Now today, I'm going to give you the six rules of success.
The #1 rule is: Trust yourself.
What I mean by that is, is, so many young people are getting so much advice from their parents, from their teachers, and from everyone. But what is most important is, that you have to dig deep down. Dig deep down and ask yourselves “Who do you want to be?”. Not what but who. I’m talking about, not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you. I’m talking about figuring out for yourselves, what makes you happy. No matter how crazy it may sound to other people.
So rule #1 is: Always trust yourself, no matter how or what anyone else thinks.
Rule #2 is: Break the rules. We are given so many rules in life about everything I say break the rules, not the law, but break the rules. It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you are too well behaved and not want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box, that's what I believe after all. What is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is to be liked by everyone and avoid trouble. The only way that I ever got to any place was by breaking some of the rules.
Which of course brings me to rule #3: don't be afraid to fail. Anything I have ever attempted I was always willing to fail. Though you can't always win, don't be afraid of making decisions.You can't be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself.You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that is the right thing to do.
And success will come: so don't be afraid to fail.
Which brings me to rule #4 which is: don't listen to the naysayers.I mean, how many times have your heard: you can't do this, you can't do that, this has never been done before. I love it if someone says: no one has ever done this before because if I do it, that means that I'm the first man that has done it.
So pay no attention to people who say it can't be done.
And that brings me to rule #5 , which is the most important rule of all: Work your butt off. You never want to fail because you didn't work hard enough. I never wanted to lose a competition or lose an election because I didn't work hard enough. I always believed leaving no stone unturned.
Mohammed Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the '70s when he was asked, "How many sit-ups do you do?" He said, "I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that's when I start counting, because that's when it really counts."
That's what makes you a champion. And that's the way it is with everything. No pain, no gain. Now, if you want to coast through life, don't pay attention to any of those rules.But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work. None of my rules for success will work unless you do. I’ve always figured that there were 24 hours in a day. You sleep 6 hours. There are 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there now who say, “Well wait a minute. I sleep 8 hours or 9 hours.” Well, just sleep faster, I would recommend.Because you only need to sleep six hours and then you have 18 hours left, and there are a lot of things you can accomplish.Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.
And that takes me to rule #6, which is a very important rule: it's about giving back. Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country. "Tear down that mirror. Tear down that mirror that makes you always look at yourself, and you will be able to look beyond that mirror and you will see the millions of people that need your help."