The quote:
“Success leaves clues”
It’s often attributed to Jim Rohn (how many things aren’t). It’s no surprise you’ll hear Tony reference this quote often as he was mentored by Jim Rohn early in his career. It may be anecdotal but there’s probably some truth to this because look how far Tony has come from being mentored by Jim Rohn.
Quote: “Success Leaves Clues”
“Long ago, I realized that success leaves clues, and that people who produce outstanding results do specific things to create those results. I believed that if I precisely duplicated the actions of others, I could reproduce the same quality of results that they had.”
– Tony Robbins
Understand the meaning or big idea behind this quote:
Tony has also repeatedly said, “if you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.”
Why re-invent the wheel?
Whatever it is you want to learn or improve upon find someone who’s already explored and conquered that territory. They can warn you of the hurdles that await and save you precious time and/or personal suffering. And you don’t need a person to coach you one-on-one, mentors like that are hard to come-by and we don’t have time to wait. You can find the answers to many of your questions for FREE on google, in talks on YouTube or read the books where experts in their field condense their life’s work to 100-200 pages.
We sometimes confuse that success is this lucky thing that happens to people (although that can happen) but successful people tend to have certain rituals or habits that has added to their success. We can try to reverse engineer or invert how to get the desired result we’re after.
If something a person does works, why not take it in for yourself or improve upon it.
An example of this is the quote “all leaders are readers, but not all readers are leaders.”
Clearly if all the great leaders read then maybe we should think about doing so as well. I think the reason some don’t pick up on that habit is because what they are really hoping for is an immediate return, a fast solution to their problem (enter get rich quick schemes that prey on this tendency of humans – but not us, we’re smarter than that).
Reading is not that, it’s a long-term investment you make in yourself, but that’s not sexy to market.
Chamath Palihapitiya early executive at Facebook, CEO of social capital in an interview said:
“I just copied I mean, a lot of my life, quite honestly, just copying things that I see, there’s not a lot of original thought here. It truly is not. I mean, we can all pretend we’re all geniuses. Honestly be good copier’s. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s the best thing in the world, like be around high functioning, high quality people and just copy the shit that they do, observe the shit that’s kind of crappy and then don’t do that stuff. It’s not a complicated formula.”
*I removed some f bombs from Chamath’s quote above to just to make it read a little friendlier*
This idea of copy, success leaves clues, is also similar to the popular quote by Pablo Picaso and Steve Jobs, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” This is not meant for copyright but the idea of taking great ideas from someone else and making it your own. See what’s working and doing it yourself.
Charlie Munger recommends we “learn from the imminent death.” You can learn from your own mistakes and life experiences, that’ll make any person wise. But wouldn’t it be wiser to let other people experience that pain and go through that learning curve of making mistakes and we can accelerate our progress by learning what not to do?
Other Famous Tony Robbins Quotes:
“Knowledge is not power, knowledge is potential power, knowledge is trumped every day by execution.”
– Tony Robbins
“There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality.”
– Tony Robbins
“Lack of emotion causes lack of progress and lack of motivation.”
– Tony Robbins
“In life you either need inspiration or desperation”
– Tony Robbins
“Most people fail in life because they major in minor things.”
– Tony Robbins
“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.”
– Tony Robbins
“It is not what we get, but who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.”
– Tony Robbins
“”Leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality.”
– Tony Robbins
“The most important decision of your life is deciding you will be happy no matter what.”
– Tony Robbins
Success
Quotes
“In life you need either inspiration or desperation.”
Happiness
Quotes
“I can tell you the secret to happiness in one word: progress.”
Time Management quotes
“If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. If you schedule it, it’s real.”
Self Discipline
Quotes
“Complexity is the enemy of execution.”
Questions
Quotes
“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
Change Your Life Quotes
“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.”
Fear
Quotes
“It takes no courage to be a pessimist, to say it’s not going to work”
Feel free to add or start a conversation in the comment thread below with your interpretation of this quote.
Do you agree or disagree with Tony on this quote?
What other quote comes to mind when you read this?
0 Comments