Yes, There Are Shortcuts to Success

Accepting failure is one of them

“There are no shortcuts on the road to success.”

I’ve seen different versions of this quote everywhere. On social media, here on Medium, on billboards and even on trucks.

I’d love to agree with it, if only I knew in which world it was true.

Because it’s not in ours.

Before you come at me with your pitchforks, let me explain.

While it’s true that hard work pays off, there comes a point when you can’t work any harder. Time is limited for each of us. That’s when working smart comes into play.

Now let’s get to one of society’s biggest myths.

“If you work hard, you’ll succeed.”

This makes perfect sense until you realize that the rich and successful of this world haven’t worked 50,000 or 100,000 times harder than the average worker.

Many of them were born into a rich family, cheated in one way or another, were in the right place at the right time, employ overworked and underpaid labor, or steal ideas from other people and smaller businesses.

So not only are there shortcuts to success, but some of them are unethical.

Let’s talk about the ethical shortcuts to success that people like you and me can take.

The Shortcuts

Shortcut 1: Accepting failure and embarrassment

I loved playing basketball as a child. One day while practicing, I managed to pull off an impressive move. Overjoyed, I repeated it over and over again.

I was so happy I could repeat the move that I decided to show it to my classmates. When I caught their attention, the ball slipped out of my hands and what came out looked like a ridiculous dance move.

My classmates started laughing at me. My face turned red and I looked down at the floor, wishing I could just disappear.

I was so embarrassed I couldn’t sleep that day. I stopped playing basketball for days.

If I had accepted failure as an inevitable part of learning, I wouldn’t have stopped playing. I wasted so much time resisting what was happening.

Why it’s a shortcut: Sometimes you might want to learn something new, try a new strategy, develop a new product or start a new project.

If you know you might fall flat on your face, you save yourself hours of pondering why it happened or how it could happen to you. You expect it, so you’re not surprised when it happens.

If failure isn’t a surprise, you don’t give up. This saves you days, months or even years of doing nothing to improve.

Shortcut 2: Learn from others

My favorite shortcut to success is getting help from others who are a few steps ahead of me.

Changing my mindset from “I know best” to “others have been there and know better” changed the game for me.

I still don’t know if my book would have ever seen the light of day or become a bestseller without the help of my mentor, who had already published a bestseller.

I didn’t work harder than anyone else. I worked smarter, not because of my intelligence, but because someone else showed me a better way.

The same goes for public speaking. There was one person who acted as a mentor to me just before my very first presentation.

Why it’s a shortcut: By learning from others and their ups and downs, we save ourselves valuable time because we don’t repeat the same mistakes. We only make new ones.

Meeting the right people who are ahead of us is a shortcut in itself.

Shortcut 3: Luck and privilege

We all know this one. No matter what we claim, sometimes we succeed because we’re lucky or otherwise privileged.

But admitting that doesn’t sell well, so of course we attribute it all to our hard work, drive and determination.

I know I did the same when I was accepted to the best university in my home country. I worked hard and achieved an excellent final grade, but it was a law that only came into force that year that enabled me to get into the university.

People congratulated me for my hard work, but I thanked my lucky stars instead.

My privilege took care of the rest. I was in my home country, so I was treated no differently and had fewer hurdles to overcome than immigrants. Besides, my parents both went to university, so I knew what to expect.

Why it’s a shortcut: Sometimes you just get lucky, no matter how hard you work. Often it’s the result of your hard work and perseverance. But no matter how it happens, it’ll undoubtedly get you there faster.

Privilege means you have fewer obstacles to overcome than others. This is harder to recognize when you have it, but obvious when you don’t.

For example, if you want to become successful on Medium and your native language is English, you’re automatically ahead of me. I sometimes need a bit more time to check if my English makes sense to anyone other than me.

There’s not much you can do about privilege, but don’t wait for luck. Look for it instead.

Here’s how:

Shortcut 4: Location

This one may not make much sense to someone who wants to become successful online, but our location can still be a shortcut to success because it offers us more opportunities.

I know this well. I left my home country to move to Germany and the opportunities I had here contributed a lot to what I’ve become and what I’ve achieved.

I wrote my book, accelerated my learning, achieved an ambitious goal, experienced the freedom of being openly gay, met the love of my life and discovered my true potential here.

Why it’s a shortcut: You may find more like-minded people doing what you do, or conferences, co-working spaces and hobby centers. You can increase your chances of meeting the right people by moving to where those opportunities are, rather than waiting for them to come to you.

How to use the shortcuts

While there are shortcuts to your success, you shouldn’t rely solely on them to achieve it.

These shortcuts should ideally supplement hard work, determination and self-discipline.

The biggest mistake people make is looking for quick fixes before they’ve even started. Gurus know this, which is why many of them sell get-rich-quick products.

But none of these products work unless we do.

Even if we move to the best place, meet the right people, find the best mentor, and have the most luck, expecting outside factors to do the work for us won’t get us far.

So let’s work on building a solid foundation. Eventually we’ll find our way to the shortcuts, or some of them will find a way to us.

Happy smart learning,

Maria