11 Secrets to Becoming Rich, Successful, and Happy

11 Secrets to Becoming Rich, Successful, and Happy

Even though we all define "rich" differently--and we should--most of us factor at least some degree of wealth into our equations.

Yet we also want to feel successful. You don't have to make a lot of money to be a success.

And we definitely want to be happy.

Can you have all three? Sure. It isn't easy, but it is possible. Here's how:

1. Stop focusing on money.

While it sounds counterintuitive, maintaining a laser-like focus on how much you make distracts you from doing the things that truly contribute to building and growing wealth.

So shift your perspective. See money not as the primary goal but as a byproduct of doing the right things.

2. Start tracking how many people you help, if only in a small way.

The most successful people I know--both financially and in other ways--are shockingly helpful. They're incredibly good at understanding other people and helping them achieve their goals. They know their success is ultimately based on the success of the people around them.

So they work hard to make other people successful: their employees, their customers, their vendors and suppliers...because they know if they can do that then their own success will surely follow.

And they will have built a business--or a career--they can be truly proud of.

3. Stop thinking about money and start thinking about service.

When you only have a few customers and your goal is to make a lot of money, you need to find ways to squeeze every last dollar out of every transaction.

But when you find a way to serve a million people, many other benefits follow. Word of mouth is hugely magnified. The feedback you receive is exponentially greater--and so are your opportunities to improve your products and services. You get to hire more employees and benefit from their experience, their skills, and their overall awesomeness.

And in time, your business becomes something you never dreamed of--because your customers and your employees have taken you to places you couldn't even imagine.

Serve a million people--and serve them really well--and the money will follow.

4. See making money as a way to make more things.

Generally speaking, there are two types of people. One makes things because they want to make money; the more things they make, the more money they make. What they make doesn't really matter that much to them--they'll make anything as long as it pays.

The other wants to make money because it allows them to make more things. They want to improve their product. They want to extend their line. They want to write another book, record another song, produce another movie. They love what they make and they see making money as a way to do even more of what they love. They dream of building a company that makes the best things possible...and making money is the way to fuel that dream and build that company they love.

While it is certainly possible to find that one product that everyone wants and grow rich by selling that product...most successful businesses evolve and grow and, as they make money, reinvest that money in a relentless pursuit of excellence.

Like Walt Disney said, "We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies."

5. Find your happiness in the success of others.

Great business teams win because their most talented members are willing to sacrifice to make others happy. Great teams are made up of employees who help each other, know their roles, set aside personal goals, and value team success over everything else.

Where does that attitude come from? You. Almost every truly successful entrepreneur feels a major chunk of his or her happiness comes from enjoying the success of employees and customers.

Do you?

6. Cultivate dignity and respect.

Providing employees with higher pay, better benefits, and greater opportunities is certainly important. But no level of pay and benefits can overcome damage to self-esteem and self-worth.

The most important thing truly successful entrepreneurs provide employees, customers, vendors--everyone they meet--is dignity.

And so should you, because when you do, everything else follows.

7. Do one thing better...

Pick one thing you're already better at than most people. Just. One. Thing. Become maniacally focused at doing that one thing. Work. Train. Learn. Practice. Evaluate. Refine. Be ruthlessly self-critical, not in a masochistic way but to ensure you continue to work to improve every aspect of that one thing.

Financially successful people do at least one thing better than just about everyone around them. (Of course it helps if you pick something to be great at that the world also values--and will pay for.)

Excellence is its own reward, but excellence also commands higher pay--and greater respect, greater feelings of self-worth, greater fulfillment, a greater sense of achievement...all of which make you rich in non-monetary terms.

Win-win.

8. Then list the best people at that one thing...

How did you choose them? How did you determine who was the best? How did you measure their success?

Use those criteria to track your own progress towards becoming the best at what you choose.

If you're a developer, it could be the number of people who use your software. If you're a leader, it could be the number of people you train and mentor to reach their goals. If you're an online retailer, it could be conversion rate or sales per transaction or on-time shipping....

Don't just admire successful people. Take a close look at what makes them successful. Then use those criteria to help create your own measures of success. And then...

9. Then do more of what you do best.

Another benefit of building a team is that it allows you to do a lot more of what you do best.

Say you're great at selling. Why perform admin tasks when your time is better spent with customers? Or maybe you're great at creating awesome processes. Why spend time creating social-media marketing campaigns when you could be streamlining your distribution channel?

Every person has something they do that makes the biggest difference on their personal bottom lines. The most successful people find ways to do a lot more of that...and a lot less of everything else.

10. Relentlessly track your progress.

We tend to become what we measure, so track your progress at least once a week against your key measures.

Maybe you'll measure how many people you help. Maybe you'll measure how many customers you serve. Maybe you'll check off the key steps on your journey to becoming the world's best at the thing you chose.

More likely, you'll measure a combination of these, and more.

11. Build routines that ensure your success.

Never forget that achieving a goal is based on creating routines. Say you want to write a 300-page book. That's your goal. Your system to achieve that goal could be to write four pages a day--that's your routine.

Thinking about your goal won't get you to a finished manuscript, but sticking faithfully to your routine will.

Or say you want to land 50 new customers. That's your goal; your routine is to contact a certain number of leads per day, check in with a certain number of current customers, network with a certain number of potential partners...your routine is what you will do, without fail, that will allow you to achieve your goal. Follow that routine and faithfully meet your deadlines and if your plan is great, you will land your new customers.

Wishing and hoping won't get you there. Sticking to your routine will, especially when you ruthlessly measure your progress, fix what doesn't work, and improve and repeat what does work. Success is almost guaranteed when you refine and revise and adapt and work hard every day to be better than you were yesterday.

And probably without even noticing, you'll also be rich--and more importantly, a lot happier, because you'll like how you got there.

Wole Soyinka - Biographical

Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria. After preparatory university studies in 1954 at Government College in Ibadan, he continued at the University of Leeds, where, later, in 1973, he took his doctorate. During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London 1958-1959. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time, he taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where, since 1975, he has been professor of comparative literature. In 1960, he founded the theatre group, "The 1960 Masks" and in 1964, the "Orisun Theatre Company", in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.

During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire. For this he was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months until 1969. Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words.

As dramatist, Soyinka has been influenced by, among others, the Irish writer, J.M. Synge, but links up with the traditional popular African theatre with its combination of dance, music, and action. He bases his writing on the mythology of his own tribe-the Yoruba-with Ogun, the god of iron and war, at the centre. He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero's Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the Forests (performed 1960, publ.1963), Kongi's Harvest (performed 1965, publ. 1967) and Madmen and Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among Soyinka's serious philosophic plays are (apart from "The Swamp Dwellers") The Strong Breed (performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King's Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975). In The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), he has rewritten the Bacchae for the African stage and in Opera Wonyosi (performed 1977, publ. 1981), bases himself on John Gay's Beggar's Opera and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera. Soyinka's latest dramatic works are A Play of Giants (1984) and Requiem for a Futurologist (1985).

Soyinka has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), narratively, a complicated work which has been compared to Joyce's and Faulkner's, in which six Nigerian intellectuals discuss and interpret their African experiences, and Season of Anomy (1973) which is based on the writer's thoughts during his imprisonment and confronts the Orpheus and Euridice myth with the mythology of the Yoruba. Purely autobiographical are The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972) and the account of his childhood, Aké ( 1981), in which the parents' warmth and interest in their son are prominent. Literary essays are collected in, among others, Myth, Literature and the African World (1975).

Soyinka's poems, which show a close connection to his plays, are collected in Idanre, and Other Poems (1967), Poems from Prison (1969), A Shuttle in the Crypt (1972) the long poem Ogun Abibiman (1976) and Mandela's Earth and Other Poems (1988).

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1986, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1987

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/ Nobel Lectures/The Nobel Prizes. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate.

When is the right time for marriage?

Question: "When is the right time for marriage?"

Answer: The right time for marriage is different for each person and unique to each situation. Maturity levels and life experiences are varying factors; some people are ready for marriage at 18, and some are never prepared for it. As the U.S. divorce rate exceeds 50 percent, it is obvious that much of our society does not view marriage as an everlasting commitment. However, this is the world's view, which will usually contradict God's (1 Corinthians 3:18).

A strong foundation is imperative for a successful marriage and should be settled before one even begins to date or court a potential life mate. Our Christian walk should include much more than just attending church on Sundays and being involved in Bible study. We must have a personal relationship with God that comes only through trusting in and obeying Jesus Christ. We must educate ourselves about marriage, seeking God's view on it, before diving in. A person must know what the Bible says about love, commitment, sexual relations, the role of a husband and wife, and His expectations of us before committing to marriage. Having at least one Christian married couple as a role model is also important. An older couple can answer questions about what goes into a successful marriage, how to create intimacy (beyond the physical), how faith is invaluable, etc.
 
A prospective married couple also needs to make sure that they know each other well. They should know each other's views on marriage, finances, in-laws, child-rearing, discipline, duties of a husband and wife, whether only one of them or both will be working outside the home, and the level of the other person’s spiritual maturity. Many people get married taking their partner's word for it that they are a Christian, only to find out later that it was merely lip service. Every couple considering marriage should go through counseling with a Christian marriage counselor or pastor. In fact, many pastors will not perform weddings unless they have met several times with the couple in a counseling setting.


Marriage is not only a commitment, but a covenant with God. It is the promise to remain with that other person for the remainder of your life, no matter whether your spouse is rich, poor, healthy, sick, overweight, underweight, or boring. A Christian marriage should endure through every circumstance, including fighting, anger, devastation, disaster, depression, bitterness, addiction, and loneliness. Marriage should never be entered into with the idea that divorce is an option—not even as the last straw. The Bible tells us that through God all things are possible (Luke 18:27), and this certainly includes marriage. If a couple makes the decision at the beginning to stay committed and to put God first, divorce will not be the inevitable solution to a miserable situation. 

It is important to remember that God wants to give us the desires of our heart, but that is only possible if our desires match His. People often get married because it just “feels right.” In the early stages of dating, and even of marriage, you see the other person coming, and you get butterflies in your stomach. Romance is at its peak, and you know the feeling of being “in love.” Many expect that this feeling will remain forever. The reality is that it does not. The result can be disappointment and even divorce as those feelings fade, but those in successful marriages know that the excitement of being with the other person does not have to end. Instead, the butterflies give way to a deeper love, a stronger commitment, a more solid foundation, and an unbreakable security.

The Bible is clear that love does not rely on feelings. This is evident when we are told to love our enemies (Luke 6:35). True love is possible only when we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, cultivating the fruit of our salvation (Galatians 5:22-23). It is a decision we make on a daily basis to die to ourselves and our selfishness, and to let God shine through us. Paul tells us how to love others in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” When we are ready to love another person as 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 describes, that is the right time for marriage.

What is the value of a prayer meeting?

Question: "What is the value of a prayer meeting?"

Answer: From the very beginning of the church, Christians have gathered to pray (Acts 4:24; 12:5; 21:5). Prayer meetings are valuable for the church as a whole and for the individuals who participate.
Prayer is only for those who believe that God is personal and who want a personal relationship with Him. Christians know prayer works because they have encountered a God who declares, “Talk to me and I will listen.” The apostle John confirms this: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Through our prayers, especially with one another, we are demonstrating and validating the faith we have in Jesus. Andrew Murray, the great Christian minister and prolific writer, said, “Prayer depends chiefly, almost entirely, on who we think we are praying to.” It is through the discipline of prayer with one another that we develop a growing intimacy with God, and create a spiritual bond with one another. This is one of the most valuable aspects of praying with one another.
Another valuable benefit of prayer meetings is the confession of our sins to one another. Prayer meetings give us opportunity to obey the command to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). Here, James does not necessarily speak of physical healing, but rather of spiritual restoration (Hebrews 12:12-13). He also refers to the forgiveness of God, which enables the believer to become spiritually whole again. James knew that the one who becomes separated from the flock is most susceptible to the dangers of sin. God wants His people to encourage and support one another in loving fellowship, mutual honesty and confession as we pray for and with each other. Such close fellowship helps provide spiritual strength to experience victory over sin.

Another great value of prayer meetings is that believers encourage one another to endure. All of us face obstacles, but by sharing and praying together as Christians, we often help others avoid “bottoming out” in their spiritual lives. The value of corporate prayer lies in its power to unify hearts. Praying before God on behalf of our brothers and sisters has the effect of linking one another spiritually. As we “carry each other’s burdens,” we “fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Where there is prayer, there is unity, which Jesus prayed so fervently for His followers to have (John 17:23).

More than anything else, prayer meetings bring about change. Praying with one another, believers can witness God produce miracles and change hearts.

A prayer meeting is a time of real value as believers seek a deep intimacy and quiet communion with God at His throne. It is a time of unity with fellow believers in the presence of the Lord. It is a time to care for those around us as we share their burdens. It is a time when God manifests His never-ending love and desire to communicate with those who love Him.

The Altar​—What Place in Worship?

The Altar​—What Place in Worship?

DO YOU consider the altar to be a fundamental part of your worship? For many who attend churches of Christendom, the altar may be the center of attention. Have you ever considered what the Bible reveals about the use of altars in worship?

The first altar mentioned in the Bible is the one built by Noah to offer animal sacrifices when he left the ark of preservation after the Deluge.*​—Genesis 8:20.

Following the confusion of the languages at Babel, mankind spread over all the surface of the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9) With their innate sense of the divine, humans sought to draw close to God, with whom they were less and less familiar, ‘groping’ for him blindly. (Acts 17:27; Romans 2:14, 15) Since Noah’s day many peoples have built altars to their deities. Religions and peoples have used altars in false worship. Being alienated from the true God, some have used altars for horrible rites involving human victims, even children. When they left Jehovah, some kings of Israel erected altars to pagan gods, like Baal. (1 Kings 16:29-32) But what about the use of altars in true worship?

Altars and True Worship in Israel

After Noah, other faithful men built altars to use in their worship of the true God, Jehovah. Abraham built altars at Shechem, at a point near Bethel, at Hebron, and on Mount Moriah, where he sacrificed a ram provided by God in place of Isaac. Later, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses spontaneously built altars for use in their worship of God.​—Genesis 12:6-8; 13:3, 18; 22:9-13; 26:23-25; 33:18-20; 35:1, 3, 7; Exodus 17:15, 16;24:4-8.

When God gave the people of Israel his Law, he commanded that they erect the tabernacle, a portable tent, also called “the tent of meeting,” as the central feature of the arrangement for approach to him. (Exodus 39:32, 40) The tabernacle, or tent, had two altars. The one for burnt offerings, made of acacia wood and covered with copper, was placed before the entrance and was used to offer up animal sacrifices. (Exodus 27:1-8; 39:39; 40:6, 29) The incense altar, also of acacia wood but covered with gold, was put inside the tabernacle, before the curtain of the Most Holy. (Exodus 30:1-6; 39:38; 40:5, 26, 27) Special incense was burned upon it twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. (Exodus 30:7-9) The permanent temple built by King Solomon followed the design of the tabernacle, having two altars.

“The True Tent” and the Symbolic Altar

When Jehovah gave Israel the Law, he provided much more than rules to regulate his people’s lives and their approach to him in sacrifice and prayer. Many of its arrangements constituted what the apostle Paul called “a typical representation,” “an illustration,” or “a shadow of the heavenly things.” (Hebrews 8:3-5; 9:9; 10:1;Colossians 2:17) In other words, many aspects of the Law not only guided the Israelites until the coming of the Christ but also constituted a foregleam of God’s purposes to be fulfilled through Jesus Christ. (Galatians 3:24) Yes, aspects of the Law had prophetic value. For instance, the Passover lamb, the blood of which was used as a sign of salvation for the Israelites, prefigured Jesus Christ. He is “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” whose blood was poured out to free us from sin.​—John 1:29; Ephesians 1:7.

Many things relating to tabernacle and temple service pictured spiritual realities. (Hebrews 8:5; 9:23) In fact, Paul writes of “the true tent, which Jehovah put up, and not man.” He continues: “Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come to pass, through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.” (Hebrews 8:2; 9:11) “The greater and more perfect tent” was Jehovah’s great spiritual temple arrangement. The language of the Scriptures indicates that the great spiritual temple is the arrangement by which humans can approach Jehovah on the basis of Jesus Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice.​—Hebrews 9:2-10, 23-28.

Learning from God’s Word that some of the Law’s provisions and norms picture greater, more meaningful, spiritual realities surely builds faith in the Bible’s inspiration. It also heightens appreciation for the divine wisdom uniquely manifest in the Scriptures.​—Romans 11:33; 2 Timothy 3:16.

The altar of burnt offering also has prophetic value. It seems to represent God’s “will,” or his willingness to accept Jesus’ perfect human sacrifice.​—Hebrews 10:1-10.

Later in the book of Hebrews, Paul makes this interesting comment: “We have an altar from which those who do sacred service at the tent have no authority to eat.” (Hebrews 13:10) To which altar was he referring?

Many Catholic interpreters claim that the altar mentioned at Hebrews 13:10 is that used for the Eucharist, the “sacrament” by which Christ’s sacrifice is said to be renewed during the Mass. But you can see from the context that the altar Paul was discussing is symbolic. Several scholars attribute a figurative sense to the term “altar” in this text. For Giuseppe Bonsirven, a Jesuit, “this accords perfectly with all the symbolism of the epistle [to the Hebrews].” He notes: “In Christian language, the word ‘altar’ is initially used in a spiritual sense and only after Irenaeus, and particularly after Tertullian and St. Cyprian, is it applied to the eucharist and most specifically to the eucharistic table.”

As stated by a Catholic magazine, use of the altar spread in the “Constantinian era” with the “construction of basilicas.” Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana (Christian Archaeology Review) noted: “It is certain that for the first two centuries, one cannot speak of a fixed place of worship but of liturgical gatherings held in rooms in private homes . . . , rooms that at the end of the ceremony, immediately reverted to their original function.”

Christendom’s Use of the Altar

“The altar,” says the Catholic journal La Civiltà Cattolica “is the center point not only of the church building but also of the living Church.” Yet, Jesus Christ did not institute even one religious ceremony that was to be performed at an altar; nor did he command his disciples to perform ceremonies using one. Jesus’ mention of the altar at Matthew 5:23, 24 and elsewhere refers to religious practices prevailing among the Jews, but he does not indicate that his followers were to worship God using an altar.

American historian George Foot Moore (1851-1931), wrote: “The main features of Christian worship were always the same, but in time the simple rites described by Justin in the middle of the second century were elaborated into a stately cultus.” Catholic rites and public religious ceremonies are so numerous and complex as to constitute a subject of study​—liturgy—​in Catholic seminaries. Moore continued: “This tendency, inherent in all ritual, was greatly furthered by the influence of the Old Testament when the Christian clergy came to be regarded as succeeding to the place of the priesthood of the former dispensation. The gorgeous raiment of the high priest, the ceremonial vestments of the other priests, the solemn processions, the choirs of Levitical singers intoning psalms, the clouds of incense from swinging censers​—all seemed a divine model of religious worship, which warranted the church in rivalling the pomp of the ancient cults.”

You might be amazed to learn that many rites, ceremonies, vestments, and other items used in worship by various churches follow, not the Christian teachings of the Gospels, but the customs and rites of Jews and pagans. The Enciclopedia Cattolica states that Catholicism “has inherited the use of the altar from Judaism and in part from paganism.” Minucius Felix, an apologist of the third century C.E., wrote that Christians had ‘neither temples nor altars.’ The encyclopedic dictionary Religioni e Miti (Religions and Myths) similarly states: “The early Christians rejected the use of the altar to differentiate themselves from Jewish and pagan worship.”

Because Christianity above all rested on principles that are to be accepted and applied in everyday life and in every land, there was no longer any need for a holy city on earth, or for a material temple with altars, or for human priests of special rank dressed in distinguished vestments. “The hour is coming,” said Jesus, “when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you people worship the Father. . . . The true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth.” (John 4:21, 23) The complexity of rites and the use of altars on the part of many churches ignore what Jesus said about the way the true God is to be worshiped.