"The road to failure is paved with success.."

This heading sounds really profound, doesn’t it? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t..

I read this in one of Drayton Bird's regular emails. For those who don't know Drayton, I suggest you find out who he is and start subscribing to his emails series. Visit http://www.draytonbird.com/ to do so.

Sean Triner (my boss) and I had the good fortune of having dinner with Drayton a few weeks back in London. Although it almost didn’t happen. Who would have thought there were 2 restaurants with the same name in Marylebone Lane? Drayton sitting in one, Sean and I in the other..

Anyway I digress.

It was a fascinating couple of hours as we shared stories, successes, failures. Oh and a few glasses of red.

But the crux of what I have learnt from Drayton, not just over a couple of glasses of vino, but by reading his work for some time, is this..

Once you begin to think you can do no wrong, you will. Being cocky and careless leads to complacency. So even a 'guru' like Drayton spends his precious time, in between speaking, travelling the world and having dinners with strange Aussies doing one thing: studying.

To quote Drayton:

"Well, the difference between the winners and losers in marketing is mostly just that. Study. And the only reason I can give you these ideas is the same reason you're reading them. I study - I'm not that talented. I have a library of thousands of examples - good and bad - and I add to them constantly."

Simple but brilliant.

The minute we start believing we are great, we are destined for failure.

I can't stress enough how important this is and as I meet many talented and successful people during my travels, they all have one thing in common: an insatiable appetite to learn from others.

Jonathon