The 5 Universal Laws of Success

Today's blog post is based on a podcast from The Art of Manliness. I know, that's the third one this week...I didn't do it on purpose but I thought that all three were interesting topics.

We’re told that talent and hard work pays off. But we’ve all seen instances where people who were equally or even less talented and hard working than we are, still got the raise, the buzz, the promotion, or the recognition that we so keenly wanted for ourselves. 

It can make a man downright cynical. 

My guest today says that instead of getting jaded, you need to understand that hard work and talent, while necessary, aren’t sufficient for success. His name is Albert-László Barabási, and he’s a professor of network science and the author of the book The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success. We begin our conversation discussing how László’s work in network science helped him uncover the hidden connections that lead to success. László then explains the difference between performance and success, and how it’s possible to be a high performer, but not be successful. We then dig into the five universal laws that László and his researchers found cut across the achievement of success in every field, along with practical takeaways you can start implementing in your life to experience more success yourself. 

 I'm still in the process of listening to the podcast, but I needed to get this blog post out.

Show Highlights

 

• What is “network science” and how that field of study led to this book
• How people generally define success (and how they think it’s attained) 
• Distinguishing between performance and success 
• What the real-life Red Baron can teach us about this distinction 
• The rare phenomenon of posthumous recognition  
• How important is fame? How does fame interact with the idea of success?
• The importance of networks to your success
• Why performance is bounded, and success is unbounded
• Why success leads to more success (and how to reach success in the first place) 
• What role does visibility play in success?
• How pop culture “Bestselling” lists actually come about 
• The importance of a good start 
• Why collaboration isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (and how to get more credit for things) 
• Why your best work often happens early in your career (and why that doesn’t have to be the case) 

Collaboration is a big thing with AT&T. In fact, we're moving everybody to centralized collaboration zones.

Interesting days

Today - Stay Out Of The Sun Day, Compliment Your Mirror Day, Eat Beans Day, International Plastic Bag Free Day, Disobedience Day, Chocolate Wafer Day and Air Conditioning Appreciation Day

Tomorrow - Independence Day, Independence From Meat Day, Barbecue Day, Spareribs Day, Caesar Salad Day and Jackfruit Day

Next Wednesday - Don’t Step On A Bee Day, Teddy Bear Picnic Day and Piña Colada Day

August 3 - Watermelon Day, Mustard Day, Clean Your Floors Day, Sandcastle Day, Disc Golf Day and White Wine Day