 There's a proverb in my country that goes like this. Hard work is the secret of wealth. I think such proverb exists everywhere in the world. My parents thought I was lazy so all my childhood I was told, hey, you're a man, hard work is the secret of wealth. But when I was a teenager I started questioning this assumption. If hard work is the secret of wealth, why isn't my father rich? I mean my father is the most hard work in human being I ever knew, so if hard work is truly the secret of prosperity, why is my father poor? I started looking for an answer and after a lot of studies I found out something very interesting and that's what I'm about to share with you in today's video. If you're new here, consider subscribing so that you won't miss other interesting videos like this. Let me quickly take this off our to-do list. Working hard is not as important as working right. If you don't get this, I'm going to use an analogy. You see, running fast isn't as important as running on the right track. Let's say there are two men. One is very fast while the other is proud of being very slow. The fast man wakes up early in the morning to start running but he's running with a wrong map, actually going to a wrong destination. Unknowingly, while the slow man gets the right map and slowly follows it, you get the picture here and don't forget that. Working right is more important than working hard but that's not where I'm going today. Today, I want to talk about a different thing and that's doing what is important versus doing what is compulsory. Doing what is important versus doing what is compulsory. Look around you and tell me if many adults are lazy. The truth is, most adults I know are very hard-working. So if most adults are hard-working, why are they poor? This is what I found out. Most people do compulsory things, not important things. Let me look for a good example here. Think about when we were in school. We studied so hard but why do we read so much in school? Well, because it's compulsory. You either read in school or have poor grades. Because we needed to read in school, most of us do it. Now, I have a question for you. How many adults do you think read books after school? How many books do you read per month? According to studies, an average American reads one book per year and that's America. In many parts of the world, an average adult reads one book in ten years and I am not joking about this. So, here is the question. What is the difference between reading in school and reading after school? Well, reading in school is compulsory and that's why most people do it. Reading after school is important but since it's not compulsory, most people don't do it. But here is the thing. An average millionaire reads one book every week. You get my message. Your ability to do what is important is probably the single most important indicator of your success. If you leave your life doing what is compulsory, you're doing what everyone can do. Everyone does what is compulsory. What most people don't do is the difficult thing that requires their initiatives and discipline. Let me give you another example. In a city where I live, most people wake up by 4.30 am on Mondays and 5 am every other day. Some people wake up at 3 am to beat traffic. While some even sleep at work because their homes are far away. You get the picture. Most people rarely have any time for themselves but don't make any mistakes here. These people can never do such things for themselves. I mean, most people can never do for themselves what they're doing for their employers. If most people have the discipline and courage to do for themselves what they're doing for their employers, they will not have enough employees in the world. The reason why some people wake up at 4 am to rush to work is that it's compulsory. The reason why most people work hard is that it's compulsory. If it's not compulsory, most people wouldn't do it and that's what differentiates the successful people from the rest of the world. If you do compulsory things, you'll be poor. If you do important things, you'll be rich. Compulsory things require that someone stands on your neck and forces you to do it. Important things require that you wake up, face your fears and do whatever you ought to even if it's difficult. My personal story. I went fully into the business world on the 24th of July 2008 and I had to sacrifice the first 8 years of my entrepreneurial life making tons of mistakes and failing. It was painful, no doubt. But today, when I look back at those years, something becomes very obvious and that is, almost all of my mates went through as many difficulties that I did go through. I mean, many of my mates have the jobs they hate, work with the people they hate and leave the life they hate. Some of them lost their jobs. They never get a better one and some of them are even poorer when working than when unemployed. You get the picture. This people went through as many headaches as I did but our results are different as day and night. What happened here? The pains that come to you when you do compulsory things does not lead you to any significant success. The only pains that lead to real success is the pains that come to you because you're doing what is important. In other words, it's more glorious to intentionally go to the battlefield than to suddenly wake up and find out that your enemy has invaded your home. When you intentionally go to the battlefield, though you'll still go through tough times, you can end up as a hero. But when you wait till your enemy invades you, you may not survive it. I once read something that goes like, the road to success and the road to failure have the same pain. In other words, the difference between success and failure is a difference between the people who only do compulsory things and people who do important things. What is the message of this video? It's very simple. I want you to start doing important things, even if they are difficult. I don't want you to wait till someone forces you before you do what you ought to do. It's not compulsory to eat fruits, but it's important. Do it. It's not compulsory to avoid sugar, but it's important. Do it. It's not compulsory to read books about money, but it is important. Do it. It's not compulsory to take difficult actions towards your dreams, but it's important. Do it. Stop waiting for external motivation. Stop waiting till someone threatens you. Stop waiting until it's compulsory. Most people make themselves poor because they do what is compulsory. 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