They Lost Before Trying
Let us accept the truth that when we reach to a certain age then only we realize the reasons of our failures. And the reasons of our failures were certainly not those hard working colleagues those grabbed opportunities available for everyone. Or if we thought our bad luck was reason behind our failure that will perhaps be the worst excuse. How can anyone achieve success based on his luck is hard to understand for me but as far as I am concerned I always thought hard work, strong willpower, punctuality and how to reach on top were the key features of all successful people.
Most people know these points but some people understand this point only after they fail on more than their allotted quota of failures. I said allotted because everyone does not succeed on every single time but he fails on certain occasions but that is natural and very much human as no one can succeed on all occasions but beyond that it indicates lack on your part. However, the people those think late about their failures cannot go back in time so they have no choice left but to regret their mistakes.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson the American academician and President always said that if you wish to touch the sky then raise your level of efforts, at least that’s what he meant. But the fact that it’s only you that know what will help you grow or what will help you the most. After all, you are the best judge of your own destiny. And finally it’s up to you to choose the path that will work for you.
It’s a common knowledge and nobody feels surprised anymore seeing people that started their career with almost similar qualifications, age and opportunities working in same organization but in different capacities for obvious reason the ones with better vision, more working capacity and better planning of career reached where they wanted to. The rest who had no belief in their own capacities or accepted defeat even before trying were left behind.
You can learn from achievers
What I did during last year from June onwards was motivating professionals in the same company where I worked as marketing manager. I tried my best for encouraging people to learn something new every day. I have been trying to motivate them be go- getter for the company. I have been tiring to send the point home that motivation from outside is as important as self motivation.
One can learn a lot from someone who has already touched the peaks of success in his career. After all we read biographies of great people for this very purpose. Every person willing to become successful in his life tries to grab as many tips as possible from each and every source he can think about.
If you read the book written by Carl Ransom Rogers the American psychologist and one of the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology, ‘Counseling and Psychotherapy’ you will reach to a single conclusion which says, ‘the story of the success can never be a one liner but the result of many failures’.
We can look at Newton as the best example of success and failures. He was born in a poor family, failed in many exams. He was even expelled from Cambridge but he reached to one of the highest positions in the field of physics. So, one can easily learn from people who were not born intelligent but they tried their best to achieve their target.
Professor Howard, another American writer and dedicated philosopher said something similar, ‘If you’re not unwilling to learn or suffering from overconfidence about your own abilities, you must read biographies of great people of your field as well people from other fields’. The conclusion of this post is that you have too little time and there is lot to be done so why not take to the proven path.
Work is more important
My boss is a perfectionist and is a great fan of Martin Luther King. Anyone entering in his cabin can see what Martin Luther said about perfection “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michael Angelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
My boss, the CEO of a big electronic manufacturing company takes pride telling everyone about his initial days of career that he started as a door to door salesman giving his best before finding a job in a multinational and later starting his own company 30 years ago. I am really so impressed with his way of doing things in a perfect ethical business manner. I like most of his decisions that he takes with the intention to give his best to every project that he plans and expects the same from his employees.
As a matter of principle, we should put our best efforts for the job assigned to us and that is only possible if we take our work religiously considering it as part of our work culture. During my initial career days I frequently travelled to Russia and I was impressed what I heard about Leo Tolstoy. I read many of his books but what impressed me more when someone told me about an incident that he did not mind keeping the money someone paid him for carrying his baggage.
I quoted Tolstoy just for an example that shows a person like him born in a rich family never considered any job as small but they knew the importance of work. Most renowned and famous people endorse the fact that the work they considered small turned out to be milestones later in their lives. It would be worth quoting David J. Schwartz at this point the writer of book ‘The magic of Thinking Big’. He says that thousands of people commit suicide every year considering their jobs was small or did not come good to their expectation. They punish themselves because they feel small and ashamed of their jobs.
Conclusion
We shall have to understand the value of our work keeping this in our mind that no work is small or big but the way you execute your job matters the most. Just find the ways you can do your work better that will make you feel proud. In fact no work is small but how you think about it or do it is important.