If you had bumped into me 8 or 10 years ago and asked how I was growing myself personally at that time, the answer would unequivocally have been through great books! Learning from authors like Pat Lencioni, Jim Collins, Jocko Willink, and many more has been invaluable in my life. Over the past few years however, I have shifted my growth strategy away from books. There are a few reasons for this transition.

First, I find it harder and harder to mow through a book like I used with young kids now in the mix. Second, I find myself increasingly choosing other things (some good, some not so good) to occupy my limited amount of free time from say 8:30-9:30 every night, and on off days like Sunday. 

But third and most importantly, I believe that most books could be about 25% of their actual length. Not only that, but most books SHOULD be much shorter. While exceptions to this do exist (like Matthew Kelly’s The Culture Solution), I have increasingly found books filled with anecdotes and repetition of the same ideas just said in a variety of new ways chapter after chapter. I’m not sure if publishers are the source of this, or whether writers just feel the need to work up to 150-200 pages. Either way, most good books have around 50 pages of JUICE, while the other 150 pages more or less could have been omitted.

But you might be wondering what this has to do with anything, and why you should care? The #1 strategy for self-led growth that I encourage anyone who will listen to latch onto is reading articles! Articles are MUCH shorter than books of course, and you can find the same needle in a much smaller haystack. Unlike podcasts, articles allow you to capture a golden growth nugget through copy and paste and preserve it for later reference. Bang for your buck, written articles deliver at a high rate of return.

I’ve worked through thousands of articles in recent years, but a few stand out heads and shoulders above the rest. Today, I’d like to share with you the #1 article that I have found that exists in the whole wide world.

The Common Denominator of Success

About 100 years ago a guy gave a speech at an insurance convention. Not off to an exciting start yet are we? But in this talk, the speaker Albert Gray shared perhaps the most simple yet revolutionary idea that you will ever hear. His speech was simply entitled The Common Denominator of Success. I have shared a summary of this article below, with Albert Gray’s direct quotes italicized. Gray’s argument goes as follows:

-Hard work does not guarantee success.

-Gray went on a quest to discover the true common denominator of success.

-What he discovered was that ”The common denominator of success – secret of success of every individual who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that he or she formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do”.

-The things that “failures” do not like to do are things that EVERY human being does not like doing. “Success is something which is achieved by the minority of people and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices”.

-An example of something obvious that no one wants to do, pertaining to insurance sales in the 1940s, is cold calling. Modern day examples could include eating non-processed foods, saving money and living within one’s means, or reducing screen time. 

-Successful people do the things they do not like doing so that they can accomplish the outcomes that they want. Failures do the things that they like and then are okay with whatever the repercussions of those decisions are. 

-What pushes the successful to do this while failures do not? A purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing the things they do not like to accomplish the purpose that they want to accomplish is what motivates the successful!

-If a high performer goes into a “slump”, it’s because right now the things they do not like doing become MORE important than their reasons for doing them.

-Paying the bills or supporting a family is not enough of a purpose to motivate. “It isn’t a sufficiently strong purpose to make you form the habit of doing the things you don’t like to do for the very simple reason that it is easier to adjust ourselves to the hardships of a poor living than it is to adjust ourselves to the hardships of making a better one. If you doubt me, just think of all the things you are willing to go without in order to avoid doing the things you don’t like to do. All of which seems to prove that the strength which holds you to your purpose is not your own strength but the strength of the purpose itself.”

-People are creatures of habit. Any and all success is achieved through habits. “People form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of person you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of person, and the only way you can change is through habit”.

-“Any resolution of decision you make is simply a promise to yourself which isn’t worth a tinker’s damn until you have formed the habit of making it and keeping it. And you won’t form the habit of making it and keeping it unless right at the start you link it with a definite purpose that can be accomplished by keeping it, in other words, any resolution or decision you make today has to be made again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and so on. And it not only has to be made each day, but it has to be kept each day for if you miss one day in the making or keeping of it, you’ve got to go back and begin all over again. But if you continue the process of making it each morning and keeping it each day, you will finally wake up some morning, a different person in a different world, and you will wonder what has happened to you and the world you used to live in.”

-Habits turn resolutions into reality, and habits allow you to act without even consciously making a decision to do something. 

-A person’s purpose is what dictates what habits they form and keep. “Behind every success there must be a purpose and that is what makes purpose so important to your future. For in the last analysis, your future is not going to depend on economic conditions or outside influences of circumstances over which you have no control. Your future is going to depend on your purpose in life”.

-Your purpose must be practical and not visionary. But your practical purpose should not just be logical. It should be sentimental, emotional. “Needs are logical while wants and desires are sentimental and emotional. Your needs will push you just so far, but when your needs are satisfied, they will stop pushing you”.

–”As long as you live, don’t ever forget that while you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender. Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do”.

In Closing

To recap: Successful people form the habit of doing things they do not like doing so that they can achieve the outcomes that they want as dictated by the compelling purpose that pushes them. Failures form bad habits and only do things that they like doing and are alright with the bad outcomes, as dictated by purposes that are not healthy enough to push them to greater heights.

You can read the full transcript of Gray’s speech here.

Which group are you in overall? How about in your personal and work lives specifically? What is your purpose? Is it healthy enough to inspire you to be successful?

I hope that this will challenge and encourage you as you continue to decide which group you will be in throughout your life and career. Equally, I hope that you will share the wisdom from the best article in the world with other people who exist in your sphere so that they can be the beneficiaries as well!