We often consider life lessons to be lessons we can only learn as a result of our own experiences. In many cases, we may have knowledge of said life lessons prior to our personal experience with them, however we don't truly grasp their meaning until we've lived them ourselves. For example, we may understand how failure to pay bills may result in a poor credit score, but it isn't until we have that poor credit score that we truly understand the life lesson behind paying our bills. Fortunately, life lessons can also be learned from books if we're willing to understand them. By reading the stories of others, we can put ourselves in the character's or author's shoes and get a better understanding of their perspective. For this reason, books are incredibly valuable when it comes to learning life lessons.
If you're familiar with famous entrepreneurs, you may already know of Tai Lopez – a world-renowned entrepreneur and author. After reading over 5,000 books, Lopez compiled an extensive list of 67 lessons he had learned throughout his life – many of which coming from the books he had read. Lopez believes that we as individuals can achieve the ‘good life' by balancing our social lives, our work lives, and our physical and mental health, which inspired him to write about the lessons he had learned.
After reading the lessons, we narrowed the list down into the lessons we found most important, particularly for entrepreneurs. Each lesson on Lopez's list holds a lot of value, but these were the items we selected that best suit the entrepreneurial life.
As it turns out, many of the lessons we learned as children may working against us as adults, according the some of the lessons we learned from Tai Lopez. We grow up and look for jobs with steady salaries, but this mindset is actually holding us back. By dropping the “salary mentality,” we can open ourselves up to improvement. Instead of wanting a paycheck for the time we spend working at the office, we should be seeking payment for our level of performance. In addition, we shouldn't allow doubt to enter our minds when we are working our way towards our dream. As we grow older, we often hear others say “You know, only a small percentage of people become successful entrepreneurs,” but we have to push these thoughts out of our minds. While the odds may seem stacked against us, there are always means to overcome those odds.
Generally, overcoming the odds stacked against you can only be done by becoming worth something. Yes – every individual has value, but not in the same way. If you're looking to start a successful business, you'll need to provide something that others cannot. Your time must become valuable to others, so it must first have value to you. Others will not value your work if you do not value it yourself, so make yourself valuable and embrace it. How can you make yourself valuable? There are a number of ways, but one of the best ways is to get a mentor. A mentor can walk you through uncharted territory as you make your way to the ‘good life,' and can give you advice that will make your time more valuable. Your mentor will tell you to always stay adaptable and humble – two lessons we also learned from Tai Lopez. Being adaptable will make you valuable in more situations that just one, and being humble will draw others toward you. Knowing your value is not a reason to showcase arrogance, as this will push others away no matter how talented or skilled you may be.
A major part of understanding your value is using your time wisely and efficiently. We all have a vice, but spending too much time on “greedy activities” can severely impact our success and happiness. Being lazy, drinking, and spending time on meaningless activities can set you behind on achieving your goals – and as we always like to say, money can't buy time. Prioritize your tasks, and always be sure to complete the most important tasks before those of less importance. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have fun, but don't spend the majority of your time doing things that have little long-term value to you. You may find that certain relationships of yours are prohibiting you from performing your best, a situation many of us find ourselves in at some point or another throughout our lives. We like to think our friends and family are always there for us, but in many cases their behavior can have a negative impact on us. Our advice? Only associate with those that have already achieved something, and only associate with those that value their time as well as yours. Think about it like college: if you want to study and get good grades, but your friends want to stay up late and party, would your grades suffer? Probably, or your “friends” may no longer speak to you. This applies to business as an adult as well.
Success has different meanings for everyone, so it's important that you outline exactly what it means to you. What are you trying to achieve with your business or career? Are you looking to start a family and settle down, or are you wanting to travel the world? By outlining what success means to you, can you give yourself a set goal to achieve throughout your life. As you work to achieve that goal, never stop learning along the way. By continually learning from others and reading books, you can continue to adapt as necessary to achieve your dreams. Everyone has life lessons to learn, no matter their age, and reading may just become your most powerful tool on your journey to success.
In order to succeed in business, you must first have control over yourself. Essentially, you'll need to sacrifice what you can today in order to achieve a better life tomorrow (or several years down the road). Discipline is a non-negotiable when it comes to business, and you'll need to have absolute control over your body and mind if you wish to achieve your goals. Setting a daily routine, cutting back on frivolous consumption, and getting tasks accomplished on time are all part of having discipline. It may not be fun having discipline at first, but you'll need to have control over yourself for long-term success. As people, we spend a significant amount of time and energy on tasks that are irrelevant to our long-term success, and you'll want to outline which of those tasks is hurting you. For example, playing videogames 8 hours a day or eating fast food 5 or 6 times a day will definitely have a negative impact on your life, so you'll want to avoid these behaviors until you've reached a point in your life where they become less destructive.
Ultimately, achieving success comes down to one factor: YOU. It's easy to talk about what you're going to do with your life, but talk will get you nowhere. If you're having trouble finding motivation, sit down and do something each and every day that will benefit your future – whether it be creating a business plan or purchasing a domain name, every little step counts for something. In addition, start by cutting back on your destructive habits. If you eat fast food 5 times a week, start by cutting it back to 4, then 3, and so on until you've completely stopped with the destructive habit. While it may seem like very little to begin with, these small steps are putting you on the path to success, and will have you set to achieve the ‘good life.'
Are there any life lessons you believe we missed? Which of these life lessons has helped you the most along your journey to the good life? Let us know in the comments below!
