SUCCESS
Winning strategies
Super achievers don’t waste time in unproductive thoughts, esoteric thoughts, or catastrophic thoughts.
They think constructively and they know that their level of thinking determines their success.
–Dr. Seymour Epstein
You need to keep your mind on what you want, not on what you don’t want.
Success is not an accident, It is the result of your attitude and your attitude is a choice. Hence success is a matter of choice and not chance. (What is a winning strategy?)
A priest was driving when he saw an exceptionally beautiful farm. He stopped at the edge of a field, got out, and stood quietly, appreciating the bountiful crop. The farmer was riding on his tractor and saw the priest. He drove over to where the priest was standing. The priest said to him, “God has blessed you with a beautiful farm. You should be grateful for it.” The farmer replied, “Yes, God has blessed me with a beautiful farm and I am grateful for it, but you should have seen this farm when God had the whole farm to himself!” (definition of successful person)
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Most crackpots keep waiting for a jackpot. But that strategy rarely brings success. The common man seeks security, whereas the uncommon man seeks opportunity. (how to define success for yourself)
Why does one person move forward with one success story after another, while others are still getting ready? (What are the elements of a winning strategy?)
Why does one man go through life crossing one hurdle after another and accomplishing his goals while another struggles and gets nowhere?
If the answer to these two questions becomes part of the way you learn, it would revolutionize your life. (how do you define success in business)
What is success?
If you really want to succeed, form the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.
–Anonymous
A lot of research has been done on the subject of success and failure. The secrets of success can be learnt from the life histories of successful people. Successful people have certain qualities in common no matter which period of history they lived in, and no matter what their fields of endeavor.
Success leaves clues. If we identify and adopt the qualities of successful people, we too shall be successful. Similarly, there are characteristics common to people who aren’t successful. If we avoid those characteristics, then we shall not be failures. Success is no mystery. It is simply the result of consistently applying some basic principles. The reverse is just as true: Failure is simply a result of making a few mistakes repeatedly. This might sound too simplistic but the fact is that most truths are very simple. I'm not saying they are easy, but they are simple. (What is success life?)
To laugh often and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent persons
And the affection of children;
To earn the approval of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one; s self without the
Slightest thought of return;
To have accomplished a task, whether
A healthy child, a rescued soul, a
Garden patch, are a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with
Enthusiasm and sung with exaltation;
To know that even one life has breathed
Easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.
–Anonymous
HOW DO WE DEFINE SUCCESS?
What makes a person successful? How do we recognize success? To some people, success might mean wealth. To others, it is recognition, good health, a food family, happiness, satisfaction, and peace of mind. What this really tells us is that success is subjective. Success means different things to different people. The definition that I feel best summarizes “success” is: (how do you define success in business)
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.
–Earl Nightingale
Let’s look at these definitions carefully.
“Progressive” means that success is a journey, not a destination. We never arrive. After we reach one goal, we go on to the next and the next and so on.
“Realization” means it is an experience. Outside forces cannot make me feel successful. I have to feel it within myself. It is internal. That is why what often appears as success externally may be total hollowness within.
“Worthiness” refers to our value system without which goals can be unworthy. Which way are we heading? Towards positive or negative goals? Worthiness determines the quality of the journey. That is what gives meaning and fulfillment. Goals are important because they give us a sense of direction. (What are big obstacles on the path to success?)
Success without fulfillment is empty.
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
–Bill Cosby
Success does not mean being liked and accepted by everyone. There are some groups I would not, out of choice, want to be accepted by. I would rather be criticized by fools than appreciated by unsavory characters.
I see success as a manifestation of good luck that results from inspiration, aspiration, desperation and perspiration– generally in that sequence.
Success and happiness go hand in hand. Success is getting what you want and happiness is wanting what you get. (8 obstacles to success)
Existence alone is not success! It is a lot more!
Do more than exist—live.
Do more than touch—feel.
Do more than look —observe.
Do more than read– absorb.
Do more than hear—listen.
Do more than listen—understand.
–-John H. Rhoades
SOME OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS(REAL OR IMAGINED)
Ego
Fear of failure/success; lack of self-esteem
No plan
Lack of formalized goals
Life changes
Procrastination
Family responsibilities
Financial security issues
Giving up vision for promise of money
Doing too much alone
Over commitment
Lack of commitment
Lack of training
Lack of persistence
Lack of priorities (how to overcome obstacles to success)
THE WINNING EDGE
In order to get the winning edge, we need to strive for excellence, not perfection. Striving for perfection is neurotic; striving for excellence is progress, because there is nothing that can’t be done better or improved. (obstacles in achieving goals)
All that we need is a little edge. The winning horse in the race may win with 5-to-1 or 10-to-1 odds. Do you think he is five or ten times faster than the other horses? Of course not. He may only be faster by a fraction, by a nose, but the rewards are five or ten times greater.
Is it fair? Who cares? It doesn’t matter. Those are the rules of the game. That is the way the game is played. The same is true in our lives. Successful people are not ten times smarter than the people who fail. They may be fractionally better, but the rewards are ten times bigger.
We don’t need to improve 1000% in any one area. All you need is to improve 1% in 1000% different areas, which is a lot easier. That is the winning edge! (challenges and obstacles)
STRUGGLE
History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.
–B.C Forbes
Trials in life can be tragedies or triumphs, depending on how we handle them. Triumphs don’t come without effort. (8 obstacles to success)
A biology teacher was teaching his students how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. He told the students that in the next couple of hours, the butterfly would struggle to come out of the cocoon, but no one should help the butterfly. Then he left. (how to overcome obstacles to success)
The students were waiting and it happened. The butterfly struggled to get out of the cocoon and against the advice of the teacher, one of the students took pity on it and decided to help the butterfly out of the cocoon. He broke the cocoon to help the butterfly so it didn’t have to struggle anymore. But, shortly afterwards, the butterfly died. (obstacles in achieving goals)
When the teacher returned, he was told what had happened. He explained to the student that it is a law of nature that the struggle to come out of the cocoon actually helps develop and strengthen the butterfly’s wings. By helping the butterfly, the boy had deprived the butterfly of its struggle and the butterfly died. (challenges and obstacles)
Apply this same principle to our lives. Nothing worthwhile in life comes without a struggle. As parents we tend to hurt the ones we love most because we don’t allow them to struggle to gain strength. (What is success in life?)
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
People who have overcome obstacles are more secure than those who have never faced them. We all have problems and sometimes feel discouraged. Everyone faces disappointments; but winners don’t get disheartened. The answer is perseverance. (how to overcome obstacles to success)
An English proverb says, “A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.” Everything is difficult before it becomes easy. We cannot run away from our problems. Only losers quit and give up. (What are big obstacles on the path to success?)
Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.
–H. Ross Perot
HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
True success is measured by the feeling of knowing we have done a job well and have achieved our objective.
Success is not measured by our position in life but by the obstacles we overcame to get there. (how do you measure success answer)
Success in life is not determined by how we are doing compared with others, but by how we are doing compared with what we are capable of doing. Successful people compete against themselves. They better their own record and keep improving constantly.
Success is not measured by how high we go up in life, but rather by how many times we bounce back when we fall down. It is this bounce-back ability that determines success. (how to measure success of a project)
EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS ALSO A STORY OF GREAT FAILURE
Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr, of IBM, said, “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”
If we study history, we will find that all stories of success are also stories of great failures. But people don’t see the failures. They only see the end result and they think that person got lucky: “He must have been at the right place at the right time.” (how to measure success in the workplace)
Let me share a famous life history with you. This was a man who failed in business at the age of 21; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at age 24; had his sweetheart die when he was age26 ; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost a congressional race at age 34 ; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age49; and was elected president of the United States at age 52. This man was Abraham Lincoln.
Would you call Lincoln a failure? He could have quit, hung his head in shame, and gone back to his law practice. But to Lincoln, defeat was a detour, not a dead end. (how is success measured in business)
In 1913, lee De Forest, inventor of the triode tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks in his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated. Can you imagine where we would be without his invention? (overcoming obstacles for person)
A New York Times editorial on December 10, 1903 questioned the wisdom of the Wright Brothers Who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air, that would fly. One week later, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight. (What are the 8 qualities that make a person successful?)
Colonel Sanders, at age 65, had assets of a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security. He realized he had to do something to improve his position. He remembered his mother’s fried chicken recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order. How many of us quit after three tries, ten tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could?
As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors who said he had no talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small rodent-infested shed near the church. Seeing a small mouse inspired him to draw a new cartoon. That was the start of Mickey Mouse. (overcoming obstacles in life)
Successful people don’t do great things, they only do small things in a great way.
One day partially deaf four-year-old child came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, “You Tommy is too stupid to read learn, get him out of the school.” His mother read the note and answered, “My Tommy is not too stupid to learn, I will teach him myself.” And that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling. (What 8 things make person successful?)
Henry Ford forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car he made.
Do you consider these people failures? They succeed in spite of problems, not in the absence of them. But to negative thinkers, it appears as though they just “got lucky.” (how to measure success in the workplace)
All success stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back. This is called failing forward, rather than backward. You learn and move forward. Learn from your failure and keep going. (how do you measure success as a manager)
In 1914, Thomas Edison, at age 67, lost his factory to fire. It had very little insurance. No longer a young man, Edison watched his lifetime effort go up in smoke and said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burnt up. Thank God we can start anew, “In spite of the disaster, three weeks later, he invented the phonograph. What an attitude! (What are 8 characteristics of a successful person?)
Below are more examples of the failures of successful people:
Thomas Edison failed approximately 10,000 times while he was working on the light bulb.
Henry Ford was broke at the age of 40.
Lee Iacocca was fired by Henry Ford II at the age of 54.
Young Beethoven was told that he had no talent for music, but he gave some of the best music to the world. (describe a successful person)
Setbacks are inevitable. A setback can act as a driving force and also teach us humility. In grief. You will find courage and faith to overcome the setback. Learn to become victors, not victims. Fear and doubt short-circuit the mind.
Ask yourself after every setback: What did I learn from this experience? Only then will you be able to turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone.
IF YOU THINK
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t!
If you like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost;
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
THE GREATEST GIFT
Of all the creatures in the world, humans are physically the most ill-equipped. A human cannot fly like a bird, outrun a leopard, swim like an alligator, nor climb trees like a monkey. A human doesn’t have the eye of an eagle, nor the claws and teeth of a wild cat. Physically, humans are helpless and defenseless; a tiny insect can kill them. But nature is reasonable and kind. Nature’s greatest gift to humankind is the ability to think. Humans can create their own environment, whereas animals adapt to their environment.
Sadly, very few people use the greatest gift–the ability to think–to its full potential. (What are the 8 qualities that make a person successful?)
Failures are of two kinds: those who did and never thought and those who thought and never did. Going through life without using your ability to think is like shooting without aiming. (list of good qualities of a person)
Life is like a cafeteria. You take your tray, select your food and pay at the other end. You can get anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price. In a cafeteria, if you wait for people to serve you, you will wait forever. Life is like that too. You make choices and pay the price to succeed.
LIFE IS FULL OF CHOICES AND COMPROMISES
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
–William Jennings Bryan
At first glance it might seem that there is a contradiction in the statement, that life is full of choices and compromises. If life is full of choices, where is the question of compromise? But, even a compromise is a choice. Let’s evaluate this. (what makes a person successful)
How is Life Full of Choices?
When we eat too much, we make a choice to be overweight. When we drink too much, we make a choice to have a headache the next day. If we drink and drive, we choose to risk being killed or killing someone in an accident. When we will-treat people, we choose to be ill-treated in return. When we don’t care about other people, we choose not to be cared for by other people.
Choices have consequences. We are free to make our choice but, after we have chosen, the choice controls us. We have equal opportunity to be unequal. The choice is ours. Life can be compared to a pottery maker who shapes clay in any form he wants. Similarly we can mold our lives into any shape we want. (8 characteristics of success)
How is Life Full of Compromises?
Life is not just party and pleasure; it is also pain and despair. Unthinkable things happen. Sometimes everything turns upside down. Bad things happen to good people. Some things are beyond control, such as physical disability and birth defects. We cannot choose our parents or the circumstances of our birth. If the ball bounced the wrong way for you, I’m sorry. But what do you do from that point on –cry or take the ball and run? That is a choice you have to make. (What is the meaning of positive thinker?)
On a clear day, there are hundreds of boats sailing in all different directions in a lake. Even though the wind is blowing in one direction, the sailboats are going in different directions. Why? It depends on the way the sail is set, and that is determined by the sailor. The same is true of our lives. We can’t choose the direction of the wind, but we can choose how we set our sail.
Health, happiness, and success depend upon the fighting spirit of each person. The big thing is not what happens to us in life– but what we do about what happens to us. (What is a positive belief?)
–George Allen
We can choose our attitude even though we cannot always choose our circumstances. The choice is either to act like a victor or a victim. It is not our position but our disposition that determines our destiny.
It takes both rain and sunshine to create a rainbow. Our lives are no different. There is happiness and sorrow. There are the good and the bad, dark spots and bright spots. When we can handle adversity well, it only strengthens us. We cannot control all the events that happen in our lives, but we can control how we deal with them. (Why are positive beliefs important?)
Richard Blechynden wanted to promote Indian tea at the St. Louis World Fair. It was very hot and no one wanted to sample his tea. Blechynden saw that iced drinks were doing a flourishing business. It dawned on him to make his tea into an iced drink, mix in some sugar, and offer it for sale. People loved it. That was the introduction of iced tea to the world.* Human beings are not like an acorn which has no choice. An acorn cannot decide whether to become a giant tree or to become food for the squirrels. Human beings have choices. If nature gives us a lemon, we have a choice: either to cry or make lemonade. (positive thinking in psychology)
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, you can react responsibly or resentfully– the choice is yours.
QUALITIES THAT MAKE A PERSON SUCCESSFUL
Desire
The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose. Napoleon Hill wrote, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
A young man asked Socrates the secret to success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met. Socrates took the young man by surprise and dunked him under the water. The boy struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and held him down. When the boy started turning blue, Socrates raised the boy’s head out of the water. The first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air. Socrates asked, “What did you want the most when you were under water?” The boy replied, “Air.” Socrates said, “That is the secret to success. When you want success as intensely as you want air underwater, then you will have it.” There is no other secret. (What are 8 characteristics of a successful person?)
A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results.
Commitment
Try not to become a success, but rather try to become a man of value.
–Albert Einstein
Integrity and wisdom are the two pillars on which to build and keep commitments. This point is best illustrated by the manager who told one of his staff members, “Integrity is keeping your commitment even if you lose money and wisdom is not to make such foolish commitments.”
Prosperity and success are the result of our thoughts and decisions. It is for us to decide what thoughts will dominate our lives. Success is not an accident. It is the result of our attitude. (effects of positive thinking)
Playing to Win Requires Commitment
There is a big difference between playing to win and playing not to lose. When we play to win, we play with enthusiasm and commitment; whereas when we play not to lose, we are playing from a position of weakness. When we play not to lose, we are playing to avoid failure. We all want to win, but very few are prepared to pay the price to prepare to win. Winners condition and commit themselves to winning. Playing to win comes out of inspiration, whereas playing not to lose comes out of desperation.
There are no ideal circumstances. There never will be. To reach any destination, you can neither drift nor lie at anchor. You need to sometimes sail with the wind and sometimes against it, but sail you must.
Ask any coach or athlete to define the difference between the best and the worst team. There would be very little difference in the players’ physique, talent and ability. The biggest difference is an emotional difference. The winning team has dedication and they make the extra effort. They have a stronger desire to win. To a winner, the tougher the competition:
The greater the incentive
The stronger the motivation
The better the performance
The sweeter the victory
New challenges develop new potential. Most athletes’ best performances have come when the odds were slightly against them. That is when they dig deeper into their emotional reservoirs. (what makes a person successful)
When I’d get tired and want to stop, I’d wonder what my next opponent was doing. When I could see him still working, I’d start pushing myself . When I could see him in the shower, I’d push myself harder.
–Dan Gable, Olympic gold medalist in wrestling
Success is not in the achievement, but in the achieving. Some people never try because they are afraid to lose. At the same time, they don’t want to stay where they are because they are afraid to be left behind. There is a risk either way. Ships that go out into the open waters face risk from a storm. But if they sit in the harbor, they would rust anyway and that is not what they were built for. The difference between playing to win and playing not to lose is that you cannot be committed and not take risks. People who play to win thrive on pressure and those who play not to lose don’t know how to succeed. (overcoming obstacles for person)
Pressure makes people who play to win prepare harder. For those who play not to lose, the pressure saps their energy. They want to win, but they are so afraid of losing that they can’t reach their full potential. They lose energy worrying about losing instead of concentrating their efforts on winning.
Losers want security; winners seek opportunity. Losers are more afraid of life than death. Failing is not a crime, but lack of effort is.
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
–Vince Lombardi
Conviction Leads to Commitment
There is a difference between preferences and conviction. Preferences are negotiable; convictions are not. Preferences give way under pressure; convictions become stronger. That is why it is important to have a good value system so that our convictions are worthy because convictions in turn lead to commitment. (another word for difficult struggle)
Responsibility
A duty which becomes a desire will ultimately become a delight.
–George Gritter
People with character accept responsibilities. They make decisions and determine their own destiny in life. |Accepting responsibilities involves taking risks and being accountable, which is sometimes uncomfortable. Most people would rather stay in their comfort zones and live passive lives without accepting responsibilities. They drift through life waiting for things to happen, rather than making them happen. Accepting responsibilities involves taking calculated, not foolish, risks. It means evaluating all the pros and cons, then taking the most appropriate decision or action. Responsible people don’t think that the world owes them a living. (winning edge 2022)
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot enrich the poor by impoverishing the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. (idea of success)
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot help permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. (types of success in life)
–Abraham Lincoln
If you are climbing an icy mountain or fighting a war, a mistake may kill you. However, for most of us, our reactions to the mistakes we make are more important than the mistakes themselves. Responsible people accept and learn from their mistakes. Some people never learn. We can do three things about mistakes:
Ignore them
Deny them
Accept, learn from them and repeat them.
The third alternative takes courage; it is risky but rewarding. If, instead, we defend our weaknesses, we actually start building our lives around them, making them a center point, rather than overcoming them. When things go wrong, negative people play the blame game.
The retiring president of a company after a standard farewell, gave two envelopes marked No. 1 and No, 2 to the incoming president, and said, “Whenever you run into a management crisis you cannot handle by yourself, open envelope No. 1. At the next crisis, open the second one.”
A few years later, a major crisis came. The president went into the safe and pulled out the first envelope. It said, “Blame it on your predecessor.” A few years later a second crisis came. The president went for the second envelope, opened it and said, “Prepare two envelopes for your successor.”
Hard Work
Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else; hard work–and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.
–Lucille Ball
Success is not something that you run into by accident. It takes a lot of preparation and character. Everyone likes to win, but most people aren’t willing to put in the effort and the time to prepare to win? It takes sacrifice and self-discipline. There is no substitute for hard work. Henry Ford said, “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”
The world is full of willing workers, some willing to work and the others willing to let them. (the winning edge batman beyond)
I like to work half a day. I don’t care if it is the first 12 hours of the second 12 hours.
–Kammons Wilson, CEO of Holiday Inn
Just as a person cannot learn to spell by sitting on a dictionary or cannot develop a capacity to do anything without hard work. Professionals make things look easy because they have mastered the fundamentals of whatever they do. (another word for difficult struggle)
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.
–Michelangelo
The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote100%.
–Andrew Carnegie
Successful people ask how much work, not how little work; they ask how many hours, not how few. The best musicians practice every day, often for hours. Winners don’t need to apologize for winning because they work long and hard. (unique qualities of a person)
Everything that we enjoy is a result of someone’s hard work. Some work is visible while others go unseen, but ultimately both are equally important. So take pride in your work and whenever there is a chance show appreciation for the hard work of others by treating their work with care and respect. Work hard and well and you will have the satisfaction of seeing your project completed. Sometimes others may show appreciation, but that’s a bonus: For the major satisfaction comes from within.
Some people stop working as soon as they find a job. Regardless of the unemployment statistics, it is hard to find good people to work.
Many people don’t understand the difference between idle time and leisure time. Idle time amounts to wasting or stealing time ; leisure time is earned. Enjoying leisure time leaves us energized and refreshed. Idle time saps our energy. Procrastinating is idle time. (list of good qualities of a person)
Excellence is not luck; it is the result of a lot of hard work and practice. Hard work and practice make a person better at whatever he is doing.
Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at something worth doing.
–Theodore Roosevelt
Hard work is both a beginning and an end in itself. The harder a person works, the better he feels; and the better he feels, the harder he works. The best ideas will not work unless you work the ideas. Great talent without will-power and hard work is a waste.
We need to learn from nature, The duck keeps padding relentlessly underneath. But appears smooth and calm on the top.
Once when the great violinist Fritz Kreisler finished a concert, someone came up to the stage and said, “I’d give my life to play the way you do.” Kreisler replied, “I did!” (What are your 8 best qualities?)
There is no magic wand for success. In the real world, success comes to doers, not observers. A horse that pulls cannot kick; a horse that kicks cannot pull. Let’s pull and stop kicking.
Without hard work there is no success.
Nature gives birds their food but does not put it in their nests. They have to work hard for it. Nothing comes easily. Milton rose every morning at 4 a.m. to write Paradise Lost. It took Noah Webster 36 Years to compile Webster’s Dictionary. (how do you measure success answer)
Even small accomplishments require hard work. The smallest of accomplishments is better than the biggest talk.
5. Character
Character is the sum total of a person’s values, beliefs and personality. It is reflected in our behavior and in your actions. It needs to be preserved more than the richest jewel in the world. To be a winner takes character. George Washington said, “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most valuable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” (What is a positive belief?)
It is not the polls or public opinion but the character of the leader that determines the course of history. There is no twilight zone in integrity. The road to success has many pitfalls. It takes a lot of character and effort not to fall into them. It also takes character not to be disheartened by critics.
Why do most people love success but hate successful people? Whenever a person rises above the average, plenty of people are ready to pull him down. Chances are pretty good when you see a person on top of a hill, that he just didn’t get there by default, but had to endure a tough climb. It’s no different in life. In any profession, a successful person will be envied by those who are not successful. Critics have always been sitting at the sidelines. They are underachievers who shout at doers, telling them how to do it right. But remember, critics are not the leaders or doers. Don’t let criticism distract you from reaching your goal. Average people play it safe to avoid criticism. By saying, doing or being nothing, average. The more you accomplish, the more you risk being criticized. (How do you have a positive belief?)
The critic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
–Oscar Wilde
No one likes to be criticized, but we learn and grow from honest criticism. Just as it takes character not to be disheartened by critics, it also takes character to listen to critics. It is very important to be able to distinguish honest criticism from jealousy-inspired criticism, this is a skill that successful people have. Part of this skill is being able to evaluate the motive of the criticizer. The other part, and perhaps the largest part, is self knowledge. The successful person knows himself well enough to recognize when a particular criticism is valid. (positive thinking in psychology)
Successful people don’t like to be criticized any more than anyone else does. But when they deem the criticism valid, they remain calm and in control and listen carefully. They ask for suggestions on how to improve. In fact, successful people often ask for criticism from those whose opinions they trust. They ask: “How am I doing?” “How can I improve?”
Character is a Combination
Character is a combination of integrity, unselfishness, understanding, conviction, courage, loyalty and respect. (effects of positive thinking)
What is a pleasant personality with character?
It is a class by itself.
It is composure.
It is poise.
It is surefootedness and confidence without arrogance.
It is being considerate.
It is never making excuses.
It is knowing that courtesy and good manners take many small sacrifices.
It is learning from past mistakes.
It has nothing to do with money or blue blood.
It never builds itself by destroying others.
It is substance, not just form.
It is being able to walk with the elite and yet maintain the common touch.
It is a gentle word, a kind look and a good-natured smile.
It is the secret pride that stands against tyranny.
It is being comfortable with oneself and others.
It is having the classic touch that gives the winning edge.
It works wonders.
It accomplishes miracles.
It is easy to recognize, hard to define.
It is accepting responsibility.
It is humility.
It is graciousness in victory and defeat.
It is not fame and fortune.
It is not a plaque.
It is permanent.
It is intangible.
It is being courteous and polite without being subservient.
It is being classy without being cocky.
It is self-discipline and knowledge.
It is self-contained.
It is a gracious winner and an understanding loser.
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment.
–H. Ross Perot
More difficult than success itself is how we handle success. Many people know how to become successful, but after they become successful they don’t know how to handle it. That is why ability and character go hand in hand. Ability will get you success; character will keep you successful.
We don’t unfold or discover ourselves–we create and build ourselves into the kind of person we want to be. (what makes a person successful)
Character-building starts from infancy and goes on until death. Just like a gardener has to keep weeding to prevent weeds from eating the life of the garden, we need to keep building and developing our character by weeding out our faults. (types of success in life)
Adversity Builds and/or Reveals Character
Under adverse circumstances, some people break records and others break down. John F. Kennedy once said that it is a mark of character how well a person behaves when things are not going well. When things are going well for us, it is easy to be logical, kind and gracious. But when things aren’t going well and we’re under a lot of pressure, some people can’t think clearly and snap at others around them, while others remain clear-headed and continue to treat others with respect. Adversity reveals a person’s character.
There is a Russian saying: “A hammer shatters glass but forges steel.” There is a lot of truth in the saying. Are we made of glass or steel? It is the same hammer. (winning edge sports)
Just as carbon determines the quality of steel, character determines the quality of a man.
6. Positive Believing
What is the difference between positive thinking and positive believing? What if you could actually listen to your thoughts? Are they positive or negative? Are you programming your mind for success or failure? The way in which you think has a profound effect on your performance.
Having a positive attitude and being motivated is a choice we make every day. Living a positive life is not easy; but then neither is negative living. Given a choice, I would rather go for a positive living. Positive thinking helps you use your abilities to the fullest.
Positive believing is more than positive thinking. It is knowing that positive thinking will work. Positive belief is an attitude of confidence that comes from preparation. (explain four possible obstacles you may face in trying to achieve a career as your life goal)
Having a positive attitude without making the effort is nothing more than having a wishful dream. The following illustrates positive believing.
Several years ago Lockheed introduced the L-1011 Tristar plane. In order to ensure safety and test the strength of the jetliner, Lockheed exposed the plane to the roughest possible treatment for 18 months, a program that cost $1.5 billion. Hydraulic jacks, electronic sensors, and a computer put the airplane through its paces for more than 36,000 simulated flights (equivalent to 100 years of airline service). Without one single malfunction. Finally after thousands of tests, the aircraft was given the seal of approval.*
Does the Lockheed organization have reason to believe positively? You bet. There is every reason to believe that this plane is safe to fly, because of all the effort put into preparation. (the winning edge batman beyond)
7. Give More Than You Get
It is easy to succeed today. If you want to get ahead in life, go the extra mile. There is no competition on the extra. Are you willing to do a little more than you get paid for? How many people you know are willing to do a little bit more than what they get paid for? Hardly any.
Most people don’t want to do what they get paid for and a second category of people want only to do what they can get by with. They fulfill their quotas just to keep their jobs. Only a small fraction is willing to do a little bit more than what they get paid for. Why do they do more?
The advantages of doing more than you get paid for are:
You make yourself more valuable, regardless of what you do and where you work. (definition of struggle in life)
It gives you more confidence.
People start looking at you as a leader.
Others start trusting you.
Superiors start respecting you.
It breeds loyalty from both your subordinates and your superiors.
It generates cooperation.
It produces pride and satisfaction.
If we go the extra mile, where is the competition?
If you work for a man, for heaven’s sake work for him.
–Kim Hubbard
Hard working people are in demand everywhere regardless of age, experience or academic qualifications. Hard-working people:
Can work without supervision.
Are punctual and considerate.
Listen carefully and carry out instructions accurately.
Tell the truth.
Don’t sulk when called upon to pitch in at the time of an emergency.
Are result oriented rather than task oriented.
Are cheerful and courteous.
Always think in terms of giving more than is expected by your customer, spouse, parents and children. Whenever you do anything, ask yourself, “How can I add value to what I am doing?” or “How can I added value to others?”
The key to success can be summed up in four words: “and then some more.” Winners do what they are supposed to–and then some more. Winners do their duty– and then some more. Winners can be counted on–and then some more. Winners put in 100%--and then some more.
Ability without dependability and flexibility is a liability.
Why are some highly intelligent people, often with impressive academic qualifications, living failures or at best, practicing mediocrity? Because they become experts at why things won’t work and build a reserve of negative energy. They don’t want to do what they get paid for or they only want to do what they can get by with. No wonder they are living failures. When we give or do more than what we get paid for , we eliminate our competition. In fact, we become the competition . This attitude is much more important than intelligence or a degree. (another word for difficult struggle)
8• The Power of Persistence
Nothing will take the place of persistence. Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not: Unrewarded genius is a proverb. Education will not: The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
–Calvin Coolidge
The journey to being your best is not easy. It is full of setbacks. Winners have the ability to overcome and bounce back with even greater resolve.
DON’T QUIT
When things go wrong,
As they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit–
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, was once asked, “How do you play so well? Are you lucky?” He replied, “It's practice. If I don’t practice for a month, the audience can tell the difference. If I don’t practice for a week, my wife can tell the difference. If I don’t practice for a day, I can tell the difference.” (struggle up)
Persistence results from commitment and leads to determination. There is pleasure in endurance. Athletes put in years of practice for a few seconds or minutes of performance. (What skills help you overcome obstacles?)
Persistence is a decision. It is a commitment to finish what you start. When we are exhausted, quitting looks good. But winners endure. Ask a winning athlete. He endures pain and finishes what he started. Lots of people who are failures began well but never finished anything. Persistence comes from purpose. Life without purpose is drifting. A person who has no purpose will never persevere and will never be fulfilled.
9. Pride of Performance
In today’s world, pride in performance has fallen by the wayside because it requires effort and hard work. However, nothing happens unless it is made to happen. When one is discouraged, it is easy to look for shortcuts. However these should be avoided no matter how great the temptation. Pride comes from within–it is what gives the winning edge.
Pride of performance does not represent ego. It represents pleasure with humility. The quality of the work and the quality of the worker are inseparable. Half-hearted effort does not produce half results; it produces no results. (how to measure success of a project)
Three people were laying bricks. A passerby asked them what they were doing. The first one replied, “Don’t you see I am making a living?” The second one said, “Don’t you see I am laying bricks?” The third one said, “I am building a beautiful monument.” Here were three people doing the same thing who had totally different perspectives on what they were doing. They had three very different attitudes about their work. And would their attitude affect their performance? The answer is clearly yes.
Excellence comes when the performer takes pride in doing his best. Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it, regardless of what the job is, whether washing cars, sweeping the floor or painting a house.
Do it right the first time, every time. The best insurance for tomorrow is a job well done today. (positive thinking in psychology)
Michelangelo had been working on a statue for many days. He was taking a long time to retouch every small detail. A bystander thought these improvements were insignificant, and asked Michelangelo why he bothered with them. Michelangelo replied, “Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle.”
Most people forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well it was done. (Why are positive beliefs important?)
If a man is called to be streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
–Martin Luther King, Jr
The feeling of a job well done is a reward in itself. It is better to do small things well than do many things poorly. (8 characteristics of success)
10. Be a Willing to Be a Student–Get a Mentor
If God and the teacher (guru) are standing together, who does the student salute first? According to Indian culture, the answer is the teacher, because without his direction and help, the student could not have met God.
A mentor or a teacher is a person whose hindsight can become your foresight. Look for someone who can mentor you. Choose your mentor carefully. A good mentor will guide and give direction, whereas a bad mentor will misguide. Show respect. Be an interested student. An interested student gets the best out of a teacher.
The best teachers will not give you something to drink, they will make you thirsty. They will put you on a path to seek answers. (how do you measure success interview question)
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE SUCCESSFUL?
Do all of us have the qualities for success? Some people feel they don’t. They stay mediocre and fail. But it doesn't have to be that way. All of us possess each of the ten qualities discussed in this chapter. The qualities may not be developed to the level that you want them to be, but if they are found out, our performance will change. (What is the biggest barrier to success?)
This is like having a million dollars buried in your backyard and not knowing about it. You wouldn’t be able to use it. But the moment you find out, your thinking and behavior will change. We all have hidden treasures. All we need to do is bring them to the surface and use them.
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Good job
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