The Secret of Success
Jan 31st, 2007 by Jane
When you read this post title, what came to mind? Something new, innovative and creative that will solve every business persons, entrepreneurs or students troubles? Well, in a way it can! But it’s not something new, innovative or creative, although not many people are willing to do this. The secret of success is hard work. Not hard work one day and you might consider starting where you left off a week later. Hard work day in and day out creating the results you want.
Greg, from sbishere, writes:
Business is hard work. You work hard, make some headway start to feel like you are starting to figure it out, and go to bed. You wake up in the morning and are greeted by more, work.
This type of mentality is what sets the successful people apart from the people who just get by. There is nothing wrong with getting by, don’t get me wrong.
When talent meets desire and hard work, anything is possible. Steve Pavlina defines hard work in his blog by defining “hard work” as work that is challenging. Both hard work and “working hard” (i.e. putting in the time required to get the job done) are required for success. In his post, Hard Work, he writes:
Why challenging work? Because challenging work, when intelligently chosen, pays off. It’s the work that people of lesser character will avoid. And if you infer that I’m saying people who avoid challenging work have a character flaw, you’re right… and a serious one at that. If you avoid challenging work, you avoid doing what it takes to succeed. To keep your muscles strong or your mind sharp, you need to challenge them. To do only what’s easy will lead to physical and mental flabbiness and very mediocre results, followed by a great deal of time and effort spent justifying why such flabbiness is OK, instead of stepping up and taking on some real challenges.
The bottom line that Greg, Steve and I all agree on is that there is no replacing hard work. In order to achieve success and excellence, working hard, challenging your self, and having the right motivation is the secret.
To end, I will leave you with a quote from Vince Lombardi: “Winning is not a sometimes thing, it’s an all the time thing.” The same is true with hard work. You don’t do it once in a while, you do it all the time.
Jane,
I couldn’t agree more… and the highlight is the Vince Lombardi quote!
Jane, great post and I appreciate being included with such great company. Steve talks about character flaw regarding avoiding hard work and I do not totally disagree with that. In coaching hundreds of business owners I also see an integrity issue. Integrity is largely misunderstood in North America.
Integrity is not something you do for others but something you do for yourself. Integrity is that still small voice within that urges you to get moving, to act.
To often we ignore that urge. That is where it becomes a character issue - if you know you need to act and do not you have just sacrificed your future on the alter of self-deception.
Greg,
With more and more students graduating college wanting to make the “big bucks,” I couldn’t agree with you more. There needs to be a value put on integrity while they are being molded so that it is carried through their adult lives. When these students become managers and executives, this trait will make them, not only a stronger person, but a better person all around.
Thanks for stopping in.
Jane
Joey,
Lombardi has wonderful quotes, especially because many carry weight off the field as much as they do on the field.
I appreciate the comment.
[…] May at Career Ramblings, wrote a curious post the other day titled “The Secret of Success“, before you dismiss it out of hand, she quoted myself and Steve Pavlina. For a young lady, […]
I disagree that “success = hard work”. That is total BS. If it’s a formula, then it has to work both ways… does “hard work = success”? I don’t think so. Look at the people in third world countries… they work more than 12 hours a day and they can hardly afford to put a grain of rice in their mouth.
What the heck is success anyways? Money? Happiness? Or simply achieving your dream? There are many other ways to achieve “success”, regardless of whatever your definition of success is. The saying success is achieved through hard work is a fairy tale… the only “secret” to success is getting lucky.
We are all just bunch of squirrels looking for a nut and if you get lucky you’ll find it.
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Jane,
Thank you for the post. It is thought provoking. I personally like Jim Canterucci’s definition of success (Personal Brilliance: Mastering The Everyday Habits That Create A Lifetime Of Success) : “Success is the choices that are available, and the opportunities that can be created.” I don’t think we can discount the role of luck in achieving success. But, then luck can also be defined as: “when preparation meets opportunity”. However, I resinate with your comment: “But there is something wrong with getting by, wanting something more and not doing anything about it.” I think that is where the hard work comes in. Again, thank you for the post, and Greg @ sbishere for linking to it.
Binnur
Binnur,
Thanks for visiting us. I agree, Jim’s definition of success is a good one. Success can be defined in many ways; the idea of this post was to trigger thought and have people reflect on what they value, and want to accomplish. Most importantly, what they are doing to accomplish their goals.
Thanks again for your visit and hope to see you again!
Jane
Certainky there is the luck factor in achieiving success. That said, if I take action to make connections with someone with the intent to build a relationship and get to know them - sounds like an outcome of blogging to me - and we discover together that we can help each other, is that luck or is it due to the fact that I put in the effort?
This happened to me recently and can say that it was easy, however, it is hard work being an active blogger, author, and business coach.
To paraphrase: I’m a firm believer in luck. I find that the harder I work the more luck I have…
Amen! I was just reading an interview in the paper with LL Cool J and they asked how he reacts to his critics.
LL said that he looks at his tough critics (those who make false claims) as people who realize they are not living up to their own potential and the way they deal with that is to critize those who ARE.
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Very insightful, thank you!
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