Behind the Secret of Success - The Real Story

2. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

The human mind was designed to only notice what is different. Those who expect to do the same as others and receive increased attention are poorly misinformed.

Dale Partridge

It’s not what we do, it’s what we do compared to others or relative to others that’s important.

What is the missing element that inhibits success? Don’t years of hard work and dedication count? What about long hours, passion and perseverance, old skills and new ones, leadership abilities, integrity, respect and belief in oneself and in a higher power?

Will the future bring more of the same and little to show for the effort?

What do you understand success to be? Why do some reach their goal and others don’t? Within the context of your own career, profession or business, how do you envision your own success?

a) The comparative context of success in your job, profession or business

If you work hard, very hard, but those you compete with in your workplace, profession or business work harder than you, then they will be successful, not you. Think about it.

There’s a saying that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. To be successful you have to be the one-eyed man in the land of the blind. You cannot be just another blind man.

And in the land of the sighted where everyone can see, you have to see better and farther than.

If you are the persevering type, follow advice and take all the necessary steps to success and still wonder why you haven’t been successful, you are not alone . You have NOT been successful because others around you persevere more than you and are more flexible than you.

It’s not about working tenaciously to resolve a problem or how many hours you put in that determine success. It’s what you do compared to your colleagues. It’s not about being able to adapt to a changing work environment and being innovative in difficult situations.

Success happens to others when they - colleagues, professionals, entrepreneurs – have a clearer vision, stronger drive and greater focus on the end result than you. They may also have a greater passion and bigger ambition than you and are able to use their capital and connections better than you.

Before you start working day and night, pushing yourself even more, stop and think. What if you work hard but others around you work even harder? What if you improve your business model and implementation, increase your market, and rally your staff to sell more? How would you rate when compared to competition? Are they doing a better job at planning and selling and increasing market share?

That’s what I mean by understanding success. It is a comparative phenomenon, i.e., how much you do or work or learn or improve BETTER THAN others so that in the end, you finish ahead of the rest.

b) The secret of success

So far, no matter what you do, no matter how much you do and how hard you try, if somebody else or many others are doing more and better than you, they have a better chance of getting ahead and being successful, not you. Make sense?

The secret of success is not how hard you work. Its how much harder you work compared to others in your career, profession or business.

As world markets shrink and globalization connects most economies, how much harder you work compared to others in your area of competence or interest becomes the barometer for success.

It’s not that your restaurant provides good food, excellent service and reasonable prices. It’s how good your food is compared to others, how your service is more excellent than others, and how your prices are more reasonable than others.

The secret of success is not how many new skills you acquire and what else you do to follow your dream. Its how many skills you acquire more or better than your peers or competitors, and how much better than them you overcome the hurdles to attain your goal.

The secret is not having a lot of access to capital and connections. It’s how much more capital and connections you have than others that you can use to your advantage.

The secret of success is to be better than, and until you are better than others, you cannot be successful.

Or to put it another way, as long as you are at par with others, your “success” will only be at par with theirs. You can’t have real success if you strive to be the same as others. Success, by definition, belongs to those who are better than and finish ahead of the rest.

c) What successful people do

Read about any successful person and you will find that there is a quality that makes the person stand apart from others. It could be the person’s attitudes, behavior or beliefs. Some would call such a person a maverick. Others may call the person an outlier.

He or she may not be better than others in all aspects, but the person proved to be better than others in determining what success meant and how to get there. He or she understood what had to be done to get to where he or she wanted to be, and was willing to do better than others to achieve it.

Think of a very successful physician or surgeon. Why is the person successful? He or she is better than others in skills, and diagnosing illness and administering treatment.

A successful teacher is better than others in inspiring and challenging students to learn and perform better.

The successful business person offers a product or service that surpasses similar products or services in quality, price and performance.

A single mother works harder than others to raise six children and provide them with a good education, as well as teach them integrity and strong values.

An outstanding athlete is a world champion because his training, attitude and skills are better than others.

A bio-researcher makes a breakthrough in stem cell research using a research technique that is better than others.

Think of the singer with a voice that is better than others in his or her genre, who performs and looks better than others that make him or her stand out in a crowd.

A soldier goes up the ranks and becomes commanding officer. He is commended for bravery in war and for going over and beyond more than others.

A young priest is embraced by the congregation in his church for initiating programs that welcome families and those in need of spiritual and material guidance, more than the previous pastor.

A once entry-level corporate employee is being groomed for a senior management position in the company. She works harder and learns faster than others. Her job evaluation is always outstanding compared to others.

A young lawyer joins a big firm and works his way up to become partner. He studies his cases more diligently, relates better to his clients, and performs better and more consistently in the courtroom than others in the firm.

A sales representative of a company rises to the top and becomes marketing director, then branches out on her own and succeeds. She studies the market, evaluates consumer needs and introduces innovative designs better than others.

Now you know the secret to success. How do you get started on your own journey?

It requires thinking through how materially, morally and spiritually equipped you are to face the challenges you will encounter, what niche you choose to explore and how well you prepare to do better than others.

d) Mind your niche and your comparative advantage

To borrow a term from the economists, the battleground that you choose is where you have or will create a comparative or competitive advantage. How and where can you develop so that you can be better than others and get to the finish line ahead of the rest?

What is your comparative advantage and what do you want it to be? In the language of marketing, what is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), or that which makes you distinct from competition?

Choose your battles…and win the war.

Successful people focus their mind and energy on one career, one profession or one business at a time. No one makes it by establishing five small businesses, or dabbling in two or three professions at the same time.

Doing many things at the same time to get ahead in life is like saying you don’t know which route to take. It makes being better than almost impossible. You make a choice and commit to it and become better than.

Once you hit pay dirt, you can start other ventures like a travel agency, to arrange your and your staff’s promotional or personal trips overseas; an airline company to keep your personal jet well-maintained and ready to transport you from place to place; or a bank to manage your assets as well as others.

If it’s in your bucket list, you can buy your own island somewhere as well, but only after you hit success and understand how to sustain it. Reaching the top means doing better than others and standing out from competition with your product or service for the long term.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu (544 B.C.), the Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher traditionally credited as the author of “The Art of War”, He who chooses (when to fight) - the right battles to fight - will be victorious.

To envision success is to prepare for being better than.

Part Two outlines building blocks designed to make you better than others. They are by no means complete, and there are others that you can add, but they are what I believe to be the necessary conditions for success. The building blocks are my personal, rung-by-rung, eyes open, no-holds-barred success spectrum...