Curly’s Law: How the Mega-Successful Use This Rule To Achieve Greatness and How You Can Too.

By Seamus Anthony

3rd post in the three part Curly’s Law series by Seamus Anthony (here’s the first and the second)

This is a bit of a long post with two parts: 1) How the Mega Successful Use Curly’s Law To Achieve Greatness and 2) How To Discover Your True Life Purpose.

How the Mega-Successful Use Curly’s Law To Achieve Greatness

The great over-achievers of this world don’t just use wishful thinking or hard work to get to the top, they use the ‘real’ secret which is Curly’s Law. Curly’s Law states “Do One Thing” and is essentially the act of having laser-like focus on what you want. It is about identifying your One Thing and just going for that at the expense of other areas of interest. It’s about the power of mono-maniacal obsession, and if you want to achieve great things, then you can use this trick to get ahead in leaps and bounds.

The Richest Man in the World and His Great Secret for Success.

Long before Billy Crystal and his mates saddled up and rode of into the the sunset, Curly’s Law was known by some as ‘Carnegie’s secret’, after Andrew Carnegie, the old-world steel tycoon and philanthropist who advised people to ‘put your eggs in one basket – and then watch the basket’.

Carnegie, at one time the richest man in the world, and a self-made man, was said to have a ‘great secret’ about how to become rich. This was popularised by Napoleon Hill in his famous book “Think and Grow Rich”. The secret was not explicitly revealed in the book but was rather hinted at and the author said it was important that you figure it out yourself. People have since thrown a bunch of guesses around as to what the secret was, from the whole Law of Attraction thing to the less glamorous suggestion that you just need to get on with it and work hard. Searching around I found this quote, and as far as I am concerned it puts the stamp of authenticity on the worthiness of Curly’s Law and also puts an end to the speculation about what Carnegie’s secret was:

“Here is the prime condition of success, the great secret. Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it: adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it. This is the great secret…” Andrew Carnegie

I don’t understand the conjecture myself. the man’s exact words were “This is the great secret”. End of story.

All Great Achievers Use Curly’s Law to Make it Big



Whether they know it or not, I propose that all of the mega-successful use the Law of One Thing to get to the top of their chosen field.

Here’s an exercise: choose one of your greatest heroes and ask yourself this – do they have what you would describe as obsessive single minded determination, laser-like focus on what it is that they do?

I would be willing to place a bet that the answer would have to be ‘Yes’. Let’s take a few of my personal heroes as examples (in no particular order – and you may wonder why these people are my heroes but all I can say is, each to their own!).

  • Jerry Seinfeld – obsessively cared only about and worked only towards being a stand up comedian for his entire life until he became the most successful stand up in the US and went on to become the wealthiest comedian ever.
  • Steve Jobs (Apple Computers) – obsessively strove to achieve innovation in the world of computer design until he finally got it right and made Apple what it is today. (And tell me he didn’t lie up all night scheming about how to win Apple back when he got kicked out for a while!)
  • Nick Cave – this guy has pursued a singular artistic vision relentlessly for his entire adult life and I’d be willing to bet that he’s artistically satisfied (although I doubt he’d admit it) and probably doesn’t get too stressed out about paying the mortgage off either.

Now these are just three of my heroes, and despite the twists and turns in their journeys, all three of them have always returned like a heat-seeking missile to their One Thing. They knew what it was – and they sure as hell weren’t about to let anything trivial stand in their way.

I challenge you to come up with a list of ten mega-successful people who achieved greatness by being wishy-washy, choppin’ and changin’, unfocussed, undetermined, people who could never make up their minds about what it was they wanted to do. I’ve never tried to do this, but I am willing to take a punt that it wouldn’t work.

Madonna: was obsessed with becoming the number one female pop star. Stephen King: wrote compulsively his whole life and only ever wanted to be a novelist. Bob Hawke: gave up alcohol so it wouldn’t get in the way of becoming Prime Minister of Australia. Abraham Lincoln, lost something like 8 elections before he went on to be President of the United States. The list goes on…

How To Discover Your True Life Purpose

But I can hear some of you already thinking “But I don’t KNOW what my One Thing is! That’s the whole problem!” and I don’t know either. But I have been through all of this and have some suggestions that may help you.

First get yourself into a contemplative, relaxed frame of mind. Have a bath, turn the lights down low and stare at the fire or go for a walk in the woods by yourself. If you know how to meditate, do some before you start this process.

There are a lot of techniques out there for discovering your true life purpose, but here is the one I used. It is deceptively simple but the key is not to move on to the next question until you have answered the one before it to your full satisfaction.

  1. What do I want to be?

A very simple, short and open question. If you are in a relaxed, contemplative mood, the answer may come to you directly. Just like that. Your own voice in your head may just serve up the answer like a piece of pie on a plate.

Or it may not come for a while. If you don’t manage to hear your True Self straight away then it is up to you to simply wait. Wait for the answer. Wait for a number of days in need be but be sure to find quite time to contemplate this answer. Or talk to somebody you can be open with as this often helps you to unlock the inner workings of your own mind. Tarot cards or other oracles are also great for this kind of thing. They don’t tell you the answer they help your mind expand, provide the catalyst for the expansion of your consciousness.

When the answer comes you will know.

And here’s a hint. It won’t be about your career. By asking yourself what you want to be, the only honest answer lies much much deeper than that. We are talking about the true meaning behind your life, behind all of our lives.

I have to admit, my process was backed up by years of spiritual and personal development – reading, meditating and inner work – so if you’ve never gone this deep before, give it some time. Who knows, it could take years for the answer to come.

But listen very carefully to your inner voice when you first ask the question because it will without a doubt answer you straight away, without a doubt, but the question is whether you can be quiet enough inside your mind to hear what your true-self wants.

Once you know what you want to be, then ask…

2. “Why do I want to be what I want to be? Why have I chosen this as my main sub-conscious motivator?”

Here is where you will get into your own psyche and discover why you are who are why you behave like you do and why you want to be the person you want to be. Again, make sure you are quiet inside before you ask and then listen very carefully to the answer that will come directly from your True Self.

When you listen to the quiet voice of your True Self, you will not only know WHAT you want to be but WHY and this will be a great liberation to you.

If you listen softly enough, you just might be lucky enough to hear your own voice identify your true purpose in life. Good luck!

And remember what Curly the Cowboy said:

“Do One Thing … you stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit”.

Hi, I'm Seamus Anthony. I am an author, artist and musician from Australia. Here at Rebel Zen, I document my journey as an creative artist and human and in doing so, hopefully help you in your own progress through your life of creativity. Go get your free E-book by me: "Taming The Monkey Mind".