The One Thing You Need To Be Good At by Bob Bly

The other day, my oldest son expressed to me his concern that he would not be successful as an adult.

Why not? Because (in his mind) there are quite a number of things he isn't good at (math is at the top of the list).

I shared with him an encouraging success secret that I now pass on to you.

Namely, that to be extremely successful—in business, career, and wealth building—you don't have to be good at a lot of things.

In fact, you can attain an extremely high level of success even if you are really good at only one thing.

Warren Buffett made this point some years ago in a college lecture he gave with Bill Gates.

He said, in essence, that he (Buffett) is not very strong, not very fast, not very physical, not very athletic.

"If I was dropped in the middle of Africa, I'd be eaten by a lion within 2 minutes," he told the audience.

However, because he is good at only one thing—investing in the stock market—Buffett is an extremely wealthy man.

In my neighborhood, parents worry incessantly about whether their kids will be successful.

They fret over the kids' grades...piano lessons...sports...extra-curricular activities...even how many friends the kids have...summer camp...you name it.

My kids have it easy, because I don't worry about any of these things.

As long as they do their best, I don't obsess over their grades or what extra-curricular activities they should be doing but are not.

I tell them what I just told you...

Find the one thing in life that you love—that turns you on, that you are passionate about—and keep doing it.

The more you do it, the better you get at it.

With an early start and years of practice, your kids will get good at the one thing they love, become extremely competent, and therefore never have to worry about supporting themselves or being out of a job.

Of course, to ensure financial success, this "one thing"—the singular passion—must be something others will pay money for.

To paraphrase Aristotle, "Where your passions intersect with the needs of the public, therein lies your vocation."

Like Warren Buffett, I have very few talents and am not good at most things.

The list of what I am mediocre or bad at is very long indeed.

I'm incompetent at fixing things around the house, for example.

And I have a depth-perception problem that makes me lousy at tennis, baseball, or any sport where you have to hit a ball with a stick.

But I was always a voracious reader. I love books, reading, and writing. I began to write early—amateur comic books in elementary school, short stories in junior high school, articles for the papers in high school and college.

I spent so much time in college writing for our paper—it was a daily, and I became the features editor—that my writing began to improve significantly.

I realized writing was the one thing I love to do, have an aptitude for, and am good at.

And in copywriting, I found an area of writing where I could be paid handsomely for my efforts.

A mistake many people make is to continually work to improve themselves in areas where they are weak.

What you should do instead is to improve yourself in the one area where you are strongest.

Why?

Today we are a society of specialists.

When I was a kid, and the tiles in our bathroom began to crumble, my dad strapped on a tool belt and fixed them.

Today when my bathroom has a cracked tile, I call the tile guy—and pay him to fix it.

Success does not come from being a jack of all trades, and a master of none.

It comes from mastery of a skill or body of knowledge that others—an employer or customer—will pay you to share.

If I were to take a course in tiling, I would learn a little...but my abilities would be nothing compared to my tile guy, who has been doing this for 40 years.

I spend my time increasing my knowledge of marketing, which helps me make more money in my freelance copywriting and Internet marketing business.

Society admires the Renaissance man, the well-rounded individual.

But more often than not, it's the singularly focused individual—Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Tiger Woods—the person who is exceedingly good at just one thing—who reaps the greatest rewards.

 

Bob Bly is the author of "World's Best Copywriting Secrets" and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him "America's top copywriter".

Why are some people more successful than others?

A lot of people who claim to be rich and successful—and I say “claim” because we don’t know for a fact that they are—act as if it’s all them…and that luck had nothing to do with it.

But the fact is, there are 6 specific factors that contribute to anyone’s success or lack thereof—and luck is clearly one of them:

#1 – Intelligence.

Some people are just smarter than others.

Intelligence is a result of genetics and environment—your upbringing.

Since heredity and the home you are born into are determined purely by chance, intelligence is largely a matter of luck.

By the way, by “smart” I don’t mean “book smart”.

I mean smart at anything that can make money—whether it’s business, art, computers, or whatever.

#2 – Knowledge.

Successful people are students for life.

They are constantly acquiring specific knowledge in their business or field—as well as a large storehouse of knowledge on all sorts of other topics.

As a rule, the more you learn, the more you earn.

#3 – Effort.

The cliché about working smarter, not harder, is B.S.

Successful people work both smarter—and harder—than others.

#4 – Attitude.

Successful people have an attitude. But it’s not an attitude of ripping people off…or making as much money as they can any way they can.

It’s an attitude of service: of giving their customers (and others) more value than they have any right to expect.

Many successful people are also goal-oriented, and it is important to them to become successful. So they focus their efforts on achievement of that goal.

#5 – Aptitude.

We tend to be good at things we like and have an aptitude for.

Financially successful people just happen to have an aptitude and talent for things that make money.

Warren Buffett has said that the reason for his great wealth is that he was born with aptitudes and talents for which our society offers huge financial rewards.

Some of us are good at stuff, but not stuff that pays well. And if we pursue those interests exclusively, our incomes can be limited as a result.

#6 – Luck.

As you can see, the key success factors of intelligence (#1) and aptitudes (#5) are determined mainly by chance—and are largely beyond our control.

Yes, Warren Buffett studied finance, worked hard, and had the right attitude.

But he was also lucky, as is virtually every person who has achieved significant wealth, success, or accomplishment in life.

The honest ones admit this and are thankful.

Any rich or successful person who said luck had no part in his achievement is either in denial or unwilling to come clean.

Therefore, if you are successful, you should be humble, not arrogant and boastful.

After all, you were lucky. Right?

Why are some people more successful than others?

A lot of people who claim to be rich and successful—and I say "claim" because we don't know for a fact that they are—act as if it's all them...and that luck had nothing to do with it.

But the fact is, there are 6 specific factors that contribute to anyone's success or lack thereof—and luck is clearly one of them:

#1 - Intelligence.

Some people are just smarter than others.

Intelligence is a result of genetics and environment—your upbringing.

Since heredity and the home you are born into are determined purely by chance, intelligence is largely a matter of luck.

By the way, by "smart" I don't mean "book smart".

I mean smart at anything that can make money—whether it's business, art, computers, or whatever.

#2 - Knowledge.

Successful people are students for life.

They are constantly acquiring specific knowledge in their business or field—as well as a large storehouse of knowledge on all sorts of other topics.

As a rule, the more you learn, the more you earn.

#3 - Effort.

The cliché about working smarter, not harder, is B.S.

Successful people work both smarter—and harder—than others.

#4 - Attitude.

Successful people have an attitude. But it's not an attitude of ripping people off...or making as much money as they can any way they can.

It's an attitude of service: of giving their customers (and others) more value than they have any right to expect.

Many successful people are also goal-oriented, and it is important to them to become successful. So they focus their efforts on achievement of that goal.

#5 - Aptitude.

We tend to be good at things we like and have an aptitude for.

Financially successful people just happen to have an aptitude and talent for things that make money.

Warren Buffett has said that the reason for his great wealth is that he was born with aptitudes and talents for which our society offers huge financial rewards.

Some of us are good at stuff, but not stuff that pays well. And if we pursue those interests exclusively, our incomes can be limited as a result.

#6 - Luck.

As you can see, the key success factors of intelligence (#1) and aptitudes (#5) are determined mainly by chance—and are largely beyond our control.

Yes, Warren Buffett studied finance, worked hard, and had the right attitude.

But he was also lucky, as is virtually every person who has achieved significant wealth, success, or accomplishment in life.

The honest ones admit this and are thankful.

Any rich or successful person who said luck had no part in his achievement is either in denial or unwilling to come clean.

Therefore, if you are successful, you should be humble, not arrogant and boastful.

After all, you were lucky. Right?

10 Thing About Warren Buffett You'd Never Knew...

There was a one-hour interview on CNBC with Mr Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1) He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

2) He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

3) He still lives in the same small 3 bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.

4) He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

5) He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

6) His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.

7) He has given his CEO's only two rules. Rule number 1: do not lose any of your shareholder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

8) He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His pasttime after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch television.

9) Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Mr Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

10) Warren Buffet does not carry a cellphone, nor has a computer on his desk. and his advice to young people: Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself.

Frugal kids have good chance of becoming wealthy adults.

You can usually tell whether children are going to be wealthy or not by the time they are 3 or 4-years-old.

If they take their pocket money and immediately blow it on candies, and the next day ask to borrow a dollar you know you're unlikely to ever get back...let's hope this behavior doesn't last them a lifetime.

Sadly, too often it does.

But if a child is frugal with his pocket money, always putting aside a chunk of it, you can be confident he has a good chance of achieving financial independence as an adult.

And a frugal kid who invest her money in candies to sell to other kids at a profit might become another Warren Buffett.

Live below your means. This is a behavior that both Mr. Buffett and and Mr. George Soros exhibited from an early age.

Their achievement of wealth beyond most people's wildest dreams has not changed those core values.

Once a Swiss art dealer loaned Mr. Soros a Paul Klee painting he could easily afford.

"He loved it, but sent it back saying he could not separate the painting from the figure on its price tag," according to an account.

Some billionaires insist of being driven around in a chauffer-driven limousine.

Not Mr. Soros. He'd grab a taxi, ride a bus, take a tram or simply walk from one part of a town to another. "I always lived on a scale that was more modest than my financial resources."

For Mr. Buffett, thrift isn't just a personal virtue but an integral aspect of his investment method.

He admires managers who "attack cost as vigorously when profits are at record levels as when they are under pressure."

Stories about Mr. Buffett's frugality are legion. One day, he was riding the elevator up to his office and there was a penny on the floor. He reached down and picked it up. To the other stunned passengers in the elevator, he quipped, "The beginning of the next billion."

Excerpted from Mark Tier's book, The Winning Investment Habits Of Warren Buffett and George Soros.