The answer is hard work…what was the question?

People love to believe there’s some magic formula—an easy hack, a shortcut, some insider knowledge. Let me tell you, as someone who's spent decades building businesses: there’s not. I’m approached regularly by people starting out who are looking for a chance to “pick my brains”. Whatever the question is…the answer’s hard work, dedication and commitment!

The reality is this: most people don’t want to hear that business success is about grinding, day in and day out, for years. It’s not sexy. It’s not flashy. It’s not the stuff of motivational quotes, or the spoutings of so-called gurus. But it’s the truth. Yes, success is thinking big, but it’s also the sum of thousands of small, often unremarkable actions repeated consistently over time. It’s showing up early, staying late, and your unwillingness to do what’s necessary is the reason you’ve not found success.

I’ve met people way smarted than me, people who are masters of the content, they’ve read all the books, attended every seminar…some have even started giving the seminars, but they’ve done nothing because they’ve never taken action because it’s too much like hard work for them. You really don’t have to be a genius or have some extraordinary talent. What you do need is relentless effort. You have to outwork and outlast the competition. Most people quit at the first sign of failure, when the stress levels get too high. Others quit when things get boring. But the ones who succeed are the ones who keep going—through the setbacks, the drudgery, and the frustration.

We’ve told our story before…my wife and business partner Leanne, and I quit our jobs on the same day to get into the property market, and we worked relentlessly to make it a success, but that’s only a part of the story. The previous chapter is when we spent years before we quit our jobs properly educating ourselves about finances, the stuff that no-one had ever taught us, but we knew was essential. We were prepared to start the entrepreneurship marathon because we’d put in the training hours so when the property market shifted in 2007/8, and the opportunity came evident, we were ready.

To me, the recipe for success is obvious, I say it a lot…SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES! Zuckerberg coding for days on end to get Facebook right, Branson pushing to crack commercial space travel at 70 years old, Buffet continuing to push Berkshire Hathaway to greater success at 90 years old, or Musk sleeping on the Tesla factory floor to crack the car industry, they all go through a level of stress, and put in a level of effort that almost everyone else isn’t prepared to do. People are jealous of your success, not how you got it.

Today, we’re just as committed. Sure, we’ve honed our skills, recruited a team, and our experience makes decision making easier, but the effort is higher than it’s ever been. We’re not one’s to take our foot off the gas, we’ve double down and committed to even bigger goals…it’s just our way of life, because we know success is never owned, it’s rented…and the rent is due everyday.

For anyone who wants success, it’s not complicated; put in the work, and when you think you’ve worked hard enough, work harder. Do the things that cause the most pain and stress. Stay disciplined. Show up every single day, whether you’re motivated or not. Do that consistently and you’ll reap the rewards.

Stop wasting time looking for shortcuts. There aren’t any. There’s only the grind. It’s not glamorous, but it’s what separates the winners from everyone else. Whatever the question is…the answer’s hard work.