[Music] I remember this small grocery store in Idaho—nothing fancy, just a simple place with wooden floors that creaked when you walked in. The owner, old Mr Peterson, fascinated me. Every morning, he'd put on his pressed white shirt, adjust his tie in the foggy mirror behind the counter, and straighten up like he was running the finest establishment on Fifth Avenue.
Now, folks used to chuckle. "Why is he dressing up to sell milk and bread? " they'd say.
But here's what got me thinking: Mr Peterson wasn't dressing for the store he had; he was dressing for the store he was going to have. And sure enough, 20 years later, that little corner store became the biggest supermarket chain in three states. Something profound happens when you look in the mirror.
Most people see what is—the current circumstances, the present situation—but winners, winners see what could be. They don't wait for success to start acting successful; they understand what I call the mirror principle: you become what you see yourself being long before the world catches up to your vision. Mr Peterson taught me something extraordinary: success isn't about waiting for your circumstances to change before you change; it's about changing yourself first and then watching as your circumstances race to catch up with your new identity.
He didn't wait to become successful to act successful; he acted successful to become successful. And that's exactly what we need to understand about this game of life and success. The simple truth is that the outside world is nothing but a reflection of your inside world.
When you change what you see in the mirror, you change what the world sees in you. Most people got it backwards; they're waiting for something external to change before they change their internal picture. And that's exactly where most people get stuck—right in that gap between where they are and where they want to be.
The size of the gap isn't what matters; what matters is what you do while you're standing in it. Most people stand in that gap, look up at their dreams, and say, "When I get there, then I'll start acting like a success. " But they've got the whole thing backwards.
Here's a story that changed my life: years ago, I met a young man working as a janitor in a local high school. Every day, he'd mop those floors like he was polishing the marble in the finest hotel in Paris. He'd organize his cleaning supplies like they were precious inventory.
One day, I asked him, "Why do you take such pride in this? " You know what he told me? He said, "I'm not practicing being a janitor; I'm practicing being a CEO.
" That young man understood something profound that most people miss: he understood that success isn't an event; it's a practice. And you don't practice success by waiting for it to arrive—you practice it right where you are, with what you have. Have you ever noticed how a child learns to walk?
They don't wait until they can walk perfectly to start trying. They don't say, "Well, when I can walk, then I'll get up. " No, they get up, they fall down, they get up again, and they practice walking until they can walk.
That's the power of mental rehearsal combined with physical action. Your mind doesn't know the difference between a real experience and one that's vividly imagined. That's why every great athlete practices their winning shot thousands of times in their mind before they ever take it on the court.
Every great speaker rehearses their speech in their mind before they step onto the stage. Every great business person runs through successful negotiations in their head before they ever sit down at the table. But here's the key, and this is important: they don't just imagine it; they live it right now, today, in whatever circumstances they find themselves in.
And that's the fundamental difference between winners and spectators. Spectators say, "I'll believe it when I see it. " Winners say, "I'll see it when I believe it.
" Most people spend their whole lives waiting—waiting for the right moment to start living their dreams. They say, "When I have enough money, then I'll start investing. When I have the perfect body, then I'll go to the beach.
When my business is successful, then I'll start dressing for success. " They're waiting for some external circumstance to change before they change who they are. But that's not how success works.
Success isn't like a train that arrives at the station and then you hop on; success is like a shadow—it follows what you do. And if you want to change your shadow, you don't manipulate the shadow; you change your actions. Look at your life right now.
Where are you acting like a spectator, waiting for success to arrive before you start acting successful? Are you waiting to feel confident before you take that bold action? Are you waiting to feel motivated before you start that business?
Are you waiting to feel like a winner before you start acting like one? What I've learned after years of studying success is that the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn't a waiting room; it's your training ground. It's where you practice being who you want to become.
Every day, in every small action, you're either practicing success or practicing failure—there's no in-between. And the beautiful thing about this philosophy is that it starts working the moment you start applying it. When you begin acting like a winner, even before you have the external trappings of success, you set in motion a series of events that will inevitably lead to your success.
But it all starts with your daily disciplines. You know what fascinates me about success? It's not the big moments that create winners; it's what they do between the big moments—it's those small decisions.
They make when nobody's watching. Let me share something powerful with you about morning rituals. Believe me, this changed everything I understood about success.
Years ago, I spent time with one of the wealthiest men in my state. I expected to learn about sophisticated business strategies and complex investment theories, but you know what he wanted to show me first? His morning routine.
He said, "If you want to know why I'm successful, don't study my business; study my first hour of the day. " He would wake up at 5:00 a. m.
, not because he had to, but because he chose to. "The first hour of your morning is like the first dollar of your paycheck," he told me. "If you don't tell it where to go, it'll disappear on its own.
" So he designed his morning like an architect designs a building. He started this routine 20 years before he made his fortune, when he was still struggling, living in a tiny apartment, working two jobs. He didn't wait to be successful to start acting successful.
He understood something that most people miss: your habits today shape your future tomorrow. Everything in your life right now is the compound effect of your daily choices. Just like a penny doubled every day for 30 days becomes a fortune, your small daily actions compounded over time become your destiny.
The way you walk into a room, the words you choose, the time you wake up, the books you read—these seemingly insignificant choices are actually the foundational stones of your success. I met a young woman once who wanted to become a successful executive. She was working in the mailroom of a large corporation.
Every day, she would dress like the CEO she wanted to become—not expensive clothes; she couldn't afford those yet, but pressed, professional, perfect. Her colleagues would laugh, "Who are you trying to impress in the mailroom? " But she understood something they didn't: she wasn't dressing for the job she had; she was dressing for the job she was preparing to have.
Five years later, guess who became the youngest division manager in that company's history? The same woman who understood that success leaves clues and winners pick up those clues in their daily disciplines. Winners think differently.
They don't say, "I'll do it when I feel like it. " They say, "I'll do it until I feel like it. " They understand that motivation doesn't create action; action creates motivation.
They don't wait for the mood to strike; they strike the mood with their actions. Your words become your actions; your actions become your habits; your habits become your character; and your character becomes your destiny. Winners know this—that's why they're intentional about every word they speak, every action they take, every habit they form.
When a winner walks into a room, you can feel their presence before they say a word. It's not about being flashy or drawing attention to yourself; it's about carrying yourself with the quiet confidence of someone who knows where they're going. It's about speaking with the clarity of someone who knows what they want.
It's about moving with the purpose of someone who knows why they're here. You can't do this alone. Show me your environment, and I'll show you your future.
The books on your shelf, the conversations in your circle, the images on your wall—they're all quietly shaping who you're becoming. Winners understand this; they're incredibly selective about their environments and associations. I knew a man who was dead broke, but every month he would find a way to have lunch with successful people in his field.
He couldn't afford the restaurants they went to, so he would drink water and eat before he came. But he understood that your environment will either lift you up or pull you down; there is no neutral ground. That's why winners create success environments before they're successful.
They surround themselves with books about success before they're successful. They attend seminars and workshops before they can easily afford them. They seek out mentors and role models before they have anything to offer in return.
Your daily disciplines aren't just about what you do; they're about who you're becoming while you do them. Every morning, when you wake up, you have a choice: you can wake up as who you are, or you can wake up as who you're becoming. Winners choose the latter.
They don't wait for success to start acting successful. They understand that success is not a sprint; it's a daily marathon of small, consistent actions. And speaking of consistency, there's something even more important than these daily disciplines.
It's what I call the success triangle, and it's the framework that turns these daily actions into inevitable success. Now let me share something that took me years to understand. I call it the success triangle, and once you grasp this, everything else falls into place.
It's like finding the master key that unlocks every door to success. Picture a triangle in your mind. At the top point is your mindset; on the bottom left are your actions, and on the bottom right are your results.
Most people try to go straight for the results, but that's like trying to build a house starting with the roof. It doesn't work that way. Your mind is like a computer—the most sophisticated computer ever created.
But here's the fascinating part: many people are trying to run success programs on failure software. They're wondering why things aren't working, but they've never upgraded their internal operating system. I remember talking to a farmer once.
He told me something profound about harvest time. He said, "You know what's interesting about farming? The size of your harvest is determined long before you see the crops.
It's determined by how you prepare the soil, what seeds you plant, and how you tend to them daily. " That's exactly how your mindset works. You're planting seeds in your mind.
Every single day, through your thoughts, your words, your associations—where most people get stuck—they think positive thinking alone will create success. That's like expecting a garden to grow just because you think about vegetables. Your mindset must translate into actions—consistent, purposeful actions.
That's the second point of our triangle. I knew a young man who understood this perfectly. He worked at a small diner, but in his mind, he was already a successful restaurant owner.
Now, most people would just dream about it, but not him. Every single day, he would show up early to study the restaurant's operations. He would read books about restaurant management during his breaks.
He would practice creating recipes at home. He was taking massive action while others were just dreaming. Your actions are the physical manifestation of your mindset.
They're how you vote for your future—with your feet, not just your thoughts. But here's the key: your actions must be consistent with your mindset. If you think like a winner but act like a spectator, you're programming confusion into your success computer.
Results, and this is where most people get discouraged. They don't understand what I call the delayed harvest principle. Just like that farmer doesn't plant seeds and come back the next day expecting a full harvest, you can't expect immediate results from your actions.
There's a season for planting and a season for harvesting. The time in between—that's called growth season. That's when your character is being built.
That's when your persistence is being tested. That's when most people quit—right before breakthrough. What makes the success triangle so powerful?
Your mindset influences your actions, your actions create your results, and your results reinforce your mindset. It's a continuous cycle of growth and improvement. When you understand this, you stop being discouraged by temporary setbacks because you know that as long as you're maintaining the right mindset and taking the right actions, the results are inevitable.
They might be delayed, but they cannot be denied. Every successful person you admire had to go through the same process. They had to align their mindset with their actions, and they had to persist until the results showed up.
They didn't become successful and then start thinking and acting like a success. They thought and acted like a success until they became successful. And that brings us to something crucial: the price tag of success.
Because everything worthwhile has a price, and understanding this price is what separates the dreamers from the achievers. Everything has a price tag. Right now, in this room, you're paying a price—whether you're paying the price of discipline or paying the price of regret.
You're paying a price. But here's the fascinating part: the price of success is always less than the price of failure—always. Let me tell you about two brothers I once knew: same family, same opportunities, same starting point.
One brother would wake up at 5:00 a. m. to read and study before work.
The other would stay up late watching television and sleep in until the last possible minute. The first brother would invest in books and seminars, while the second spent his money on entertainment. "Life's too short," he'd say.
"You need to enjoy yourself. " Twenty years later, one brother owns three successful companies; the other is still working the same job, still complaining about how life isn't fair. Now, here's what most people miss: they were both paying a price.
One was paying the price of discipline; the other was paying the price of regret. But here's the key difference: the pain of discipline weighs ounces, while the pain of regret weighs tons. Most people want to negotiate the price of success.
They look at the menu of life and say, "I'd like the success, but could you remove the sacrifice? Could you hold the discipline? Could you make it a little easier?
" But success doesn't work that way. The price is the price. I learned this lesson from a mentor years ago.
He said success is like a grocery store; you can't say, "I'd like these groceries, but I'll pay for them next week. " You have to pay the price before you leave the store. The same is true with success: you have to pay the price before you enjoy the benefits.
What's fascinating is that successful people do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do, and usually, it's not the big dramatic things; it's the small daily disciplines that seem insignificant in the moment but compound over time. It's getting up early when you want to sleep in. It's reading a book when you want to watch TV.
It's making one more call when you want to call it a day. It's saving money when you want to spend it. It's being nice to people when you don't feel like it.
These are the little prices successful people pay every single day. What separates winners from the rest? They understand the concept of paying the price in advance.
Most people want to be successful first and then start acting successful. Winners understand that you have to act successful first, pay the price first, and then success follows. I remember meeting a successful businessman who started with nothing.
He told me, "For the first five years of my business, I worked like I was making a million dollars when I was barely making minimum wage. " My friends thought I was crazy. "Why work so hard for so little?
" they'd ask. But I wasn't working for what I was making; I was working for what I was becoming. That's the secret most people miss.
The price you pay isn't just for what you get; it's for who you become in the process. When you pay the price of discipline, you're not just buying success; you're buying transformation. And here's something else about the price tag of success: it must be paid in full.
"Must be paid in advance. You can't put success on a payment plan. You can't say, 'I'll start working hard once I see some results.
' That's like saying, 'I'll start putting gas in my car once it starts moving. ' The good news is, once you understand this principle, life becomes simpler—not easy, easier, but simpler. Because now you know that every time you face a choice between comfort and growth, between immediate pleasure and long-term success, you're standing at a crossroads, and the path you choose will determine not just where you end up, but who you become.
Creating an environment that supports paying these prices is crucial because your environment will either support your success or sabotage it. I want to tell you something crucial about success that most people never figure out: your environment is either lifting you up or pulling you down. There's no neutral ground; it's like gravity—it's always working, whether you think about it or not.
Let me share a personal story that changed my entire perspective. Years ago, I visited the home of a very successful friend. What struck me wasn't his beautiful house or his fancy car in the driveway; it was his library.
One entire wall was filled with books—dog-eared, marked up, studied books. I asked him, 'Have you read all these? ' He smiled and said something I'll never forget: 'These books aren't my library; they're my bank account.
' Every successful person I've ever met has a success library, not just a collection of books, but a personal gold mine of knowledge they return to again and again. They understand that one idea, one strategy, one insight can change everything. While others spend their evenings with mindless entertainment, winners are building their success libraries.
But here's something even more important than the books you read: it's the people you spend time with. Your associations are like elevators; they'll either take you up or bring you down. Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future—it's that simple.
I remember meeting a young entrepreneur who made it his mission to never be the smartest person in the room. Every month he would find ways to spend time with people more successful than him. Sometimes he'd offer to buy them lunch; sometimes he'd volunteer to help with their projects, sometimes he'd just ask for 15 minutes of their time.
Was it comfortable? No. Was it easy?
No. But he understood that your life moves in the direction of your strongest association. Accountability structures are where most people's dreams go to die.
They have great intentions but no one to hold them accountable. It's like trying to lift weights without a spotter; you'll never push yourself to your true potential. I knew a woman who wanted to start a business but kept procrastinating.
One day, she did something remarkable: she gave her best friend $1,000 and said, 'If I haven't taken these specific actions by next month, donate this money to a cause I hate. ' Guess what? She took those actions in two weeks.
That's the power of accountability. When you create structures that make it more painful to stay the same than to change, you'll change. But perhaps the most powerful element of your success environment is mentorship.
You see, success leaves clues. Every successful person is like a living library of what works and what doesn't. Why stumble around in the dark when someone else has already found the light switch?
I remember asking a mentor once, 'How can I repay you for all this guidance? ' His response floored me. He said, 'Don't repay me; pass it on.
The only way to keep what you've learned is to give it away. ' That's when I understood that mentorship isn't just about getting help; it's about becoming someone who can help others. The fascinating thing about modeling successful people is that you don't just adopt their strategies; you begin to adopt their thinking patterns.
When you spend time with someone who thinks differently about money, about opportunity, about life, it changes you. Their success beliefs become your success beliefs. You don't have to wait for success to start creating this environment.
Start building your success library today, even if it's just one book. Start seeking out successful associations today, even if it's just one person. Start creating accountability structures today, even if it's just with one friend.
Start finding mentors today, even if it's through books and recordings. Your environment will shape you whether you shape it or not. The only question is: will it shape you by design or by default?
Will it lift you up or pull you down? The choice is yours, but you must make it consciously, deliberately, today. And speaking of today, let me share with you why this very moment is the most crucial moment in your journey to success.
As we're wrapping up our time together, I'm reminded of Mr Peterson. Remember him? That grocery store owner I told you about at the beginning.
But there's something about his story I haven't shared with you yet—something that brings everything we've talked about full circle. Years after he'd built his supermarket empire, I asked him, 'When did you know you would succeed? ' His answer wasn't what I expected.
He said, 'The day I stopped waiting to be successful to act successful. The day I realized that success wasn't something I had to chase; it was something I had to become. ' And that's really what we've been talking about all along, isn't it?
Whether it's the daily disciplines, the success triangle, paying the price in advance, or creating your success environment, it all comes down to one fundamental truth: success isn't an event; it's an identity. It's not something you pursue; it's someone you become. Look around this room right now.
Every single person here has a choice to make—not tomorrow, not next week, not when the conditions are perfect. " But right now, you can either continue waiting for success to make you successful, or you can start acting like the success you intend to become. The human mind can't tell the difference between what's real and what's vividly imagined.
When you start acting like a winner, your mind begins to create evidence to support that identity. But—and this is crucial—you have to start before you see the evidence. You have to become it before you see it.
Let me share one final story with you. Last week, I met a young man who'd been through my seminar five years ago. He came up to me with tears in his eyes.
He said, "I want to show you something. " He pulled out an old, worn piece of paper from his wallet. He'd written his goals from that seminar, but what struck me wasn't the goals; it was how he signed the paper.
Under his goals, he'd signed his name and added "CEO" after it. At the time, he was a janitor. Today, he's the CEO of his own company.
When I asked him what made the difference, he said, "I didn't wait to become a CEO to start thinking like one, acting like one, studying like one. I became one in my mind first; in reality, I had no choice but to catch up. " That's what I'm challenging you to do today—not tomorrow, not next week, not when you feel ready.
Today, start acting like the success you want to become. Drss like it, think like it, speak like it, move like it, study like it. If you're a salesperson, start acting like the top producer you want to become.
If you're an entrepreneur, start acting like the successful business owner you want to become. If you're a student, start acting like the distinguished graduate you want to become. Remember everything we've discussed: the daily disciplines, the success triangle, the price tag of success, your environment—they're all tools to help you become who you need to be.
But tools without action are just good intentions. When you leave this room today, do something immediately that demonstrates your commitment to your new identity. Buy that book you've been putting off; make that call you've been avoiding; write down those goals you've been thinking about; join that gym you've been considering.
Whatever it is, do it today. Success is never owned; it's only rented, and the rent is due every day. You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
The best time to start acting like a winner is not when you feel ready, it's not when conditions are perfect, and it's not when you have all the resources. The best time to start acting like a winner is right now, today, this moment. Because in the end, life pays whatever price you ask of it.
Ask for a little, and you'll get a little; ask for a lot, and you'll get a lot. But whatever you ask for, you must first become the person worthy of receiving it. So I ask you one final time: Are you ready to stop waiting for success to make you successful?
Are you ready to become the person you were meant to be? Your future is waiting, and it's waiting for the person you decide to become today. Thank you, and remember: Success is not something you pursue; success is something you attract by the person you become.
