8 To Be Great

8 to Be Great: The 8-Traits That Lead to Great Success by Richard St. John is based on ten years of research. He interviewed 500 succesful people and found out that you don't have to be anything special to succeed. In fact, most succesful people are not particularly smart, good-looking or lucky. They succeed because of the eight things they do.

According to this book, the top eight success factors are:

• passion: do it for love (not for money),
• work: work really hard (but have fun),
• focus: do one thing only (not everything),
• push: keep pushing to your limits (through shyness and self doubt),
• ideas: be curious (look around and listen to people),
• improve: practice continuously (12 months of the year, not 3-4),
• serve: give others something of value (and get rich),
• persist: pick yourself up and stay on course (through time, crap and failure).

Richard St. John has run marathons on all seven continents, with a personal best of 2:43. He also has a marketing communication company that has thrived for over 25 years.

Ok, let's follow these simple and easy rules and have a great 2008!