First thing about being successful: Don’t do everything that other successful people do.

Look, I get it. We all want to be successful in our lives. Maybe our own definitions of ‘success’ might not be the same. But when it comes to success, we all want it.

But that doesn’t mean we should do everything by the books or articles or whatever. Think about it. None of us are the same. Even when those successful people were not-so-successful, they had their own shit in their lives. They were never in our shoes and vice versa.

A lot of people have a pre-designed model for being successful. You have to wake up early. You have to stay late nights. You have to give up your relationships. You have to give up partying. You have to stay at a crappy apartment to save money. You have to do this. You have to do that. Blah, blah, blah. If you search ‘how to be successful’ on Google (or whatever you use), then a set of predefined guidelines will pop up. What’s more is that they claim that ‘this is what Steve Jobs did, this is what Elon Musk did, this is what Bill Gates did, this is what Warren Buffet did, etc. But does that mean we should do it?

Look, I don’t have anything against them, or any other successful person in the world. I admire them. Even Trump, despite he’s a total a-hole, he’s got balls which is more than most of us have got. All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t blindly follow everything they did in their path to success.

Mark Zuckerberg wears the same set if outfit everyday. And he has a scientifically backed reason for that too. But does that mean we should wear the same outfit for office evryday? Yeah, right. I’d look like a cartoon character if I did that. Mark is a billionaire. Everyone knows what he’s capable of. Everyone knows who he is. He doesn’t have to impress anyone for anything. He is at a point in his life where he doesn’t have to care what other people think of him, because he’s the freaking Mark Zuckerberg. Can we afford to do that? Surely not. We have people to impress. Our employers, our business partners, potential clients, existing clients, rivals, media, investors, the board of directors, etc. It could be anyone and everyone. So wearing the same set of outfit is out of the question.

But does that mean we should dump that scientifically backed reason altogether? Nope. It says the human mind can make only a number efficient decisions (brainstorm kinda ones) per day. That’s why Mark doesn’t waste his mental energy on deciding what to wear today. We can do that too. We can do things to minimize the number of brainstorm decisions we make per day. We can pick what to wear for the week on Sunday and prepare the outfits for the week so in the morning, we won’t have to rummage through our wardrobe looking for things to wear. Or we could take public transportation to work every morning so we won’t have to waste our mental energy on driving a vehicle (though this is not applicable for everyone). Like that, there are many ways we can apply that to our lives.

People are different. Just because Steve Jobs was a minimalist, doesn’t mean we all are. Warren Buffet reads thousands of business plans, newspapers, books, every year. Good for him. Can most of us do that? I don’t think so. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t read at all. Reading gives you knowledge and wisdom that other people holds. But sometimes, the reality is too strong. So does that mean we should avoid reading books and the like. No. That’s why there’s an app thingy that gives you everyday with knowledge in non-fiction books. Or you can read summaries of those big books. Just think of a way to make it work.

Same goes with almost every other piece of advise, like waking up early, going to sleep late, going to gym everyday, etc. Some of those things, we simply can’t do, because how we live is different than how they live(d). But maybe we can tweak those advises and apply them to our lives.

The bottom line is don’t take those ’10 ways to be successful’, ‘7 habits of billionaires’, kind of articles very seriously. Read them. Look for things that can be applied to you. Then leave others be. Everything can’t be applied to our lives. Like I said, we all are different in our own ways.

Keep Hungry, Stay Safe!