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The Formula

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You might not have been tapped by the establishment powers that be, but you have the crucial ambition and ability to compete. — location: 600 ^ref-11014

Most of them made their mark on history before or around the age of thirty-nine, — location: 2535 ^ref-33591

late-career professionals tend to buy fewer lottery tickets, so they inevitably have fewer wins. — location: 2614 ^ref-25917

Innovation itself has no age limit as long as we continually buy our metaphorical tickets and get our work out into the world. The message here, which we came to call the Fifth Law of Success, is simple: With persistence success can come at any time. — location: 2620 ^ref-62513

He published his first research paper at thirty-two, a decade after finishing graduate school, — location: 2630 ^ref-10453

Though Fenn was hardworking and diligent, he remained a low-impact scientist for much of his tenure. — location: 2633 ^ref-29672

in 2002, by then a wizened man in his mid-eighties, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. — location: 2643 ^ref-47725

Your chance of success has little to do with your age. It’s shaped by your willingness to try repeatedly for a breakthrough. — location: 2649 ^ref-58010

Your ability to turn an idea into a discovery is equally important, and that varies dramatically from person to person. We called this ability a person’s Q-factor, — location: 2664 ^ref-2061

the success of a product or a deal, or the impact of a discovery, will be the product of a creator’s Q-factor and the value of idea r. — location: 2671 ^ref-25578

Once we figured out how to measure a scientist’s Q-factor, we learned that it remained unchanged throughout her career. — location: 2684 ^ref-16044

The minute anyone joined Twitter, a Q-factor was set and stayed roughly the same for months and years. — location: 2701 ^ref-21890

Once you find that perfect fit, however, that area or profession where your Q-factor shines, there’s really only one more thing you need to do: not give up. — location: 2722 ^ref-47482

the key to long-term success from a creator’s perspective is straightforward: let the qualities that give you your Q-factor do their job by giving them a chance to deliver success over and over. — location: 2740 ^ref-872

Einstein’s monumental fame actually hinges on a huge misunderstanding: The crowds were there to greet someone else. — location: 2804 ^ref-3572

Performance alone wasn’t enough. If I wanted my work to have any impact, I couldn’t avoid the people who needed to recognize my research. — location: 2830 ^ref-64354

if I wanted to encourage the success of others, I had to openly applaud their achievements. — location: 2831 ^ref-65381

If you want to win over the long term, performance is unavoidable. Your product needs to be highly fit and competitive. — location: 2836 ^ref-59860

It’s completely random which of our projects will be our most important one. Luck, productivity, and our Q-factor together determine impact. — location: 2851 ^ref-7419

By erroneously handing Einstein the headlines, the gentile press did for Einstein what Arnout did for Kickstarter projects and Wikipedia editors—they gave him a huge kick, putting him on a path to success. — location: 2884 ^ref-54223

it was Einstein’s network, his links to causes and key hubs outside the scientific community, that put him on that steamship to begin with. That network is largely invisible in the success story we commonly tell about Einstein. — location: 2892 ^ref-48706

the mechanisms behind success to create a more equitable society. How? By kick-starting the success of the many deserving people around us. By helping the less visible nodes in our networks create vital links. By noticing children hindered by their circumstances and giving them a nudge. — location: 2926 ^ref-62528