The Key Factor that Makes One Person Successful and Another a Failure

What is the mysterious "secret" that makes two people with the same general background achieve totally different results in life, when by all accounts they should be at the same level of success?

For example, the "Wall Street Journal" has told this widely known story for years about two guys who grew up in the same small town. They lived just a few houses apart and both had the same interests; both were high-honors students and had similar upbringings.

Both guys went to the same law school and graduated near the top of their class. And both ended up starting their own practices in the larger city an hour away... in the same part of town.

Yet one of the guys was barely making ends meet in his firm, while the other had a thriving business.

You probably know similar cases like this yourself, and have wondered how that's possible for one person to succeed at such a higher level than the other, with virtually identical backgrounds. (Or maybe you're in that position yourself, where you and someone you once knew had a friendly competition, and one of you is doing exceedingly better than the other, with no apparent obvious reason, if you're both equally talented and capable.)

So what was it that makes one person so much more successful than others?

The answer might surprise you. The one thing that every successful person has in common is that they are able to envision their success.

I'm sure everybody dreams that someday they will be successful, yet the person who achieves success goes beyond just dreaming about it.

They have a clear vision in their mind of what they want to do, so as far as they're concerned they have already accomplished it. If you are unable to see your way out of your current situation then you need to step back and ask yourself why.

There is no reason why you're stuck in the situation that you're in. There is no power holding you down and keeping you oppressed. The only thing that limits your ability to achieve everything in life you want is - you!

It doesn't matter whether your goal in life is to be wealthy or to be free from your current situation. You must be able to see your way out of it and know that you will achieve it... before you're able to get there.

I'm not talking about something spiritual here. I'm not asking you to meditate and focus your energy on anything "out there", to do things that hundreds of thousands of super-successful people before you have not already done.

This is all based on timeless wealth wisdom, proven over and over again by people just like you who have envisioned their success, created the mental blueprint to get where they want to go... and then taken action to get there.

Just as you cannot open a door without reaching for the handle and exerting pressure against it, you will be unable to achieve your goals unless you exert yourself toward them.

What I am talking about is having a clear picture in your mind of what you want to accomplish and not letting that picture fade at all - keep it in sharp focus. By doing so you will stay on the straight and narrow path to success, without veering off that path and following any number of distractions, which lead further away from your goal.

Stay the course, with your destination in mind at all times, and you will get there in the shortest time possible.