The Science of Success
- Part 4 -

L Biren Singh *

xii) Don’t Quit : If you have decided to achieve something, you must follow some principles. When you get closer to success, the ways get tougher. There are times when you feel like quitting but these principles help in making you determined.

Where, dreams x work = effort

Vehicle à tools which are necessary for success. Actually, vehicles are tools for success and every task or goal requires some tools to accomplish it in an effective and time bound manner. Tools assure the success and assist in achieving goal.

It is clear from the above Fig. 2 that where you start working towards your goal, a huge amount of effort is required at the initial stage and the amount of success may not be in proportion to your efforts.

As this stage, you need to invoke your determination and pull all the efforts required. If you do it successfully, you start getting success in proportion to your effort and thereafter, the efforts get lower and success gets bigger.

xiii) Have faith in yourself and your will taste the success in whatever you do. Make success a habit and start getting it by setting small worthy goals and are achieving them. It will automatically turn into a habit.

“If you develop the habits of success, you will make success a habit” – Michael Angels.

xiv) Team work:- Team work is something which has its inception since the beginning of human beings came into existence. They used to accomplish their tasks through team work. For example : Hunting etc. Success needs a lot of efforts, patience, intellect, vision and most important “Team Work”

xv) Persistence:- Persistence is the fact of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. Persistence brings success at your feet and it ensures the winning of the game of life. When it comes to success and winning nothing can substitute persistence.

When you start something with a determination to finish it and you finish it successfully, that is called winning. Winnings are embedded in accomplishment, but a successful accomplishment required the followings:

a) Determination,
b) Discipline and most important is
c) Persistence.

The above three will keep you on the back on your journey towards winning, towards accomplishment. Your efforts much follow your determination and discipline. Be very enthusiastic about accomplishments and be very brave in your efforts. The winning must be yours.

Thomas Edison made 10,000 unsuccessful experiments while inventing a “light bulb”. It is an exemplary story of how persistence wins. He didn’t quit after his success. He said “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.

xvi) Learn from mistakes :- He who knows that he has committed a mistake and is ready to accept that, takes the first step towards greatness and when he learns from his mistakes and takes a corrective measures he becomes great.

Be always ready to learn from your mistakes as all great personalities did exactly the same; they accepted their mistakes and then took action to mend.

xvii) Some obstacles to success : -
a) Ego;
b) Low self-esteem,
c) Lack of formalised goals,
d) Not accepting responsibility,
e) Lack of focus
f) Under ambitious
g) Over commitment,
h) Lack of training
i) Lack of priorities,
j) procrastination or escapist behaviour
k) Fear of failure or success
l) No planning or Poor planning,
m) Financial insecurity,
n) Lack of commitment,
o) Lack of persistence.

xviii) Winning Edge :- It is a lot easier to improve one per cent in hundred different areas than to improve hundred per cent in any one area. That is the winning Edge. In order to get winning edge, we need to strive for excellence, not perfection. Striving for perfection is neurotic, the striving for excellence is progress.

Excellence is a continuous improvement. B.C. Forbes says “History has demonstrated that most notable winners usually encountered heart breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats”.

In our life, nothing worthwhile comes without struggle. Generally, as a parent, we don’t allow our children to struggle hard in their life. People who have overcome obstacles are most secured than those who have never faced them. We all have problems and sometimes feel discouraged. Everyone faces disappointments however, winners don’t get disheartened.

An English proverb says “A smooth sea never made skilled mariner”. Nothing comes easy in our life. He cannot run away from our problems. Obstacles used to come to test our grit, time and time again.

Measurement of Success :

a) Success is not determined by how we are doing compared with others but by how we are doing compared with what we are capable of doing. Successful people compete against themselves. They keep their own records and keep improving constantly.

b) Success is not measured by how high we go up in our life, but rather by how many times we bounce back when we fall down. It is this bounce back ability that determines success.

c) Success is not an absence of problems, it is overcoming them.

d) Every success story is also a story of great failure. Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr. of IBM stated “If you want to success, double your failure rate”.

e) If you study the history, you will find that all stories of success are also stories of great failures. The world only sees success. They don’t see the struggles behind the success.

f) Prosperity and success are the results 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 altitude.

g) The greatest gift which is given by God to human beings is the ability to think. Of all creatures in the world, the human beings are physically weak and ill-equipped. A human beings cannot fly like a bird, cannot run like a leopard, cannot climb a tree like a monkey. A human beings do not have the eyes like an eagle. Physically human beings are helpless and defendless; a tiny insect can kill human beings.

However, nature is very reasonable and kind. Nature’s greatest gift to humankind is the ability to think. Human beings can create their own environment whereas animals have to adapt to their environment.

Sadly, very few people use this greatest gift i.e., the ability to think to its full potential.

Concluded....