The Seven Differences Between Winners And Losers
Over the course of my life, I’ve read hundreds of books about how to better your life and I’ve been fortunate enough to interview and converse with an enormous number of extremely successful people.
What I’ve learned is that for most people, success is no accident. Winners are winners for a reason just as losers are losers for a reason. Here’s some of what I’ve learned.
1) Winners do things losers won’t do.
Oftentimes, it’s the people who go to almost unthinkable lengths who manage to make it to the top. Thomas Edison reportedly tried more than 1000 different substances as filaments before he found the right one for the light bulb. Henry Morton Stanley, who was one of the greatest explorers in human history, nearly died time and time again going on expeditions across Africa that took years under some of the most dangerous and miserable conditions imaginable. Ross Perot and his wife both worked and then they lived off his salary while they saved every cent of her salary to fund his new business. These are people who went to extraordinary lengths to reach the top and they did it instead of just complaining that “life is hard” and giving up.
Henry Morton Stanley spent his afternoons doing this for years at a time
Next: EPIC FAIL!!!
Since it’s in the bible, liberals will never follow it. They will denigrate it, abrogate it, object to it. “It can’t possibly be right if it’s in the bible” they’ll say.
Maybe you could print up a few thousand copies and paste them to every tent in Zucotti Park. Of course, they might misinterpret no. 7 as part of their justification for incessantly asking for free stuff.
demand =/= ask
just saying…
I just like to fall back on John Mason’s (Sean Connery) distinction between losers and winners in “The Rock”.
…and that was?
John Mason: Are you sure you’re ready for this?
Stanley Goodspeed: I’ll do my best.
John Mason: Your “best”! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*** the prom queen.
A lot of ideas, don’t work, unless you make them work!
good with morning coffee
the ten rules of success should benefit everyone who reads and acts on it
So pessimists are losers.
Wow thanks. I’ve never been called a loser before based on a single trait I have. Oh wait yeah I have…
still laughing at the photo of the dog on the pool raft
Woody Allen (and believe me, I’m no fan) once said, “90% of life is showing up.” Translated, that means: If you want a mediocre life, then be a warm body, and do the minimum to get by. If, on the other hand, you want success or you want to be the best (and there are countless ways to be the best), then following the principles listed in this article is a good start.
The landscape is littered with unsuccessful yet bright & talented people who had neither the drive nor the will to persevere through loss, adversity and naysayers to reach the top. It takes guts, practice, work, study, persistence, heart and a bit of luck (luck that you make yourself) to get to the top. Let’s get to it!
I work in retail sales, and I can vouch for your list, especially #7.
That said, the Obamaconomy sucks, and if 2012 is not followed by massive deregulation, we’ll move somewhere where the grabbermint has not removed all of the opportunities. There’s always a land of opportunity somewhere, and at the moment, it is not the US.
#7 indeed. I believe it was IBM that trained its salespeople to expect 1 yes for every 10 nos–that the “no” is inevitable, it’s not personal, and it’s not a failure.
My hubs is a chemist. He says, “I’m paid to fail.” There are so many possibilities in chemistry that one MUST fail to find out what actually works.
Hello, John
From all the Losers in America. You don’t mind taking our money. You don’t mind using our children for Soldiers, Firemen, Police Men, Auto Mechanics, Ditch Diggers, Gas station attendants, Bar tenders, Waiters, Waitresses, Librarians, Dishwashers, and every other job that makes less than 50k a year. No, it is not enough to feed off all the people who do the dirty work, the untouchables, you have to preen, prance, a proselytize about your superiority. You don’t see how pathetic that’s makes you, do you?
You don’t see how long Ronald Reagan or John Kennedy or Hell even John Wayne or Joe Walsh would have lasted calling all low income people in America Losers.
All of the rich,’winners’ rely on the character and ethics, the nobility of the inferior to remain decent in the face of ignorant, genuine, scorn. Oblivious to the consequences of the Barber or Cook’s reaction to your supercilious scorn, you continue to crow proudly from the adversity of your typewriter. You should try standing in a factory in the cold and heat for a year watching all the losers labor to spend one third of their check on Health insurance for thier children. Vacuous, that was the word I was looking for, just as Vacuous as Elizabeth Warren who thinks war is something you engage in when you can afford it.
If you wish to define yourself as a “Loser in America,” that’s a personal choice you’ve made for yourself. Don’t blame others for your worldview.
Thank you for your reply, and for stating the obvious. Although your second sentence does not follow. Taking your premise to it’s logical conclusion would lead us to a feudal state and a monarchy. Discourse, however above all else leads to civilization, as opposed to dictation.
Try watching 42nd Street again, or It’s a Wonderful Life.
Where your desperate whine fails, Ozzy, is where you equate “losers” with “low income earners”. There are plenty of rich losers around.
Yet, on the other hand, you are not grateful for all the things those winners have given you. The computer you typed this message on, the comfort of the modern home, communications the pioneers could only dream of, so many conveniences that you’ve become a whining spoiled child.
You are blessed. Be blessed.
We are all used and enslaved in some way. No escape. No reprieve.
This article is vastly oversimplifying matters. For every successful “winner” there are many who tried and failed and continue to optimisticly fail ignoring the fact that their optimism is just Novacain for getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly.
There is a difference between winners and losers. Some got lucky. Others didn’t.
No matter what some article on a blog says there are no prizes for failure even if you get back up. Like any boxing match it’s just an invite to get punched some more.
For every successful “winner” there are many who tried and failed and continue to optimisticly fail ignoring the fact that their optimism is just Novacain for getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly.
There is a difference between winners and losers. Some got lucky. Others didn’t.
No matter what some article on a blog says there are no prizes for failure even if you get back up. Like any boxing match it’s just an invite to get punched some more.
I think the point of the article is to help you increase your odds of success (however you define it) by encouraging persistence & never-stop-asking-ism.
If you stop asking after hearing a slew of no’s, then you are guaranteed to never get the yes. There is no guaranteed recipe for success. There is only a guaranteed recipe for failure, and that is to quit before you succeed. Think that’s oversimplified? Well, some things really are that simple.
Now how long you hang in there depends on you. Maybe your goals in life change. Or maybe not. I’m in year 29 of a hobby in which I have invested, by my estimates, probably closer to 20,000 hours than 10,000 hours. And you know what? I’m freakin’ awesome at it. Over the next 12-24 months I probably stand my greatest odds yet of a big breakthrough. I can smell it. If it happens, wahoo and super for me: I’ve paid my dues and those of about 10 other people. If the breakthrough doesn’t happen, then I will reevaluate in 24 months and see at that time what I want to do.
Do some people have spontaneous breakthroughs without paying their dues? Absolutely. I’ve worked with those people & I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes. If you want to call this “luck” then go right ahead. But you know what? Nobody controls that sort of thing … so why dwell on it & use that as an excuse to quit?
I am one of the unluckiest sonunvaguns you will ever meet. Do not ask me for lottery numbers. Do not stand next to me when lightning strikes. Do not follow me into a lane at the grocery store. Don’t even let me pick heads or tails for you because I will get it wrong far more often than 50% of the time. (you think I’m kidding but I’m not)
What that means is that I have to work 10x as hard and hang around 10x as long as the lucky people, and about 2x-3x times as hard as everyone else. Does it suck? Yup. But what’s my other choice, to lie down in a ditch and whine myself to death? I keep going because I choose not to quit. For 4 years I’ve been working 2 jobs @ 75 hrs a week … and these on top of that hobby that eats up another 10-15 hours of my week. I clear well less than $50k/yr. Anyone who thinks this makes me a loser can go suck an egg. What I’ve learned about my craft & what I’ve learned about life in the 29 years I’ve spent practicing my hobby is more than most people on this planet will ever know about any one thing in their lives. That’s not losing.
What’s hilarious is that if I ever do have that breakthrough, some yob somewhere will look and me from afar and grumble about how lucky & privileged I am.
And they will be right on one count but one only: I was born in America in the latter part of the 20th century. After that it’s all scrapping on my part. And I have the bruised knuckles to prove it. When I hear whining self-pity from other Americans I want to puke. You get no sympathy from me. I save that for the Kenyan kid with AIDS or the Haitian eating dirt or the Chinese Christian … people who really know what problems are.
Good luck with your hobby! Mine is writing. I hope to become professional one day. Scratch that. I’m working my tail off to become professional one day. Not just hoping.
Losers call themselves “Carn”.
Never asked for (nor do I want) your sympathy bud. Keep it for whomever you want. I Don’t Want It.
As for your “success” story. *clap clap* Congrats on getting your Yes’s. Most get a ton of No’s and nothing else.
My only real objection is to the Losers are Pessimists BS.
Akatsumaki: Really mature buddy. Tell me one thing though. Should someone named after some Naruto something-or-other really be poking fun at someone else’s online name?
Carn, your pessimism is what makes you miserable. Being miserable is being a loser. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you make of it.
Standing up for America is not whining. It does not follow.
“Soldiers, Firemen, Police Men, Auto Mechanics, Ditch Diggers, Gas station attendants, Bar tenders, Waiters, Waitresses, Librarians, Dishwashers, and every other job that makes less than 50k a year.”
As if these people are necessarily losers. They most probably are not.
My brother works for a company that takes the sewage from sewage plants and treats it until it can be sprayed on cornfields, and then he goes home to tend to my ailing mother (Parkinson’s) so that she can stay home and not live in a nursing home for just a little longer. He is my hero, sh*t-scented and all, and he is a winner. He’s been offered a better position with more pay, but he refuses because he needs to work second shift in order to be at home with Mom during the day.
Oh, you mean money. If it’s all about money to you, then yes, you ARE a loser.
Sorry, bobbcat. I was so furious that I replied to you and not ozzy
Nicely said, Jeannette. He is definitely a winner.
Your spiteful envy has so blinded you that you are incapable of seeing that it is indeed those “winners” you despise and vilify who have brought about the very progress and power and greatness and exceptionalism of this country, benefitting you and yours in the process. Class distinctions, class envy, class warfare, partisan power politics have never been a fiber of what makes America, America the exceptional. It is only practiced for the benefit of false messiahs. You have become so utterly blind that you don’t understand this government and governments such as this have turned you into this unAmerican, perhaps post-American — tragic and piteous! — resentful, sniping, slave — and loser in your own mind. Snap out of it. It is YOUR LEGACY as born and bred here American that you are throwing away following these snake oil salesmen of divisiveness and partisan power politics. It is destroying your country by tearing it apart limb by limb and destroying YOU from within.
My, how supercilious. You conflate success with wealth? Losers often do that. Success is being a great Soldier, Fireman, Police Officer, Auto Mechanic, Ditch Digger, Gas station attendant, Bar tender, Waiter, Waitress, Librarian, Dishwasher. You seem to see them as losers who are “used” and forced to slave for winners. Losers often do that. Success is a single mother raising 3 kids in depression era eastern Ohio, like my grandmother. She never had any money, but her kids did. You’d see her as loser. Losers often do that. You whine and complain that some people work hard, fail and try again, have great ideas they bring to a willing market, think ahead, take responsibility. Losers … well, you know. Just look into the mirror.
Spoken like a true loser. It’s that attitude that keeps you down. That is the point of the article, isn’t it?
The way I see it, those jobs aren’t loser jobs and I don’t think the article indicated they were. This seems to me more of an assumptive statement. If the person shows up every day, works to the best of their ability, has a good attitude and gets the necessary job done, that makes them winners. The loser is the one who works with the poor attitude, or who won’t work at all.
I don’t think the winner/loser is about being rich or poor. It’s about being the best person you can be in life.
Ozzy’s reply was staged, right? Someone must have put him up to it so the author could say, “See, that’s exactly what I mean.” Some people fail in life because they honestly believe that success is purely a matter of luck, getting special favors (which is again a matter of luck), and/or exploiting others. When you’re convinced that there’s noting you can do to improve your own life, then of course you just sit back and accept whatever comes your way, which is usually pretty little.
PS I don’t suppose that everyone making less than $X per year is a failure. Money is not the only possible goal or even the most important goal. But if you’re living in a cardboard box under a bridge and eating whatever scraps you can find in the dumpster, odds are you’re a failure.
Hi John,
Why do you assume someone working hard and giving an honest effort for their wage is a loser? The amount of income they make is not an indicator of being a winner or loser. As a matter of fact many future wealthy professionals were originally successful workers who not only understand the rules of success listed above, they learned to monetize their skill set. The book The Millionaire Next Door references that many wealthy were originally a plumber who duplicated his efforts by hiring his colleagues and having 10 plumbing trucks providing the same high quality service or a Dry Cleaner who duplicates his location, the burger stand that franchises etc.
Whatever job you have today can be a stepping stone to your greater success or can be where you choose to settle. It is your choice. No One is limiting your ability to move up, if your willing to take the steps to achieve.
We live in a country that allows “you” the opportunity to make your life better, richer, and more rewarding than any other country in the world! We are governed by Morons in congress and the lowest level of qualified men as Presidents. Yet, “we” can and do create great wealth in our lives. We constantly better our conditions inspite of the governments waste and foolish regulations…It takes winners to do this..We are winners if we keep our heads up and ask Americans to be proud of their successes. We are winners if we can create great families.. We are winners if we lead and take action in our lives..we are winners if we ask what we can do to help others and we are winners if we push to teach our children to win when diversity is upon us. Winning is not easy nor should it be…winning is knowing you are not a loser. success is about always rethinking the direction of where you want to go and letting go of the past. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life, dont waste it. Life is not a dress rehearsel!!!
,,If you’re waiting for “society” or the “government” to show up, fix all your problems, and make you into a success, you’re going to be in for a long, long wait.”
I worked for a man that did not promote people or give raises but had a staff that would walk through a wall for him, because what he wanted was for the person to show the initiative and then the promotion and raise would follow.
So he didn’t have anybody working for him that just did their job, waiting for a paycheck and a raise. he had people that worked harder, took the initiative, and when they did more than the job they were hired for, they were justly rewarded.
Compare that with today’s world of workers that come in to work and wonder what the boss is going to give them for just showing up and occupying space.
Funny enough my favorite Nicole Kidman movie, during her time with The Cruise, was “The Others”. Which I found creepy as hell to watch. But I loved it.