The Single Most Important Secret to Success

My version of "The Secret" comes in two parts:<p>* Do <i>lots</i> of stuff<p>* Make failure fast and cheap<p>Also, this was submitted 6 months ago:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1195535" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1195535</a><p>which in some way is a validation that it's an itme of (at least passing) interesting. Comments are closed there so you can't add to that (rather minimal) discussion, but it's interesting to see the points of view.

There are two rules for success in life.<p>Rule #1: Don’t tell anyone everything you know.

I knew that answer! but there is something else for we, the mortals:<p>- Try, and try, and try, and try... producing goals in the world championship cup is not easy... but keep trying. Also, a minor league can be enough for you or for me.<p>- If you want an epistemologic suggestion, think in bounded rationality and context bound realities, balancing (don't know how!) rules of thumb, thinking and ignorance is good.<p>- Maximize information (customer feedback, clicks, A/B tests) and talk with different kind of people, don't believe in the wisdom of crowds.

"There is no secret ingredient" - Po from Kung Fu Panda. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/quotes" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/quotes</a>

&#62; "So the secret to success is to realize that there isn’t a secret."<p>Disingenuous title.<p>Allow me to contribute a short and glib alternative: "Keep failure cheap."

I believe that the secret to success is determination. You're bound to be successful sooner or later, it's just that some people would need 50 years or more to be successful and as far as i know, there aren't many people with that kind of determination. So the ones who have the ingredients necessary to become successful do so in a decade or less and don't even get the chance to quit out of despair.

I think everyone wants to know "the secret" when they can't figure out how to do it themselves. "The secret" they are looking for will be specific to their needs. It may not be secret at all, it is just not something they personally know or understand yet. Lots of little stuff adds up overtime and then one day, suddenly, it all gels. Then people start asking you what YOUR secret is.<p>Also, I would say one of the biggest secrets is learning to deal with yourself: What are you good at? What are you bad at? What is your personal Achilles heel? What is the missing ingredient for this specific project that you have a blind-spot on?....etc.