This post has 656 words.
This post will take about 3 minute(s) to read.
Success is bringing to material form, the ideas one has in one’s mind. Without the ideas, without the framework, without the viewpoint, if one thinks that just work will lead them to success – then it doesn’t happen that way. We have heard over the years the adage that hard work leads to success. We really need to evaluate this and ask ourselves what do we mean by hard work? A taxi driver may be driving the car 14-16 hours a day. Lot’s of hard work. But what is the outcome? Will by working 14-16 hours what success can be aimed at? Will he become so proficient to be able to participate in the Formula racing contest? Will he have lots of money? Lots of peace? Lots of admirers? Lots of contentment?
This may be hard to accept, but hard work by itself is not a useful criteria for success. Hard work is like knowing a language. Without knowing language, one can’t do much, but that is the utility of language. Knowing language doesn’t make one a linguist, nor does it make one an expert in language or literature. It just gives a skill. Hard work is just a skill that everyone should have.
So, the original question of seeds of success has to be understood in a different manner. One needs to have idea, but along with idea, one also needs to have that perspective. Let’s see the perspective aspect with our example of a taxi driver.
A person may be driving taxi, but that cannot stop the person from achieving success. It’s here we need to understand the perspective. Why is a person driving taxi? One basic thing is that is the only opportunity available to the person. But how can such a person scale up on whatever skill they have?
Can the person open a driving school?
Can the person pool together some money and hire more cars?
Can the person diversify into instead of carrying people to carrying and delivering goods?
Can the person put his skill to social usefulness by helping the needy in their transport?
Does the person have a knack to understand the nitty gritty of technicals to improve the vehicle
Can the person have the daring to scale up his driving to that of a racing driver?
We can see each of the options can lead to a different direction, a different path – but it will lead to scaling up than just driving a taxi.
Adversity brings with it the seed of success. We need to have the persistence to be convinced of the perspective, the path that we want to take. Words like Persistence and hard work is only a given without which no work gets done.
An important aspect of this perspective is also knowing how to deal with failures and setbacks. There are as many paths to success as one can think of, and we are masters of our fate. A setback cannot hurt you if you learn from it. Each person will have a different learning from the same setbacks. It’s how we learn, how we move ahead that matters.
Life will always be a continuous string of resistance and obstacles and one will have to keep finding solutions to all those. One needs to be convinced about the aspired goals, and also be ready to be flexible of the ways to achieve them. Adversity, failure and heartaches are part of the process.
It’s here the third thing – decision making. that matters. Those decisions are useful that make our work more enjoyable or productive – whether consciously or subconsciously. If the decisions lead us to misery, then those decisions are not useful or sustainable.
Our idea and perspective should allows for our growth with purpose and focus, and open us to the opportunities. The decision making should lead to our taking actions that satisfy and fulfil us.