Each industry has its own set of patterns and codes. If you are looking to excel in your field, you will need to understand those patterns.

This is why it is critical to gather an in-depth understanding of your specific industry. It is the only way to stay alert enough to spot potential changes.

You are much more likely to recogize new opportunities when you are familiar with how your industry operates, even if you do not have a lot of experience working in it. Novices and experts alike can spot differences in patterns if they can understand how they work.

Riding the latest wave, or a profitable trend might take you somewhere very quicky. Even expert swimmers cannot go as fast waves.

Sonny Moore caught a mighty wave when he was just a teenager. He identified both the rise of social media and the rise of the screamo music trend in the early 2000s, using them to make his band FTTL a smash success.

He did not stop there either! Moore also anticipated the EDM trend or more commonly known as electronic dance music, and ended up being a successful producer under the name Skrillex.

When you aim to claim new ground, like Moore did, give yourself time to try things out. After all, you cannot catch a big wave unless you are already in the water. You can only identify an incoming big wave if you already know what the patterns of the wave are.

Let's take for example Google's GMAIL. Before becoming the most popular email hosting service in the world in 2012, it was just a pet side project for tech behemoth Google.

Google was already in deep in the water when more and more people started craving for a better email service than what was already available. In fact, the company even allowed their employees to dedicate 20% of their time to trendy projects like GMAIL.

Superconnectors help spread the word about your service or product

No matter how great your service or product, it is not always easy to spread word about it. That is where "superconnectors" come in. Superconnectors are people who are influential or social platforms that can swiftly spread the word about your venture.

Superconnect with the right people by figuring out what they truly want and value. Your networking efforts will be much more fruitful when you give these people what they are looking for. Aim for a relationship that benefits both sides.

If you would rather not spend too much on advertising, for example, try to make something that people will want to share. Aaron Patzer has done this with Mint Software, an online service that helped people manage their finances.

Patzer started out by writing a blog giving out tips on how to be smarter when it comes to handling money. After he had gained a sizable following, he reached out through social bookmarking, in which people share their lists of articles or videos they have "liked" online. Social bookmarking means your entries may be seen by millions of people once they have appeared as top stories on sites like reddit.

A significant number of people shared Mint's blog posts because they found them useful or interesting, which allowed Mint to build their loyal customer base that was key to their success.

Oftentimes, people will spread your message if you are honest and sincere. Sharing relies on credibility.

That is how Radio Rebel, the broadcast by Che Guevara during the Cuban Revolution, became successful. It did not attract a whole lot of followers immediately, but locals came to trust the program over time as the revolutionaries taught them to read and defend themselves. The broadcast became part of their daily empowerment: they were educated and learned about the revolution.

Ultimately, it does not matter what medium is used to spread your message. If it is meaningful, authentic, and useful, people will be inclined to pass it along.

Leverage the momentum of your early success as a springboard for the next level of success

Once you achieve some success - even just a small amount - this means that you have a good understanding of how your field works, and you are on the right track. The next logical step is to pinpoint what it is that has allowed you to be successful and expand on that.

Keep the momentum going. Michelle Phan has done this in 2009 when she became a prominent online expert on cosmetics.

Phan had been producing makeup video tutorials since 2007 and had captivated a small yet loyal following. She got her spotlight moment after Lady Gaga released her "Bad Romance" music video, and Phan posted her own video explaining how to replicate Lady Gaga's look.

This made a lot of buzz for her content. She rapidly acquired a much larger number of fans, then harnessed this momentum by uploading a new series of videos. She now runs her own YouTube channel and has founded a successful company built around her cosmetic work.

Phan's Lady Gaga makeup tutorial was not objectively better than her previous videos. The timing was what made all the difference. More than thirty million people around the globe viewed the tutorial and found it useful, which made a reliable springboard that Phan then utilized.

Success is akin to a lightning bolt. It will strike when you least expect it, and you just need to ride that moment.

But even after you have gained a lot of success like Phan did, you still need to monitor yourself and your work. Do remember, it is always impossible to improve yourself.

Reassess your approach constantly and strive to simplify things as much as possible

Have you ever been told to do something the old fashioned way, even though you knew it was not the most efficient method? This can be quite frustrating. Just because a specific approach is in widespread use or a "classic", does not mean it is the most effective.

Maintaining a level of success is about constantly re-evaluating yourself and searching for areas to improve. Remember: simple is always best.

You should always be monitoring your processes and products, searching for ways to make them simpler. Simplifying the processes makes your company more efficient, reduces your costs and lets you have an edge in your industry.

Back in the 90s, Clayton Christensen coined the term "disruptive innovation" to describe this strategy. Disruptive innovation aims to dominate existing markets or even create new market segments by introducing products that are cheaper.

Disruptive innovation is actually about saving money, but you cannot save money without creating more efficient ways to make your product or solve issues you encounter. Just think of how much simpler USB flash disks are than floppy drives or burned DVDs. USB flash drives made the process of storing and transferring data much easier, faster, and more powerful.

Simplify your daily life too! Dr. Kathleen Vohs from the University of Minnesota found that people actually lose their sense of self-control when they are forced to make many decisions. We are not good at thinking in a way that is balanced way throughout the entire day. When we are conronted with much too many choices, it hampers our creativity and will power.

People who are successful simplify their daily routins so they can focus their creativity on things that they consider the most important. Routine can definitely make a huge impact. In truth, Steve Jobs owned dozens of black turtlenecks so he did not distract himself by thinking about his wardrobe.

Apply 10x Thinking as a shortcut to success.

You should now already know why evaluating your self is so important. So it is time for the next step: going bigtime.

It might seem like a paradox, but an ambitious goal like making something ten times better might be easier than improving it by only 10%. This is attributed to the magic of 10x Thinking, developed by Astro Teller at the Google[X] lab in California.

Linear improvement is not as powerful as you may have been lead to believe. When you aim to improve linearly, you only make small adjustments each iteration. With each improvement, you only output a slightly better version of your previous method or product.

Astro Teller argues that the only way to make large significant improvements is to dispose of your old assumptions and start from scratch. 10X Thinking is counterintuitive and comes with huge risks, but it also has a much higher potentional for reward.

10X Thinking works in part because people tend to get behind idealistic efforts. Behavioral psychology and business research alike has proven that people are generally more open to visionary projects that stimulate their imagination. These are the projects that attract good investment.

Elon Musk used 10X Thinking to create a private space travel technology company with its own rockets. He could have pointed his efforts on improving the already existing space technologies but he set his eyes on a larger goal. Since workign with existing current technology would also be time-consuming and costly, he decided to concentrate his efforts on a project of his own.

Musk has inspired those around him by proving that he can learn from his failures, which has gotten the attention of investors. Falcon 1, his first rocket was successfuly launched into space on February 28, 2008.

Do not be afraid to dream big like Elon Musk did. Bigger dreams mean bigger payoff.