How To Be Successful

How does one become a success? I have spent more time deliberating on this inquiry than any other. With every word that follows in this post, I will write as if I were writing to my younger self.

That distinguished looking gentleman in my feature photo is Manny Khoshbin. To many, particularly those who are active on social media, this man needs no introduction. In possession of one of the most prolific exotic car collections in the world, it is impossible to argue that he hasn’t experienced riveting success. You can find his website here and gain enough motivation to power you through even your toughest days.

As you will see, I’ve asked myself more than once “How can I be like Manny today?” I pose questions such as those to myself daily, with the desire that I can keep myself centered and focused on my goals.

At 36 years of age, I have logged many mistakes over the years. My regrets are many. That said, I try and spend as much time as I can maximizing all the time I have remaining in this incredible adventure known as life. It is men such as Manny that inspire me to keep going. I do not know him personally and we have never met, but I have always wanted to ask him how he does it. I like to think that if I asked him that, he’d reply with this simple, yet undeniably powerful sequence of words known as: “Never give up.”

When you take one look at his life, that much is evident about the man. Despite never having met, he has taught me so much. Much of it, I now put into daily practice in my life. In a life that is full of opportunity for pain as much as pleasure, I choose to take my pain and my trauma and grow from it. Take a look at his Instagram here–I dare anyone NOT to be motivated by his success. I commonly look at it every morning upon waking, so that I start my day without any excuses. He made it to the top of the mountain and he’s still climbing higher. That’s the kind of kick I want in life.

I have found that probably the single biggest thing one can do to attain their ideal life is to model themselves after someone who has already reached the peak of the mountain they have yet to climb. Just by attaching yourself to what is possible, is enough, to jumpstart your life from whatever rut you find yourself in. I do not know about anyone else, but it is impossible for me NOT to be motivated when I see someone living the American Dream I aspire to live.

We all want to get there, but the top of the mountain is not for everyone. If that were the case, the peak would cease to be a peak. For me, this is what makes Manny and people like him so impressive. It is not enough to climb the mountain and make it all the way to the top. As inspiring as that is to witness, Manny, and those like him, keep on climbing.

These successful people get to the top of the mountain and then attach a ladder on top and go on to climb that. They keep adding to their list of accomplishments. For them, this is about more than a big house and fancy cars. There is something inside of people like Manny that animates them. They absolutely cannot stand to stagnate. In short, tremendous lap-of-luxury lifestyle notwithstanding, they despise being comfortable. Allow me to explain further.

Watching Manny, one can clearly see that he spends every second of his life working as if there is somebody else out there spending every second of their life working to take Manny’s successes away from him. One can argue he works even harder to stay on top than he did to climb there. This is what is most remarkable. You can call it heart or passion or even ego. I prefer to look at it as “internal loftiness of fortitude.” There is something inside of him that pushes him. And whatever that power is, it never stops circulating.

This power is something that I find most intriguing because I see it as something that we all have access to. We all have gifts unique to our person. This mysterious power is an aura that surrounds us all. So the many have it, but only a select few are able to harness and develop it to its maximum level. Whatever this is, we all have it. So I ask myself… How is Manny able to access this power at will?

This bottomless well of power without end is truly stunning when fully developed. The results speak for themselves. You know that amazing feeling yourself. We have all experienced it, some more briefly than most. That amazing feeling when everything you touch turns to Gold–how can we make this last? How can we make this a repeatable result? Those at the very top of their game exercise, direct, “again and again” access to their power. So this be the case, how does one tap into it and stay connected?

I will remark, in my personal experience, that trauma is key. Not so much the trauma itself, but the degree of the pain and the energy that is involved in maintaining that feeling of pain burning inside. I do not know if Manny has used this or engages in this, but I definitely use pain to my advantage, or rather, the energy, that comes with it by association. Trauma, destruction, pain, and all the negative attributes that come with them are the result of tremendous amounts of energy. Energy that unfortunately ends up going to waste, when it could be used to build and fuel an entire empire.

So many of us do not know how to deal with our trauma. We do even know that we can take that energy, capture it, and redirect it precisely where we want it, much like a laser beam. The point of contact being the size of a pin drop, or the size of a building. How ever small or large you need the tip of your spear to be is up to you and what is required.

Even if the majority of your trauma results from personal failures on your part, that is not altogether a bad thing. You always learn more from your failures than your successes. So what we need to do is convert that negative feel bad energy into something constructive. I’m asking you to put your energy to work for you. Think of yourself as the biggest corporation imaginable–think Amazon or Walmart–think BIG! Now, treat every unit of energy you have as an employee–an associate, if you will. Each unit is literally priceless. It gets even better…

You have MILLIONS of these inside you. They are not around you. They are in you. This, is what separates Manny, and those like him, from the masses. They know this power and they use it, even if they are not entirely aware of it. These units of energy that work for you as loyal faithful employees are tireless in their devotion for the fulfillment of your endeavors. Even when you are asleep, these energy units never stop laboring for you. I will give you an example as follows: Have you ever gone to bed depressed and then woke up depressed still? Those are your energy units going to work to build more trauma in your life.

Now, you, being the master of this ship have to decide which way you want your energy to go.

Do you want to wallow in your trauma? Or do you want to grow from your trauma?

This choice is 100% yours to make. So the next time failure shows up at your doorstep and punches you in the face, you have to be at the ready with the right response. If what you are doing is working for you, respond accordingly. If what you are doing is not working for you, then respond accordingly. Not every failure you incur has to be defined as a failure. Where you fail is if you choose not to grow from it.

This subject will spawn dozens more articles in the future. It is too large for me to write a thorough discourse in just one post. But I want to highlight the main point that failure is something that must be taken advantage of. You have to pour all that energy that comes with it right back into your goal. If the goal is too big or you are too far away from it, make the requisite adjustments and keep it out front. Look at people that have already made it and use their success to motivate you. Just by seeing someone else do it, know that you can do it too.

The secret is to never give up. You have to keep going.

That, is what Manny would do.

–Daniel Cousin

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