I get asked by people, as if I know the answers, and I certainly don’t, as to what helps with success.  I generally think that reading is very helpful, there is so much you can learn from reading, but truthfully I don’t believe there is any substitute for hard work.  Those that work harder will normally achieve more than those who are brighter and work less.  It is as simple as that.  I am still hungry, after many years, for success, and I just keep working hard.  Once my office is closed in mid-December I still had banking to do for a number of clients who I wanted to still be paid, even though the money has only came to us from the Road Accident Fund after the closing date of most other firms, and correspondence to attend to, including from one particularly aggressive client.  

I am not saying I don’t take a holiday – I do – but the truth is I still see what is going on in my e-mails, I still attend to banking during most of the holiday and I come up with ideas, dictate blogs, e-mails to clients, newsletters, concepts and ideas for brochures, etc.  In my spare time I read books about business, productivity, time management, investment, etc.  I understand that most people will not find that particularly exciting, but you must understand if that is what you are competing against, it becomes very hard to match or beat that person or company if you are relaxing on the beach while they are putting in the hours.  Some people have a capacity for putting in hard work, and not complaining that they are working or thinking that work is something that ends at 5pm.  

I don’t think that everybody needs to put in those types of hours – it does not suit everybody and not everybody is after the same level of success or material reward.  It probably, based on my own experience, suits those best who see it all as a game or a competition – in other words, have a desire to be the best at something, not because of how much money they will make, or how much money they will get back per hour that they put in, but simply because they want to be the best, they want to beat the competition and they want to be number one.  The money will follow, but many people, and I am one of them, are not actually motivated by money as much as we are by wanting to be the best at what we do.  

Being the best at what you do, whether it is in cooking, being a mother, being a golfer, or running a personal injury law firm specialising in Road Accident Fund cases, requires you to put in tons and tons of time and anybody who thinks otherwise is a fool and anybody who says otherwise is a liar.  There just is no substitute for hard work – regardless of what your passion is.  So I guess, that is my answer to what it takes to be successful, although of course spending hundreds of hours doing the same thing that is not working is not going to lead to success.  It does still need to be combined with all the other things, including some good business sense, logic and a little dash of luck along the way.