The One Missing Ingredient in So Many People’s Lives. This One Thing Completely Separates Winners and Losers and the Life You Want.

Published Wednesday, December 3, 2025 * 12:05 AM EST

Jusuf Hoxha

Winners win. Winners are always working for the life you want to live. Winners make things happen, for everything, no matter how long it takes to make it happen. Winners have patience. Winners think long term. Winners fail. Winners take calculated risks. Winners learn. Winners learn from their failures and their risks. Winners become stronger and always learn. It’s time to drop diamonds on you.

Then there are losers. Losers lose. Losers are lazy. Losers talk and you and I can immediately hear the stench of laziness coming out of their mouths. Losers are quite literally defined by laziness, always being lazy, and always procrastinating.

Losers love to complain. Losers constantly complain. Losers love making excuses for everything. Losers make excuses happen, for everything in life. Losers are allergic to accountability and responsibility. Take accountability for my own decisions?? Take accountability for my own choices?? Never. Why?? Losers have an allergic reaction to accountability and responsibility; for their own decisions they have decided and for their own choices they themselves have chosen in life.

What is the one thing that separates winners and losers?? DISCIPLINE. If you do not have it, it has been a pleasure speaking to you. I do not expect you to understand my grind. All of us winners know this. Discipline. Go learn it. Go earn it. Learning & Earning Always.

Discipline is the missing ingredient in so many people’s recipes for success. If you do have it, you are part of a totally different mindset. An optimistic, intelligent mindset. It is called the winner’s mindset.

Discipline. Most people do not have it.

It is not a total lack of wealth. It is not money. It is not your fictional fake rich uncle that most people on Planet Earth do not have. It is not the system. It is not the economy. It is not your current situation in life. Go look in the mirror. That's who it is. That's what it is. That's what needs to be changed.

The person next to you or across from you most likely has it a whole lot worse than you, and they are not complaining and they are not making excuses and they are not lazy and they are not hiding from accountability from their own actions and their own words and their own decisions and their own choices. Do you see the reality right in front of your own eyes??

Winners have discipline. Losers have laziness and excuses. Winners love making it happen. Winners love solutions to problems. Losers love focusing on problems and complaining and venting about them. Winners immediately focus on solutions and immediately implement them. It sounds easier said than done. This is what winners do. Winners take action. Losers take laziness.

Winners immediately take responsibility and accountability for their own decisions and for their own choices. Losers love procrastinating. Losers love doing nothing. Losers love to hide from their own decisions and from their own choices they have made in their lives. Which then has them blaming and accusing everyone else, except themelves. Look in the mirror. Would you like to know why you are not living the life you want?? Look in the mirror. That's who. That's why.

Discipline is the thing that separates the winners from the losers.

In every era of wealth, power, success and global influence, the same exact truth rises above all others: discipline is the real separator. Not talent. Not ambition. Not luck. Not superstitions. Not laziness. Not ego. Not excuses. Not hiding from accountability. Not waiting for a random human being to come and save you and give you the life you want. No no no no. Discipline is the real separator. Discipline is the thing that separates the winners from the losers.

Discipline is the invisible architecture behind every business owner, every boss, every building, every empire, every billionaire, every high-performance leader, and every person who has broken free from the ordinary, to build a life of extraordinary wealth, freedom, and meaning. If you do not have it, I highly recommend you go right now, go learn it and go earn it. Your future self will love you for it!

People often try to reduce success to a formula; have the right mindset, correct, have the right habits, correct, have intelligence, correct, always keep learning, correct, always take accountability and responsibility for what you have done and said, correct, work hard and work smarter than everyone else, correct, have the best manners and have the best character, correct........and the opportunity will present itself, correct, at the same time there is one more thing. Winners stay the course; losers look for an exit.

That’s the last piece of the puzzle that winners implement, effective immediately, into their lives. Winners stay the course; losers look for an exit. Winners build the life they want through consistent, almost obsessive discipline, while losers sabotage themselves with excuses, laziness, feelings-driven decisions, emotion-driven decisions, and a total lack of structure and reality. I told you that at the beginning of this article I was going to drop diamonds on you.

Discipline isn’t glamorous. Discipline isn’t loud. Discipline does not post on instagram and tiktok. Discipline is the quiet powerhouse. Discipline is the quiet force running in the background of every fortune and every massive breakthrough.

Discipline is the one trait that becomes habitual just like wealth; every day, every action, every word, every choice, every decision, stacking on top of the next, until one day when you wake up and it is habit. It is as normal and routine as brushing your teeth in the morning and evening and drinking your delicious coffee. Discipline and coffee are for winners only.

Discipline Is the Currency of Wealth

Wealth favors the disciplined. Money doesn’t stay with the emotional. Money doesn’t flow to the impulsive and the feelings driven individuals. Wealth abandons those who operate from chaos.

The wealthy, especially the ultra-successful, the ultra-high-net-worth, fully and thoroughly comprehend this and implement this very early:

wealth and freedom are built and earned not from big wins, but from repetitive, disciplined behaviors stacked over time.

Winners Mindset:

• Saving consistently before investing boldly.

• Delaying instant gratification when others indulge in materialistic useless junk.

• Studying and reading and failing and trying and learning! -> when others scroll on social media, do nothing all day, and hang out with losers who are going nowhere in life, really fast.

• Building systems for the life they want! -> when losers rely on stupidity, luck, superstitions, laziness, and excuses.

• Showing up! Every day, even tired, even stressed, even uninspired. That is what winners do! -> You want work-life balance? Prepare to be a loser. It is a fantasy. Every winner knows that. Winners go hard and earn big and take expensive vacations, even if it is only one, expensive high-quality vacation, every five years! Patience and Discipline and High Quality on everything. Winners go hard. Winners earn big. Winners pay their bill in full. Losers think stress can be eliminated. Winners believe stress can be tolerated and lowered, not eliminated. Stress will always be here. Always. It is how you handle it, it is what decisions and choices you make in your life, which will ultimately determine how you live. With the correct mindset, stress can be lessened and tolerated.

Discipline creates the foundation that allows intelligent risk-taking, saving consistently, buying only what you need, expanding wealth, and most importantly long-term freedom. Without discipline, even the most gifted falls back to average. With discipline, even the most ordinary rise and become free and extraordinary.

Winners Self-Regulate. Losers Self-Sabotage.

Losers operate on feelings. Winners operate on standards. That difference alone explains the entire hierarchy of success.

Losers tell themselves the following:

• “I’ll start when I feel motivated.”

• “I’ll try again next week.”

• “I’ll try again next month.”

• “I’ll try again next year.”

• “You know what, money is not important to me.”

• “I don’t have time.”

• “The jobs are there, but I’ll wait.”

• “The money is there, but I’ll wait.”

• “You know what, I don't feel like working.”

• “Why can't someone else pay for my life.”

• “Why can't everything be free.”

• “I don't care about money.”

• “I’m not in the mood.”

• “I woke up with certain feelings today.”

• “I know everything. I don't need anyone to teach me anything. I don't need to learn anything anymore.”

• “I’ll wait for someone to come and save me.”

• “I don't care how my hair looks. I’ll get a haircut some other time.”

• “I don't care how my clothes look. I don't want to dress flashy.”

• “I don't care about my appearance.”

• “I don't care about looking like a lazy broke bum.”

Winners live by a code of conduct. Winners tell themselves the following:

• “If it’s on the schedule, it gets done.”

• “Time is expensive. Time is valuable. Time is irreplaceable. TIME IS PRICELESS.”

• “My goals don’t negotiate with my emotions.”

• “I don’t miss twice.”

• “Work in silence. Always. Dress for success. Always.”

The world quietly respects this level of self-command. Doors open. Opportunities accumulate. Networks expand. Wealth flows. Discipline builds credibility, and credibility builds access and power and influence.

Discipline Creates Freedom

Discipline is the engine of freedom.

Freedom is not achieved by chance. It is crafted, one habit at a time, one disciplined decision at a time, one disciplined sacrifice at a time. Sacrifice now. Build now. Do not be surprised when wealth and freedom come knocking on your door.

The disciplined person wakes up every day with choices.
The undisciplined, lazy, excuse driven person wakes up every day with consequences.

Success Is a Lifestyle, Not a Moment

People often talk about success like a big event, a single opportunity, and a perfect moment. Incorrect. Success is a lifestyle, a structure, a habitual routine with continual execution of the same foundational disciplines that transform into wealth and opportunity.

Winners don’t view discipline as a temporary sprint to go somewhere. Winners view it as the operating system for how they live:

• They appear with intention.

• They walk with intention.

• They spend and invest with intention.

• They build with intention.

• They work when others sleep.

Success becomes their natural state because discipline has become their identity.

Discipline Is Crucially Important Especially Today and Tomorrow

The modern world is engineered to distract you, distract you so you can keep playing stupid video games, hop on your dummy tablet, scrolling through useless worthless social media, listening to garbage music, watching garbage tv shows and watching garbage movies, ultimately weakening your attention, and pulling you away from your goals, one step at a time, and making you lazier than ever before.

Put your focus on what matters. YOU AND YOUR SUCCESS AND YOUR WEALTH AND YOUR FREEDOM. Your future self will thank you. Also bring all of your loved ones for the ride.

OR, you will have to enjoy the consequences of all of your bad decisions and all of your bad choices for the rest of your life. The decision is yours. The choice is yours.

Discipline safeguards your time, your mind, your financial decisions, your energy, your focus, and your purpose. It is not a coincidence that some have wealth and freedom. The opposite is also true. It is not a coincidence that some refuse to do what they need to do to live a lifestyle that earns wealth and freedom.

They both made their decisions. They both made their choices. Good or bad. Winners and losers all make decisions and choices. They both earned what they have. Self-reflection is key. Discipline is the thing that separates them.

The Final Truth

Only a small percentage of people have the discipline required to achieve the life they want.

Discipline is the gateway.
Wealth is the reward.
Freedom is the result.