My friend Don considered himself a musician. He played the tambourine in junior high school and， by my recollection， wasn' t very good. He also thought of himself as a singer， but he couldn' t carry a tune in a bucket.
Years passed， and we lost touch. I went to college and graduate school， becoming a philosophy professor at the University of Notre. Don nurtured his dream of becoming a singer-songwriter and moved to Nashvelle.
Once there， Don made the most of limited resources. He bought a used Car and slept in it. He took a job working nights， so he could visit record companies during the day. He learned to play guitar. As the years passed， he kept writing songs， practicing and knocking on doors.
One day I got a call from a friend who also knew Don. "Listen to this，" he said， then held the phone close to his speakers. I heard a good song playing. Good singer. "That' s Don，" my friend said. "Capitol Records. It' s on the country charts. Can you believe it？ "
I couldn' t believe it. A song Don had written and recorded. He had made it. Don Schlitz has since had 23 songs. As a result of his focused concentration， the teenage dreamer became a success.
What Don did almost intuitively is based on principles I' ve discovered in reading the world' s great literature on human excellence and personal success. I' ve found three basic conditions we need to satisfy to launch ourselves into a life of true success.
Define your goals. The quest for success always begins with a target. Too many people wander through life like sleep-walkers. Each day they follow familiar routines， never asking， "What am I doing with my life？" And they don' t know what they' re doing because they lack goals.
Goal-setting is a focusing of the will to move in a certain direction. Begin with a clear conception of what you want. Write down your goals and date them—putting them into words clarifies them.