Richard St John spent "ten years doing over 500 face-to-face interviews with many of the world’s most successful people, including Bill Gates, Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, the Google founders, Rupert Murdoch, and the list goes on. He analyzed every word they said, sorted, organized and correlated every comment, and created one of the world’s largest and most organized databases on success."
In a move that would bring further despair to Ursula Le Guin, he took this creativity and funneled it into this 3 minute talk (see below, available on Ted).
He has caught my eye because he has tried to distill success into 8 words, that takes quite some squeezing. It is a pithy reminder there are many factors to success. While you can only control what you can control... and there is a lot not in your control... there are elements you can work through.
He has also named the guide to his work, Spike! Of course, he has a book on the subject.
[Although Spike is "very simple, so anybody can relate, no matter what their gender, nationality, or race. (Editors note: The real reason he made Spike so simple is, even after four years at art college, the guy still can’t draw.)]
Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here and ideas on the arts here. On investing try a thought on stock valuations.