The Formula for Success Read online

  ‘Achievers are not born great – they just decide to take hold of opportunities and do whatever it takes.’

  Chapter 11

  LEACH THEORY

  People think that mega-successful entrepreneurs like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and Richard Branson are different from ordinary people; that their brains are somehow wired another way. They believe that the great ‘first time’ pioneers and explorers like Ernest Shackleton, Amelia Earhart, and Neil Armstrong were just born with an intrepid adventuring spirit. And they assume that great thinkers, innovators, and inventors such as Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and Marie Curie were simply gifted with superior intellect. I don't believe any of that is true. And the generalization that I hate most of all is that these brilliant people just got lucky!

  Maybe there is a case for genetics and opportunity (to a small degree), but if you really study the lives of the people whose names and achievements decorate our history books, you will discover something more insightful. Greatness leaves clues and identifying those clues will give you a roadmap to follow for yourself. If you look closely enough at successful people's stories, you will see that they all simply dedicated themselves to pursuing their passion with their heart, mind, and strength. They were dedicated to learning as much as they could about their cause, they were prepared to make huge sacrifices to reach it, they embraced being uncomfortable, and nothing on earth would make them slow down or quit their pursuit of greatness.

  Steve Jobs once famously said: ‘You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.’ My take on this idea is that you only have two choices in life: wait and see where it takes you; or decide (today) that you are going to take charge, apply an algorithm of prosperity, and discover the best version of that destiny.

  I believe that everyone who ever achieved greatness did so because they simply realised that they could do better for themselves; they decided to believe and that belief created drive and momentum. (The best thing about this is that you get to decide what ‘greatness’ means to you. It doesn't have to mean changing the world, becoming a billionaire, or winning a gold medal – it could just mean becoming great at the thing you love doing the most.) My encouragement and challenge to you would be to study great people whom you admire and find a way to align the things that they do with your own unique talents and experiences.

  Stealing other people's experiences and philosophies is OK (in fact, I believe most successful people would encourage you to do so and feel honoured that you did). Everyone accepts that life teaches you lessons and you come out stronger if you get through them. Not everyone realises that those lessons can be lost if you don't analyse them and proactively apply them to your life. What even fewer people realise is that learning from other people's victories and mistakes is both faster and less painful than from your own …

  ‘Leach Theory’ is a simple algorithm I developed for creating a set of great people rules. It involves work (reading, studying, observing, and absorbing the wisdom and experiences of others) and discipline, but I promise you it will change your life if you follow the rules.

  Leach Theory

  One of the most powerful algorithms I have ever created started as a cheeky observation from one of my team. We were talking about some of the successful people who inspired us and how mirroring their mindset, beliefs, and behaviours was a sure way to get the same results. They then said it is almost as if you are leeching the lifeblood out of their success to consume for yourself (an obvious play on my surname) … but without doing them any harm of course, they quickly added.

  Out of that conversation, the term ‘Leach Theory’ became common around the office and, sometime down the track, we formalised it into a strategic, algorithmic process that anybody can adapt. Try this yourself and, if you follow the steps, it will set you on a path to becoming more like the person who you've always dreamed you could be.

  Step 1: Choose wisely

  Choose five people whom you either admire, aspire to be like, inspire you, or who have made themselves wealthy (in life or financially). They don't even need to be people whom you like, necessarily, as long as they are successful at what they do. For example, I know that Donald Trump isn't everyone's favourite person, but you cannot deny his brilliance as a businessman, his unyielding determination, and his ability to win over the hearts and minds of millions of people.

  I would suggest that at least two of the people you choose should be sector specific – by that I mean they do what you do or would like to be doing. For example, if you see yourself gracing the silver screen, Kate Winslet or Hugh Jackman might be on your list; or if you have your sights set on winning a gold medal one day, Anthony Joshua or Serena Williams would be good people to choose.

  Don't stick exclusively to people within the higher echelons of your particular life plan, however, as it is good to mix in at least one person from another field altogether. They don't need to be famous people either, it might be a teacher, an aunt or uncle who has done something remarkable or who inspires you – but they do need to stand out as ‘successful’ and you do need to know (or be able to find out) a little bit about them and their lives. Your list should be very personal to you and relevant to where you are in your life right now. For example, had I done this exercise 10 or 15 years ago, my list would look very different from the way it looks today.

  The other important thing, perhaps the most important rule, is that these people's examples must genuinely mean something to you. It is no good just coming up with people at the drop of a hat – I want you to really think about this before committing to something that might just change your life.

  My five people (at the time of writing this book) are:

  Alan Watts

  Warren Buffett

  Steve Jobs

  Elon Musk

  Muhammad Ali.

  Now, you choose.

  Step 2: Identify their traits

  Then, take each of those people and list the things that you like and don't like about them. Despite what I said earlier, most people's lists will comprise their heroes and idols, so they may struggle to pick holes – but it is important to do this if you can because you need to be honest.

  To start with, come up with five qualities for each person on your list. You need to write a headline to describe each trait, and an explanation or example of why it personifies their success, attitude, or approach to life.

  My list looks like this.

  Alan Watts

  He was born in England in 1915 and moved to the USA in his early 20s, where he continued his studies into Buddhism and Zen. He wrote around 25 books on religious and spiritual subjects and changed the way people both understood and used Eastern religion for practical purposes.

  I have never been into those sorts of things particularly, but from the first time I listened to one of his motivational speeches I was hooked. The mixture of his voice and the common sense that he speaks not only made perfect sense to me but also challenged me and made me start to believe that I could achieve amazing things.

  These are the 5 traits (I could easily list 20 or 30) that I most admire in Alan Watts:

  Vision: he believed that our only limitation was that we imagined in our own minds and ambitions – and he proved that this was the truth.

  Challenge convention: he refused to accept that conventional wisdom and ideas were the only way to see things.

  Happiness = wealth: he taught me that wealth meant doing what I enjoyed doing the most (I urge you to stop reading now and Google: ‘what if money were no object by Alan Watts’ – it will be three minutes well spent, I promise).

  Thinking differently: he was not just a student of the thing he loved, he rewrote the rules of it and defined what it means to think out-of-the-box.

  Funny, passionate and well spoken: I still watch those same videos and speeches today that I listened to 10 years ago because they still inspir
e me and make me smile.

  Warren Buffett

  At the time of writing, Warren Buffett is the third wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of over $83 billion, but that is not why I admire him. Like most of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world, he was not born into wealth, nor was he born with an enormous intellect – he simply worked hard, learned as much as he could, and made smart financial decisions. He made his money through investments, which is why I initially took an interest in his story, but it is how he works, his mindset, his understanding of the system, and his desire to give back which really impresses me.

  I would also like to add that in 2009, he founded The Giving Pledge, along with Bill Gates, which encourages billionaires to give away at least half of their accumulated wealth to help fund good causes. You see, far from being the root of all evil, the accumulation of personal wealth can make a huge positive difference in the world today.

  Self-management: he actively examines the way he lives (even at 88 years old) and ruthlessly gets rid of anything that he identifies as a bad habit or poor behaviour (things that stop him living a productive life).

  Never takes unnecessary risks: one of the many principles which underpin his success is that he will never risk what he has to get something he doesn't need.

  Humility: he recognises that he is not perfect, so he surrounds himself, and his businesses, with people who are better than him (even at 88, he is still looking to grow and learn).

  Capitalise on what you do best: he taught me that you should stick to what you do best and, if money matters to you, find a way to turn that into financial success.

  Do what you love: it is easy to say of wealthy people like Warren Buffett that they can do what they love because they have financial freedom – but few understand that it was doing what they love which got them there in the first place.

  Steve Jobs

  If anyone, in modern times, could lay claim to have changed the way that the world works, surely it would be Steve Jobs. Along with his friend, Steve Wozniak, their visionary genius in creating and selling the Apple computer and subsequent i-everything has had a deep and lasting impact on all of our lives.

  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, and the condition tragically took his life (aged 56) in 2011. But in what must have been an incredibly difficult, often painful, and emotionally draining eight years, he still managed to achieve more than most people do in a lifetime. He knew his time was short and he decided that he would not waste one minute of any single day.

  Valued time: he resigned from his position as CEO of Apple just six weeks before he died, citing that he could no longer give the role his full attention – but he continued to work towards his passion of filling the world with innovation throughout those remaining six weeks.

  Challenge employees' limits: not everyone will appreciate this one, but then not everyone is an ideal Apple employee – Jobs loved to push his employees to be the best that they could be.

  Follow excellence, not money: like many entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs went through rough periods where he had no money, but I don't think he ever worried about it – he was focused on the end goal and seeking excellence.

  Develop the passion: he was a great salesman and a passionate persuader, but he famously never sold computers – he sold a way of life and billions of people bought into his passion for it.

  Take risks: taking on the might of Microsoft, IBM, and Dell, from a small start-up business, was never going to be easy and could not have been achieved without being prepared to take significant risks.

  Elon Musk

  Elon Musk is another example of a man who started with nothing but an insatiable desire to learn and challenge the status quo. Born in South Africa in 1971, and travelling, penniless, to Canada in his teens, he moved in with family members he'd never met and soon began making an impact on the world.

  Through all of his ventures – Zip2, X.com, PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX – he has put his entire faith (and often other people's money alongside all of his own) into ideas that only he truly believed would work. If Steve Jobs changed the modern world, then Elon's ambitions are to change the entire future of the race – to build a super-hotel on Mars before he dies. Wow!

  Strong risk tolerance: I mentioned before that you don't have to like every trait – well I couldn't do what Elon Musk does when it comes to risk, neither would I advise anyone else to – but, boy, do I admire him for his 100% belief and commitment to his cause.

  100-hour work week mentality: Elon recognised from early on in his career that the most precious resource was time – so he used it to pursue his goals instead of letting it drift away into yesterday.

  Stand out from the crowd: the world is full of me-too products and everyone competing for the same space – so Elon always chose to do new things and solve problems people hadn't invented yet.

  Feedback loop: one of the key principles behind his success is the need for giving and receiving feedback so that systems, people, processes, and results can always be improved.

  Faith in himself and his team: the two hardest things about being an entrepreneur are believing in yourself and trusting others to do things as well as you can – Elon has mastered both of these traits.

  Muhammad Ali

  I have already written about ‘the greatest’ in an earlier chapter, and he needs little introduction. His legacy and his legend will last for centuries, I'm sure, and he paid for his commitment to his art by suffering from Parkinson's Disease in the latter years of his life – but I don't believe he regretted it for a minute.

  As the first person on my list, Alan Watts, once said: ‘Better to have a short life full of what you like doing, than a long life that is spent in a miserable way.’

  Believe in yourself: he was the pinnacle of self-belief and famous for his self-promotion – and the fact of the matter is that no one would have bought into the idea of his greatness if he hadn't believed it first.

  Imagine your desired future: today, many sportspeople use visualization techniques to help turn their dreams into reality, but Ali was one of the first to do this as part of his training regime.

  Preparation is key: as I mentioned in a previous chapter, his preparation and planning outside of the ring was the key to him winning inside of the ring – there was nothing left to chance.

  Mental strength: this could be said of any professional boxer because it is a brutal sport – you play football, you even play rugby, but you don't play boxing – but that level of mental strength and resilience is a trait that will serve you well in any area of your life.

  Strong, likeable personality: it can be tough at the top, and you often get a lot of stick just for being successful. Muhammad Ali has taught me that it is possible to be true to yourself, be successful, and still enjoy a good public reputation – perhaps I aspire to that as much as anything.

  Step 3: Compare the key characteristics

  Next, I want you to go back and compare the characteristics of your five people, looking out for any that match. What you will find is that common themes and ideas will repeat themselves. You might find, for example, that three out of your five role models have a stand out work ethic, or that two of them had to fight through intense discrimination or personal tragedy in their early lives. Maybe it is just the positivity that exudes from them when they speak or their ethics and how they stand up for good causes that attracts you.

  Whatever the four or five most commonly occurring characteristics that represent these successful people are, I want you to write them down and sum up each of the ideas in one or two sentences.

  Belief (in yourself and others): the old saying about leading by example is personified in these examples. If you want to create an amazing future for yourself, you will need the help of other people, and if you can't fully believe in your vision, they won't stand a chance.

  Do what you love: someone once said ‘if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life', and I believe
that is a fundamental truth. To do something in life that makes you unhappy makes no sense to me whatsoever and is a sure-fire recipe for failure.

  Being different: basic mathematics tells you that the majority of people, in any given category, are the ones who form the group known as ordinary. So, to stand out as extraordinary, you have no choice but to be different – it is as simple as that.

  Taking smart risks: ironically, two of the people I chose appear to have different approaches to risk. Look below the surface, however, and you will see that they are the same: both study the available information, apply their level of trust in that data, decide what they are prepared to risk (lose), and then make their commitment. Elon clearly has a higher threshold of risk, so he is prepared to go all in; whereas Warren makes more frequent, smaller, safer trades.

  Work ethic: it takes most people to get into the latter years of their life before the penny drops that life is short and time is precious. When milestone birthdays force you to look back and start counting the years, wondering what you could have done better, it is easy to think it is too late – but it isn't. Today is the best day to start valuing and using your time to do things that increase your wealth (whatever that might mean to you).

  Step 4: Make an implementation plan

  The final step in Leach Theory is to apply these characteristics in your own life in the form of actions and habits. From each of the commonly identified traits and their summaries, you need to come up with at least one thing that you are going to implement in your life. These mindsets, behaviours, and activities need to be set in stone, measurable, and tangible or you have wasted your time (not to mention an amazing opportunity) in even doing the exercise. If you want your life to change, you need to be prepared to change yourself first.