Why is it that some people seem to succeed at what they do and others just struggle through life. It seems that there is a secret ingredient that can largely determine whether you will succeed.

The secret was revealed by Michael Korda: "Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do."

Think about all the times in your life where you have succeeded at what you were doing. Each and every time you would have been deriving pleasure from it. It might have been playing computer games when you were young, sporting competitions or school. Whatever it was if you didn’t love what you were doing your chances of success greatly diminishes your capacity to excel in the chosen endeavour.

It is not hard to comprehend that those who love what they do will tend to realize greater success than a similarly skilled person doing the same thing but with a spirit of disengagement. The reason loving what you do is integral to success is that you will find the capacity to give maximum performance, you will find extra motivation to keep at it when you encounter obstacles and you will tend to persist at it. All of these are key ingredients to success.

If you find this concept hard to fathom all you need to do is look at any interviews of successful people, whether they be elite athletes, businessperson or someone at the top of their field. If you read most of those articles you will find everyone of them will tell the reporter that they loved what they do. The accolades and money often come secondary and most would probably keep doing what they do even if they weren’t getting paid.

So what implications does this have for you. Well certainly the concensus is that if you want to succeed you need to be doing something that you love. Why would you want to spend one third of your waking life working at a job that neither brings you satisfaction or enjoyment. Sure it puts a roof over your head and food on the table but ultimately you will find that life is a struggle needlessly. What if you could find a passion and still be paid. After all life is too short to squander it away.

So if you aren’t happy with your current way you live or where you work then make a change. Take a leap of faith and find a way to turn your passion into a way to also earn a living. You will find that success will surely follow.