In a previous essay on Success, I concluded that while virtually all of us want to be successful, what we really want is to be fulfilled. Today I will discuss what it takes to be successful.
Before I start, I want to say that everyone is successful at something, and no one is successful at everything. Even the greatest basketball player on the planet couldn’t cut it as a minor league baseball player. So you are already successful, albeit maybe not yet at your number one priority.
There are several misconceptions about the characteristics required for success. The first is that IQ is an indicator of success. Most people know at least one brilliant person that can’t get out of their own way. They may be successful in the most narrow sense, but not in life in general.
The second is talent. Again, most of us know (or know of) talented persons who fell way short of what their talent would predict. And most of us also know someone who is successful by any definition, who doesn’t appear to have an abundance of talent.
The third is hard work. While virtually all successful people work hard, there are many more that work just as hard or harder and yet fall short of the prize. So while hard work is usually a component of success, that in and of itself won’t guarantee success.
And lastly, luck. Like hard work, luck is usually a component of success. However, instead of waiting around hoping luck will find you, Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, suggests putting yourself in positions where you are more apt to find luck. And as someone* once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
In 1940, Albert E. N. Gray delivered a speech entitled “The Common Denominator of Success” in which he stated that every successful person has formed the habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do. He went on to say that those are the same things that everybody, including successful people, naturally don’t like to do. They form the habit of doing these unpleasant tasks because they realize that by doing so, it will move them closer to their goals.
While I don’t dispute anything that Mr. Gray says in his speech, I also believe that persistence is a key characteristic of success. For as that woman with a very high IQ, Marilyn vos Savant, once said, “Being defeated is often temporary. Giving up is what makes it permanent.”
*I have found different sources attributing this quote to Samuel Goldwyn, Mark Twain, George Allen, and Stephen Leacock.