Richard St. John is a success expert. He achieved corporate success as ten-year member of scientific staff at Nortel’s R&D labs and entrepreneurial success as founder of The St. John Group, won highest awards in business communications, became a millionaire. He has a black belt in judo, cycled halfway around the world on a ten-speed bike, ran over 50 marathons on all seven continents, and climb
ed two of the world’s seven summits. He is the author of The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 to Be Great
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It all started one day on a plane, on my way to TED, seven years ago. And in the seat next to me was a high school student, a teenager, and she came from a really poor family. And she wanted to make something of her life, and she asked me a simple little question. She said, “What leads to success?“ And I felt really badly, because I couldn’t give her a good answer. So I get off the plane, and I come to TED. And I think, jeez, I’m in the middle of a room of successful people! So why don’t I ask them what helped them succeed, and pass it on to kids?
And the first thing is passion. Freeman Thomas says, “I’m driven by my passion.” TEDsters do it for love; they don’t do it for money.
Carol Coletta says, “I would pay someone to do what I do.” And the interesting thing is: if you do it for love, the money comes anyway.
Work! Rupert Murdoch said to me, “It’s all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun.” Did he say fun? Rupert? Yes!
TEDsters do have fun working. And they work hard. I figured, they’re not workaholics. They’re workafrolics.
Alex Garden says, “To be successful put your nose down in something and get damn good at it.” There’s no magic; it’s practice, practice, practice.
And it’s focus. Norman Jewison said to me, “I think it all has to do with focusing yourself on one thing.”
And push! David Gallo says, “Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you’ve gotta push, push, push.” You gotta push through shyness and self-doubt.
Goldie Hawn says, “I always had self-doubts. I wasn’t good enough; I wasn’t smart enough. I didn’t think I’d make it.”
Now it’s not always easy to push yourself, and that’s why they invented mothers. (Laughter) Frank Gehry — Frank Gehry said to me, “My mother pushed me.”
Serve! Sherwin Nuland says, “It was a privilege to serve as a doctor.”
Now a lot of kids tell me they want to be millionaires. And the first thing I say to them is: “OK, well you can’t serve yourself; you gotta serve others something of value. Because that’s the way people really get rich.”
Ideas! TEDster Bill Gates says, “I had an idea: founding the first micro-computer software company.” I’d say it was a pretty good idea. And there’s no magic to creativity in coming up with ideas — it’s just doing some very simple things. And I give lots of evidence.
Persist! Joe Kraus says, “Persistence is the number one reason for our success.” You gotta persist through failure. You gotta persist through crap! Which of course means “Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure.”
So, the big — the answer to this question is simple: Pay 4,000 bucks and come to TED. Or failing that, do the eight things — and trust me, these are the big eight things that lead to success.