It's Never Been Easier to Be Successful— That's Why Fewer People Are

It's never been easier to be successful.

Think about it:

We have access to more information than at any point in human history.

You can learn anything—absolutely anything—for free or nearly free.

• Want to start a business? There are thousands of courses, books, and YouTube videos.
• Want to get in shape? The best trainers in the world share their knowledge freely.
• Want to learn a skill? The masters are teaching online.

So why are fewer people actually successful?

Because having access to information doesn't mean shit unless you apply it.

Most people are:

• Drowning in information but never applying it
• Getting distracted by social media instead of focusing and working on "their thing" for 4 hours a day
• Not doing it long enough for it to matter (Warren Buffett doesn't have the best returns of other investors, but he started when he was 10—85 years ago!)

It's like that image that gets passed around of the dots in a box showing the progression from information to knowledge to insight to wisdom.

Just having access to information—unless applied regularly and under pressure—does not immediately give you insight or wisdom.

Social media and the internet have everyone "lying" and featuring their highlight reels so people compare them to their own blooper reels and feel bad about themselves.

Everyone's "faking it 'til they make it" and creating a fake culture of plastic people (and believe me, I see it every day on the streets of LA).

And we are so easily distracted, not applying ourselves to any task for 10 minutes, let alone the 4 hours needed to get into "deep work."​

All of this comes down to one word: the "discipline" of personal leadership.

• Knowing what you want (the 5 why's)
• Knowing what it will take to get it (the 5 how's)
• Then paying the price of admission to get it and not quitting until you do

That's how I earned my black belts—even after being sent to the ICU and at times getting kicked out of class for being too full of myself.

That's how I kept my marriage for 25 years and counting.

That's how I got multi-million and billion-dollar construction projects done.

I learned how to get the data (long before there was the internet and Google—lol, hardly anybody uses the library anymore), extract the information, build insights and knowledge, then develop the wisdom to apply it.

​I made healthy comparisons to improve myself, not dump on myself.

And I applied myself each and every day, for hours on end, even when I didn't feel like it.

I'm not special, smart, or gifted.

I just knew what I wanted and why and applied myself accordingly.

And I want to help you do the same.

The Paradox: More Access, Less Success

We've Never Had More Access

50 years ago, if you wanted to learn something:

• You had to find someone who knew it and convince them to teach you
• You had to buy expensive books (if they existed)
• You had to enroll in formal education programs
• You had to live in a place where that knowledge was available
• You had to have significant money or connections

Today:

• Every martial art has instructional videos online
• Every business strategy has been documented
• Every skill has tutorials, courses, and communities
• You can learn from the best in the world for $20/month or free
• You can access this from anywhere with internet

The barriers to learning have essentially disappeared.

So Why Aren't More People Successful?

Because access to information is not the bottleneck anymore.

The bottleneck is:

1. Application (actually doing something with the information)
2. Focus (not getting distracted every 30 seconds)
3. Time (sticking with it long enough to see results)
4. Discipline (doing it even when you don't feel like it)

In other words, the bottleneck is you.

The Four Dots: Information ≠ Wisdom

That image that illustrates the progression from data to wisdom shows four progressions:

1. Information

What it is: Raw facts and data

Example: "To build muscle, you need progressive overload and adequate protein"

What most people do: Collect information endlessly

• Follow 50 fitness influencers
• Save hundreds of workout posts
• Buy courses they never complete
• Read books they never implement

The trap: They feel productive because they're "learning," but nothing changes.

2. Knowledge

What it is: Organized information that you understand

Example: "I understand that progressive overload means gradually increasing weight/reps/sets, and I need about 0.8g protein per pound of bodyweight"

What some people do: They understand the concepts intellectually

• They can explain the principles
• They know what they "should" do
• They can give advice to others

The trap: Understanding doesn't equal doing. They know what works but don't do it.

3. Insight

What it is: Knowledge applied in specific contexts that reveals patterns

Example: "When I train in the morning before eating, I feel weak. When I eat 2 hours before, I perform better. When I increase weight too fast, my form breaks down and I get injured."

What fewer people do: They actually test the knowledge and learn what works for them specifically

• They experiment
• They track results
• They adjust based on feedback

The requirement: You have to actually apply the knowledge consistently to get insights.

4. Wisdom

What it is: Deep understanding gained through repeated application over time, often under pressure

Example: "I know my body's signals. I know when to push and when to back off. I know how to adjust my training based on life stress, sleep, and recovery. I can mentor others because I've experienced the full cycle many times."

What very few people do: Stick with something long enough, through enough challenges, to develop true wisdom

The requirement:

The brutal truth:

The Distraction Economy: Why You Can't Focus for 4 Hours

Even before the internet, taking a foreman class as an electrician, I had learned that the average worker on the average job only worked 4-5 hours in an 8-hour shift.

To expect anything more was to set myself up for frustration.

And it's gotten worse.

The 10-Minute Attention Span

​Studies show that most people can't focus on a single task for more than 10 minutes without getting distracted.

The pattern:

• Start working on something important
• 7 minutes in, check phone
• See a notification
• Go down a rabbit hole
• 20 minutes later, realize you got distracted
• Feel guilty
• Return to work
• Repeat

After 2 hours of this: You've done maybe 30 minutes of actual focused work and feel exhausted from the constant task-switching.

Deep Work Requires 4 Hours

Cal Newport's research on "deep work" shows that significant creative or cognitive work requires sustained focus—typically 3-4 hours of uninterrupted concentration.

This is when:

• You get into flow states
• Complex problems get solved
• Real learning happens
• Breakthroughs occur
• Meaningful work gets done

But most people never get there because they can't go 10 minutes without checking their phone.

The Comparison Trap

Social media has created a culture where everyone is comparing their behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reel.

What you see online:

• The perfect body (after professional lighting, angles, and editing)
• The successful business (without the 3 years of failures before it)
• The "overnight success" (that took 10 years)
• The effortless achievement (that required brutal discipline)

What you compare it to:

• Your blooper reel
• Your struggles
• Your failures
• Your messy reality

The result: You feel like shit and either give up or fake your own highlight reel to feel better.

The Fake Culture

Everyone's "faking it 'til they make it"—which has created a culture of plastic people pretending to be successful while struggling behind the scenes.

The problem: You can't learn from fake success stories. You're copying the image, not the reality.

What actually works: Learning from people who are honest about:

• How long it actually took
• How many times they failed
• What they actually did (not just the Instagram-worthy parts)
• The boring, unglamorous discipline required

The Warren Buffett Principle: Time Beats Talent

Warren Buffett doesn't have the best annual returns of any investor. There are investors who've had better years, better decades even.

So why is he one of the richest people on earth?

Because he started when he was 10 years old. He's been investing for 85 years!

The math of compounding:

• 15% annual returns for 10 years = good results
• 15% annual returns for 85 years = unfathomable wealth

The lesson: Consistency over time beats intensity over short periods.

Most people: Try really hard for 6 months, don't see dramatic results, quit.

Successful people: Show up consistently for decades and let compounding do the work.

Why Most People Quit Too Soon

The reality of skill development and success:

• Year 1: Mostly struggle, small improvements, feel incompetent
• Year 2: Starting to get competent, still lots of mistakes
• Year 3: Becoming skilled, seeing some results
• Years 4-5: Proficiency developing, results becoming visible
• Years 6-10: Mastery emerging, significant results accumulating
• Years 10+: Expertise, compounding results, "overnight success"

Most people quit somewhere in Year 1-2 because they compare their Year 1 to someone else's Year 10.

The Personal Leadership Framework

All of this—the access to information, the distraction problem, the need for time—comes down to one thing:

The discipline of personal leadership.

The Three Components

1. Know what you want (The 5 Why's)

Most people don't actually know what they want—they know what they think they should want or what looks good on Instagram.

The practice: Ask "Why is that important?" until you reach your core motivation.

Example:

• "I want to start a business"
• Why? "To make more money"
• Why? "To have financial freedom"
• Why? "To control my time"
• Why? "To spend more time with my family"
• Why? "Because I don't want to regret missing my kids' childhood"

Now you know: You don't actually want "a business"—you want time with your family. Maybe there's a faster path to that than starting a business.

2. Know what it will take (The 5 How's)

Once you know what you actually want, break it down until it's actionable.

The practice: Ask "How?" until you reach something you can do today.

Example:

• "I want more time with my family"
• How? "By building income that doesn't require trading hours for dollars"
• How? "By creating a product I can sell repeatedly"
• How? "By identifying a problem I can solve for a specific audience"
• How? "By interviewing 10 people in my target market this week to understand their problems"

Now you have: A concrete action you can take this week.

3. Pay the price of admission and don't quit

This is where 99% of people fail.

The price of admission includes:

• Doing the work when you don't feel like it
• Continuing when you don't see immediate results
• Working while others are scrolling
• Being uncomfortable for extended periods
• Looking foolish while learning
• Failing repeatedly and continuing anyway

Most people: Want the results without paying the price.

Successful people: Accept that the price is the price and pay it consistently.

My Story: Not Special, Just Disciplined

I'm not special. I'm not smart. I'm not gifted.

But I learned to apply myself.

Earning My Black Belts

What it required:

• Training when I was exhausted
• Continue to go back to train even after being sent to the ICU
• Not quitting after getting kicked out of class for being too full of myself
• Drilling techniques thousands of times
• Showing up even when I didn't want to
• Years of consistent practice

The result: Multiple black belts, not because I was talented, but because I refused to quit.

Keeping My Marriage for 25 Years

What it required:

• Learning communication skills I didn't have naturally
• Applying myself to understand my wife's needs (not just assuming)
• Working on the relationship even when it was hard
• Continuing to invest even when everything was "fine"
• Getting better at being a husband every year
• Never taking it for granted

The result: A marriage that gets better over time, not because I was naturally good at relationships, but because I treated it like a practice that requires consistent work.

Being a Foreman on Multi-Million and Billion-Dollar Construction Projects

What it required:

• Learning to get information before the internet existed
• Spending hours in libraries researching
• Extracting insights from raw data
• Building knowledge through application
• Developing wisdom through repeated experience under pressure
• Managing teams, timelines, and budgets
• Solving problems nobody had solved before
• Not quitting when it got difficult

The result: Successfully completing massive projects, not because I was brilliant, but because I was part of a team and I learned the discipline of getting information, applying it, and not quitting.

The Process: From Data to Wisdom

Before the Internet

When I was learning my trades—electrical work, martial arts, business—there was no Google. No YouTube tutorials. No online courses.

Here's what I had to do:

1. Find the data

• Go to the library
• Find books on the topic
• Read technical manuals
• Talk to people who knew more than me
• Take classes when available

2. Extract the information

• Take notes
• Organize what I learned
• Identify the key principles
• Separate signal from noise

3. Build insights and knowledge

• Test what I learned
• See what worked in practice
• Adjust based on results
• Develop pattern recognition

4. Develop wisdom

• Apply it repeatedly
• Experience it under pressure
• Make mistakes and learn from them
• Refine understanding over years
• Integrate it into who I am

This process took longer, but it built something solid.

Today: You can skip steps 1-2 almost entirely. Information is everywhere.

The problem: Most people never get to steps 3-4 because they keep going back to step 1, consuming more information instead of applying what they already have.

Healthy Comparisons vs. Toxic Comparisons

Comparison isn't inherently bad—it depends on how you use it.

Toxic Comparisons

What they look like:

• Comparing your beginning to someone else's middle or end
• Comparing your behind-the-scenes to their highlight reel
• Using comparison to feel bad about yourself
• Using comparison as an excuse to quit
• Comparing without context (their advantages, timeline, sacrifices)

The result: Feeling inadequate, discouraged, and giving up.

Healthy Comparisons

What they look like:

• Comparing yourself today to yourself yesterday
• Looking at someone ahead of you to see the path, not to judge your worth
• Using comparison to identify what you need to learn or develop
• Studying how successful people actually achieved results (not just the results themselves)
• Comparing to inspire, not to discourage

The result: Motivation, direction, and actionable insights.

My practice: I looked at skilled craftsmen, martial artists, and business people to see what they did, how they thought, and what habits they had—then I worked to develop those same skills and habits.

I didn't compare to feel bad. I compared to know what to work on next.

The Daily Discipline: Showing Up for Hours

Success isn't about occasional heroic effort. It's about daily, sustained application.

What I did:

• Showed up to the job site every day
• Put in hours of focused work on electrical projects
• Went to the dojang after work
• Trained for hours, even when I was tired
• Studied business and marketing for my wife's healing practice​
• Read, took notes, applied what I learned
• Did this consistently, for years

I didn't feel like it most of the time.

But I did it anyway.

That's the discipline of personal leadership:

What You Need to Do

If you want to be successful in an era where it's never been easier:

1. Stop Consuming, Start Applying

You already have enough information. You don't need another course, another book, another YouTube video.

What you need:

• Pick ONE thing you want to achieve
• Find ONE good resource on how to do it
• Apply it consistently for 90 days before consuming anything else

The test: If you can't explain what you've applied in the last week, you're consuming too much and applying too little.

2. Protect 4 Hours a Day for Deep Work

The practice:

• Identify your most important work
• Block 4 hours when your energy is highest
• Turn off all notifications
• Close all distractions
• Do nothing but that one thing for 4 hours

Start with 1 hour if 4 seems impossible, and build up.

The result: You'll accomplish more in 4 focused hours than most people accomplish in a week of distracted "work." I used the infamously bad LA traffic to listen to audiobooks (often listening to the same book repeatedly).

3. Commit to the Timeline

Accept that:

• Year 1 will mostly be learning and struggling
• Year 2 will start to show some competence
• Year 3 you'll start seeing real results
• Years 5-10 you'll compound into mastery

Most people quit in Year 1-2. Don't be most people.

4. Make Healthy Comparisons

Stop comparing:

• Your beginning to their middle
• Your reality to their highlight reel
• Yourself to people with different advantages, timelines, or circumstances

Start comparing:

• Yourself today to yourself last month
• Your application to successful people's actual practices
• Your results to what's possible with consistent effort

5. Apply the 5 Why's and 5 How's

Before you start anything, answer:

• Why do I actually want this? (Ask at least 5 times to reach your core motivation)
• How will I actually do this? (Ask enough times to reach concrete, actionable steps that are too easy not to do)

Then: Do the work. Every day. For years.

Conclusion: The Discipline of Personal Leadership

It's never been easier to be successful because access to information is no longer the barrier.

That's exactly why fewer people are successful—because information was never the real barrier.

The real barriers:

• Application (doing something with what you know)
• Focus (working deeply instead of being distracted)
• Time (staying with it long enough to see compounding results)
• Discipline (showing up even when you don't feel like it)

These barriers haven't gotten easier.

If anything, they've gotten harder because distraction is everywhere and fake success makes you think there's a shortcut.

There isn't.

The path is the same as it's always been:

1. Know what you want (and why it actually matters to you)
2. Know what it takes to get it (broken down into actionable steps)
3. Pay the price of admission (consistent work over time)
4. Don't quit until you get it

That's how I earned my black belts.

That's how I kept my marriage.

That's how I completed billion-dollar projects.

I'm not special, smart, or gifted.

I just knew what I wanted, why I wanted it, and applied myself accordingly.

You can do the same.

But you have to stop consuming and start applying.

You have to stop getting distracted and start focusing.

You have to stop quitting when it gets hard and start treating difficulty as the price of admission.

The opportunity has never been greater.

The question is: