David Niven - The 100 simple secrets of successful people: what scientists have learned and how you can use it

Competence Starts with Feeling Competent

Its Not How Hard You Try

Creativity Comes from Within

Take Small Victories

You Cant Force Yourself to Like Broccoli

Resist the Urge to Be Average

There Is Plenty of Time

Its Never Just One Thing

Dont Keep Fighting Your First Battle

Change Is Possible, Not Easy

Seek Input from Your Opposites

Write Down the Directions

Anticipate Irrationality

The Best Defense Is to Listen

Winners Are Made, Not Born

Do Things in Order

Get Experience Any Way You Can

Self-Motivation Works Once

Speak Slowly

Where You Stand Depends on Where You Look

Use Your Own Self-Interest

Remember Who You Are and Where You Are

Negotiate with Confidence, or Dont

Volunteer to Feel Better

Remember the Task, Forget the Rankings

Avoid the Second-Guess Paralysis

Seek a Tall Plateau, Not the Peak

Play the Odds

The Past Is Not the Future

Get a Good Nights Sleep

It Starts and Ends with You

Notice Patterns

Efficiency in Everything

Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day (But How Exactly?)

Lessons Cant Threaten

Success Is Formula, Not Fantasy

You Need to Know More Than Just How Talented You Are

Role Models Are Not One Size Fits All

Learn from Losses

Embrace Work; It May Have to Last Forever

Exercise and Eat Right

Boredom Is the Enemy

Be Clear About Your Role in the Outcome

Make Change Count

Listening Is More Than Not Talking

Take Off Your Blinders

Youll Get What Youre Afraid Of

Think About Who You Ought to Be

Leadership Is Contagious

Want Support? Deserve It

You Will Give Up Faster if Youre Not in Control

Life Is Not a Zero-Sum Game

You Dont Have to Get Straight As Anymore

Whet Your Appetite for Success

Remember the Difference Between You and Everybody Else

Your Work and Home Lives Must Fit Together

Nobody Wins Without a Loser

Tell Clean Jokes

Dont Want Everything

Look for Value

Get Your Motivation Where You Can Find It

Be an Expert

Failure Is Not Trying

You Are Not in This Alone

Your Goals Are a Living Thing

Avoid Roller-Coaster Emotions

Care

You Cant Be Persistent Without Perspective

Changing Jobs Doesnt Change You

It Might Get Worse Before It Gets Better

If You Dont Believe, No One Else Will

Youll Work Harder If You Feel Wanted

Dont Talk to Yourself

Seek Coherence and Congruence

If You Doubt, Youre Out

Always Think About Whats Next

Value Practical Knowledge

See the Risk in Doing Nothing

Face Conflict Head-On

Money Isnt Everything

Be Realistic About Yourself

Find Your Own Path

Own What You Do

Be Honest for Your Future

You Need to Know What You Are Looking For

Dont Forget Packaging

Learn to Lead Yourself

A Victory at All Costs Is Not a Victory

People Who Have It Right Work Harder to Make It Better

Dont Run in the Wrong Direction Just Because Youre Near the Finish Line

Hope Springs Internal

Think as if Others Can Read Your Mind

Youll Get Knocked Down and Then Get Back Up

Keep Your Goals Where You Can See Them

Dont Settle

What Is the Point?

Win Your Own Respect First

Your Goals Must Engage All of You

Take Action

Only You Can Say if This Is a World You Can Succeed In

I offer my sincere appreciation to Gideon Weil, my editor, for his guidance and encouragement, and to Sandy Choron, my agent, for her boundless enthusiasm and dedication. My great thanks are also due to the staff of HarperSanFrancisco for their skilled assistance in this work.

Each of the 100 entries presented here is based on the research conclusions of scientists studying success. Each entry contains a key research finding, complemented by advice and an example that follow from the finding. The research conclusions presented in each entry are based on a meta-analysis of research on success, which means that each conclusion is derived from the work of multiple researchers studying the same topic. To enable the reader to find further information on each topic, a reference to a supporting study is included in each entry, and a bibliography of recent work on success has also been provided.

We gathered once a week for Professor Brian Langs seminar. The topic was a little hard to define, but the purpose was to prepare us for the required year-long senior research papers we would begin working on during the following semester.

All of us were writing papers on topics in our own majors, and among the twenty students in the course nineteen different majors were represented. One student was studying the civil rights record of the Johnson Administration, another the effects of lengthening the schoolday for elementary students, another the question of whether a computer could be taught to write a song.

Although the course was meant to help us pursue our chosen interest, it wasnt about any one of them in particular. We were given no new information about Lyndon Johnson, no lectures on the attention span of seven-year-olds.

Instead, the course was about the process of undertaking a journey. While each of us was heading off in a different direction, Professor Lang hoped we would all reach the same destination.

The course explored themes of persistence and commitment and the unexpected discoveries that might be made along the way. No outcome, no discovery, is really an accident; it is the product of the effort invested in the process, Professor Lang would say.

We continued to meet while we were researching and writing our projects. During class, the professor would ask each of us about our progress, what had excited or interested us, and what roadblocks wed encountered. Nearly all of us would recount with excitement the latest new idea wed been struck by or the indispensable book wed just read.

One student would usually hem and haw and try to avoid making any kind of progress report. Eventually Professor Lang insisted he give us a full update, and he instead admitted he really hadnt been able to work consistently on the project. The professors face was full of disappointment.

The student defiantly offered, But you dont understand! Ive got work coming out of my rear end.

Have you had a doctor look at that? Professor Lang asked.

The rest of us had been caught up in the tension of the moment and were then overwhelmed with laughter. But it was no laughing matter to Professor Lang, for he had no tolerance for not trying.

Knowledge isnt going to track you down and force itself upon you, he had told us more than once.

For him, these research projects were a chance not only to learn intensely about the subject we had chosen, but also to learn about ourselvesto commit ourselves to a considerable task and to deal with the good and the bad, the discoveries and the setbacks. Professor Lang didnt really care if we could prove a computer could write a song or that twenty minutes tacked onto a schoolday would make kids better at fractions, but he cared passionately that we give our projects everything we were capable of, because if we could do that now, we could do it for the rest of our lives. And if we did so, we would succeed.