Are you wondering whether I wrote SRR by mistake instead of writing RRR (the movie and its success formula) in the headline?

Nope. I got this one right.

While there is no guaranteed success formula for any movie RRR or otherwise, there is a guaranteed one available to all of us. This post unpacks this powerful formula that J P Morgan supposedly paid $25,000 for. But for you my friends, it’s free.

Let’s park the J P Morgan thought for a few minutes as I am going to ask you a riddle that Stephanie Bogan, an entrepreneur and business coach wrote in her post in Advisor Perspectives.

“There are five frogs sitting on a lily pad. One decides to jump off. How many frogs are left on the lily pad?

I bet it’s an easy one for you.

Chances are that your math skills led you to answer four.

Did you?

But this isn’t a math question. It’s a life problem.

The correct answer is five frogs.

Confused!

All five frogs are still sitting on the lily pad because, like most people, the frog decided – and probably made a great decision. But so far, it’s still stuck sitting on the lily pad.”

See some similarities here.

I see too many financial professionals, like the frog, sitting and wishing for things to be better, while failing to make the leaps that are required to do so.

We make a decision to start. But we don’t start.

We all have been guilty of this.

Some of us start but then we pause/stop when we face roadblocks.

We don’t implement the things that are required to build the firm of our dreams. Instead, we sit with other frogs and engage in wishful thinking instead of making things happen.

It’s far easier to tell ourselves that we could have done this or that rather than actually doing it. There is no pain when you live in such an illusionary world. And when there is no pain, there is no pace. Thus, we keep wishing, thinking, and sometimes even making decisions until there is some external force that acts on us.

For example: losing a big client, intense competition, regulatory impact on business model, and so on.

Now back to J P Morgan.

I have to credit David Morris @wdmorrisjr for the story.

A man once approached J P Morgan with an envelope he claimed contained “the guaranteed formula for success”. But it would cost him $25,000.

Morgan agreed that he would read it first and if it was true, he would pay the man.

He opened the envelope, read the contents, nodded, and got out his cheque book.

The paper only contained two sentences:

1. Every morning, write a list of things that need to be done that day.

2. Do them.

Sounds simple, right.

It is. Our life is actually simple, but we make everything complex.

I know what your likely reaction is now.

“J P Morgan paid $25,000 for this. Even a frog knows this.”

But then a frog simply knows this. And he simply continues to sit on the pad.

Success has a clear path. If you want to succeed at anything all you have to do is unpack the wisdom in the 2 sentences and ACT.

Presenting the SRR Success Formula.

1. Start

2. Review

3. Repeat

I have used this formula for everything from losing weight to writing a book.

For example, to lose weight, we need to eat less or exercise more. To sign up an ideal client, we have to meet ideal prospects. To write a book, you have to first sit on a chair, stare at the blank page and then write one word.

Didn’t you know this already?

We all do but somewhere we make the process to be more complex (in our minds) than it is. We tell ourselves a convenient lie “I don’t know what to do or that it’s tough.”

The truth is that you do know what to do. But, knowing something, and thinking of something is not the same as doing something.

What was true for J P Morgan is true for you and for me. The roadmap is laid out in front of us.

We have to stop making excuses and start doing things.

Start with a List of things to be done each day. Do it. Review it at the end of every day and then Repeat the Process all over again the next day and the next day and every Single Day…

This is the SRR Formula of Success. I guarantee it.

But this formula will work only if you do the work. Too often, we are unwilling to do what is required. We claim we don’t have time. Or that this is too simple to work.

Nonsense.

Start (Now). Review. Repeat.