Most of the advice leading to great results in life is boring. Also, it’s free and has forever been so.

In my twenties, I believed that successful people hold secret knowledge leading to their success. I obsessed over “self-help porn”: books, videos, and blogs promising to reveal little secrets that would make me successful one day, too.

But when I started observing and talking to people I consider successful, I noticed they don’t do anything extraordinary. In fact, they do quite the opposite. They follow “boring” advice I already heard a million times in proverbs, religious and old philosophy stories, and even from my grandma.

And it makes sense!. It has already been figured out for thousands of years! There is nothing new a Brian can write in his next New York Times bestseller while sipping a $9 latte that I didn’t hear before. All I ever had to do is to act on that well-known advice.

You know it in one form or another, too! Here are a couple of examples:

Read More