The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results: Achieve your goals with one of the world's bestselling success books

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

Commit to be your best. Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work. This is, in essence, the path to mastery—and because mastery takes time, it takes a commitment to achieve it.

Most assume mastery is an end result, but at its core, mastery is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and a journey you experience.

We hear about balance so much we automatically assume it’s exactly what we should be seeking. It’s not. Purpose, meaning, significance—these are what make a successful life.

Who we are and where we want to go determine what we do and what we accomplish. A life lived on purpose is the most powerful of all—and the happiest.

believe that financially wealthy people are those who have enough money coming in without having to work to finance their purpose in life.

Economists have long known that even though people prefer big rewards over small ones, they have an even stronger preference for present rewards over future ones—even when the future rewards are MUCH BIGGER. It’s an ordinary occurrence, oddly named hyperbolic discounting—the farther away a reward is in the future, the smaller the immediate motivati

So, if you want to get the most out of your day, do your most important work—your ONE Thing—early, before your willpower is drawn down.

To prove its value, just skip the steps by asking yourself, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do right now so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal?” Doesn’t work. The moment is too far from the future for you to clearly see your key priority.