Correlation Is Not Causation

Warren Buffett's net worth is $86.7 billion dollars. Every morning, after the stock market opens, Warren Buffett goes to McDonald's and orders his breakfast, which usually consists of a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit or a sausage McMuffin. This diet is bizarre and extremely unhealthy, but a fascinating part of Buffett's life, which draws the attention of young professionals and executives across industries. Far too often, individuals with aspirations to become say the next Warren Buffett for example, believe that if they imitate his lifestyle choices that it will in some way improve their business or guide them towards personal or professional success. This can often be an ineffective and dangerous path for those just starting out or even well established professionals. Just because you eat McMuffins and inhale Coca-Cola like one of the most successful businessmen in the world, does not offer you any insight into becoming him.

Forbes published an article about how copying successful people won't make you successful and it makes a great point stating that "you're not them, and they're not you." This means that we cannot expect to be able to absorb the life of someone we admire just by imitating everything they do. I want to take this time to explore the pitfalls of copying the public lives of successful people, what instead you can take away from those you admire, and how you can set yourself up for success without imitating someone else. Correlation is not causation, and here's why:

Imitation can be the sincerest form of failure

Although it may be flattering to a person with great success that others want to follow in his footsteps, ultimately we know that you won't gain anything of substance from copying arbitrary details from someone's public or personal life. First, there's a huge difference between our public and private lives, and with tools like social media, the perception of what is real is heavily skewed. Just because you see on Instagram that your favorite CEO or role model gets his or her coffee every morning from a local shop instead of Starbucks, or uses only Apple products for his or her business does not mean that copying those aspects will make you similarly successful. And if you take a chance blindly, based on that heavily curated image (that may even be sponsored!), you risk losing time, money, and even respect.

You have no insight as to why this individual has made these choices or how it has worked out from them. All you see is what they want you to see: the most perfect version of their lives. A particular method or lifestyle choice may work for someone else, but that does not in any way indicate how it could work for you. Chances are it is likely not to. You have to make informed choices based on your own reasoning and practical needs. Imitation is a slippery slope that is full of departures from what the reality of that person's life is. Their journey to where they are now has so many twists and turns that you will never know about, even if you've read their whole Wikipedia page! There will always be details that they may not even remember, which could have made all the difference.

Extrapolate the concept from the action

What will bring you success is to look deeper into the concepts rather than the concrete details of someone's actions. Think about why a CEO invests the way they do, what motivates them to make these decisions? What is the philosophy they live by, and why? Going back to our earlier example, Warren Buffett isn't successful because he eats McDonald's, the importance of this is the fact that he's built himself a routine that he sticks to and has taken the unnecessary thought and effort out of a mundane task, which has ultimately contributed to his success.

Asking and answering questions such as these can provide greater insight to behaviors that you can positively incorporate into your daily life and professional practices. A completely necessary part of furthering your career is being aware and accepting the hard work that comes with being at the top. Just because you've found the beginnings of success does not mean you get to work any less. I find myself working even harder and longer now that I'm the boss. This is just a fact that comes with the territory. Your success will bring busier schedules, far more and greater challenges, and harder decisions to make in the future; prepare yourself for that.

Play to your strengths

Playing to your personal strengths is the surefire way to find your easiest path to a successful future. Take calculated risks based on your own experiences, not others. When you take certain risks on the basis of popularity, it is far more likely to backfire on you down the line, if not immediately. But do not take this as me saying you shouldn't listen to your instincts. Bet on yourself over anyone else because you know yourself the best, and even if it doesn't pay off at first, establishing trust in yourself is crucial. You're investing in your future when you go out on a limb for yourself. While imitation is not the right course of action, observation of others and what they do is helpful, but make sure to do that for yourself as well. At the end of the day, if you don't learn to trust your instincts and do a self analysis, you'll find yourself in a tough spot when it comes time to work and communicate with others.

Remember: if you're good at something, never do it for less than you're worth. Your worth is not cumulative of your overall intelligence or ability to improve; it is only the value on you at a specific moment for a specific purpose. There is always room for improvement, but you must know that your field is not just a place rigged for geniuses or prodigies. People like that can occasionally rest on their talent, get lucky, and fall into their success. But for most of us, success is 50% talent and 50% hard work, and there's no getting around that no matter who you are.

A way I have implemented this concept for my company is through fixed bid projects. The majority of our competitors will never offer a fixed bid because they deem it too risky and unprofitable. By putting together the right team of experts, we have been able to offer fixed bids and make it a profitable way of doing business. This is a win-win for us and our clients as it keeps cost down and the projects get completed both on budget and on time.

There's no shortcuts in success

Those who are truly successful in their fields all have one thing in common: they worked hard to get there, and they did it by establishing a solid foundation first. Having your own methodology or philosophy, call it what you will, will give you a rock solid foundation when you feel unsure of yourself and what path to take next. When I think of going into business with someone, I need to know that our philosophies align so I know we'll have a compatible relationship. This often means I have to say no to certain opportunities because I have learned what is best for me and my company and that being selective is key.

A lot of people misunderstand my brand to be public speaking, conferences and world travel whereas that is just a side effect of what I do rather than primarily what I do. It may look like I'm only having fun travelling the world to speak at these events and visit our clients (which trust me, I do!), but the truth is as a part of this, there's extremely long days, even longer layovers, and a vast amount of time spent preparing. I didn't fall into public speaking by happenstance and I'm not able to keep such a difficult travel schedule without effort. (Also shoutout to my team here as I've been extremely lucky to have them to coordinate all the logistics of setting up client meetings, both nationally and internationally, and coordinating speaking events nearby-- not easy!).

The truth is I started preparing for all of these things in my childhood. At age 4, I started practicing yoga, which keeps me physically healthy and mentally grounded; at age 5, I started public speaking courses and participating in competitions; at age 6, I started coding and did so entirely by hand (yes, without a computer!). To this day, I continue to hone my skills in all three. That's essentially decades of preparation to make any one talk happen and it's important to realize that I didn't get to just jump straight to world travel fun part, I had to put in the work first.

Conclusion

There are a few takeaways at the end of all of this that you should keep in mind:

• Try not to be distracted by others' success and what they're doing. Find the concept in the action and apply it to your own life in a way that works for you.
• Be prepared to work really hard if you end up finding success on your own because the grind never stops.
• Don't imitate anyone because there is a huge difference between the public and private lives of successful people, and you can never see the full picture.
• There is no shortcut to finding your own path to success.

Finally, remember correlation is not causation and to confuse the two is to decide between success and failure. Namaste.