Your success is directly proportional to the effort that you put in. – AUDIO NSFW
Guys, I want to talk to you guys about one secret of many secrets to success. Obviously, that’s the clickbait title that I put online here, but it doesn’t matter. No one’s actually gonna watch this because no one actually cares. Most people just want to be entertained. I’m gonna give it to you right here. I’m gonna give it to you right here, right now up, front and then we’re gonna review it to at the end after four examples from my life.
One of the secrets to success is simply this. Your success, your rewards, your success is directly proportional to the effort that you put in. That’s it! That’s it guys. Your success, your rewards, your outcome is directly proportional to the grind, the effort, the hustle, the no-quit attitude that you put in. This is a true secret to success! It really is! I figured it out. There’s a lot of them and I want to cover a lot of them over our time together here. This has to be the first one that I really talk about kind of in depth on this new podcast platform.
Guys, the secret to success is that your rewards, your outcome is directly proportional to the effort you put in. The hardest part about this idea is the execution of this “secret”. It’s the execution because no one wants to work that hard. No one wants to do what is necessary. Everybody wants to become an overnight success. That’s why the lotto system is so sticky, it’s so addicting because man, you don’t have to do anything! You just have to pay a dollar. You just have to pay two dollars. A couple bucks guys and you’re in the game for imminent success.
You know when I figured this out, when I realized this through life experience is that that my success, my rewards, my outcome is indirectly proportion to the effort that I put in. When this clicked, it made so much sense to me because I’m a data guy. I’m a data guy. I’m a math guy. I’m a code guy. Inputs/outputs baby. I’ll take it. Inputs outputs are easy. Input X, output Y. Simple as pie guys.
So for me as a data guy, as a math guy of functions, as a computer scientist, as a coder, this made a lot of sense to me. You put in X and you get out Y. Now, I realized this through many different experiences in my life and I want to go through them with you. I want to talk about them because these are parts of my life and it gives you an insight to the background of what I’ve done. It’s also an opportunity to exercise the thinking process in the memory process of what happened, what transpired in those earlier days for me.
My first example I want to give you of this function to being absolutely true is my growing up and wanting to be a professional soccer player. I grew up in the years of which Maradona, Pele, these types of individuals were the men on my wall besides the Diablo Lamborghini and the Murcielago and these types of things. These were the men on my wall. I wanted to play division soccer in college. I wanted to play pro soccer. It was something that was on my mind.
When we had moved to Japan, my father knowing this got us plugged in to a Japanese soccer club when we were there. I speak no Japanese when I got there, but we played on this Japanese soccer club on the gravel. If any of you guys know in Japan, you practice on gravel fields. It’s hard to find yourself often grass field. So we used to scrape the fucking shit of our legs playing on these gravel fields in Tokyo, Japan.
After moving from Tokyo back to the States, we got we got into a private high school with the focus on athletics. There’s a lot of Olympic swimmers that come out of this particular school. World renowned swimmers, world renowned football players, baseball players, I could name a couple, but I won’t. This school had a lot of focus on sports. My brother and I had gotten recruited to this school and we joined the varsity team in 9th grade coming in from Japan.
During this time in Jacksonville, Florida, where we lived, during this time, I also played on the Jacksonville Jaguars, a travel soccer team as well as was looking into ODP or Olympic Development. Long story short, I had, let’s just say, anger issues in my high school days which my senior year, I only played like six games the entire season in senior year. You know why? Because I kept getting yellow cards. I kept getting red cards. I kept getting kicked out of the games because I couldn’t control my emotions.
If we make the long story even shorter, I ended up playing D3. I ended up playing Division 3 soccer, not Division 1 but Division 3 soccer up in New York City right out of high school and I didn’t want it that bad. After my freshman season red shirting by the way, I never actually played. I did the two-a-day practices early in the morning practice, school, school, school. No social life after school practice. I did all of that entire season, red shirted, never played. The reason is frankly, I didn’t it. I didn’t want it that bad.
You see, my success, my rewards, the outcome was directly proportional to the effort that I put in. I didn’t want it that bad! I floated and here’s a really unique thing. This is can be a travesty. This could be a travesty especially if you’re later in life, but for me, this was an event which opened my eyes to the power of toasting.
I could be successful in soccer in middle school, on travel teams, Olympic development teams. I could be successful at high school level merely because of my talent. But when I got in to the bigger games, the division league in university, I didn’t want it that bad. I didn’t want it enough. My talent couldn’t take me to D1. It couldn’t take me to Division 1 and I didn’t work hard enough to get my skills and my natural inborn talent to the level required to be able to play in Division 1 soccer.
This is one of the travesties. One of the traps of life is that our natural talents can only get us so far and for some of us, we’re still living on our natural talents into our 30s and 40s. We want to get to the next level, but we never really wanted it that bad. We just coasted for decades on our natural talents and frankly, it’s not enough. My success in soccer was directly proportional to the effort that I was willing to put. I quit after my freshman year. I quit. The dream was done because I didn’t want it enough.
Another dream that I had, another goal that I had was to win a power lifting contest in my early 20s. win a power lifting contest. I thought this was a novel idea. I thought this was a novel idea and I decided to go for it. I remember one of my friends, Tom, I said, hey, I want to do power lifting. I wanna see if I can get a state record. I wanna see if I can do something like this. So I did the research. I put in the time. I learned how to eat right, how to lift right, all the forms. I would wake up in the fucking morning at 3:00 to eat because I had to maintain weight to be able to put up the weight. You can’t put up heavy weight with nothing. Ya gots to eat.
I put in the time two a day—work out before work, work out after work. Same idea. I wanted it bad. The great thing about this particular goal is that the goal was short a short term. It wasn’t a long term goal. It’s a short term goal so I could achieve this.
My reward, my goal is to win a championship. Win a weightlifting contest. Happened. And I achieved it and I won a broadsword. There should be a picture right here. A picture right here of the broadsword and of me winning that. I had two options when I won. The two options they could either give me a battle axe or a broadsword. I chose the broadsword.
My success, my outcome, my success were in direct proportion to the work that I was willing to put in. I was willing to eat at 3:00 in the morning. I was willing to wake up in the morning early to work out and then after work, go workout again. Because this was doable. I’m challenging myself. I am capable of doing this. This is not hard in terms of the long term ideas. This is a lot of short-term pain. It took me three years to build up to being competition-ready, but you know what, it’s doable. It’s totally doable and I got the reward that I wanted which was a fucking broadsword and winning a state title, the Southern Powerlifting Federation.
You want to know another goal that I had? Three master’s degrees. A million dollars later and three master’s degrees, guys. This was a goal of mine. The goal of mine was to understand how humans worked from educational cognitive and cultural and religious and spiritual standpoint. I got a master’s in education with the focus on cognitive learning theory. The second master’s degree in counselling focusing on organizational behavior, human behavior, especially in groups. My third master’s degree master’s divinity focused on religion and apologetics. Kind of makes sense because I do like to apologize for things that I’m passionate about. You see this was a goal that I had. This is a very tangible real goal.
You work, you do the class work, you play the game, you study, you pass the tests, you submit the papers, you submit the dissertations, you defend your ideas, and then you get the reward. My reward, my success in getting three master’s degrees was in direct proportion to the effort that I was willing to put in. This was a noble goal. It was totally doable, but the effort is required. The effort is required.
Let me give you my longest my longest grind that I’ve ever been on. Twelve years and then I retired. I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to be one of the best software development consultants on the planet and I ended up becoming the youngest Certified Scrum Trainer in the world. At the time, there were only about 200 of us. I became the youngest Certified Scrum trainer. Over these 12 years, I trained over 16,000. I handed over out over 16,000 certifications in conferences and workshops.
Man, I’m just thinking about right now the effort that was required to do that. It was crazy getting this Certified Scrum Trainer designation. Let’s be intellectually honest, this is an old boy network. When you’re talking about 200 people in the world, able to certify people into Scrum Masters, Scrum product owners, these types of the things in agile, man, it was an old boy network. You know what I had to do? For three and a half years, I had to travel all over the world to co-train with existing trainers who have been certified CSTs, Certified Scrum Trainers. I had to travel for three and a half years all over the world on my own expense to co-train and co-coach with these other coaches and trainers so that I could get their letter of recommendation to the board.
I had to travel all over the world to do this. I also had to get ten plus recommendations from c-level executives to prove that I could truly consult at the highest echelons of corporate and business. I had to do it. By the way, I also knocked out two books. The second book was published by John Wiley and Sons which is the #1 business publisher in the world. Check it out Peter Saddington, The Agile Pocket Guide, on Amazon.
You see this is a 12-year grind. I got rejected three times for my CST designation. The first time I got rejected I think I had 4, 5, 6 CST recommendations out of pocket. We’re talking about flights, travel, car, food. All that stuff. I think I spent over $120,000 of flights alone just to get this thing. So I got rejected at six and then I had like two recommendations from c-level executives. So went back to work got more, travelled more. I think the next time, I had like nine recommendations from CSTs and I think I’ve had maybe seven or eight recommendations from executives at large organizations and I got rejected again second time. I got rejected fucking again.
I mean I think it was two years in by now. Two years into this trying to achieve this goal. This was the time when you really begin to question. You really begin to question all the hard work and what you’re trying to do. By the way, I was also getting the three master’s degrees while I was doing all of this.
Then I got rejected a third time and at the third rejection, I had 12 CST recommendations. 12 CST recommendations. I travel all over the world to do this. And to get on these guy’s schedules was almost impossible because they’re so busy anyway. All these CS Ts, myself included, when I finally got it, we’re all making millions of dollars a year guys.
Let’s to be intellectually honest. I was crushing it. Man, with my work ethic, fuck! My third time that I got rejected and was that I had 12 CST recommendations and 10 CEO CTO CIO recommendations from large organizations, Fortune 500 companies and I got rejected. And I found out why because there was this guy in the system who when I was at a conference, he told me to my face that he had rejected me just because I don’t even know why. He just was just being an asshole.
Finally, long story short, someone who had mentored me, who ended up purchasing and acquiring my consultancy here in Atlanta, by the way—thank you my man—he mentored me, he helped me, he gave me a recommendation and he helped me push it through. He helped me push my application through after three rejections and he just thought it was bullshit. Other people I’ve been accepted into the CST ranks with less recommendations, with nothing and nearly as close to what I had. I had to work my ass off.
Ask my fucking wife, who I was never here for because of traversing the world trying to achieve the highest level of Scrum and Agile certification. How much she sacrificed—12 years of building an Agile and an organizational company at the same time while trying to get a dadgum fucking designation to allow me to do the coolest stuff, trained in some of the coolest places.
I wanted to see what the insides of these powerful technology companies and what they were doing. I wanted to know and I needed to get these designations. I needed to publish these books. I need to speak at keynotes. I need to do all this stuff. 12 years of work so I could earn the right to stand in front of Fortune 50 company CEOs and tell them that I can help them improve their business. I had to earn the right to do that.
You see, my success in the software development consulting world and the publishing world and the conference circuit world—those rewards, that outcome was in direct proportion to the effort I put in. And fuck did I sacrifice life, did I sacrifice pleasure, did I sacrifice relationships! I sacrificed a lot to achieve it. And then I retired.
And I moved into cryptocurrency to build something that no one else has ever built before. You see, I think I’m making it pretty clear and I hope and I don’t expect any of you guys to compare yourselves to me because remember, I go back to my podcast on comparison. Please don’t ever compare yourself to me ever. I am mentally handicapped. I have a genetic disorder which requires me to work.
There are some people that just don’t have it in them. I have a rare genetic disease in which when I wake up, the first thing I want to do is work. I just want to get to work. I want to build. I’m a builder. And so the function is really simple guys. If I haven’t made it clear through my life, through growing up and trying to achieve greatness in soccer, to winning a powerlifting contest, to achieving three master’s degrees, and to spending 12 years getting a designation in building an organizational consultancy which was eventually acquired by my mentor.
You see all of this was achieved through one of the secrets to success that I positioned us in the beginning of this. Your success, your rewards, your outcome is in direct proportion to the effort that you put in. It’s that easy. It’s that easy.
And you say, well, Peter that’s not very helpful. Help me more. What does this mean? What does effort mean? Well, I’ll tell you. I wrote it down. What does the effort mean? Your success is directly proportional to the effort that you put in. Here’s how what effort is. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. Do more. Do more. Work harder than anyone else. I can’t find anyone when I enter into a market and maybe it’s just because I’m a green bean in that market, but I can’t find anyone in that market that I’ve just entered in, if it’s a new project, new interest, I don’t know anyone that works harder than I do.
Work harder than everyone else. What are you waiting for? The reason why I could only get to Division 3 soccer is because I didn’t want it. I wasn’t willing to work harder than other people. Maybe it’s also because I didn’t have good field vision, but that’s beside the point. My talent could get me to the start, but I couldn’t finish because I wasn’t willing to put the work in. Don’t fucking give up. That’s what effort is.
Program your goal. Program yourself every dadgum day! A lot of people in my community know that I keep my goals on my mirror. When I wake up, the first thing I see is my fucking goals in the mirror every day. I have to face myself. I have to look at myself and I have to sometimes despise myself for doing so because it’s so blatant. It’s so obvious. It’s right there. I can’t ignore it. I have to do it. It’s only me versus me because no one else is waiting on me to do things. No one else is waiting for me to achieve my dreams.
Reprogram yourself. Program yourself towards the goal every day. Remind yourself. Work harder than everyone else. Remind yourself. There’s no off days. I’m sorry, there’s no off days. I know. I know. I know. People are always like smell the roses… Sometimes you do, sometimes you do. Sometimes you have to. Find the balance there but I’ll tell you the idea here is no off days. What are you taking vacations from? Hard work? Did you want it?
Be your own standard of greatness. Be your own standard of hard work. Be exactly what you want to be for the goals that you have. Do you have goals? Do you have things that you want to achieve? Do you have places you want to see? Things you want to do? People you want to meet? If so, then your rewards are in direct proportion to the effort that you put in. That’s one of the secrets to success. Tell me, where do you need to lean in a little bit more?
This is Peter, the Bitcoin Lambo. If you enjoyed this episode, share it, share with someone, encourage someone, remind yourself, remind them that success is directly proportional to the effort you put on. Subscribe, smash the like button, share it far and wide. Have a great day guys.