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Success recipes most people know, but too few follow

lifehack.org — just no comments ...

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 3, 2007

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  • spect3r, on 10/11/2007, -4/+52I thought this was going to be about food :(
  • f0dder, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16My fool proof recipe for success:
    1) stop wasting time surfing the web
    2) get back to work
    ..
    4) success
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -13/+26This advice is geared toward making you a delusionally happy hippy. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but "choosing meaning over money" and not pursuing power / money as ends, etc. is more likely to make you content with very little than inspire true success. Success is outcomes; results. This advice can make you happy, but if you want to be "successful" in the American, capitalist, business, what-you-go-to-college-for sense, you want to keep material goals in check; the degree, the house, the clean credit, etc.

    Success is not passive content. That's what makes sheep, and God knows we have enough of them in this country, majoring in English, blowing their money on the weekends, dating based on looks alone, and aspiring to middle management by the age of 35. Success, my friends, is a product of consistent DISSATISFACTION with what you already have.

  • trollick, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14 9. Choose to spend your time with the right people.
    10. Drop whatever is inconsistent with these principles
    11. ?
    12. Profit!

  • SaiaRiddle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13"Be endlessly greedy—for learning."

    I keep reading that with a Derek Zoolander voice...

    I will tell you, it's not helping me take the article that seriously
  • dacheetah, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9It is.
    Take two cups of self-raising flour, two eggs, three tablespoons of sugar, about half a cup of milk, a pinch of salt, and a trust fund so that you don't HAVE to work and you can make pancakes all day and be happy.
    For those of us who have to pay bills it's a little more complicated.
  • captinherb, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12FTA "It’s hard to name a single famously successful person who was narrow-minded, bigoted, or stupid. "

    George W. Bush anyone.
  • jpwhitmore, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8isn't personal success just being happy and content?
  • froman98, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7I thought it was going to be food too. The least they could've done is put in a new recipe for pot brownies or something.
  • martynda, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8"Success, my friends, is a product of consistent DISSATISFACTION with what you already have."
    Best comment I've ever read on Digg. Never be completely satisfied; there is always something better to strive for, whether it's material, spiritual, or new life experiences.
  • Uranium118, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Easy to say, hard to do.
  • joefresco, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I concur with the notion that total satisfaction is the same as stagnation. However, I lean more toward the above post in that one does not have to be dissatisfied with the possessions they have or the amount of money they make in order to be dissatisfied in other ways that fuel them to do things to see satisfaction come.

    The idea that money/outcomes/results is all there is to life will leave you one depressed and disillusioned soul, even if you achieve everything you dreamed.
  • dreamxtime, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Execution could be tricky in this case, but the guy has the right idea. I'd rather be happy and living in a box than be swimming in money but doing something I don't like.

    Er...maybe not a box. A small apartment.

    Anyway, it's the gist of the matter. Happiness > money. Otherwise, rich people wouldn't commit suicide.
  • EruLabs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Thats what I kept thinking...

    in so many words: Dont chase success, chase happiness... If I can buy things I WANT (and can take for granted what I need), if I like my Job, and if Im HAPPY, that IS success.

    Maybe in a few years when I can buy myself a nice coolio car I can say "SUCCESS!"... But to tell you the truth, im pretty darn happy for someone who works 40+ hours a week :)
  • ExGhost, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Success is reaching Self-Actualization, the top of the pyramid. Success is a lot of things to a lot of people. It can't be "textbook" that's for sure. Success means something different for me than it does for everyone else. Like dreamxtime said "Happiness > money"
    The idea of happiness drives people much much more than just something material. Sure, it's important, but it's the idea that people associate with money that drives them, which is that money is happiness. Most people make them out to be the same thing, but it's the idea of happiness that people strive for.
  • novask, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Eat less Exercise more.


    Huh? What?
  • simplejoe79, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Fantastic
  • ediblepet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Now this is reliable advice.
  • widman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Get back to work? Who are you, the corporate fairy?

    I'd say go back to working on things that benefit you, your family, your country, and the world at large. Avoid as much as possible making money for strangers and being paid peanuts!

  • blueboy77, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Well you're just a Negative Nancy.
  • Buddhaismybuddy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6I think you are missing the point.

    If you do what is right and follow your dreams, as opposed to being greedy and only doing things in the interest of money and power, you are more likely to be successfull.

  • jcardinal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1This is so Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching. Proudly, I follow every one of these precepts (maybe except Stay Authentic). Also, I’d add one like make a friend of failure - but more MAKE A FRIEND OF CRITICISM. www.templatestaff.com
  • po43292, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5For me to poop on. /Triumph
  • smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1try mine: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1692634
  • funkyjunk3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1If I only followed this advice, I would truly do something meaningful with my life. But alas, I am destined to remain in the Diggnation forever.
  • jellomizer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1There is also something to be said about wise investments and savings. A lot of problems comes from when people run out of money and can't get things they need. Money is not the route to happiness but it helps avoid unhappiness.
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I agree wholly. I'm just a little biased towards social success - towards economics. I want people to build their skill sets, feed important job sectors, gain money, invest it into the economy, become concerned citizens, be charitable / volunteers, and do things that often require a good investment into oneself in the capitalist sense. Materialism, supply, demand, and monetary success feed the American Dream. Money, outcomes, and results are crucial factors to be obsessed with in order to in create incentive for enhancing society in sectors like the sciences and technology.

    A successful society is not one with happy but broke artists, poets, and spiritually advanced, many-friended people dominating it. These things don't keep us ahead in a globally competitive world. Incentives for doing things we don't want to do is what stirs up the economy, makes the dollar worth anything, and keeps people from what is the opposite of any definition of success: having nothing.

    Even the Buddhist ascetic monk, the pinnacle of material-free non-suffering, must beg for food from the pain in his stomach.
  • zaqintosh, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3Anyone who says money doesn't buy happiness... doesn't have it :)
  • krist69, on 10/11/2007, -7/+7a great read.
  • Pinkorchid72, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I love f0dder's advice. Everyone should stop wasting time surfing and get off their asses. Do something, anything...just physically move your bodies, people! Let's stop muscle atrophy now! :D

    ...uh, I guess that means I should step away from my laptop and get up and move, or risk being called a hypocrite....Darn it, I had to open my big mouth!
  • bobcrotch, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Thats complete bull ***** though.

    The text book definition of success is not at all what this article is about, it's what xmlionheart described.

    I'm not saying there is anything wrong with doing whats right and staying ignorant, but it's not real success by definition.
  • xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2this comment would've been more legible (and easier to understand) if there was carriage returns. Damn the new comment system!
  • jjmarq, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1thank you.
  • smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1so successful that most of the world hates him and he'll have to live the rest of his life in fear of being assassinated and constantly under the protection of secret service? so successful that he's gotta take anti-depressants and has observable psychiatric/emotional problems? so successful that his daughters are alcoholic prescription-drug-abusing retards?

    successful people are typically happy. bush may be rich and powerful, but that does not guarantee happiness as can clearly be seen.
  • homebznezpal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0i thought this would be about food?! But, hey the topic is great. Interesting article. The best advice i heard about money, is that. Let money serve you, use it to make you happy. Not the other way around.
  • dpds, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I would love to believe the advice in this article. I do pretty much follow those guidelines, but usually feeling like a fool. Why?

    Because in the country I live in, the USA, those who succeed crush those who follow those guidelines.

    Our politicians, the vast majority of our celebrities are people who do seek money, power and status.

    One politician in particular, our president, (though most all other politicians allow him to do it without protest) uses that money, power and status to kill off 3,500+ of our troops.
  • ganseye, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0Some good points but I have an issue with not chasing outcomes. Very rarely does true success come to those who sit back and wait for things to happen.

    http://www.asksledge.com
  • ndpm98, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0It is a wonderful topic. It had make me recognize a lot of valuable things
  • NocturnVitae, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Four little words kept echoing in my ears as I read this article; Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Why was I not surprised that advice not to make money a primary driver in ones life was coming from a retired executive. There is some truth to it of course but there is also an element of luck or chance to everything.
  • dreamxtime, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Success is a product of consistent dissatisfaction with what you already have?

    You know, there IS something called 'too much of a good thing'.
  • whatthefu, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1"It’s hard to name a single famously successful person who was narrow-minded, bigoted, or stupid."

    There are plenty. Hitler, of course, would fall under the bigot category, and that is just one example.
  • Victorya, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I also thought food, like Mac and cheese or sumptin :(

    these are often said aphorisms, and I'm sure they're true and that some guru out there can follow them all living on a mountain. In modern times it's hard especially figuring out who "the right people" are.
  • OneAndOnlySnob, on 10/11/2007, -7/+51. Stop making these stupid lists that go 1. Do something 2. ??? 3. Profit
    2. ???
    3. Profit
  • albatross5000, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Uh sorry but half of these ideas are sketchy.
  • JimmyTheClam, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Buried - Inaccurate happy talk
    Those directions ranks up there with "but you have INNER beauty" as one of the greatest lies foisted upon the world.
    Follow those directions and you will never be successful unless you want to be a bookish academic in some obscure field.
  • Buddhaismybuddy, on 10/11/2007, -6/+2LOL...um...maybe...SUCCESSFULL PEOPLE...which, obviously, you are not.
  • po43292, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1We can't comment about the recipes? Oh wait there's no food...
  • tim04, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1I'm definitely not a Bush supporter, but he doesn't deserve to be bashed in every situation under the sun. narrow-minded and bigoted sure, but if he's also stupid and ended up as arguably the most powerful man in the past decade, what does that make us, the people who gladly allowed that to happen?
  • furman, on 10/11/2007, -17/+3who the ***** follows this *****

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