Okay... So the title's probably really got your attention. Good. So let's head off to the big secret, shall we?
But before that:
"There's some good news and some bad news...
The bad news is that there is no good news."
(From the Beau Peep comic strip in The Times of India many months back)
Disappointing for sure, and here's another one:
"The big secret of success is that there's no secret."
(From my crazy mind that's no good at comic strips)
I haven't done anything exceptional or achieved anything wondrous in my life yet. So I am nobody to be giving out success gyaan. But I do have some thoughts on success that I'd like to share. And I hope that one day I will have moved from Dream to Action and be moving from bigger dreams to better action.
That said, let's get back to the big secret, or rather the absence of it.
In whatever little success I have achieved so far, I've realized that it really was a direct result of focus, commitment, and hard work. So, my point in this post is that success isn't really that complicated. We tend to have the expectation of a shortcut, and waste a lot of time trying to find it, whereas the real need is to spend our time doing what we instinctually know. Really, my belief is that the actual basics reside deep within us--again, focus, commitment, hard work, and sometimes practice. And a big one--being consistent around your goals. Along with these, embracing failure as just a step towards success is also crucial. This might go against what we think, but is still a major part of nearly every success story. Unless we look at failure as something that has been sent our way to inflame us even more, we cannot succeed. I hate to use the cliché, but "Failure is the stepping stone to success."
Back to the instincts then: For students nothing is as important as sticking to the right path, and incessantly contributing towards achieving their (academic and other) goals. For a salesperson, I guess the biggest thing is to show empathy for the customer's needs and think from their perspective. And in case of entrepreneurs/managers, probably the biggest tip would be to treat the employees well and try to create a balance between concern for productivity and concern for people.
Nothing new, right? See! That exactly is my point. So, the bottom-line really is that success--personal, organizational, at virtually any level--mostly comes as a direct result of the things we know are its ingredients. And if possible, we need to garnish the dish with smart work (versus hard work), productivity tips, and life hacks. These are supposed to help; they can hardly do much just by themselves.
I hope you find this post inspirational. Hit back with comments sharing your thoughts on this, and your own little formulas for success.
