I find these sorts of "n steps to greatness" guides to be suspect: sure, some of this advice is useful but a lot of it is simply common sense and little of it expands upon the original essays it cites; at worst it boils down to a set of platitudes that may or may not benefit you given the actual context.

The problem here is there's no correct way for everyone and by creating a list of potential actions people may be led to think they're just not capable when in fact what they should be doing is finding a path that works for them and not caring what some guy on the Internet claims is the right way of doing things.

For instance, telling someone to be assertive or to keep trying until it works is a specious claim; it's not incorrect all the time of course, but often people miss because they just don't get the social context they find themselves in, not because they haven't tried enough times. If your attitude is, "I'll do this until it works" you risk being reflective and trying to decipher the cause of failure.

Who knows, this might be an exact fit for some people. But for others, I would steer clear and find your own path to greatness, sans self-help gurus.