1/ I seem to be easily triggered by lists of "what every successful entrepreneur does in the morning" or "10 common traits all millionaires share" or "six things you need to know before the market opens."

They MUST be popular, or the clickbait farms wouldn't publish them.

2/ They lull honest, hopeful people who want to better themselves into a thought process that believes that if I just do those things that successful entrepreneurs do, or develop those traits that ALL millionaires share I'll make it. I'll be successful just like them.

3/ Bad news: NO, you won't. That's because successful entrepreneurs all tend to do DIFFERENT things in the morning. Millionaires that self-select themselves to answer pages and pages of questions might share traits, but they are a TINY fraction of all millionaires.

4/ Most of those "self-selected" millionaires might have less in common with the entire universe of millionaires than you do. And anyone who's read me knows that there are never 6 or 10 or 20 things you NEED to know before the market opens, unless one of those things is the sun

5/ exploding; aliens landing or a civil war starting over night, and honestly, with the exception of the sum exploding, my guess is most gurus and forecasters would be WRONG about the ramifications of the other two. The honest to god, no BS answer is that there is NO secret to

6/ almost anything. People so want there to be a secret, an easy path that leads to guaranteed success. That path does not exist. If you think about it for just a second, you can see how obvious that is. If such a path DID exist, you couldn't get on it because every other human

7/ on the planet would already be on it.

So, am I saying there is no hope for your dreams of success? Absolutely not! But the real path is one most people don't want to take. Why do you think so many people play the lottery? The real path is emotionally hard. The real path

8/ requires you to often hold uncomfortable opinions and challenge conventional thought. The real path requires you to learn, learn and then learn some more. And there is no end date on your learning. The real path requires you to seek out the latest knowledge, the latest

9/ thinking continually in a never-ending commitment to gaining knowledge. Note I say knowledge, not information. That's another part of the real path--after all that reading, listening and watching, you have to critically separate the wheat from the chaff. And given the

10/ information tsunami we have today, that's a task that gets harder and harder. The real path requires you to have a burning desire to not only know, but to then also act on that knowledge. The real path is filled with people who will tell you you can't or shouldn't be doing

11/ whatever "crazy" thing you're doing. It's filled with negative, bitter people who will--knowingly or unknowingly--hope that you fail because they themselves either have or never tried. It's filled with genuinely good people begging you to be "more practical" and urging you

12/ to get a stable job that is a "good fit" for your talents. It's filled with people whom really and truly love you and whom you love being filled with palpable worry for you and what you're doing. And that's just the start. There are so many other land mines on the real path

13/ that you couldn't fit them all on the longest available thread on Twitter. So, am I telling you to give up? To not have that burning ambition to succeed at whatever you love?

*Absolutely not.*

I'm telling you the truth so that you stop reading those easy lists, so you

14/ stop just dreaming and start doing. I believe that all types of people can become great successes in their chosen field. But it requires the willingness to read more than almost everyone else; to sort out the gems of knowledge you find in the thicket of information and then

15/ to try things. Many don't work--good, you just learned another way not to do something and succeed. They require you to persist even after you're knocked down ten times, you've got to get up eleven. They require you to keep your mental models sharp, to learn from mistakes and

16/ then keep on going. Babe Ruth (?) said "You just can’t beat the person who never gives up." And, almost most importantly, you've got to really and truly believe that you can do it. I've met so many incredibly smart and talented people who have been done in by their beliefs.

17/ And sometimes, we're not even aware of limiting beliefs that may lurk in our minds. I had several that I had to delete once I became aware of them. So, no lists, but some simple advice: Read, synthesize ideas, try them, abandon those that aren't working, try new one, read

18/ some more. Tell people about your hopes and goals. Listen for good advice, it does exist.But ruthlessly remove the bad advice, the naysayers, the permanent pessimists, keep your mind wide open to ideas, indeed, read and understand those you might have an aversion to, so

19/ that you improve your understanding and knowledge. It sounds daunting, but, done the right way, it is such an exhilarating feeling that you'll want to keep doing it even if you're not yet getting paid to do it. Be open; be kind; treat people well, karma will get your back.

20/ Oh, and one more thing. For the love of god, DON'T read those lists!