Richard St. John : Secrets of Success

Why do people succeed? Because they’re smart? Or lucky? How about: Neither. Inspired by a chance encounter with a high school student who asked him how to become a success, St. John interviewed more than 500 successful people, then distilled what they told him into eight simple principles.

See Richard’s 4 minute talk at the 2005 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. Richard, the author of Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and RICH, relates success to 8 (rather basic) ideas. Of interesting note are the accompanying comments he’s gathered during 500+ interviews with successful people over the past 10 years.

It’s not always easy to push yourself, that’s why they invented mothers.

On a semi-related note, there’s another Freakonomics book in the works.