Watching successful people is one key to success. Be careful, though, if you ask them for advice. Often, people don't always know why they do well, but they will give you as many explanations as you want anyhow. One night on the news, I saw a 100-year-old man justify that smoking a big cigar and a shot of whisky every day was the secret of his longevity. It might be nice to know why he has lived so long, but we don't necessarily learn by asking him.

Watch Successful People

One key, then, isn't constantly doing what successful people tell us, but rather doing what they do. This is how to discover success. Of course you have to watch closely and apply a little intelligence to see what they are doing that is resulting in their success.

A successful investor once told me he didn't believe in establishing goals. But, when observing him and listening to him, he knew where he expected to be with his projects at any given time. This, certainly, is goal-setting - he just called the method something different.

Always continue listening to what successful people have to say, but look for the hidden meanings. Listen for insight into how they think about things, how they approach their challenges. Suppose the advice of a successful basketball player is just to practice more, but he casually mentions "I saw that going in," after a great shot. Isn't it time to start visualizing your shots going in?

Model Successful People

You won't always recognize what is causing a person's accomplishments. Internet marketers advance their websites by exchanging links, but when I first tried to exchange links with other websites, nobody was responding to my emails. Then I discovered a straightforward email memo used by a successful Internet marketer to get links. It sounded impractical to me, and I wanted to modify it, but I went against my thoughts and tried it. It worked repeatedly.

There is more importance in doing the right things than to completely understand why they are right. To know is great, but in the beginning, it may be best to just copy the actions, attitudes and approaches of someone who is succeeding. Try to develop success, even before you understand it.

As you gain knowledge of the business or actions, you can get rid of those parts that aren't helping you, and add elements of your own. If you copy a successful parent, for instance, and life with your family gets better, does it matter if you know immediately which changes were the most successful? Of course not.

Is it better to comprehend the things that you are doing? Of course, but in the end you may not ever completely understand why some things work, and this is okay too. It is far more superior to have success than to be able to describe it. Locate successful people and copy their actions, not their words. This is an important key to success.