I Aced the SAT and Was Accepted to Several Ivy League Schools. Here’s My Advice on How to Succeed

The biggest secret to success is that there is no secret

Success builds on success, and it's your trajectory, not starting point, that makes all the difference. Shutterstock

The biggest secret to success is that there is no secret.

One of the earliest lessons in my medical education was to be wary of one-size-fits-all algorithms. In a world overflowing with data, we’ve become obsessed with discarding the individual in favor of the statistical.

One Size Does Not Fit All

But the human experience cannot be reduced to numbers and rules. I’ve learned there is no foolproof guide to curing a patient or succeeding in life, for that matter. What works for the average is often useless to an individual.