Unlocking The Mysterious Math Of Success

April

30th

Everyone has a number.

Some numbers are more important than others.

And when it comes to success in life and business there is no number more important than this one.

Everyone is playing a numbers game to win in life and in business.

The question is…

Do you know which number is most important?

Why is the #40 important?

Not sure?

Okay…

What about the #401?

Okay, okay, okay… what about the #409?

Not really sure?

Now you will.

This is a MUST listen to 10 minute and 03 second TalkBack that will unlock the mysterious math of succeeding beyond your wildest dreams.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://1dtalpha.s3.amazonaws.com/dta_043008.mp3]

FOURTH WEEK IN A ROW! iTunes gets more than 25,000 new podcast per week. DTAlpha TalkBack remains #1 in iTunes New and Notable for Business Management and Marketing for a FOURTH WEEK IN A ROW! We thank you for your love and support.

Hummmm! So you’re not an iTunes TalkBack Subscriber? Well, subscribe today to the DTAlpha TalkBack Podcast in iTunes and get a free copy of my 133 page “Make Real Money On The Internet” book shipped directly to your door. Plus you also get exclusive iTunes only content! Click here to subscribe to this Podcast in iTunes (requires iTunes). View the video in the April 3rd 2008 post for easy step-by-step instructions for subscribing in iTunes.

Now, be sure to TalkBack to me while you’re here. I’m very interested in your point of view on this mysterious math of success. So, TalkBack. I’m all ears… and I’m listening.

Next Post: The Path To Peak Performance In Anything

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Posted in Personal Development

34 Responses to “Unlocking The Mysterious Math Of Success”

Malissa:

April 30, 2008 at 5:44 am

Great lesson Stephen,

Most definatly have a number… It happens to be 379 or variations of it.. like 37 or 79 etc… or even just 3.

Keep up the great lessons Stephen.

Thanks
Mal
http://www.stickydosh.com

[Reply]
axileon:

April 30, 2008 at 6:01 am

hi stephen.. that’s a real nice story… i din know about the story about wd-40…

well… so our aim is to get a number … the smaller the better?

great job =)

[Reply]
Vince:

April 30, 2008 at 6:33 am

Hi Stephen
You have me thinking again, you top man you!
First response to my number was 82 as this is a code for my name produced from an old memory course. next thought was 1 as the first step is so important that without it nothing would be accomplished.
Next thought was a variable as in interest rates and combining this with x the unknown tying in with your comments that you don’t know until you have finished trying and only stop when you have suceeded to achieve your goal.
Next thought is whatever the final number was plus 1 add infinitum. As improvement is always a possibility.
Last thought takes me back to 1 to start the process all over again.
(Goes off to find the missing number)

Thanks for the stimulas Stephen
Best wishes
Vince

PS When looking for good ideas I remember a course that said write down answers to your problem and find at least 20 and you will usually find the best solution is the 20th. Has anybody found this to be true apart from me?
Twitter: vince_mullo

[Reply]
PV Reymond:

April 30, 2008 at 7:40 am

Hey Stephen it is a great point.

Many times numbers can be a great way to go. They can create magic effects, you just have to see what kind of numbers can work for you.

When it comes to success I think the most important number is how long it will take you to achieve success, here is where the numbers play a very important role because if you set up a deadline then you know that everyday you have to do something in order to achieve your success the specific date you set up or sooner.

Then you start your countdown and when you see that you are progressing you start getting more excited and you work harder because your goal is closer.

Thanks,
^PV Reymond

http://www.pvreymond.com/success.htm
Twitter: pvreymond

[Reply]
Nickolove Lovemore:

April 30, 2008 at 8:31 am

Hi Stephen,

How interesting! I often refer to WD40 but had no idea of the origin of its name. (I teach Pilates and a lot of my students have creaky joints so I joke with them about using WD40.)

Today’s TalkBack is a great reminder of the value of persistence for as Napoleon Hill so aptly said:

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.”

Also, I wrote an article on the same theme as today’s TalkBack which also highlights the accomplishments of those who initially met with repeated failure and or rejection yet persisted until victory was theirs.

In one case, the individual did not actually live to see his dream in reality but it is because of their enormous vision that today we have something that brings pleasure to millions all across the world.

You can check out “Fail Your Way to Success” by clicking the link below:

Skyline Coaching Blog: Fail Your Way to Success

Best wishes

Nickolove
Twitter: Nickolove

[Reply]
Juan Peguero:

April 30, 2008 at 8:32 am

Stephen,
I heard about this group of people that meets once a year.
They greeting each other is by asking, what’s your number?
The typical response to the question is by giving two numbers.
For example: ” My number is 5 and 10, or 15 and 6, so on and so on.
Someone notice this unsual greeting and the answered revealed that the first number means the number of years that particular person could mantain his current life style from that moment on without having to lift a finger.
The second number stand for number of months.
I head that’s the goal was 20 years!!!
Being able to stop right now and support my current life style for the next 20 years, that’s powerful indeed!

Stephen,
Don’t mind me asking… what’s your number?

Thanks for ANOTHER great piece of information.

[Reply]
Roosevelt Cooper:

April 30, 2008 at 10:27 am

Hi Stephen,

I wish my number was 1, but I’m willing for my number to be 1000 if it has to. Whatever it takes to reach my goals.

One question I have is where you said if something isn’t working try something else. How do you know when its time to try something else vs when you just haven’t giving your activity enough time to produce positive results for you?

Roosevelt Cooper
http://www.web204mlm.com

[Reply]
John Hunter:

April 30, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Thanks Stephen for the reminder; that everything we are is related to a number.

Learning to properly use them will be one of the keys to being successful

Thanks again

John

[Reply]
Kim:

April 30, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Thanks Stephen,

Numbers are important in everything we do…

Very Interesting info about WD40, never new the story behind the name, thanks for sharing.

Have a FANTASTIC DTAlpha Day!

Kim Parsley
More numbers to know in your business…your profits…
with… http://EasyMoneyManagementSystem.com

[Reply]
peter put:

April 30, 2008 at 4:21 pm

…posse

i guess my current number is 2834 …

i have endurance and willpower,
but my intuition about the ‘right’ choice
(or stopping the ‘bad’ road)
seems to be wavering,
leading me sometimes to question my self-esteem+gutfeeling,
and putting a hold on my potentials…

peter

[Reply]
Derrick Carpenter:

April 30, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Thanks Stephen,

Today’s TalkBack is similar to a story I give to my new teammates read on:

‘Age 25 – Welcome to your desk

Has anyone ever asked you, ‘How hard do I have to work?’ when it came to being successful in marketing our business?
We hear it a lot. We talk to a lot of people. It kind of seems like a strange question, doesn’t it?
We once tried to figure it out. You know, do the math behind it. It wasn’t easy.
We first figured out how hard someone would have to work if they had a job their whole life. We had them start at age 25, because many people screw around at college or backpack across Europe, or bounce around from lousy job to lousy job and party for a few years. So we planned for 7 years after high school to enjoy the last remnants of youth before they were crushed by the work-a-day world.

Age 25 -Welcome to your desk: You’ll sit here from 9 am to 5 pm every day from Monday to Friday. You’ll take a 10 minute break everyday at 10:15, and again at 3:00. Your lunch break is scheduled from 12:15 to12:50 everyday. Every second Friday you’ll get an envelope with $1750, Only 40 years to go….A working drone giving 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year with two weeks off per year for good behavior, for 40 years of his or her life will ultimately give their employer 80,000 HOURS!
80,000 hours of your life. Even at $15 bucks an hour you’ll make $1.2 million. At $50 grand a year, that’s $2 million in lifetime earnings….

Then why are 95% of seniors unable to write a check for $500 bucks in their ‘golden years’?

There are only 3 answers to the question ‘How hard do I have to work to be successful in PPL?’.

1.) I’ll try.
2.) I’ll do my best.
3.) I’ll do whatever it takes.

Answers 1 and 2 mean failure, 100% failure in not just in our business, but in life.
Try all you want. Life and our business are both too hard to just try.

What about trying your best?

Your best ain’t good enough! You aren’t born with what it takes to build a huge consumer network filled with people who believe in something.

Your best ain’t good enough. You must get better. You must be willing to do what ever it takes. You must work harder on yourself, than any other aspect of this business.

What is the alternative?

Give 80,000 of the best hours of your life to an employer. That program has a 95% failure rate.

Do whatever it takes!’

[Reply]
Kerri in Brisbane:

April 30, 2008 at 6:05 pm

What a great idea!

I’m going to start keeping track of all of my ventures from now on and number them.

I always heard about how many times Edison experimented with the lightbulb and Col Sanders with selling his KFC recipe but it never occured to me to keep track of my own ventures.

Love it, thanks for the inspiration

[Reply]
Ken Meakin:

April 30, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Hi Stevephon makes me think of the saying life begins at 40. we have birthday mile stone partys at 18 21 then 40. The richest man in my area of the uk owns a chain of mobile (cell)phone shops called phones4u.my car plate is km02 the year I got married 2002. my email start with km004. should it be km40 but yet again I am comming 43.
from james bond 007 no not really km43
km004z6629@blueyonder.co.uk

[Reply]
Dianne Kneller:

April 30, 2008 at 7:36 pm

Excellent Talkback Stephen,

Definitely food for thought..

My new number is DK403, initials, and 40 + 3 years old

That’s my new favourite number, because that is when I found the Mentors Club..which now you are a part of too, I knew I would stop going around in circles eventually, & find what I love to do, & giving up or quitting was never an option for me..

“If at first you don’t succeed , try, try, & try again.” or just join in @ Mentors Club.. LOL..

http://www.TheMentorsClub.com

Have a great day,
Dianne in NZ
“Make 2008, Great”

[Reply]
Steve Pohlit:

April 30, 2008 at 7:51 pm

The number is irrelevant. What really is important focus. Most know the Edison story where every time his experiment didn’t yield the intended results and Thomas said I am one more test closer to the results I intended.

Stephen – I love how you developed this message. Truly awesome. I only add to make the number irrelevant be on purpose – follow you passion then there are no setbacks.

Steve Pohlit, Business Development Consultant
http://www.stevereports.com

[Reply]
John Spark:

April 30, 2008 at 8:57 pm

” Whats my number?” Great question…
Now you have me thinking…I like the macro/micro view option. Maybe I should add up all the products and seminars I have purchased or attended?

That will be an interesting number!!!

Cheers

John C Spark

.

[Reply]
Nikki Jourdan:

April 30, 2008 at 9:11 pm

Stephen,

You are deep, ha!
Your question requires some thought.
Thanks again.

Nikki Jourdan
Twitter: overcomebylove

[Reply]
Raymond Chua:

April 30, 2008 at 11:40 pm

That’s a nice one, Stephen.

I don’t know what my number is and I’ll start counting.

What about yours? Did you count yours?
Twitter: raymond8

[Reply]
Dan:

May 1, 2008 at 2:08 am

Very interesting, Stephen.

Thanks for info..

http://www.logobogo.com

[Reply]
John Peace Law-of-Attraction-Guide:

May 1, 2008 at 2:48 am

Success and failure are not measures of have or have not, they cannot be judged by the size or the amount of our possessions, they are not destinations that we can look at and pass judgement on.

In Napoleon Hill’s book the Science of Getting Rich, he writes about R.U. Darby and the “Dig and Grow Rich” story, Hill shares with us the story of Darby’s uncle who in the last century, was caught by ‘gold fever’ and went West to dig for gold.

“He staked a claim and went to work with a pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.”

But after months of failing to find there ‘Pot of Gold’, they decided to quit.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some ‘junk’ men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with ‘fault lines.’ His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darby’s had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!

The junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.”

So is this failure?

As a chapter of Darby’s life, this project is a failure, as the Darby’s quit and gave up on their dreams, only to find that they were only three feet from realising them. But in the contents of Darby’s life it is not failure.

You see Darby took the lesson of success through persistence that he had so harshly learned in his short mining career and applied it to everything he did. As a result Darby became one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who, at that time, sold over a million dollars in life insurance annually.

So what is failure?

Absolute failure is the habit of quitting, while failing with renewed determination to achieve is a stepping-stone to success.

Throughout history, in the world of commerce and science, we see this pattern of failure, determination, persistence and success. How many millionaires have a bankruptcy against their name? How many experiments by the likes of Edison and Bell failed, before they reached the conclusion they had been seeking?

It is with passion and faith that we will have the power of persistence. It is with belief that the Law of Attraction will be invoked and our journey of success will be realized.

To Achieve you must first Conceive and then Believe.

With Gratitude Stephen, and always, love your work.

John Peace
The Law of Attraction Guide.

[Reply]
theconjurer:

May 1, 2008 at 4:00 am

hi
Stephen
great call as ever,but this one meant more as this one was on my birthday
thanx again

[Reply]
Mir:

May 1, 2008 at 4:52 am

Hi Stephen,

Great Point, good that you brought this up. I have been thinking about this number for long time.
I will let you know when I got it. How about yourself, what is your magic number? Not your social security number

Keep up the good work.
Mir

Buy Multimedia Devices Online

[Reply]
Dr Stan Harris:

May 1, 2008 at 8:56 am

Stephen,
Thanks again for a great thought provoking talk. We have to “committ to be bad, long enough to get good”, therefore the number may vary.

Every Champion says and lives by, “I will until”.

Dr Stan Harris

http://www.TheInternetMentor.com
http://www.DrBreakThrough.com

[Reply]
Karim:

May 1, 2008 at 10:02 am

Hi everyone, hi Stephen,
Great thought propelling episode! And thanks for sharing it.
I agree with Vince. We can’t know that number right from the beginning. One must try, fail, try and try again and again the number of times that are needed in order to get to the goal.
The most important is simply to continue trying as long as you firmly believe you’re going to find the best way to jump start your business, until you succeed in getting to your final goal.
I tried to do like Vince, and I wrote the list of the twenty ideas that came to mind about the most important number in anyone’s business. It could be cool if everyone shared his list of 20 here.
Here I go:
1 The number one “1” : doing only ONE thing at a time and building One business at a time,
2 the number of your PR public relations, business/celebrity contacts etc.
3 your traffic number (website)
4 number of your expertise domains
5 the number of your multiple sources of income
6 the number of your new good and best clients
7 the number of quality/effective sources of information you are using
8 the number of your very knowledge-able friends that give you advice when needed (mentors, coaches, simple but true friends…)
9 the number of very effective marketing strategies you have in stock in order to attain your objective
10 the number of tasks you have to do everyday, your daily list of priorities (check-list)
11 the number of new money making ideas that you are able to find
12 the number of your overlooked assets
13 the number of dollars to make in a determined period of time
14 the number of markets where you are present
15 the number of niche market needs that you are able to detect in a particular period of time
16 the number of times per day when you take the time to re-think (think again) about the best way to do a task, a work, and brake bad habits
17 the number of minutes per day where you relax on your chair –meditate- just shutting your eyes, breathing deeply and slowly, and doing absolutely nothing else, …
18 time spent with your family: number of hours (or even minutes) that you share with your family everyday, and the number of days that you share with them every month,
19 the number of new things (techniques/abilities) that you learn to do every single day
20 the number of case studies and success stories that one analyses and explores from every possible angle, and determining the number of all the elements that came into action and produced these particular results.
Back to #1: the number “One”:One focus. One strong plain focus on one thing and only the current task at hand.
I think there are a lot of possibilities to the most important number in one’s business, and it could be cool if everyone shared his list in Stephen’s blog.
Finally, I think that the secret in attaining a determined goal (and keep the system working!) isn’t really in numbers, the true secret is in the type of functions that provide the desired result. The numbers may help (a function doesn’t work without numbers,) the functions use and provide numbers, and without persistence and one special focus, everything could drop in the water!

Thank’s Stephen for maintaining this blog/function, I’m just a number

Sorry for my English, lol.

See you!
K’

[Reply]
Lou:

May 1, 2008 at 11:27 am

You got me thinking, I have a great daytrading method and
I am wanting to find a good way to market it , I have
not yet figured it out, 918.6374775, but I am still tring
to make contact with a outstanding marketer. Lou

[Reply]
Tips Tips & Some more Tips to speed up your website:

May 2, 2008 at 3:45 am

Hi Stephen readers n posters … What’s Your Lucky Number? Don’t have one? … you can even find this info online … Some people believe they’re ruled by the moon, the stars—maybe even by Mystic Meg. Thankfully there is another possibility. Your driving force could be rooted in an ancient symbol of mystical philosophy, the Enneagram. Part sacred icon, part personality chart, the nine-pointed Enneagram sheds light on your core strengths and weaknesses.

Find out what it says about you – take the test!
http://uk.tickle.com/test/number.html

“What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?” “I don’t know, ” said Alice, “I lost count.” “She can’t do addition,” said the Red Queen.

All my best to you and Your Lucky Number
Phillip Skinner

PS: Just a paused thought? … The Most Important Number of Your Lifetime The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth. Since the pre-Industrial Revolution and for the entire evolution of the human species, concentration of carbon in the atmosphere remained roughly 275 parts per million. Until recently, scientists and policymakers have focused on what would happen if that number doubled to 550 and whether or not we could curtail human production of carbon enough to stop short of that point. Yes we could, but with immense difficulty. In the past five years, scientists grew concerned that the planet was reacting more quickly than expected to the approximately one degree fahrenheit increase in global temperature recorded over the past century.

The rapid melt of most glacial systems, for instance, convinced many that 450 parts per million was a more prudent target. The news this fall that Arctic sea ice was melting at an off-the-charts pace and data from Greenland suggesting that its giant ice sheet was starting to slide into the ocean make even 450 look too high. Now, according to NASA scientist, James Hansen, the bottom line for the planet is 350 parts per million carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are currently at 383 parts per million.

[Reply]
Geoff Dodd JV:

May 2, 2008 at 5:53 am

Stephen,

The WD40 story reminds me of Edison inventing the electric light bulb (globe) – and that took over 1,000 relentless tries! The formula naming game triggers my imagination. 411 info 800 711 24/7 365 – yeah, they’re interesting and fascinating …

Geoff Dodd
Australia
http://www.SoftwareClub.tk/blog
49er

[Reply]
Jimmi:

May 6, 2008 at 2:00 am

Hi Stephen,

The way I see it You only need one number and I think this will be the number for me.
The number that I am thinking about is the number 1.

Why is it the number 1? – Well it is not because I want to be “Number 1″ as such. I choose the number 1 because it signifies “One more time” – “One attept more” – “One more go at it” and so on.

I can never know how many times I need to try to make something work. But every time I fail I know that I must give it One more try. – And if I fail again, then I must give it One more try.

On a more spiritual level, the number One shall represent unity. It reminds me, that I am not seperate from other people and the world; I do not need to Label other people or myself as being second, third and so on. – I can be number one and so can you; just because I am number one does not mean that you have to be number two. – We are all on the same level basically; we are all one.
I just had a thought… Is it not funny that we define the whole of a mass of people with the word; everyONE? And if we talk about “no people” then we are talking about noONE. – Now I am just playing around here, but it seems that “people” and “one” link together.

Well anyway I like my choise of number. The number one is perfect in so many ways and spiritually it is a powerful “idea” that could end wars, hunger, surpression, greed and so on… These things can only exist because of the feeling of seperateness amongst man. – I am personally not surprised by the fact that seperateness brings about so much pain and suffering; man was simply not meant to feel seperate from one another – the result HAS to be pain.

Yaeh! The way I see it, the number one is just perfect for me. – I kind of driftet off from the subject at hand, but I am sure that I still made my point.

Kind Regards

Jimmi

[Reply]
Julia:

May 7, 2008 at 12:15 am

When something doesn’t work, just say “Next”.

When someone says “Not interested”, just say “Next”

Instead of focusing on the “failures” keep striving for the “Wins”

How many times you say “Next” doesn’t matter, as long as you keep going forward with a positive approach to your next person or experiment.

Learn form your attempts, but don’t dwell on why they didn’t work, try a new approach.

I’ve never kept track of how many times I have done small things, but I have an idea about how many times “I have been to Hades and Back” – physically and financially, but the getting Back, getting up again is what I focus on and each time plan on staying on the upward track.

Again, this was a timely TalkBack for me, maybe I will count the attempts to get my new business to take off and soar, or just keep saying “Next” after the “not interested” and “interested” replies.

Though I believe as long as I focus on each person as a new individual and a new conversation, how many “not interested” people I contact really doesn’t matter.

Namaste,
Julia

[Reply]
Jean-Marc Laurillard:

May 7, 2008 at 7:17 am

Hello *

my SMCC number so far is 2, i have try 2 times from scratch to get it going
but i am still here and my day job as well, in which i am doing very well..
so i will keep going, my second attempt has been further than the first on and since my mind set has changed about this all IM.
I guess i will not have a third one from scratch but it will be 21, which means the first strat of another facet of IM coming from the result of 2… continuity….
at the end of the day my number will look like something like that
232361239324221233223445111111111111111111…… Hehehhe
have fun
Jean Marc

[Reply]
Mark Stratton:

May 10, 2008 at 6:30 pm

Hi Stephen,
You hit the nail right on the head.

Take Thomas Edison for instance; When asked, he replied, I never failed,
I just discovered 1000 ways not to make a light bulb.

If I might add something here…
“A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins”
Anyone that has never made a mistake has never learned a thing,
and will make it nowhere in life fast.

As for myself, I don’t know the meaning of the word quit,
and as far as my # goes, I’m still at One…. Yeh, Right;~o

Success Can Be Yours If You Dream Big And Stay Focused!
Thanks,
Mark Stratton
http://www.SecureYourDomainName.com
http://www.TheRealMoney.com

P.S. I made a mistake last year I think, nope I’m mistaken:~)

[Reply]
Elman Sianturi:

May 12, 2008 at 11:41 am

Hi Stephen,

In marketing world, number is everything. No traffic no selling, traffic is about number of guest. Thans for your sharing,realy valuable to improve my business.

Regards

Elman Sianturi
http://www.XtremWealth.com
http://www.sixfigureincomeschool.com

[Reply]
Mark Collard:

May 14, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Stephen, my number is unknown at this time, because I continue to persist. I think I’m up to something like my 8th version of my website and internet marketing strategies, and each time, I get better and better. My aim – to make #9 my magic number, or maybe #10, and if not, certainly #11 – and then I’ll really raise the roof!!

til next time, Mark

How To Win Lotto Prizes Frequently – Guaranteed!

Ice-Breakers & Group Games That Work “No Props: Great Games with No Equipment” by Mark Collard

[Reply]
enGAYge:

May 27, 2008 at 2:48 am

It’s Levis 501 jeans that are the most popular jeans they’ve ever created. Not 401 jeans…JESUS!!!

[Reply]