Success Is Not An Accident

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, 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 not 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.

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.
.....Earl Nightingale
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 is an experience. Outside forces cannot make me feel successful. I have to feel it within myself. It is internal not external. Success without fulfillment is empty. Goals are important because they give us a sense of direction.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
.......Bill Cosby
In order to get the winning edge, we need to strive for excellence, not perfection. Striving for perfection is neurotic; striving for excellence is progressive. 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.

Those are the rules of the games. 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.

Qualities That Make a Person Successful

1. 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 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.

2.Commitment
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. 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. 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.

Losers want security; winners seek opportunity. Losers are more afraid of life than death. Failing is not a crime, but lack of effort is.

3.Responsibility
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 n their comfort zones and live passive lives without accepting responsibilities. They drift through life waiting for things to happen, rather than making them happen.

If you are climbing an icy mountain or fighting a war, a mistakes may kill you. However, for most of us, our reactions to the mistakes e 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 not repeat them.
The third alternative takes courage; it is risky but rewarding.

4.Hard Work
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. Heneroy Ford said, "The harder you work, the luckier you get."

We need to learn from nature. The duck keeps paddling relentlessly uderneath but appears smooth and calm on the top.

Once when the great violinist Kreig finished a concert, someone came up to the stage and said, "I'd give my life to play the way you do." Kreisler replied, "Idid."

There is not 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.

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 responsibility. It is reflected in our behavior and in your actions. It needs to be preserved more than the richest jewel in the world.

We create and build ourselves into the kind of person we want to be.

Character-building starts from infancy and goes on until death. Character does not need success. It is success. 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.

Under adverse circumstances, some people break records and others break down. 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.

Just as carbon determines the quality of steel, character determines the quality of a man.

6.Positive Believing
Positive believing is an attitude of confidence that comes from preparation. Having a positive attitude without making the effort is nothing more than having a wishful dream.

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 competitio on the extra miles. Are you willing to do a little more than you get paid for?

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.
•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

8.The power of persistence
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.

Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, was once asked, '"How do you play so well? Are you lucky?" He replied, "It is practice.

Persistence results from commitment and leads to determination. Athletes put in years of practice for a few seconds or minutes of performance.

Persistence is a decision. It is a commitment to finish what you start. When we are exhausted, quitting looks good. But winners endure. Lots of people who are failures began well but never finished anything. Persistence comes from purpose. Life without purpose is drifting. person who has no purpose will never persevere and will never be fulfilled.

9.Pride of performance
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 ell done today.

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.

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.

10.Be a willing to be a student-get a mentor
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.