Do successful people really do 14 things before breakfast?

According to the World Economic Forum they do, what with networking and working on a 'personal passion' project how do they find time to eat

One of the most cretinous features published in America’s celebrity weeklies is Us magazine’s “Stars – They’re Just Like Us!” slot, in which the likes of Robert Pattinson (pictured cycling down the

street) or Jennifer Garner (filling up her tank at the petrol station) are caught behaving like mortals. I can only assume that it’s popular because, as the headline suggests, the next time we do something searingly banal, we can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that even Reese Witherspoon sometimes buys a carton of milk. Which basically makes the two of you related – or at least close enough for the gilt to rub off on your hands.

Hitting the gym before breakfast

It’s with gilt-lovers in mind, presumably, that that the World Economic Forum’s publicity team have tweeted a list of “14 Things Successful People Do Before Breakfast”. This caught my eye because the notion of doing anything before breakfast seemed as extraordinary as someone opening up a window in my bedroom that I never knew existed. And also because from what the various friends of mine who have been to Davos tell me, after a hard day shaping global, regional and industry agendas, they all like to get schnitzelled. So again, pre-breakfast activities seem a little ambitious.

And yet there they are, “just like us” – at first, at least. “They wake up early”, “they drink water” (not to blow my own trumpet, but I’ve done both). Then it all starts to get a little weird. “They plan and strategise while they’re fresh”, “meditate to clear their minds”, “network over coffee”, “work on a top-priority business project” or – and from what I’ve heard about those Davos nights, I’m guessing this is a euphemism – “they work on a personal passion project”. Once that passion project is safely in the shower, they will “connect with their spouses” back home on Skype, before ringing off for round two.

Eating and Exercising 

If only we could be more like these people who, before their first spoonful of bircher muesli, “write down things they’re grateful for”. Then we, too, might be successful. Then again, I’m infinitely grateful that I will never have to do that.