Twenty years ago I moved to Connecticut from Zimbabwe. It was somewhat of an adjustment, but having friends and relatives that were already living in the U.S. made it easier. One of those friends was Leslie Quaynor. He had moved to New York about 18 months before I arrived. Leslie’s dream was to become a successful entrepreneur.

He and I tried several pyramid schemes and other crazy ventures. Have you been there before? You already have full time and part time jobs and then you try a new get-rich-quick scheme that your cousin mentions to you; it entails pestering all your friends and relatives to sign up so that you can earn residual income. You attain mediocre success with each venture even though you are investing a lot of time, money, and energy. That was our story.

After trying everything under the sun, Leslie called me and said, “I’m quitting all the nonsense. I’m going to focus on real estate. I bought a couple of books and will invest my savings into a rental property.” At the time he lived in New Jersey; I had just finished college and started my first job in Connecticut, so he pursued real estate on his own.

When he started studying the real estate business, nothing else mattered – he lived and breathed real estate. He bought his first rental property, which came with numerous headaches such as constant repairs and late rent. Leslie endured the headaches and four months later, he bought another property. After six months, he bought a third. Within two years, Leslie was swimming in the money he had made from his real estate investments. When I asked him what the key to his success was, he said, “Focusing on one thing and one thing only – real estate.”

Leslie’s formula sounds very simple, but very few people apply it. Most people have numerous goals and many of them are not even related.

The key to great success is focusing on one massive goal and taking massive action to achieve it.

If you find yourself going in many different directions, get a piece of paper and write down one massive goal. Don’t worry about how you are going to achieve it; just write it down. Over the next few days, formulate an action plan for achieving that goal. Focus on it, work on it, and achieve it.