21 Excerpts from Success Habits of Super Achievers

Last fall I published Success Habits of Super Achievers, with 80 Thought Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Professionals, Coaches, Authors, Investors, Musicians including Les Brown, Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, Darren Hardy, Lisa Haisha, Denis Waitley, John Assaraf, Phil Collen of Def Leppard and more. 

The response to the book has been amazing including hitting #1 in over 30 categories (by the way if you would like me to send you for FREE the digital copy of the entire 320 page book reply to this email and let me know and I will send you the link).

Today I want to share 21 powerful excerpts from the book 

21 Excerpts from Success Habits of Super Achievers

The deck is stacked against you. There’s no question about it. And to get out of where you are, you gotta be hungry! Jackie Robinson said, don’t level the playing field. Just let me on the field, and I’ll level it myself. People that are hungry level the field, all they want is access in the game. When you are hungry, your gifts will make room for you. Bring what you have, do the best that you can, and God will do what you can’t do. 

– Les Brown, Iconic Motivational Speaker and Author 

As an artist development coach, you are also a life coach. I take that seriously. I pour myself into my clients, as the training is not only about a music business career but about their personal ability to get up after being knocked down. The industry is full of armchair critics who enjoy the art of serving up their opinion publicly. 

– Linda Septien, Kingpin of Pop Talent 

That was the only time during my amateur, professional, and minor league baseball career where I had self-doubt. I almost walked away. I didn’t have the vision that I would get called back to the big leagues, play for 15 years, or play on three World Championship teams and get paid tens of millions of dollars. I didn’t know I was going to play for a Hall of Fame manager or that a lot of my teammates were going to go to the Hall of Fame. 

I couldn’t see any of that because I was ready to quit. Where I was is where most people quit, and not just in sports, but in life, from a marriage, job, or situation. It’s where they decide they’re just not good enough. It’s a wall you run into that you either get over or around, or the wall becomes your ceiling forever. 

– Todd Stottlemyre, 15-Year MLB Player and Entrepreneur 

For me, much more important than being the guy on stage is helping other dreamers get there. That realization launched me into my incredibly successful role behind the scenes as a songwriter and Grammy-winning producer, which in turn, has given me the platform to mentor up-and-coming musicians on their journeys. The irony is that serving led me to success. 

– Seth Mosley, 3x Grammy-Winner, Producer, and Songwriter 

When I got back from serving in Afghanistan, I decided I wanted to compete in the US Memory Championships. I hired a coach, United States Navy SEAL TC Cummings. He taught me a lot about mindset and discipline. He had me memorizing cards underwater. He had me memorizing cards in noisy bars. He had me changing my diet, getting up early, and training like a Navy SEAL would train for war so that I would be a well-trained brain athlete for the memory tournament. 

– Ron White, 2x US Memory Champion 

The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life. They make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of each event. 

Never complain, never explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses. Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation. 

– Brian Tracy, Iconic Speaker and Trainer 

To do a few things excellently, you’ve got to say no to a lot of things. I’ve found that one hard no then makes a thousand little no’s easy. I look for opportunities where I can make one decision that then makes a thousand decisions behind it. 

– Darren Hardy, Speaker, Author, Former Publisher of SUCCESS Magazine 

School sports helped pull me out of that home environment. I was not a great athlete, but chose to show up, suit up, and get in the game. That was my attitude—get in there and do the very best I could. 

– Tim Cole, 31-Year Marine Colonel 

I recognized I had an addiction when I realized I couldn’t remember things. On my ex-girlfriend Liz’s birthday in April 1987, we were in Paris having a glass of champagne, and I said, “I’m not drinking after this.” We went to India the next day, and I quit cold turkey. 

The benefits were outrageous. I got two extra hours a day that I wasn’t spending recovering or just feeling not great. That’s when I started working out because I actually had time to burn. 

– Phil Collen, Lead Guitarist of Def Leppard 

Success doesn’t reveal as much about who you are as failure does. I’ve learned on my journey that wherever you look, there are corresponding opposites, and those opposites are ultimately inseparable. We need them both—the success and the tragedy. We cannot fully know one without the other. In my lowest low, I discovered my authentic soul. 

– Mike Muhney, Co-Founder of ACT! Software 

I had to step out of myself and ask, “Do people really want you to be like Zig Ziglar on stage?” The answer was no. They want me to have the same principles and values but to be the best version of myself. When I am not myself, it comes across as fake, a mask. That put the pressure in the right place, in developing myself and understanding what people needed. I realized it wasn’t about me or the opportunity I had to speak. It was about every person in the room. 

– Tom Ziglar, Speaker, Author, and CEO of Ziglar 

I had run nine marathons and was getting into ultra-marathons, which are longer than 26.2 miles. I had just completed an Ironman triathlon and my first 100-miler on a track course, and I was looking forward to a second 100-mile ultra-marathon in the mountains. I started experimenting with breathing without changing my running or strengthening routines. I started getting faster and running became easier. I could run a marathon, do my specific breathing technique during and afterward to calm down, then get up and walk normally, and the next day go for a run again. With no other changes in my training, I dropped 14 minutes off my marathon time within seven months—a huge triumph. Most importantly, I knew I had to start using this to help other people develop a new breathing habit. 

– Dr. Amy Novotny, Breathing and Chronic Pain Specialist 

You have to believe in and fight for your dreams and goals. Who are you going to be? What are you going to be? What are you chasing? I figured out at 17 years old that I didn’t have to please everybody including the friends around me. I had this dream of being a sportscaster. That’s all I needed to work on—my dream. 

– Newy Scruggs, 8x Emmy-Winning Sportscaster 

The question is, what’s holding you back? Whatever it is, limiting beliefs, low self-worth, fears, we know how to fix that. The key is: Are you willing to do the work necessary to eliminate the obstacles, so you achieve the dream? If you’re not willing to do the work, stop complaining and stop having these big goals and dreams. 

– John Assaraf, #1 NY Times Bestselling Author vi 

Jack and I set BIG goals! And the results eclipsed even our lofty goals! As of today, we have sold over 500 million Chicken Soup books worldwide. If you think, “I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough. I’m not enough,” you won’t be. But, if you start saying, “I really have a wonderful mind and powerful resources,” you are setting yourself up for unlimited achievement, success, and opportunities galore. 

Everyone’s got a genius talent, skills and abilities, but it’s different for each of us and requires enormous self-discipline to action. Everyone has a destiny. It’s your job to discover what that is and then go fulfill it. 

– Mark Victor Hansen, Co-Creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul 

Over the next five years, I went to 15 countries to visit orphanages and asked the children the same three questions: Is God fair? If you had one wish, what would it be? Who in the world would you want to meet and why? That ended up becoming a book, Whispers from Children’s Hearts. That book launched my speaking career. I spoke in schools and gatherings across the globe, sharing the words of the unheard children. 

– Lisa Haisha, Producer, Speaker, and Coach 

Over the past 30 years, I have had to innovate and reinvent many times over. The tactics change as technology changes, but the marketing principles do not. I think too many people confuse technology with marketing. I can hire the tech piece. It is the marketing that I need to make sure I never relegate. Once you understand that the principles of marketing don’t change, it is just the tactics that change, you can then adjust accordingly. 

– Kyle Wilson, Marketer, Strategist, and Founder of Jim Rohn International 

To me, a legacy is about listening. A legacy is about sharing. A legacy is about depth…staying a little longer in conversations with people. It’s about impacting and inspiring. A legacy is about others first. It’s not about having success, but about what I do with that success. Most legacies are built on sharing and caring, not how high you went up the ladder. 

– Kevin Eastman, 12-Year NBA Coach, Speaker, Author and College Coaching Hall of Fame

My dad told me that he felt my purpose in life was not to learn a trade. My purpose in life was to be a leader, to help and elevate people and to do it without expecting anything in return. He felt I could not be a great leader unless I understood and related to people doing the hard work who often felt underappreciated and passed by in life. That is why he assigned me all those dirty jobs, so I could walk in their shoes. 

– Robert Crocket, Entrepreneur, Speaker, and Author 

In reality, success is not all that difficult. But it does take effort. And it’s nearly impossible to do it alone. Which is why one of my greatest personal success secrets is forming, developing, and nurturing fantastic, productive, authentic, win-win relationships. 

– Robert Helms, #1 Real Estate Podcast, Real Estate Developer 

I’ve learned to be a role model, not a critic. If they shouldn’t be doing it, neither should you. Be someone worth emulating to your children. Set the example in your life. By preaching, I never got anywhere. I’m a highly sought-after professional speaker, I give a good lecture, but still, they watched me more than they listened to me talk. 

It’s much better to walk your talk. If you point out people’s shortcomings, they manifest those. It’s very hard to come away from what you’re being preached not to do. Instead, lead them toward the desired result. 

– Denis Waitley, Iconic Speaker and Author 

If you would like me to send you for FREE the digital copy of the entire 320 page book reply to this email and let me know and I will send you the link. 

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Join Me in My Next Book!

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And as my 18-year business partner, mentor and friend, Jim Rohn would tell me, let’s do something remarkable!

Kyle