Success isn't just an accident.

People who consistently reach high levels of  achievement do things differently from the rest.

Today I'd like to talk about a 3 step process that will immediately improve your performance in any area.

This method is simple, quick, but almost nobody does it.

I call it the EAS. The Effective Action System.


STEP ONE. PREPARE BEFORE EVERY SIGNIFICANT EVENT.

Most people do not spend enough time preparing before they begin something.

They don't research the backgrounds of the people they are seeing.

They don't look into the history of the company they are visiting.

They don't pre write their questions. Or work out their most important points.

Or check their presentation equipment is working.

They don't take the time to prepare any more deeply than just handling the basics.

However elite performers behave differently.

They take the time to get fully immersed in the upcoming opportunity, making sure they are clear and knowledgeable about the people or company they are about to interact with.

Result? Vastly higher levels of success.

STEP TWO. HAVE BACK UP PLANS.

Success doesn't happen in a straight line.

We always have setbacks, obstacles and serious failures along the way. (For more on this buy my recent book, Why People Fail).

With this in mind, it makes perfect sense to come up with alternative plans and options in case things don't work out. As often they won't.

Successful people have fall back positions and alternative strategies ready, so when misfortune strikes they can move immediately to a new game plan for success.

Failures have only one plan - and if it doesn't work often they're in trouble.

Don't make this mistake. Take the time to develop plans B, C and D . You'll not only be much more effective, your confidence will dramatically rise as well.

Because you'll know deep inside that you are ready for any scenario.


STEP THREE. DEBRIEF EVERY PERFORMANCE.

This is one of the most important concepts to use if you want a lifetime of ultra achievement.

When most people finish a meeting, work session or important human interaction, they spend almost no time evaluating how they performed.

Typically, they give it a moment's thought then get moving on the next task or appointment.

This is such a waste , as inside every event is the chance to search for ways we can improve.

If you can just get into the habit of always debriefing every time you finish a task, you'll find you quickly become better at it.

As Ray Dalio, one of the world's wealthiest fund managers emphasises, "The main difference between the successful and unsuccessful is that successful people find and fix weaknesses."

But if you don't take a few minutes to debrief after every performance, you will rarely identify those weaknesses, let alone work out a way to fix them.

So that's the Effective Action System, one of the most powerful methods to increase your chances of success in existence.

Try it for a week and watch your performance levels soar.

Search for pictures of Facebook's new offices and you'll see a very strange thing.

The word 'Hack' is everywhere.

Written as graffiti on walls.  Constructed in giant letters on the ground outside the building.

Sculpted out of wood.

On t-shirts. On desks. On signs.

Everywhere.

What does Hack mean at Facebook? Well it's their most important philosophy.

It's about doing things fast. Trying stuff just to see if it works. Making countless small changes.

Not being afraid to shake things up, questioning the status quo.

Or as Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it, "Move fast and break things."

This culture is exemplified by Facebook's regular all night 'Hackathons', where their coders get together and work non-stop on fresh ideas and strategies to push the company forward. Fueled by beer and Chinese food, these giant brainstorms have been responsible for some of Facebook's biggest breakthroughs.

The Like button, for example, was conceived during a Hackathon.

In a pre-IPO letter to shareholders, Zuckerberg summed up The Hacker Way as consisting of these five attributes:
1. Focus on impact.
2. Move fast
3. Be bold.
4. Be open
5. Build social value

He summed it up as follows: "The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo."

Now look at your life, or company in the light of Facebook's culture. Ask yourself, "Am I moving fast enough? Am I breaking enough things? Am I pushing the envelope? Do I have a philosophy of constant improvement and an obsession of making things better?

Am I being bold?

These are confronting questions for most of us, as the majority of time we would have to admit that we are probably not living this way nearly enough.

Facebook's hacker philosophy is a great reminder to us all to hurry up and make things happen.

Our future is decided by what we do right now. We must act quickly and aggressively to overcome the inertia of others.

We must hack our way to victory.

Search for pictures of Facebook's new offices and you'll see a very strange thing.

The word 'Hack' is everywhere.

Written as graffiti on walls.  Constructed in giant letters on the ground outside the building.

Sculpted out of wood.

On t-shirts. On desks. On signs.

Everywhere.

What does Hack mean at Facebook? Well it's their most important philosophy.

It's about doing things fast. Trying stuff just to see if it works. Making countless small changes.

Not being afraid to shake things up, questioning the status quo.

Or as Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it, "Move fast and break things."

This culture is exemplified by Facebook's regular all night 'Hackathons', where their coders get together and work non-stop on fresh ideas and strategies to push the company forward. Fueled by beer and Chinese food, these giant brainstorms have been responsible for some of Facebook's biggest breakthroughs.

The Like button, for example, was conceived during a Hackathon.

In a pre IPO letter to shareholders, Zuckerberg summed up The Hacker Way as consisting of these five attributes:
1. Focus on impact.
2. Move fast
3. Be bold.
4. Be open
5. Build social value

He summed it up as follows: "The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo."

Now look at your life, or company in the light of Facebook's culture. Ask yourself, "Am I moving fast enough? Am I breaking enough things? Am I pushing the envelope? Do I have a philosophy of constant improvement and an obsession of making things better?

Am I being bold?

These are confronting questions for most of us, as the majority of time we would have to admit that we are probably not living  this way nearly enough.

Facebook's hacker philosophy is a great reminder to us all to hurry up and make things happen.

Our future is decided by what we do right now. We must act quickly and aggressively to overcome the inertia of others.

We must hack our way to victory.

Search for pictures of Facebook's new offices and you'll see a very strange thing.

The word 'Hack' is everywhere.

Written as graffiti on walls.  Constructed in giant letters on the ground outside the building.

Sculpted out of wood.

On t-shirts. On desks. On signs.

Everywhere.

What does Hack mean at Facebook? Well it's their most important philosophy.

It's about doing things fast. Trying stuff just to see if it works. Making countless small changes.

Not being afraid to shake things up, questioning the status quo.

Or as Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it, "Move fast and break things."

This culture is exemplified by Facebook's regular all night 'Hackathons', where their coders get together and work non-stop on fresh ideas and strategies to push the company forward. Fueled by beer and Chinese food, these giant brainstorms have been responsible for some of Facebook's biggest breakthroughs.

The Like button, for example, was conceived during a Hackathon.

In a pre-IPO letter to shareholders, Zuckerberg summed up The Hacker Way as consisting of these five attributes:
1. Focus on impact.
2. Move fast
3. Be bold.
4. Be open
5. Build social value

He summed it up as follows: "The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo."

Now look at your life, or company in the light of Facebook's culture. Ask yourself, "Am I moving fast enough? Am I breaking enough things? Am I pushing the envelope? Do I have a philosophy of constant improvement and an obsession of making things better?

Am I being bold?

These are confronting questions for most of us, as the majority of time we would have to admit that we are probably not living this way nearly enough.

Facebook's hacker philosophy is a great reminder to us all to hurry up and make things happen.

Our future is decided by what we do right now. We must act quickly and aggressively to overcome the inertia of others.

We must hack our way to victory.

Search for pictures of Facebook's new offices and you'll see a very strange thing.

The word 'Hack' is everywhere.

Written as graffiti on walls.  Constructed in giant letters on the ground outside the building.

Sculpted out of wood.

On t-shirts. On desks. On signs.

Everywhere.

What does Hack mean at Facebook? Well it's their most important philosophy.

It's about doing things fast. Trying stuff just to see if it works. Making countless small changes.

Not being afraid to shake things up, questioning the status quo.

Or as Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it, "Move fast and break things."

This culture is exemplified by Facebook's regular all night 'Hackathons', where their coders get together and work non-stop on fresh ideas and strategies to push the company forward. Fueled by beer and Chinese food, these giant brainstorms have been responsible for some of Facebook's biggest breakthroughs.

The Like button, for example, was conceived during a Hackathon.

In a pre-IPO letter to shareholders, Zuckerberg summed up The Hacker Way as consisting of these five attributes:
1. Focus on impact.
2. Move fast
3. Be bold.
4. Be open
5. Build social value

He summed it up as follows: "The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo."

Now look at your life, or company in the light of Facebook's culture. Ask yourself, "Am I moving fast enough? Am I breaking enough things? Am I pushing the envelope? Do I have a philosophy of constant improvement and an obsession of making things better?

Am I being bold?

These are confronting questions for most of us, as the majority of time we would have to admit that we are probably not living  this way nearly enough.

Facebook's hacker philosophy is a great reminder to us all to hurry up and make things happen.

Our future is decided by what we do right now. We must act quickly and aggressively to overcome the inertia of others.

We must hack our way to victory.

Search for pictures of Facebook's new offices and you'll see a very strange thing.

The word 'Hack' is everywhere.

Written as graffiti on walls.  Constructed in giant letters on the ground outside the building.

Sculpted out of wood.

On t-shirts. On desks. On signs.

Everywhere.

What does Hack mean at Facebook? Well it's their most important philosophy.

It's about doing things fast. Trying stuff just to see if it works. Making countless small changes.

Not being afraid to shake things up, questioning the status quo.

Or as Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it, "Move fast and break things."

This culture is exemplified by Facebook's regular all night 'Hackathons', where their coders get together and work non-stop on fresh ideas and strategies to push the company forward. Fuelled by beer and Chinese food, these giant brainstorms have been responsible for some of Facebook's biggest breakthroughs.

The Like button, for example, was conceived during a Hackathon.

In a pre IPO letter to shareholders, Zuckerberg summed up The Hacker Way as consisting of these five attributes:
1. Focus on impact.
2. Move fast
3. Be bold.
4. Be open
5. Build social value

He summed it up as follows: "The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo."

Now look at your life, or company in the light of Facebook's culture. Ask yourself, "Am I moving fast enough? Am I breaking enough things? Am I pushing the envelope? Do I have a philosophy of constant improvement and an obsession of making things better?

Am I being bold?

These are confronting questions for most of us, as the majority of time we would have to admit that we are probably not living  this way nearly enough.

Facebook's hacker philosophy is a great reminder to us all to hurry up and make things happen.

Our future is decided by what we do right now. We must act quickly and aggressively to overcome the inertia of others.

We must hack our way to victory.

Search for pictures of Facebook's new offices and you'll see a very strange thing.

The word 'Hack' is everywhere.

Written as graffiti on walls.  Constructed in giant letters on the ground outside the building.

Sculpted out of wood.

On t-shirts. On desks. On signs.

Everywhere.

What does Hack mean at Facebook? Well it's their most important philosophy.

It's about doing things fast. Trying stuff just to see if it works. Making countless small changes.

Not being afraid to shake things up, questioning the status quo.

Or as Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it, "Move fast and break things."

This culture is exemplified by Facebook's regular all night 'Hackathons', where their coders get together and work non-stop on fresh ideas and strategies to push the company forward. Fueled by beer and Chinese food, these giant brainstorms have been responsible for some of Facebook's biggest breakthroughs.

The Like button, for example, was conceived during a Hackathon.

In a pre-IPO letter to shareholders, Zuckerberg summed up The Hacker Way as consisting of these five attributes:
1. Focus on impact.
2. Move fast
3. Be bold.
4. Be open
5. Build social value

He summed it up as follows: "The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo."

Now look at your life, or company in the light of Facebook's culture. Ask yourself, "Am I moving fast enough? Am I breaking enough things? Am I pushing the envelope? Do I have a philosophy of constant improvement and an obsession of making things better?

Am I being bold?

These are confronting questions for most of us, as the majority of time we would have to admit that we are probably not living this way nearly enough.

Facebook's hacker philosophy is a great reminder to us all to hurry up and make things happen.

Our future is decided by what we do right now. We must act quickly and aggressively to overcome the inertia of others.

We must hack our way to victory.

The world worships busyness.

We admire those who have to always be somewhere, who have work days with endless appointments, who seem to be rushing around constantly working on projects.

They seem more productive.

But is it so?

I think we are deluding ourselves.

The modern world wasn't created by constant movement, it was created by creative thinking followed by intelligent action.

If we forget about the creative thinking part, we will be stuck trying to get ahead by merely working harder.

That's not only an ineffective strategy, it's an exhausting one. There are only so many long days you can work before you become permanently tired and your morale sags.

Anyway these days everyone works hard - you can't get ahead by attempting to out work your competition, you must focus on out thinking them.

And to do that you must devote time each and every day to coming up with ideas, rather than just improving the ideas you came up with a few years ago.

Honestly, when was the last time you came up with a really novel idea?

About how to transform your business, boost your personal life or improve the world?

If that question hurts, it's time to change how you work.

In one little, but crucially important way.

Spend ten minutes a day with a blank pad of paper and a pen, thinking. That's right, just thinking.

Of ideas to increase sales. Ideas for new products.  Ideas to improve that relationship.  Ideas to change every aspect of your life that you are not delighted with.

It's only ten minutes, but it can change your next ten years.

If we don't set a regular time to be creative then our only hope is that we will accidentally come up with good ideas while we're doing something else.

This happens of course, but it just doesn't happen enough to be a reliable method.

We must make creative thinking a daily ritual, ideally carried out at the same time every day, so that it becomes a firm habit.

Now some of us believe we're simply not creative, but it's my experience that everybody comes up with great ideas - if they try to do it regularly.

Like a muscle, the more we use our creativity, the stronger it gets.

And the more we conceive and apply great new ideas to our life, the richer and happier we get.

Recently the U.S government made the biggest changes to patent law since 1952.

If you've ever had an idea for a novel product or invention, you'll be delighted with some of their changes, and perhaps concerned by others.

First let's deal with the good stuff.

It is now vastly cheaper to patent a new invention in the USA.

It used to cost $1090 to search for and file a patent. Now it's only $272.50.

If you include the cost of maintaining a patent for the full 11.5 years it would normally cost $10,170.

Now, thanks to the America Invents Act, it will now only cost you $2542.50.

That's a pretty awesome saving.

There's one small hitch however. You have to be a 'micro entity' to qualify for these lower rates.

A micro entity is defined primarily as:

1. A small entity or company (see their terms for details, but basically if you run a small business you'll probably qualify).

2. You haven't been named as an inventor in more than 4 other applications.

3.You have a gross income no greater than 3 times the median U.S income for the proceeding year (that means you need to have earnt less than $148,335 USD).

These savings will change the world. Because now thousands of people who couldn't afford to patent their invention will now go ahead and do so.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the America Invents Act made one other change that is arguably not so good for individual inventors.

Up until the Act, if you could prove you invented your idea before anyone else, you usually won any dispute about rights, even if somebody else had patented the idea before you.

Now whoever patents it first owns the rights.

So if you have a fantastic idea for a product or technology, you should patent it now.

Otherwise you could lose sole ownership of it forever.

Fortunately though, the word is that this rule doesn't apply until 18 months after the enactment of the act, so that means you have until March 2013 before the rules change. But knowing how long it takes to get these things organised, submitted and through the government system, I would get started on anything you want to get patented immediately.

Yes, thanks to the America Invents Act, it's now inexpensive to patent your invention. But also thanks to the Act, it could be more costly than ever if you don't.

We've just finished running a 2 day seminar for almost 500 entrepreneurs.

We taught a lot, but we also learnt a lot.

Here's what I learnt:

1. Entrepreneurs are not just driven by money.

 Most of the people we spoke to wanted to create something extraordinary, not just make a profit.

Sure money was of interest, but for many it wasn't the most important factor. The excitement of creation mixed with the freedom that success can bring are what truly motivates most successful business owners.

2. Entrepreneurs are too hard on themselves.

So many lacked the confidence they needed to excel in the competitive world of business. Self belief is ultimately just a choice. If I could say one thing to the entrepreneurs of the world it would be this: you can do it, you really can. All business skills are learnable. If you keep on refining your approach there's no reason you can't achieve amazing things with your business. And it's important you choose to believe that.

3. Entrepreneurs are not spending nearly enough time on marketing. 

When you have a new business 90% of the problems are caused by low sales. Yet so many business owners spend less than an hour a day trying to bring in more customers. 

You need to spend most of your day doing the stuff that actually increases revenue: making cold calls, sending out emails, trying different marketing methods. Comparatively, virtually everything else is a waste of time.

4. Entrepreneurs don't do enough joint ventures.

We should always be thinking of companies we can work with who have access to the type of customers we want. Getting new customers is usually hard, costly and time consuming. Even if you have to give them a 50% cut of profits, linking up with another company who can introduce you to those customers is worth it.

5. Entrepreneurs are generally delightful people. 

Amongst the general public, entrepreneurs often get a bad rap. They are sometimes considered selfish, greedy and aggressive. But my experience at our seminar told me the exact opposite. Entrepreneurs are some of the most positive, caring people in the world . They are dreamers, yes, but they are dreamers that do.

It's no exaggeration to say that the advancement of society relies greatly on the work of entrepreneurs. 

We should take much more pride in what we do.