Eric Siu argues the top habit for success is continuous learning, not waking early. He cites Warren Buffett and Mark Suster, recommending reading, audiobooks during workouts, and nightly study to become a specialist in your field.
All right, so today we're gonna talk about the number one habit that you can cultivate to achieve success for sure. For sure, meaning 100%, you are going to be successful, whatever that means to you. So what could that possibly be? I'll make it very simple, but before we do, if you like business, if you like marketing, don't forget to subscribe and hit the little bell button if you want more stuff like this. So what can you invest in? Let's see, you can invest in buying a car, you can invest in buying a house, In fact, growing up, my mom's a real estate agent. She still bugs me all the time. She thinks houses are the best investment that you can make. Now, the best investment you can make is not necessarily houses. It's definitely not cars because cars are depreciating assets. Now, it's definitely not technology in terms of buying stuff either. It's in yourself. Warren Buffett said the best investment is in yourself. That's something that nobody can ever take away from you. So think about that for a moment. Like, if you spend time watching this video and you actually learn something and you take it away and you actually use it, That's more helpful than watching cat videos on YouTube. Now, I'm not saying there's no time for watching cat videos or dog videos, 'cause I actually do that sometimes right now. It's actually really funny to do that, but you gotta figure out, like, how much are you actually going to consume for yourself, and then actually use it to make a difference in the world, or how much are you actually just gonna consume for your own entertainment, right? So, for selfish reasons versus for selfless reasons. Now, when you invest in yourself, think about this for a second. I would say going up to high school, the friendships that I formed, you know, learning how to deal with people, Learning new subjects, even right now with business, always learning new subjects, learning new things about marketing. Those are things that nobody can take away. This is why my parents, they knew tutors would give me a slight edge in terms of my academics. So when you think about it, when you cultivate a habit of education, for me, what I do is each week I'm probably spending at least 5 or 6 hours listening to podcasts or audiobooks. And it's easy for me 'cause I go to the gym every morning. It's at least, you know, 30 minutes for a run, or on the weekends I'm at the gym for 2 hours or so, right? But that adds up quickly. Also when I'm driving or when I'm on the go, when I'm getting on at the airport, waiting in the lounge, or getting on a flight, I'm also listening to things too. So I'm getting better during downtime. So think about all the downtime you have, and think about how you can dump in audiobooks, think about how you can dump in podcasts. That's super helpful. Not to say that just 'cause we have this technology, don't read too, 'cause I actually just finished a book the other day, and the book had some diagrams in it, and I actually had to read a couple things a couple times to understand it more. I block out time, let's say 8 to 9 PM, I'm gonna read something, read a physical book. Okay, so when you block out the time, that means it's important. In fact, going back to Warren Buffett, one of the richest guys in the world, Warren Buffett spends 5 hours a day reading because his job is figuring out how do you get an edge around the markets. And he understands his investments really well. And here's the thing with education, don't try to learn everything around you. Maybe when you're growing up you try to, you know, become a generalist, but as you get older and older, you want to become a specialist. So Warren Buffett focuses on investments, but he only focuses on a couple of different things that he understands. He stays away from technology because he doesn't understand technology. So as you go deeper and deeper, you're still gonna cultivate the habit of education, but you're gonna focus in a certain area. Because if you try to do too many things, you become nothing to anybody, okay? Nobody wants to become nothing. So if you're feeling burnt out from learning, that's fine. Take a break from it. As a matter of fact, I would recommend, talking about time blocks again, Maybe you take 1 or 2 hours out of your Friday or out of your Wednesday or whatever and just block it out. Do nothing during that time, 'cause that time is gonna allow you to think of new things, and when you think of new things, you're gonna wanna learn new things too. If you stop learning, you're gonna stop growing, and if you stop growing, you're gonna start dying. There's 2 different things you can do. Venture capitalist Mark Suster said this, you can either learn or you can earn. So if you're starting out right now, some of you watching this might be starting out, focus on learning, that's totally fine. And when you're ready to start earning, maybe if you don't have any experience at all, start working for free for a little bit. And then you'll start to earn, people will start to pay you for your time, okay? This is all progressions, you're learning first, and then you're earning, you're earning more, it just takes a long time to get there, and it's not a sexy thing to say, but it's true. For anybody that's seen success, it takes a long time to cultivate it. But again, education is something that nobody can ever take away from you, and it's gonna compound over and over. But if you start, replacing that time with consuming, you know, we're talking just watching shows all the time, going out there, you know, partying all the time. Like, all that stuff's fine, but you gotta consider, like, what are your goals, you know, in the long term? If your goals in the long term are just to chill out, that's fine. But the fact that you're watching this right now tells me that you're into making yourself better, you wanna become successful, okay? So, by the way, if you guys are interested in learning, right, learning about how to get more clients, Go to singlegrain.com/client. You see how I threw that in there? We actually have something that you can check out to actually get more clients if you're looking to start some kind of consulting or agency business. Um, so that's, that's kind of the takeaway around this. I'm interested in learning what you're planning on learning next, what book you're planning on reading next, podcast, whatever it is, audiobook, drop it into the comments and let us know what you think. Don't forget to check out the next video and we will see you tomorrow.
