The most successful business leaders reveal how they made it to the top

There's no one clear path to success. Everyone's journey is unique. But that's not to say we can't learn from the most successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and business leaders out there.

Below, CNBC has rounded up some of the best and most useful tips from Tim Cook, Arianna Huffington and other highly successful individuals. Want to make it? According to them, here's what to do.

"Setting a goal can be daunting," says Robert Herjavec, the multi-millionaire owner of cybersecurity company the Herjavec Group. "It means you are taking a chance, that you might fail."

That's why so many entrepreneurs and small business owners don't do it, he says: "Even successful ones don't want to set expectations in case they don't reach them." However, "failure only comes when you don't try," he continues. "Setting and working toward a goal will empower small business owners to achieve their potential. I know because I've done it."

Rather than letting failure define them, the most successful people recognize when they make a mistake and think about what they can learn from it, says Katia Beauchamp, co-founder and CEO of Birchbox.

"The best experience and the greatest growth comes from the hardest situations," she tells CNBC. "Use [failure] as a way to catapult yourself into exponential development; exponential growth as a human, as a leader as a contributor."

If you want to achieve success in your career, "don't work for money," says Apple CEO Tim Cook. "You'll never be happy."

Think bigger. Instead, he says, "you have to find the intersection of doing something you're passionate about and at the same time something that is in the service of other people."

"My best piece of advice is to make sure that entrepreneurs connect with their own wisdom and creativity, and that's becoming harder and harder because we are so addicted to technology," says Arianna Huffington, media mogul and self-made millionaire.

"Seventy percent of people sleep with their phones by their beds; we are constantly engaging in notifications, social media, texts, emails. And yet the most creative moments come when we put all that aside. That's why sometimes people's best ideas come in the shower.

"So as an entrepreneur, make time for that reflection, ability to connect with your best ideas, and not to be constantly distracted."

According to Daymond John, "Shark Tank" star and founder of FUBU, the secret to success boils down to one thing: "Work."

"Bust your butt," he says. "Get up before everybody, go to sleep after everybody, and bust your butt. That's it."

Don't miss: How Bill Gates, Mark Cuban and other billionaires define success