Law of Success Simplified - 1

Success in this world is always a matter of individual effort, yet you will only be deceiving yourself if you believe that you can succeed without the co-operation of other people. Success is a matter of individual effort only to the extent that each person must decide, in his or her own mind what is wanted. This involves the use of “imagination”. Achieving success is a matter of skillfully and tactfully inducing other to co-operate.

Before you can secure co-operation from others; before you have the right to ask for or expect co-operation from other people, you must first show a willingness to co-operate with them.

The most successful men and women on earth have had to correct certain weak spots in their personalities before they began to succeed.  The most outstanding of these weaknesses which stand between men and women and success are ego, greed, jealousy, suspicion, revengeful attitude, self-centered selfishness, spendthrift attitude. 

Success is not a matter of luck, an accident of birth, or a reward for virtue. It is a matter of decision, commitment, planning, preparation, execution and recommitment. Success doesn’t come to you; you must go to it. The trail is well-traveled and well-marked. If you want to walk it, you can.

But you’ve got to have talent to be successful – most often heard statement. But everyone has a talent – least understood statement.

You have to identify your talent, your real love, your hot button. You need to figure that out. Shekhar Kapoor the noted film maker who made Mr. India, Bandit Queen, Masoom and also directed couple of Hollywood films including Elizabeth discovered his talent as a film maker, story teller rather than being a chartered accountant for which he was professionally trained. Richard Burton’s talent was acting. He was an indifferent singer. When he starred in “Camelot,” the musical burden was carried by the likes of Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet. But Burton excelled at acting the role of King Arthur.  Famous actor Pran would have pursued being a photographer and Ashok Kumar would have lived an anonymous life as a lab technician, Had these gentlemen not discovered their real talent.

Some people are talented at driving nails, some at shaping clay, some at speaking before audiences, some at writing novels, some at skating, some at dancing, some at sewing, some at cooking.

But everyone is talented. We’re just talented in different ways. If you want to succeed, identify the areas in which you are talented and commit to developing those talents to the fullest.

Now I will share a little story to elaborate my point; a story about Aparajita Bhattacharya, a bright young lady. I met her about 15 years ago, when she was a 10 year old young girl, she was a brilliant dancer, very disciplined, articulate, and had lot of finesse for a girl of her age. She loved to write stories; I helped her create her blog. When I saw her posts, I was pleasantly surprised and amazed to see her talent as a young writer. (I still follow her blog).  Later after finishing her school when other girls were thinking about career in conventional fields of medicine, engineering, law or fashion designing, she was contemplating to do something not that conventional. 

Aparajita was very good at studies. But she had discovered another talent, which later became her passion – cooking Her mother is also a great cook, but unlike conventional mothers who are just great cooks, she was also a great presenter and laid the table with great suave. Watching and assisting her mother, Aparajita found her passion, interest and talent. She decided that she wants to be a Chef and that also with the best hotel in the country. With her passion and talent identified she went on to have the most important ingredient required for success – Focus and perseverance.

She appeared in coveted all India exams for the Oberoi Group, where only a selected few get scholarship and free admission to the Oberoi College of hotel management followed by assured job at Oberoi properties world over.  She qualified the exam in her first attempt and was selected as one of the 20 students selected for kitchen services, nationally; the specialization that she preferred and opted for. She is now enjoying her life as a trainee chef there, her focus; hard work is giving her lot of awards and accolades. Nothing of this would have been possible without her identifying her talent and working with complete dedication to achieve what she was aspiring for.

If you wish to succeed, identify the areas in which you are talented and commit to developing those talents to the fullest. Following six baby steps might come in handy. I shall elaborate on them in my future blogs. But for now I shall share few quick points.

Decision: Decide what you want in life. Make it a decision that comes from deep inside you. This means getting to know yourself. Identify the things you do well and the things you enjoy doing. Get familiar with the way you respond to your environment and why you respond that way. Learn where you’re strong and play to your strengths. When you’ve defined yourself, you can also define the success you want – and can begin the journey toward your dreams.

Commitment: It is one thing to decide what you want. It is another thing to make a commitment. A commitment is like your signature on a contract. It binds you to a course of action. When you make a deep commitment to a goal, powerful forces come into play, propelling you toward that goal. The power comes from within you. It’s there, and you may not even know it.

Planning: here is where one three-letter word separates losers from winners. That word is How. Losers ask “Can I do it?” Losers are guided by what’s impossible. They see barriers and they stop in their tracks. Winners are guided by what’s possibility at a time, they achieve their goals.

Preparation: Once you know where you want to go, your next step is to prepare yourself for the journey. Preparation involves acquiring the physical, mental/emotional, social and spiritual balance you’ll need to keep yourself on course, and the motivation to provide you with the energy to carry it out.

Execution: Executing your life’s plan involves three phases: Action, learning and applying. A good coach knows that a brilliant game plan is no good without proper execution. The team has to act upon the plan. It’s the same with your success plan. It’s not enough to have one. You have to implement it through positive action. Coupled with the action must be a learning process that allows you to profit from your inevitable mistakes. We never know whether a specific action will be successful until we’ve tried it. Once we’ve tried it, we can observe the results, learning what works and what doesn’t. Winners expect to make mistakes, but they use them as lessons. They apply what they learn toward implementation of the plan.

Recommitment: When you’ve achieved the last goal in your action plan, don’t stop. Your life is not at an end. You’re at a new beginning- unless you plan to die as soon as your vision is fulfilled. Successful people know that life is a continuously unfolding process, and they remain in control of the unfolding. When they reach that long-sought plateau, they immediately create their next vision. They move on to new plateaus, making new decision and new commitments, planning, preparing and executing until the new vision is achieved. 

Success builds upon success.

KK