The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices—choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success—a few simple disciplines practiced every day—is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence—not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

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How to create the formula for your book and ensure it's a winner! by Steve Manning

An Algorithm is a procedure or a formula for solving a problem. On the Internet, the most famous algorithm is the one used by Google to determine which page comes up first during a search. But they're used by police, by scientists, by teachers and just about every professional to arrive at the solution to a challenge that must be solved.

So it is with writing.

Each kind of book has an algorithm, a strategy, a structure, an architecture that is duplicated time and time again to arrive at the result that is the finished book. Ten years ago, writers used to say that a particular kind of book was formulaic. That was a pejorative comment because every author, editor and publisher wanted to believe, rightly or wrongly, that all their books were unique, special, different. Not only does that prove not to be the case, it can actually be a strategy that hurts your chances for success as a writer.
 
Let me give you a non-writing example. When Mozart wrote a classical symphony, he used a classical symphonic structure, or algorithm. Within that algorithm, Wolfgang was free to do whatever he wanted, and the possibilities were limitless, but every listener in the audience, knew that the symphony would have four movements, each movement would have a particular tempo, there would be one or two themes as well as a bridge theme that would undergo several pleasant, and almost predictable, variations. No 'surprises' and everyone loved it. Then Beethoven came along and everyone hated his third symphony because that was where he threw all the rules out the window and no audience member knew what was going on.
 
So it is with writing. The book you want to write has an algorithm. Follow that algorithm and agents, editors, publishers and readers will love you. Divert from it, and you've got an uphill struggle.

1) Your first step is to purchase no fewer than 10 current best sellers in your area of interest. If you want to write thrillers, get thrillers. If you want to write romance, get romance. Try to get books that are as close to what you want to write as possible. So if you've got your heart set on a thriller with a kidnapping as the major event, that's what you're looking for. If romance is your thing, remember that this category alone is divided into more than a dozen sub genres. Science fiction? Well, you know as well as I do that this is just a very rough starting point. Now, if for some reason you can't get specific, then go with the more generic. Can't find 10 thrillers involving a serial killer? Okay, then go with three.

2) After getting your hands on those books, read them quickly. No more than an hour or two for each one.

3) Now go through each one again and tell me, in once sentence, what happens in the first scene. Keep it broad, not specific. Just about every thriller has someone significant dying a grisly death in the first scene, just to get the reader warmed up.

Romance? We get to meet the hero or heroine and realize that despite their success in life, there is an empty spot.

4) Do that for each scene and you've got the algorithm for that book.

5) Put the algorithms of these 10 books together as cohesively as you can so you have one, comprehensive algorithm that incorporates the majority of books you've studied.

This is the algorithm that will help you when you write your genre book.

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