But Robert was adamant.

In just a few years, he was able to pay off his debt, and solve the “money problem” by investing in real estate. All while “paying himself first.”

To Create Art, Make It a Priority

Most creatives have a full-time job to support themselves. From the days of jazz musicians — who would perform at night in bars — the term “day job” is used when referring to someone who works for a paycheck to support themselves while working on their art simultaneously.

When John Grisham worked as an attorney for a Chicago firm, he suddenly felt an urge to be a writer. Having an already packed — as most lawyers do — schedule, as well as a new house, wife, and kids, he couldn’t find the spare time to do the writing. So — he would come to work early in the morning, at 5–6 AM and write at his desk for 2–3 hours each morning before the workday began. He recalls being too tired to do any work after two-three hours of writing — he still had to go to court hearings — and he would come home exhausted, but it was worth the sacrifice in the end.

A lot of people ask me, how do I combine writing and working full-time? The answer is simple: I make my art a priority.

I write in the morning before I do anything else. And I always remind myself that no matter what’s going on — I need to keep moving in my most important projects. This movement can be small, but as James Altucher reminds us, just a 1% daily incremental improvement can compound to a multiplied by ~37.7 improvement in only 12 months.

I’ve seen creatives, who took jobs for the money and then forgot about why they needed a job in the first place. The money lured them, consumed them, and they forgot about creating their art. I also have creative friends who decided not to take a job — and focus on the art instead, taking a substantial financial risk.

What path you choose to take — is up to you. The details don’t matter, and they are all unique. The most important thing is that you keep working on your art.

There’s Always Something

There’s never a good time for anything. You’re never ready to marry, to move, to start a business, to ask that boy out — or anything else in life, really.

The best way to start then would be to start before you’re ready.

There’s always something in the way — and there will always be urgent calls for your attention. I know that you’re dreaming of a state when you have no distractions, and you have all the time in the world, but that never happens. Not for me, not for Stephen King, and not for you.

Your time and attention are under attack all the time. You need to guard it and create time for your projects forcefully.

I’ve heard a phrase a while back, “If you don’t love yourself, who will?”

Similarly, let’s ask ourselves if you don’t make yourself — and your work — a priority, who will?