20 Steps to Success by multi-published, award-winning author, Dana Marton

1. 20 Steps to Success
By multi-published, award-winning author
Dana Marton
www.danamarton.com

2. #1 Set Clear, Obtainable Goals
• Goals must be something you have power over.
E.g.: “Write a book in the next six months.” And
not, “Hit the top of the bestseller list.”
• Goals should be measurable. You must be able to
clearly tell whether a goal was achieved or not.
• Goals should have a deadline.
• “My objective in life is to help
women know how great they
really are.” Mary Kay Ash
• “Gather the good, abandon the bad, clear your
mind, move on.” Martha Stewart

3. #2 Make a Plan
• Step 1: Identify where you are now.
• Step 2: Identify where you’d like to be.
• Step 3: Identify the steps that’ll take you from
Point A to Point B.
• Step 4: Get moving. The universe responds to
action.
• “People of accomplishment rarely sat back and
let things happen to them. They went out and
happened to things.” Elinor Smith

4. # 3 Start Now
• “At any moment, I can change my entire life
by making a new decision.” Anthony Robins
• The more you grow, the more your career
grows. Invest in personal growth.
• “All that you’ll ever be, you are now
becoming.” Dr. Phil
• Randomly stop yourself 10 times a day and
ask the following question: Is what I am doing
taking me closer to my goal?

5. #4 Do Something New
• Have you noticed that people around you
seem to have the same problem year after
year? The same unfulfilled dream? Is the same
true for you? Have you wanted to do/be X
forever?
• “If you want something you've never had, you
must be willing to do something you've never
done.” Thomas Jefferson

6. #5 Save Time by Not Reinventing the Wheel
• Good news: You don’t have to invent how to be a
successful businessman, author, mother,
investor, teacher, etc. Chances are, someone out
there has already done what you’re trying to do.
• Identify the top 20 people in your field. Read as
many articles/interviews about them as you
possibly can. You’ll notice that they have a great
deal in common. What are they doing that you’re
not? Step out of your box.

7. #6 Be Careful with your Response to
External Events
• Event + Response = Outcome
• What happens to you does not define you.
Setbacks cannot hold you back. Unfavorable
circumstances cannot hold you down.
Outcome depends on how you respond to
both negative and positive events.
• Counteract the negative with massive,
strategic effort.
• Amplify the positive. Milk it for all it’s worth!

8. #7 Set Yourself up to Succeed
• Nearly everybody wants to write a book. Less than 1%
start. Less than 1% finish. Less than 1% of those get
their book published. Less than 1% percent writes a
second book.
• When I started writing, I knew my chances for success
were slim to none. I had a whole list of fears. What I
needed was a list of positives to overwrite those fears.
• “I WILL succeed because….” Write one hundred
reasons. Write until you feel like reaching your goal is
inevitable.
• BTW, in the past 10 years, I have published 40 books in
over a dozen languages around the word, selling nearly
2 million copies.

9. #8 Don’t Let Failure Slow You Down
• I wrote for 13 years before my first book was
published.
• You don’t fail until you’ve given up.
• “Failure is the opportunity to begin again,
more intelligently.” Henry Ford
• “The world of tomorrow belongs to those who
give it the greatest hope.” T. de Chardin

10. #9 Embrace your Talent and Creativity
• “Creativity isn’t far away, or outside you. It’s
an inner movement, a heart-shift, a joy
making its way out of your throat or hands or
feet. So go for it. No one’s watching. The
payoff is magnificent.” Margo Jefferson
• “The purpose of art is to fill space in a
beautiful way.” Georgia O’Keefee

11. #10 Don’t Settle
• “You will never achieve more than you’re
willing to settle for.” Thomas F. Darden
• Always be preparing for the next step.
• To be highly successful, you have to do what
highly successful people do.

12. #11 Learn from the Wise
• “The guy on the top of the mountain didn’t
fall there.” Vincent E. Orza, Jr.
• “Do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Oprah
• “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Ghandi
• “Do what you can, with what you have, where
you are.” Teddy Rosevelt
• “Opportunity is missed by most people
because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like
work.” Thomas Edison

13. #12 Define Your Own Success
• Money/position?
• No longer having to do things you don’t want to
do?
• Does success = happiness?
• Is success when you’re happy?
• Is success when you make others happy?
• Success includes taking the time to restore your
soul.
• What are your mistaken beliefs about success?

14. #13 Make Success a Habit
• Identify the skills you need to be successful.
(E.g. Need to write better advertising copy.
Need to learn how to use Social Media to sell.
Need to be more positive. Need to be more
social.)
• Learn those skills.
• Practice those skills daily.

15. #14 Network
• Invest in relationships.
• Surround yourself with people who know the
things you don’t.
• Always work with the best support you can
afford.
• Set networking goals. (Attend two
conferences each year, reach out to one
expert in the field per month, etc.)

16. #15 Ask the Right Questions
• “Ask yourself powerful questions to create
powerful results. What can I be doing right
now, today, that will make the most
difference in my career a year from now or
five years from now? Then do it!” Mary
Buckham
• When you ask the right questions, you’re
halfway to having the answers.

17. #16 Measure
• Keep track of every effort in terms of the
results it brings.
• Make decisions based on facts.
• Identify trends.
• Allocate assets (time, people, advertising
dollars) for maximum return.

18. # 17 Seek Feedback
• It is impossible to see ourselves as we truly
are.
• It is impossible for a creator to see his/her
creation as it truly is.
• Impartial, outside opinion is absolutely
necessary.
• Seek feedback about your product, systems,
delivery, image, brand, etc.

19. #18 Don’t Forget to Recalibrate
• Halfway down the road, you’ll know more than
you do now. You will have changed. The
marketplace will have changed. Your product and
methods will also have to change.
• Success is a moving target. Set up flexible
systems.
• Curiosity and flexibility are the best predictors of
intelligence.
• 80/20 Principle: 20% of effort brings 80% of
results.

20. #19 Be Kind
• The top level of any field/industry is a small
interwoven group, people who know each
other. And they have long memories.
• The person you step on today (or post snarky
messages about online) could be the person
you desperately need to give you a hand up
tomorrow.
• In business, reputation is everything.

21. #20 Enjoy
• If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?
• Joy brings positive energy that transfers to
your product and attracts customers.
• “Ask yourself what makes you come alive and
do that. Because what the world needs is
people who’ve come alive.” Howard Thurman

22. Go Forth and Succeed
• “This is the time for every artist in every genre
to do what he or she does loudly and
consistently. It doesn’t matter to me what
your position is. You’ve got to keep asserting
the complexity and the originality of life, and
the multiplicity of it, and the facets of it. This
is about being a complex human being in the
world, not about finding a villain. This is no
time for anything else than the best that
you’ve got.” Toni Morrison

23. Brought to you by,
Dana Marton
Author
www.danamarton.com