Movies make success look easy, but in real life it's way harder.
However, there's a five-hour rule used by the most successful people in the world, and
many of them credit it with at least some of their successes.
Here's the truth behind the five-hour rule.
Everyone has a big goal they dream of achieving, whether it’s becoming a world-renowned tennis
star or running for President of the United States.
Plenty of people will tell you that the key to success is hard work - but what about the
people who work hard, yet never quite reach their goals?
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, one important factor in success isn’t just how hard you
work, but how you choose to spend your spare time.
While finishing an exhausting workday by melting into the couch and binge watching Netflix
is certainly understandable, it’s definitely not productive.
The five-hour rule encourages putting down the remote and spending your after-work hours
diving into a good book.
A five-year study by Thomas Corley found that entrepreneurs who came to prominence from
average backgrounds usually had great reading habits.
This led entrepreneur Michael Simmons to coin a philosophy he named the five-hour rule:
one hour a day of concentrated reading, practice, or education, practiced five days a week.
Some of the world’s most successful people swear by this concept, including Bill Gates,
Oprah Winfrey, and Warren Buffett.
And while the five-hour rule may sound simple, it’s actually more complex than you’d
think.
According to Michael Simmons, the way entrepreneurial-minded individuals educate themselves can be sorted
into three methods - or as Simmons calls them, buckets: reading, reflection, and experimentation.
The first bucket is reading - and don't even try to pretend like you don’t have time
to read.
“When’s the last time you actually read this book, Oprah?”
“No, you didn’t...”
If Oprah has time, you definitely do, too.
No matter how cluttered your calendar is, you've definitely got less on your plate than
the president of the United States.
According to the New York Times, former President Barack Obama is such a bookworm that he credits
his reading habit with helping him survive those eight stressful years in the White House.
He even wrote his own book during his presidency.
Like we said - you have time.
According to Inc. magazine, readers not only tend to live longer than non-readers, but
they're generally more creative and open-minded.
Both of these qualities spur innovative thinking.
Also, while snobs might look down on you for reading fiction, the Washington Post reports
that one study found reading fiction improves a person's empathy and theory of mind, since
books force us to step into the shoes of others and understand why they make certain choices
or act a specific way.
To put it simply, reading makes us better people.
Reflection is the second bucket of the five hour rule, and while it’s just as important
as reading, it’s not quite as easy.
Spending an hour chewing on the memory of your latest embarrassing failure might not
be the most fun way to spend a rainy Thursday night, but it is a key way to avoid future
failures.
Reflection leads to improvement, and improvement is necessary for success.
As Harvard Business Review explains, an openness to self-reflection is what separates good
leaders from bad leaders.
Even if you're not the boss, one study showed that when employees in a call center consciously
spent just 15 minutes a day for 10 consecutive days reflecting on any pros or cons from their
completed shift, they performed an astonishing 23 percent better than those who didn't reflect.
Don’t be afraid to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
Failure sucks.
Whether it's a lost job, a scraped knee, or a terrible break-up, everybody's been there
- even Batman!
Luckily, Alfred always knows just what to say.
“Why do we fall, sir?
So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
Innovation only comes when people stick out their necks out and try new things, which
is why "experimentation" is considered the third and final bucket.
As explained by Thomas Oppong, entrepreneur and author of Launch and Disrupt: How 20 Disruptive
Startups Made It to the Top, society thrives on change.
That change comes from disruption - and that disruption is the result of risk taking.
Sometimes, learning the hard way is the best way - so don’t be afraid to take a chance.
Maybe you’ll fall down, or maybe you’ll reach your wildest dreams.
Chances are, you’ll do both.
The five-hour rule is all about managing your habits.
Never underestimate how much your seemingly innocuous habits of today impact your future
dreams.
Just as a good habit leads to other good habits, a bad habit is a gateway for -- you guessed
it -- more bad habits.
According to CNBC, this is called the “transfer-effect.”
For example, habitually spending your savings account when you feel sad might lead to you
maxing out your credit cards once your savings run dry.
However, a keystone habit like exercising could inspire you to form a habit of eating
healthy foods.
Negative keystone habits weigh down your future like a boulder around your neck, but positive
keystone habits promise to open doors on your way to success.
There's no such thing as a "self-made" anything - especially not a self-made billionaire.
Unless you consciously spawned as an embryonic form in the center of a black hole with no
family and clawed your way out through sheer force of will, you’re far from self-made.
Real success is the product of teamwork, not prideful individualism.
Every successful person on Earth has had some amount of help along the way, whether it was
through a trusted mentor, a financial investment in their idea, older siblings to show them
the ropes, or a wealthy mother who meticulously managed their career.
We’re looking at you, Kylie Jenner.
“Here’s a list.
Mom’s not going to do all of this for you, so...”
“...that’s self made.
So, it’s not like that was handed to her.
She figured that all out.”
There’s no arguing that Kylie Jenner is certainly business savvy, but as Teen Vogue
notes, the fact that someone like Jenner gets hailed as "self-made" makes it pretty clear
how fabricated the whole concept of being “self-made” really is.
By all means, improve your life with the five-hour rule - but when success comes knocking at
your door, it's okay to drop the ego and admit you had help along the way.
“We did it.
You and me.”
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