Misconceptions About Success
by Leslie Fieger
If you are serious about building a successful life, you are going to have to get serious about knowing
what success is and how to create it.
Most people who claim to desire success spend more time planning their annual vacation than they do
planning their success.
Most people also spend more time learning the details of their TV schedule than they do learning how
success works.
In order to create and live a super successful life, you will need to put time and effort into learning
about how to do it and then applying that knowledge to your daily life.
That means that you will have to be different than most people. That means, no more excuses.
In these pages, you will find the essential knowledge you need to create your own success, to go about
designing, constructing and living your heart's desire.
Your success will only happen, however, when you begin to diligently apply this knowledge to the way
you live your life. It all begins with you conceptualizing your own success. Conceptions lead to birth
and life. The best conceptions are a result of love.
Let's first dispel a few common misconceptions about why success happens to some and not to others.
Misconception #1
Success is a matter of luck or fate.
Truth #1
Success is not happenstancial or accidental.
Success is the consequence of the intentional congruity of clearly defined ideals, specific purpose and
defined goals. It is the result of the direct application of knowledge and technique. It is the effect of
being 'at cause'.
Very few of those who are blessed by fortune, say by winning a million dollar lottery, go on to live
happy and successful lives. Fortunes inherited are as often squandered as they are built upon.
If you were to ask any successful human being if they happened upon their success by accident, they
will likely say no, that it was on purpose; and, it was through the direct and disciplined application of
certain principles and techniques.
Living a successful life comes about from the intentional and purposeful application of proven
principles -- not luck or happenstance!
Victims believe in circumstantial fate and/or chance.
Victors believe in self-designed destiny and/or choice.

Misconception #2
Only very intelligent people succeed.
Truth #2
Success is the result of applied intelligence, not IQ.
An average person can succeed as easily as a genius. Un-rewarded genius is almost an axiom. PhDs
drive taxicabs. Individuals who flunk out of high school become happy millionaires.
In fact, it seems to be that the most intelligent most often indulge in self-sabotage by thinking and
questioning too much, or by attempting to reinvent the wheel, instead of simply following proven
principles and applications; thinking of a dozen reasons why something might not work instead of
focusing on one reason why it might. Misused intelligence halts many in their path to success.
Many so-called simple-minded people find, stumble across, or are taught one simple way to succeed
and blindly follow it until they achieve their success, while the more intelligent will find many flaws in
this one simple way and do not follow it or succeed, spending fruitless years searching for 'the perfect
success model' that can pass the test of their intelligent critical thinking.
Single mindedness or focus is more important than mental brilliance.
Misconception #3
Formal education is necessary for success.
Truth #3
Diplomas do not equate to success.
Self-education is more important.
If you were to take a sampling of any group of highly successful people, less than one third would have
a formal education in the area of their success, excepting those whose professions that demand a
specific formal education (law, medicine, engineering, science and, of course formal education itself).
However, polling this same group of highly successful people, you would find that almost all of them
would have a high level of self-education, not only in the area of their endeavors, but also in the
science of success.
Education or the accumulation of knowledge does not, in itself, automatically lead to success. Many
who graduate at the top of their class end up abject failures. Many outright failures have huge libraries
of success literature. Knowledge is not power. It is specific and relevant education and the application
of the knowledge of success that brings personal power and success.
Success Teachers:
Andrew Carnegie, the mentor of Napoleon Hill and the builder of thousands of libraries around the
world was a functional illiterate when he built his fortune. He was self-educated.
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, the best-selling success book of all time, and The Laws
of Success, advisor to two US Presidents and inspiration to millions was an elementary school dropout.
He was self-educated.

Earl Nightingale, success coach, world famous speaker and co-founder of Nightingale-Conant, the
world's largest purveyor of personal success material has no formal post-secondary education but has
taught more successful CEOs than the Harvard Business School. As a teen, he asked himself the
question, "How can a person, starting from scratch, who has no particular advantage in life, reach the
goals he feels are important to himself, and by so doing, make a major contribution to others?" He
spent 20 years finding the answers and the rest of his life teaching them to others. He was self-taught.
Jim Rohn, author, lecturer and one of the world's foremost personal development trainers, mentor to
Tony Robbins and success teacher to millions of people, calls himself America's Foremost Business
Philosopher. He has no formal education in either philosophy or business. He is self-educated.
Peak Performance Guru, NLP expert and Personal Success Coach to Fortune 500 CEOs and Celebrity
Super Stars, Anthony Robbins, does not have a University Degree. He is yet another perfect example of
a self-educated success educator.
Success Stories:
Steven Spielberg, the most successful movie director of all time, unlike many of his contemporaries,
does not have a formal education in cinematography or film. He is self-taught.
The world's greatest inventor and holder of 1,368 patents (the electric light bulb and the record player
are just two of his inventions), Thomas Edison, had only three months of formal education. He was
self-educated.
The man who revolutionized industrial production with the invention of the assembly line, Henry Ford,
attended school part time until he was 16, then quit school to go to work. He was self-educated.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the architects of the American Declaration of Independence, inventor,
scientist, printer, politician and author had only one year of formal education. He was a self-taught true
renaissance man.
Walt Disney never finished high school.
Richard Branson, eclectic billionaire and founder of Virgin Industries, never attended University. In
fact, he left high school to publish a magazine of advice for students before getting into the music
business, the airline business and the soft drink business and the business of living a super successful
life.
Misconception #4
Success is the result of hard work.
Truth #4
Success does not result from hard work.
Hard work by itself produces only weariness, not success. It is not a formula for success. Ask any of the
billions who toil day in and day out for their whole lives. In today's world, the most prosperous and
abundant time in human history, wherein almost half of the world's 6 billion people have the
opportunity to get paid for working hard, less than 3% ever achieve any measure of financial freedom
or prosperity. The other 3 billion without this opportunity simply work hard just to hope to survive
another day. Hard work is just hard.

It might be said that it is better to work smart instead of, or in addition to, working hard, but this, too, is
a misconception. Efficient or intelligent work does not do anything but focus and conserve energy. It is
not work itself but what you work at that produces success.
A common Zen Buddhist aphorism is, "The master in the art of living makes little distinction between
his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his
recreation, his love and his religion. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does,
leaving others to decide if he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both."
Living a super successful life comes from being a master of the art of living. There is no hard work, no
strife, only a harmony of being and doing that results in a having of success.
Misconception #5
Success comes from being in the right place, at the right time; having the best opportunity.
Truth #5
Success happens to those who make their own opportunities.
Opportunities abound. They are all around. Some recognize them. Fewer still capitalize on them.
No matter where you are, you are faced with more than one opportunity to choose your destiny. Most
choose to accept their fate by pretending they have no opportunity.
Wally 'Famous' Amos made his fame and fortune selling cookies since 1975. An opportunity anyone
could have capitalized on. You or your mother or your neighbor may even bake better cookies than
Wally, but Wally took advantage of the opportunity before him and millions of other great cookie
bakers did not. Debbi Fields capitalized on the same opportunity in 1977, proving that the rest of us eat
plenty of cookies and few of us take advantage of an available opportunity. Both their cookie recipes
and their recipes for success are available to anyone who wants them.
Two Stevens, Jobs and Wozniak, produced the first personal computer and founded Apple
Computer using technology that already existed in the research labs of Xerox. Xerox had the
opportunity first but did not capitalize on it. Two kids working out of a garage beat a major corporation
to the opportunity that literally changed the world.
The opportunity to positively influence the millions of TV viewers is (and has been) had by many.
While her countless male and few female counterparts waste their time and yours filling up hours with
meaningless drivel masquerading as entertainment, Oprah Winfrey takes advantage of the opportunity
to have meaningful conversations about meaningful topics on her talk show. Educated and erudite
conversationalists, with countless broadcast hours at their disposal, waste the chance to make a
difference, whilst this woman, (born poor, black, female and victimized by child abuse) becomes a
major force in bringing education, hope and self-esteem to millions, not only through her TV show, but
also in everything she does.
Misconception #6
Success goes to the most deserving.
Truth #6

Success is not deserved, it is earned.
The world is full of examples of scoundrels and cads who have achieved great success. You only need
to look at the world of politics to see the truth of that.
The world is likewise full of wise and caring people whose lives are failures. History is full of tales of
people who deserved better than they got.
Scoundrels can learn and apply the principles of success as easily as anyone else. Deserving people can
fail to learn and apply the principles of success as easily as everyone else. Both saints and sinners can
achieve success or failure. Earning is not predicated on deserving. Deserving does not equate to
earning.
Everyone deserves success as much as any other human being because everyone is a divine creature.
Precious few earn any real success.
You are just as deserving of success as anyone else. The only way you will earn it is through spending
the time and effort to learn and apply the knowledge of success to your life.
So, to whom does success come to?
If it does not come to those who have the most luck, are the most intelligent or most educated, work
harder than most, have the most or best opportunities or deserve it the most—then who does it come
to?
More often than not, success comes to those who have a burning desire for it coupled with an intense
commitment to a clearly defined life purpose.
Success comes most easily to those that also have learned certain techniques and steadfastly apply them
to everything they do. They have and follow a specific game plan.
Success comes always to those who know and apply the principles of success.
"The essence of knowledge is, having it…to apply it." ~ Confucius
Click below to find out more about...
Leslie Fieger, The DELFIN Trilogy and The DELFIN Empowerment Platform