You have decided on your destination, arrived at the airport, boarded the plane, and taken your seat. You are now ready for the most important step of all: the takeoff, the launch, where you step out in faith with no guarantee of success. This is the turning point in your life and in the life of every successful person.

The plane taxies to the runway, gets clearance for takeoff from the tower, and starts down the runway. This is the critical moment, the takeoff that is the true beginning of your journey toward your destination.

Once the plane has clearance, the pilot gives the plane 100 percent full throttle. The plane begins moving, slowly at first, and then picks up speed, going faster and faster down the runway until it lifts off into the air. This is the moment that pilots call “wheels up.” It is the official beginning of the flight.60

Here is a key question: What if the pilot, instead of going at full throttle, decided to use only 80 or 90 percent throttle? Any pilot will give you the answer. If the plane went at any less than full throttle, it would never reach takeoff speed. The plane would keep going until it ran out of runway without ever rising into the air.

This illustrates a key difference between success and mediocrity in life. Successful people take off at full throttle when they embark on a new flight toward a new destination. They work full blast at their jobs. They throw their whole hearts into whatever they are doing, especially at the beginning of any new endeavor.

Perhaps nothing is more important in achieving the success you desire than for you to be prepared to work very, very hard for a long time until you achieve your goal.

Average people, on the other hand, never fly at full throttle. They look for ways to take it easy, to do as little as possible. As a result, they never achieve liftoff. They never get into the air. They never really succeed at anything.

Take the First Step

The primary difference between greatness and mediocrity in life is this: great people set a big, exciting goal for themselves, plan their steps to the goal in detail, and then take the first step.

Average people have hopes, dreams, wishes, and desires—the same as successful people. But at the moment of truth, average people hold back. Something inside blocks them from taking the first step. Their fears of failure and loss overwhelm them at the moment of decision, and they back off.

Many years ago, I read a quote: “On the beaches of despair lie the bleached bones of those who, at the moment of triumph, hesitated, and in hesitating lost all.” I never forgot it.

Courage Is the Key

The critical ingredient that you need to succeed greatly is courage. As Winston Churchill wrote, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.” Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady of Britain,” once said that everything comes down to courage at the sticking point.

Robert Greene, author of the book Power, said, “Always be audacious. Audacity will often get you into trouble, but even more audacity will get you out.”

Go as Far as You Can See

You must be clear about your goal but be flexible about the process of achieving it. No matter how well you plan and organize in advance, unforeseen circumstances will force you to revise your plans over and over again. But you must be prepared to take the first step.

Fortunately, you can always see far enough to take the first step. Nature is a joker in this sense, holding a blanket over the path. Once you decide upon a goal or destination, Nature will move back and show you the first step. This is a test. Nature determines whether you are really serious or not by showing the first step.

When you step out in faith, even though you can see only a single step ahead, Nature will conclude that you are serious. She will then move back and reveal the next step. And when you take that step, Nature will move back again and show you one more step. You will always be able to see one more step, and when you take it, you will see far enough to go further.

The Pursuit of Excellence

The equivalent of taking off at full throttle in your life and work is, first of all, resolving to work very hard until you achieve the success you desire. And second, it is becoming excellent at what you do. To fulfill your true potential, you must resolve in advance to be the best, to join the top 10 percent of people in your field. All the happiness, rewards, satisfaction, and recognition go to the people at the top. The rest of the people simply share whatever is left over.63

Gary Becker, the 1992 Nobel Prize–winning economist, wrote an article recently about the “inequality gap” in America. He demonstrated that “the so-called inequality gap is really a skills gap.” Because we live in a high-tech, knowledge-based society, more and more rewards go to those who continually upgrade their knowledge and skills. The highest incomes go to those who are continually learning new ways to add more value.

The More You Put In, the More You Get Out

In addition, higher-income households contain more employed people who work longer hours than lower-income households. The average entrepreneur, business owner, or senior executive in the upper income brackets works fifty-nine hours per week. In the lower 20 percent of households, based on income, the residents work less than twenty hours per week. Remember, you cannot reap what you do not sow.

In The Millionaire Next Door, authors Stanley and Danko found, in twenty-five years of interviews, that more than 85 percent of the self-made millionaires attributed their success to hard work. They repeatedly said something like “I didn’t have a great education. I wasn’t smarter or better than anyone else, but I was willing to work harder than they were.”

The people in the top 10 percent of their fields earn two times, five times, ten times, and even twenty times as much as the average of the people in the bottom 80 percent of the same field. The top 10 percent is where you want to be sometime in the future, if you are not there already.64

Work All the Time You Work

Following one rule will guarantee that you achieve your goals and reach your destination: Work all the time you work. When you go to work, work. Don’t waste time fooling around or socializing. Work all day long. Resolve to start a little earlier, work a little harder, and stay a little later. Work all the time you work.

Stay away from people who are time wasters. Most of the people around you are working at half speed or less. They want to talk about family, sports, politics, and other nonbusiness issues. Get away from them and keep away from them. Tell them that you would love to talk with them after work, but right now, you have to get back to work.

Make a list of tasks for each day, organized by priorities. Start on your most important task first thing in the morning, and stay with it until it is 100 percent complete. Resolve to develop a reputation as the hardest working person in your company. Work all the time you work.

Success is not an accident. Success is completely predictable. If you do what other successful people do, over and over, you will eventually get the same results that they do. Nothing can hold you back but yourself.