Celebrated venture capitalist shows how to break the cycle of failed New Year’s resolutions

Scott Amyx, the author of Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success, draws on his own powerful story of an impoverished immigrant who was frequently told that he would amount to nothing. Now a celebrated venture capitalist and futurist, Amyx describes his meteoric rise from obscurity to prominence. Amyx's dramatic turnaround led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not intellect, opportunities or even network; instead, it's all about pursuing personal change that's uncomfortable.

Popular beliefs about success are profoundly wrong. Success is not merely a matter of being born in the right place at the right time to the right family. It involves much more than hard work, money, practice or even intellect. History is littered with people — those with high IQ, talent, money, power and fame — who squandered every advantage and ended badly.

"There is, however, a way to reach your goals, and I am a living proof. I have found a way to guide my life in a positive direction, realizing success I never thought possible. And it doesn't require 10,000 hours, being born into the right family or being as brilliant as Albert Einstein or Marilyn vos Savant. It's a little secret I call Strive," says Amyx.

Amyx shares that "Strive is the principle that helped me take control of my life. It's about embracing change and doing things way outside your comfort zone. Strive demands persevering in the face of rejection and adversity. Taking control of your success is something you can do right away. It's available to everyone, not just the privileged few."

A new year holds promise of a new life, one filled with promise and potential. Yet, as the zeal of the new year fades, we soon return to our familiar habits. Life goes on as usual. As the year draws toward the end and we look back, we desperately wish that we had achieved more, that our lives were different … but we're stuck. The cycle keeps repeating, year after year. This is the story of millions of people.

"Does success elude you? Have you read countless articles and books about improving your life but got nowhere close to success? You're not alone," says Amyx. He challenges readers, "The only way to get out of the vicious cycle is to shock your system! Doing something a little better or even a little differently isn't going to work. Real, transformative change only happens when we take outsized risk to step way outside our comfortable zone. It's only when we do the things most uncomfortable that we realize the greatest gain, which didn't seem possible."

The self-help industry is chock-full of different approaches to success. There are those who say success is just a matter of positive thinking. This approach to success says that if you just believe that you will obtain your goals or dreams, eventually you will. But no matter how hard you think positively, the universe does not seem to be holding up its end of the bargain.

Other approaches to success involve hard work and investing a significant amount of time — 10,000 hours to master a single skill. The problem with this approach is that not all successful people have spent 10,000 hours honing a skill. Moreover, not everyone who has invested 10,000 hours, such as youth who played soccer or performed on stage, will make it as a pro or become famous. In addition, 10,000 hours is an incredible amount of time to cultivate a skill. Most of us rarely have the luxury to spend that much time to acquire just one skill. Devoting oneself to that level of practice and concentration is possible only when we are young. How many of us, however, knew what we wanted to be when we were young? Maybe your "best" years are behind you, and investing 10,000 hours — the equivalent of about 417 days of complete devotion to the study of a skill — is simply not possible.