I’ve spent years around many successful individuals and organizations that, if you want to remain a failure, I strongly recommend you stay away from. (I did it purely for the purposes of research, you understand.) For example, as a professional speaker, I’m often on stage with well-known and prosperous entrepreneurs. It just can’t be avoided. The conclusion I’ve come to is that, without exception, they are all stark-raving mad. Not only do they have beliefs about life and business that are wildly different from the majority of the population, like there’s no such thing as failure, but they also take advice from dead people. That’s right. When faced with a problem or opportunity, they often ask one of their heroes from history for advice. If they wanted the advice of someone sparky and extremely positive, they might consult with Mozart, who has been described as a pathological optimist. How, you may be wondering, do they communicate with Mozart? (Who, just in case you missed the news, has been dead for a couple of hundred years. “It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year”—Tom Lehrer.) The answer is that they talk to him inside their heads—told you these people were crazy. The theory is that although they know, in reality, they are simply talking to themselves, because of their in-depth knowledge of Mozart, his personality and his life, they can come up with new insights and solutions filtered through his unique point of view. Now, imagine if you started consulting with a similar Master Mind Group of your own, what that might do to your thinking. So don’t do it.

As well as talking to dead people, successful folk also seek advice from people they don’t know but know of. Having asked them how they do this, typically the answer is that, over the years, they have built up a vast library of success. Try this for yourself. Find any successful person and ask her, “Do you have a library?” She’ll almost always say “yes.” Then ask her, “What kinds of books are in your library?” and she’ll tell you mostly biographies and autobiographies of successful people. Rather than invent the wheel, what successful people do is model success. By the way, if this woman lives in a big house, with a big library, ask her, “Which came first, the books or the library?” and she’ll usually tell you it was reading the books that enabled her to afford the library.

So remember, when you are unsure of something, don’t ask for advice, especially from dead people. Still, can I ask your advice? Have you any idea why the number of this step isn’t pronounced onety one?