Creating ideal energy states.. the secret sauce to finding massive success.

I’ve had the fortune of having worked with or spent lots of time with many mega successful people in my life. Elite athletes like Novak Djokovic. Globally renowned filmmakers. Actors. Unicorn founders. Musicians. Industrialists. Finance gurus. Political leaders. I’ve seen them at their peak and interviewed them and asked hundreds of questions to learn from them. And I’ve helped some of them on their journey and played a small part as a mentor, advisor, guide or friend. 

During this journey of mentoring and working with people who find massive success, I’ve realised there’s a common quality they have that is different from most others. It’s what separates them from people who aren’t successful. But it’s also what separates the truly elite achievers from the moderately successful.

Unsuccessful people focus on outcomes. This is common knowledge and everyone knows talent counts for very little in itself. We all know that successful people focus on process and not outcomes. Work on your craft, practice, study, work harder etc and the outcomes will follow. This is common wisdom that is passed around and it is a rule of thumb that is reasonably accurate at predicting a moderate level of success. In fact, it is such common wisdom that Malcom Gladwell wrote a reductive book claiming that all it took to achieve elite success is ten thousand hours of practice. 

But if you think more deeply, you will realise that process married to talent isn’t enough. Think of the founders of some of the most successful companies. Do you think Jeff Bezos or Nitin Kamath were necessarily the smartest or hardest working people in their class? Was there no cricketer who practiced harder than Virat Kohli? Was Priyanka Chopra the single most talented or hardworking actor to have emerged from India? 

The obvious answer is no. There are always people who are more brilliant, more talented, more hardworking than the names we are familiar with. But they don’t find the mega success that you would assume would follow if process is all that matters. 

So what it is that separates the moderately successful from the game changers? The answer is something that sounds intangible but is more real than we realise. You can call it an aura, a vibe, a flow, an energy state. But it exists. And like dogs smell fear, humans can also smell and sense this energy state. 

The people who find the highest levels of success are able to understand the importance of this aura. They work on it. They cultivate it. They exude it. And it is that energy state that people are drawn to and that we call things like charisma or magnetism and personality. 

This ideal energy state is not something that you are born with, even if some people have a more instinctive understanding of it than others. It is something that you need to harness and cultivate, and that means working on your mind, your breath, your inner visualisation, your self belief… your entire sense of self.

This energy state is often misunderstood because it is something that is nuanced and subtle. It comes down to a deep sense of comfort with who you are and what your path is. A state of knowing that what you do is because this is what you are meant to do. Regardless of consequences, doubt, fear, society, failure, judgement, uncertainty. 

Being in an ideal energy state doesn’t mean the absence of doubt or fear. Everyone has doubt and everyone has fear. That is natural, especially when we aim for the extraordinary. The goal isn’t to remove doubt and fear but to to accept it, to understand that it is normal and to let it be one of many emotions within you alongside hope and excitement and joy and curiosity and empathy and love. To not let any one emotion overwhelm you or define you, whether positive or negative but to find a state of calm and balance and comfort with yourself and your path. 

This ideal energy state isn’t the consequence of consistent success or an absence of failure. Failure is natural and a part of every human life. We have a habit of defining choices and decisions as good or bad depending on whether we see the outcome as a failure or success. This is a myth. No decision is good or bad. These are labels that we use with the benefit of hindsight. Every choice is just a probabilistic framework where you’re playing the percentages and hoping that you can increase the probability of a favourable outcome. But however good your decision making is, you will make mistakes and you will often end up not getting the outcome you want. Lionel Messi misses penalties. You’re not Messi. So you need to accept that a certain failure rate is built into the journey and not let failure impact your energy state.

You will always make choices and decisions that were wrong with the benefit of hindsight. But to be in the right energy state, don’t overthink what is in the past except to see if there is something you could have learnt so that you can apply that learning in the future. And when you think of what you can learn, do this knowing that this doesn’t mean you’ll get it right next time. You’ll just use the learning to improve the probability of a better decision and that’s a good enough reason to add to the positivity of your energy state. 

This ideal energy state is also not overconfidence or bravado or projecting your worth. It is something calmer and more internal. When you feel the need to convince another person of your worth, and you act on it, your energy state is no longer natural, you are no longer at peace with your sense of self. The act of convincing or selling moves you into process mode rather than flow mode. The need to convince stems from letting our fears or our needs becoming the predominant emotion, it comes from our desire to control outcomes, it comes from letting our past failures and traumas affect our present selves. When you find the right energy state, you’re not selling anything. You’re not selling your business plan or your brilliance or your beauty or your talent or your intellect. Those qualities exist in you. They will come across to whoever is in front of you because they are a part of who you are and your lived self. 

Most people who are in a position to evaluate what you bring to the table will have some level of expertise in understanding what you have to offer. You don’t need to sell it. What they will respond to is the energy you exude. 

It is also important to remember that contrary to all the self help books, you do NOT have something unique to offer. There are many other brilliant talented people who also have amazing things to offer. The right energy state helps you realise that it doesn’t matter… this isn’t a sum zero game. You can be special and have something to offer without being unique or one of a kind. 

The more time you spend obsessing about others, the further you go away from your own ideal energy state. It’s better that you accept that others also have something to offer. There will be many times when people may prefer what someone else has to offer rather than what you do. But it doesn’t matter. Because life isn’t about the hundred people who don’t value what you bring to the table but the one or two or three that do. 

Whether it’s an investor or a patron or a customer, you don’t need everyone to love and value you. You just need a few people, usually a small percentage of your total audience to value you. If that happens you’ve found the core, the foundation that you can build on to grow and grow until you find success at the highest levels.

So the ideal energy flow is unaffected by others, whether they are peers or competitors or the audience from whom you seek something. 

You take comfort that you are not unique but that that’s completely irrelevant in your journey to succeed. 

You realise that every meeting isn’t life and death and that life offers many opportunities if you are patient and focused and calm. 

Focus on the opportunities you get and build on them rather than obsessing on what opportunities you’ve missed and affecting your energy state negatively. 

The more you spend time focusing on missed opportunities and other people, you deplete your energy state and reduce your chances to make the best of what you do have.

People with the ideal energy state have a certain amount of detachment. They feel pressure but they don’t add to the pressure by focusing on things outside themselves. They do what they do because this is who they are. The act of being, of doing their work, makes them feel fulfilled. They believe in themselves and their path. They don’t get too high or too low. They are living their truth to the best of their ability. They believe that they have it in them to change the world and achieve greatness. That’s why they do what they do. But they also know that the world may not give them the opportunity to do so. Maybe it’s unlucky circumstances or wrong assumptions that stop their dreams from coming true. But they also know that it doesn’t matter. What matters is the sense of purpose and clarity with which they live their lives. 

It makes them happy and fulfilled to walk a path that’s not for everyone. They know it’s hard and there are challenges but at their core they feel fulfilled because they believe they are meant to do things that are special and they feel their specialness from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep. Every minute of every waking hour they act and behave in a way that is true to that belief. Their beliefs, their actions, their choices all work in harmony with each other along with a sense of calmness and acceptance. They don’t let negative thoughts or cynicism or society affect them and shake that powerful energy state.

This is a rare state and very few people achieve it. Most people live every day in a way that is a product of their hopes and dreams and fears and doubts. They live in the past or the future. When they meet someone who is truly in the moment, filled with a sense of purpose, self awareness and clarity, a person not crippled by society or pressure, they are drawn to it like magnets, hence the use of the word magnetic to describe such a personality. 

And when you have that magnetism, when you live in that energy state, you will find that outcomes will start getting better and better until they have a snowball effect. You will attract people with better energy and high potential. You will perform better in every task because you mind is clear and free of distractions. Your body language and even your breath will transmit confidence and a good energy to everyone you meet. And in a world of insecurity and confusion and doubt, it is your sense of security and clarity that will lead to success.

So yes, focus on your craft and skill and have a relentless work ethic. But the most important thing is to focus on your mind and your energy. Practice everyday how to free your mind from people, situations, social expectations that deplete your energy. If you go through everyday understanding what makes you special, feeling good about it, and tapping into that feeling with every breath and letting that feeling manifest itself in your actions.. all without thinking about what it means or consequences or the world, then you’re destined for true greatness.