Some thoughts on success
The really wrong thing in collecting data about successful people occurs when one judges based solely on the data from successful people, what is the formula for success? What about the others who failed even when they did the same things as the so-called successful people?
The only real formula for success is…given at the end of this blog. So…
To think that if a certain percentage of successful people hold a certain educational qualification and that educational qualification will make you successful too, is just seeing half the picture in a really bad quality.
First of all, no matter how much people want to think otherwise, the world is not a fair place nor is it free from luck. Some people are already in a better situation to get success than a whole lot of other people. While some are in such pathetic conditions that they can only marginally improve their conditions in a lifetime. Or that there are some people who just get opportunities without much effort. Luck is thus an important trigger for success. Not always but often enough to be discernable.
This also proves why we can’t say that there is something like karma because, in a fair world, a business person with a business degree should be the richest but in reality, anybody can and does become rich.
All this may dishearten some and that brings me to the second point. What is success?
Is it money or satisfaction or is it something more transcendental? The reality is that if you have passion for something, then you WILL get success. Either in money terms (if the field attracts enough money) or otherwise in satisfaction terms.
On a side note, one should never set goals for happiness i.e., getting y or becoming x. Instead of setting goals for money or happiness, one should enjoy the process of doing the work one is passionate about. This ensures happiness even if one fails and in a continuous manner.
Praise yourself for the effort instead of the result.
On another side note, passion should be defined very loosely. Basically, it is anything you can’t stop yourself from doing. Most of the time, it takes very little effort. And it feels good enough to do it that you want to do it the next day as well. Also, passion can change, you can have as many of them and all of them would generate different feelings in you. Some you would feel very strongly about, some you would be able to define to others very well and some would be vague and a search in progress.
Thus, success is a combination of having an unnerving passion for something, being persistently hardworking to handle obstacles and having a sense of satisfaction in doing the things you are passionate about.
And that is also the formula for success.
- Do a lot of things to check what feels particularly like a passion for you. Even if you don’t discover your passion, you’ll end up enjoying doing some things more than others. That in a way is passion for most people.
- Work, because the world is unpredictable and things go wrong. If success is something you want, be ready to work a decent amount to remove some of that uncertainty or just fight against it
- Make sure you enjoy the things you do. If many weeks go by where you don’t get a sense of satisfaction, move on to try new things.
Provided you do this, success wouldn’t be far. Even if you are unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or even if you never get that trigger that might help you break through, it's good to do these things. After all, you lose 100% of the shots you don't take.
And when achieved, such a success would feel a whole lot better than what advertisements make it look like.
