The Unspoken Secret: What it Takes to Achieve Real Success in Life
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“I am the happiest man in the world.”
Those were Eliud Kipchoge’s first seven words moments after he broke a new world record in sports history by becoming the first person to run a marathon in under two hours.
He’s a professional Kenyan runner who spent much of the last decade running toward a dream — the dream of proving that no human is limited.
In 2017, in Italy, he teamed up with Nike for his first sub-two-hour marathon attempt. The preparation and race were chronicled in Nike’s documentary Breaking2, but here’s a spoiler alert: It wasn’t a happy ending. Kipchoge missed the mark that day, and he missed it by a mere 26 seconds.
Twenty-six seconds.
How painful would you have felt training eight years for this moment, only to fall short by a twenty-six-second mark?
One year later he gave it an unofficial attempt at the Berlin marathon, but again, he missed the mark, this time by 1 minute, 39 seconds over.
But nothing can stand in the way between true devotion and a man’s obsession for an unrealized dream — especially when it comes to a runner who’s literally running toward it.
On 12 October 2019, in Vienna, at his second official attempt, Eliud Kipchoge finally broke the two-hour marathon barrier with a 1:59:40 finish. He proved that if you are relentless in pursuit of a goal, if you are committed, consistent and persistent, and if you have the right community to support you, anything is possible.
“I am the happiest man in the world to be the first human to run under 2 hours, and I can tell people that no human is limited. I expect more people all over the world to run under 2 hours after today.” — Kipchoge
There are three pillars to success in any field of life.
Build the foundation for them and you really can achieve what you set your mind to. It’s the commitment to these pillars that separates the all-time greats from the ordinary.
1. Consistency: Show up every single day
Success is in the details of the process, not the outcome of the result.
Today, you look at the person standing at the podium and think: “I want to replicate her success.”
That’s great. But while you’re marveling at the tip of the iceberg, have you considered what’s standing underneath the surface of the ocean? There’s a mountain you must first climb — and you can only do it one day at a time.
The first pillar of success is consistency. And the way to consistency begins with building the right system for your goal.
What’s the difference between a system and a goal?
A goal is a target you want to achieve while the system is the process you put in place to help you achieve it. Goals tell you where you want to go; they’re focused on tomorrow. Systems tell you what you need to do every day to get there; they’re focused on today.
The secret to building a great system is to focus on small consistent wins. And in order to create small consistent wins, you need to show up every single day. Whether you feel like it or not, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that for this day — today — you put in the required number of reps. You logged in the hours. You practiced. You improved.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” — Vincent Van Gogh
Kipchoge’s success had been years in the making. In his early 20’s, he was a five-time World Champion at the 5,000m. In 2012, he switched to road running and subsequently became a four-time London marathon winner. In 2016, he became the Olympic marathon champion.
He had been training, running, and preparing every single day, for more than 10 years in order to emerge triumphant in 2019. Eliud Kipchoge isn’t an overnight success — he’s an overnight success 10 years in the making.
This is what Darren Hardy describes in The Compound Effect: “Success is small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time” that will compound to create a radical difference in the future. Consistency, then, is about respecting the process and playing the long-game.
2. Persistence: Willingly rise back up after failures
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”― Epictetus
The road to success is bumpy.
It’s easy to give up on a goal. It’s easy to fall short of our ambitions and think maybe it wasn’t meant to be.
Here’s a reality check: Nothing is meant to be.
You make what’s meant to be.
Persistence is the cloak that cradles your faith. Perspective is the fabric that weaves it together.
If you want to succeed, you need to be persistent, and the only way to persistence lies in your ability to change your perspective.
If you’ve tried opening 10 different doors to your goals, then you haven’t failed 10 different times. You’ve found 10 different ways in which the process doesn’t work. You’re not 10 steps behind, you’re 10 steps closer to your goal.
If persistence is the cloak that cradles your faith, perspective is the fabric that weaves it together. Persistence and the resilient willingness to rise back up after getting knocked down is the second pillar of success.
Setbacks are the natural path to success.
Understand that success is not a linear equation, and you’ll begin to see the beauty of a setback. You’ll realize that failure is not a sign of defeat.
Failure is nothing more than constructive feedback on how not to do things. Failure is the way. What you perceive as an impediment to your advancement is what advances you. As Stoic Philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote:
“The impediment to action advances action; what stands in the way becomes the way.”
It was easier for Eliud Kipchoge to quit after his first attempt in 2017. It was easier to swallow the 26-second and label the challenge of breaking a sub-2-hour marathon as “impossible.” But he didn’t see his unsuccessful attempt as an obstacle or a failure, he saw it as an opportunity to learn, improve, and try again. He believed that he wasn’t 26-seconds off the mark; he was 26-seconds closer to his dream.
“Most people knock on the door of their dreams once, then run away before anyone has a chance to the open the door. But if you keep knocking, persistently and endlessly, eventually the door will open.” — Les Brown
3. Community: Build a supportive environment
Kipchoge didn’t do it alone. He did it with a community of scientists, cyclists, and runners. They collectively created a collaborative environment that would support Kipchoge on his mission.
Breaking a world record was a feast that required the cumulative effort of an entire team.
While running, he was accompanied at all times by a group of pacesetters. They were fellow runners who flanked him in front and behind, helping him sustain momentum and maintain a steady pace. They formed a V-shaped human shield around him to minimize wind resistance.
The electric car that drove just ahead of them showed the elapsed time. It was equipped with laser beams to project the ideal running positions for the pacesetters. Every 5 kilometers or so, cyclists passed Kipchoge unlimited drinks and energy gels.
On the Nike page, a blurb explains: “Nike Sport Research Lab scientists worked with the athletes months in advance to help refine their diet and hydration strategies and spent months finding the optimal setting for the race, ultimately choosing the temperate climate of northern Italy.”
Success is not an individual game. Success is a team game.
There’s an African proverb that reads:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
The final pillar of success is community.
Invest ample time and energy into building a supportive, empowering, and uplifting environment for yourself so that when you fall, you won’t crash on the floor, you’ll be immediately caught and spring-boarded back upward onto your mission. As Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher wrote: “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
The Unspoken Secret
Entrepreneurship has taught me this: All great successes are realized by people who have an unparalleled self-belief, willpower of commitment, and an ability to really cut-back and sacrifice for greater ambition.
But there’s the unspoken secret to success, and it’s this:
Do it for yourself.
Don’t do it for others, do it for yourself. Relentlenlssy purpose a goal that is authentically yours because that’s the only passage through which you can fully channel your intrinsic motivation to be consistent and persistent, and to build a community around that dream.
You have to really want that one thing and it has to come from your heart. It has to be something you genuinely crave to master. Something that brings you joy. Something that allows you to contribute more meaning to our world. That’s the only way you’ll be willing to stick with it for the next 10 years.
Not many people understand this, and that’s why they keep failing to achieve their goals. Don’t make the same mistake. Don’t do it for fame or money or for someone else’s approval. Do it because you cannot live without it. Do it because it has the power to positively impact someone’s life. Do it for you. And remember this:
Your objective isn’t to do what you’re passionate about. Your objective is to honor your purpose passionately.
So what’s the vision that you’re working toward over the next decade?
Be very specific about what you want to achieve, commit to it, and then go out and make it happen.
On your mark. Get set. Go!