Secrets of the Highly Successful

Every few months, I come across an article (is it "the" article, or are there many of them?) about the ten or so things that highly successful people do before 9am. (Or is it 7am? I don't remember). Each time I see the article, I think about the fact that I get up at 5am. Many days, I write. Some days I go to the gym. I pay bills, make lunches, write emails. I do at least ten things each day before whatever hour the article says. The question is, has my doing any of this made me highly successful?
 
When I think about the "highly successful people" in the article, I picture powerful, high-salaried people in expensive suits who have multiple homes and hired hands to take care of the mundane things that tend to fill a lot of my time. "Highly successful people," I figure, don't just TRY to go to the gym regularly, they actually DO go to the gym regularly, and have the bodies to show for it. They follow those "ten things before 9am--or 7am--with high-powered days. Their early morning accomplishments don't make them tired, they make them prepared. They are off and running before many people have even heard a first alarm.
 
Today, before 9am, I had cooked, voted, moved money, paid bills, reconnected with an old friend, and done some writing. Yet, at the end of the day, was I any more successful, financially or otherwise, than any other day? Perhaps doing before 9 (or 7) is the way to get everything (or at least, more) done, but I am not convinced, at least today, that it is the key to success. I am not wearing an expensive suit or jetting off to my second home. I still find myself troubleshooting all day, and the treadmill I'm on is more than a piece of gym equipment.
 
I'll have to read that article a bit closer next time. Because I don't mind getting up early to get things done--it helps. But I've got a long way to go before I believe that my early rising habit has put me on a path to guaranteed success. That's just not how it works. Except in those articles.