Introduction

What's the Main Difference Between
People Who Achieve and People
Who Are Average?
We are all failures—at least, all the best of us are.
—J. M. BARRIE

What makes achievers excel? W h y do some people skyrocket
while others plummet? You know what I'm talking about. You
can call it luck, blessing, or the Midas touch—call it whatever
you want. But the truth is that some people just seem to
achieve incredible things in spite of tremendous difficulties:
They finish in the top 5 percent in nationwide sales for their
company after losing key accounts. They find ingenious ways
to increase profits for their department in the face of budget
cuts. They earn a graduate degree while raising two children as
a single parent. They discover awesome business
opportunities while colleagues don't see any at all. Or they
recruit winner after winner into their organization despite what
looks like an anemic labor pool. It doesn't matter what kind of
work they do. Wherever they are, they just seem to make
things happen.
Certainly all people like to think of themselves as above
average. But achievers seem to leave "average" in the dust—
so far behind them that ordinary seems a distant memory.