Introduction
Success is an abstract concept which is difficult to be defined in one single sentence. Success means different things to different people. One may weigh success in terms of material gains; another may weigh success in terms of spiritual values. Most of the people define success in terms of achieving a mission or a goal. For instance, in Genesis 1.28 of Bible, God while entering into a covenant with Noah blessed him with "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Robertson 1981). God rewarded Noah because of the successful accomplishment of the mission assigned unto him. To God, Noah's success lied in his fulfilling the task of building a gigantic ark before the universal flood came in and filling it with all kinds of animals. Out of all the men roaming around the earth at that time, Noah was chosen for God's mission because of his righteousness and piety. It was the inner faith and godliness in Noah that brought him closer to God. If Noah's inherent characteristics brought him closer to God and thus made him suitable for the accomplishment of the divine task, same way all the people successful in their mission or accomplishment of goals display some inner attributes that steer them towards success. This paper would make a comparative discussion about successful and unsuccessful people in the light of the inherent characteristics of the successful as mentioned by success expert Richard St. John.
Richard St. John’s View on Successful People
Millionaire and a success expert Richard St. John talked about 8 traits of successful people in his best-selling book 'The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 to Be Great'. He got the idea of uncovering the secrets of success while travelling in a plane with a teenage girl from a poor family sitting beside him. Her innocuous query "What leads to success?" forced Richard to think of what was there in him and other successful people standing them apart from the rest of the mass (John 2010). Taken over by curiosity, Richard embarked on the mission of uncovering the secrets to success, and for the next one decade, he interviewed and studied a slew of successful people and came to the conclusion that all the successful people share some uniquely common traits that cannot be given, purchased or inherited. Passion, work, focus, persistence, ideas, good, push and serve have been listed as the 8 magical traits of successful individuals who have made it big in the world. These traits are the inner attributes of every successful person, and that is what that defines them and their success.
Passion and Love
Passion is one key ingredient to success. It is the passion and love for what one does that gives him the tenacity and willpower to make endeavors for the success of his dreams. Freeman Thomas, a successful industrial designer in automobile with a number of hottest designs from New Beetle to Audit TT to his credit, has attributed his success to his passion for cars. From the very early years of life, having travelled to different places in and around Europe and USA, he developed an awareness of cars that later transformed into a passion. His passion shows in his spending a considerable amount of time sketching cars. It was while sketching cars on a cocktail napkin that he came up with the design of Audi TT (Fishman 1999). He pursued his passion of cars by becoming a professional automobile designer, and his success is defined by the creations of some of the trendsetting designs of its time like Volkswagen New Beetle, Audi A4, Audi A6, Chrysler Pacifica and Chrysler 300 (Gallina 2012). If passion is what drives successful people, it is the lack of passion that drives unsuccessful people. There are people who often start a business on the side saying that they would leave their full time job once the business takes off (Mahler 2013). Building a business involves full-time efforts and then also many fail at it. If someone says that he is pursuing his passion by running a business on the side while doing a full time job simultaneously, his business is bound to be unsuccessful because by keeping his business as second priority to his job, he is nurturing a hobby and not a passion.
Hard Work and Focus on Purpose
Another characteristic trait that defines successful people is hard work and staying focused on what they do. Passion may breed a desire for achieving a goal, but it is the hard work and focus on the ultimate ambition that help a man fulfill that goal. Dave Ramsay, the famous television personality, radio host and financial author of USA, has remarkably quoted "Work is a surefire money-making scheme" (Lampo Licensing 2009). Indeed, it is true. There is no shortcut to success. If someone wants to make it big in life and earn a lot of money, he needs to put in his best efforts. Michael Anthony Ashcroft aka Baron Ashcroft, the self-made billionaire, is a perfect example of how hard work and focus on goal can help someone climb the ladder of success. Lord Ashcroft started his own business venture called Michael A. Ashcroft Associates Ltd at the age of 26, and within a few years, he transformed it into a profit making organization becoming millionaire at the age of 31. While establishing the business, he worked day and night like a maniac taking break only to sleep (Ashcroft 2009). Money was just the byproduct of his success that came as the fruit of his hard work. If hard work and staying focused on the goal define the success of successful people, the lack of initiatives and giving excuses define the failure of unsuccessful people. There are people who often cite different reasons like age, circumstances, family pressure and the lack of money as the excuse not to embark on a venture or for their failure (Mahler 2013). On the contrary, successful people brave the challenges of their circumstances through their dedication and iron determination.
Persistence
Persistence is another key to success. Persistence refers to the firm adherence to one's goal despite rejection, criticism, failure, misfortune, obstacles and discouragement. Successful people share this inner quality of never to give up in the face of failure. Every stumbling block that comes their way is turned into a stepping stone of success. Abraham Lincoln is an ideal example of persistence. Born into poverty, Lincoln encountered many episodes of dejection, death and failure in his life, but none of these misfortunes was able to topple him from his goal and determination. From the very early years of his life, he came face to face to with grief and death, having lost his mother at the age of 9, then older sister Sarah and father and later his fiancée Ann Rutledge. During his presidency, he lost his 11 years old son to typhoid fever (Zuzeeko 2009). Studying was considered as luxury by poor people when Lincoln was growing up, but despite the financial hardships faced by his family, he continued to read and study by the fireside late into the night. Though he wished to go to law school, he could not do so due to the lack of finance. His road to presidency was strewn with difficulty, and he lost elections 8 numbers of times (Zuzeeko 2009). However, all the obstacles thrown his way only made him stronger in his determination. Though he suffered a nervous breakdown at one point of his life, he recovered and dedicated himself to his goal with a renewed zeal. If persistence is the inner strength that drives and motivates successful people in the face of obstacles, the lack of persistence makes unsuccessful people totter and flounder in their ambitions when faced with challenging circumstances. Unsuccessful people easily give up and quit, and resultantly, though many a time with circumstances in their favor, many people fail to succeed because of the lack of persistent nature.
Ideas and Innovation
Innovation, creativity and ideas are some hallmark features of successful people. Successful people are talented, but it is not always true that talent is what leads them to success. People born with talent may face failure if they don't know how to put their talent to best use. Many talented individuals because of their inability to stay focus on their goal let go of opportunities and thus, lead a mediocre life of anonymity. That is why being talented with ideas is not enough; one needs to know how to put that idea into execution. Bill Gates is one such example of a successful man who has capitalized on his idea of "founding the first micro-computer software company" and took advantage of his opportunity (John 2010). Bill Gates is a visionary person who saw a huge window of opportunity in the computer business, and thus putting his vision to implementation, he formed Microsoft. The vision of Microsoft was based on to reach Microsoft software on every computer. Bill Gates does not believe in any stroke of luck or God's grace (Weebly). He believes that hard work and competitiveness can lead people to their destination.
Being Good at Things Done
Successful people are good at the things they do. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people believe in acquiring mastery over the things they do whereas unsuccessful people stay happy with half-hearted efforts. Successful people steer their direction in things they are good at. They would never try to waste their time doing things they don't have enough knowledge about. Unsuccessful people, on the other hand, lack directions and attempt things, under the influence of their peer group or false confidence, they are not good at. Starting from Freeman Thomas to Lord Ashcroft, every successful person is aware of their strengths and weaknesses and likewise, they set their goals and invest their passion and time in pursuing those goals. For example, Warren Buffet, the legendary financial investor and American business magnate, has a mastery over financial service businesses, and he has always refused to invest in anything other than his core domain of expertise. He showed acumen for financial business matters from early childhood, having made his first investment in the stock market at the age of 11 years. When he was in school, he together with his friend bought an old pinball machine at the cost of $25, and within a matter of few months, they amassed enough money to purchase three more pinball machines. They later sold the pinball business for $1,200 (Rom 2014).
Pushing Beyond the Comfort Zone
David Gallo, the successful marine biologist, describes success as the ability to "Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you gotta push, push, push" (John 2010). Success comes to those who strive hard going out of their comfort zone. While average people have the mindset to follow the crowd and do things that are comparatively safe, successful people show the mentality of doing challenging things. They never stay satisfied lolling in the cozy corner of their familiar comfort zone. When they set their heart to a goal, however difficult, they push themselves out of their physical and mental boundaries to achieve that goal. Melissa Stockwell, a former US army officer, is an example of fortitude and how one can brave physical barriers to become successful in her goal. She is an American paratriathlete and paralympian who despite having lost her one leg above the knee in a bomb explosion in Iraq showed mental as well as physical strength to compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games for the U.S. team and came out as a record holder in swimming for 100 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly (Beliefnet 2014).
Serving Others
Successful people also share the mindset of serving others. While it is true that there are many wealthy successful people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates noted for making generous charitable contributions, but serving others does not only mean charitable donations. Successful people know serving something worth value to others and become millionaires. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire by serving people the valuable service of social networking. Though before Facebook received phenomenal success, there was other popular social networking sites including Orkut, SixDegrees and MySpace in existence, but none of them achieved the height of success like Facebook. It was Zuckerberg's vision and the gumption to take challenges that set him apart from his competitors.
Conclusion
Success is an abstract concept that means different things to different people. Richard St. John in his best-selling book has described 8 traits of successful people. On the basis of his description, it appears that all the successful people share the common characteristics of passion and love for what they do, hard work and focus on purpose, persistence, ideas and innovation, being good at things done, pushing beyond the comfort zone and serving others. On the other hand, unsuccessful people show the lack of resourcefulness and initiatives, give excuses, quit easily, lack directions and focus and shy away from challenges. Success is a truly a matter of individual trait that cannot be inherited, purchased or borrowed.
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