SEARCHING FOR SUCCESS

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful person and duplicate him.”

These dramatic and decisive words of advice were recorded by Professor Stephen Hawking, the world renowned, British theoretical physicist, whose work on quantum physics and general relativity has revolutionized scientific thinking. There are very few people in the world who can claim the right to declare themselves as successful in what they set out to accomplish as this great man. He is an unusually gifted man who has achieved the very highest pinnacles of professional and personal success despite being a severe victim of ALS which appeared at age 21 years and still an undergraduate student at Cambridge University. The disease has rendered him severely debilitated physically, and confined permanently to a wheelchair; He is only able to communicate with the help of a sophisticated computer and the movement of a single muscle in the face.

The quotation itself has always impressed me as one of the most effective pieces of advice that can ever be given to anyone who is searching for success. It is the one that I have passed on to each of my children and continue to remind them of its validity whenever the opportunity arises. In just a few well chosen words he was able to distill the most critical features required to be successful. Not only must you harness your own self and your own abilities but you must avoid trying to copy other people’s successes.

 Far too often, we find ourselves caught up believing the current popular view that the term “success” relates only to those people who have achieved personal or material dominance, and whose names and achievements appear constantly before us. But while many of these people deserve full recognition for the successes they achieved, one must never, ever lose sight of the fact that equally gratifying successes can be achieved in any of the mundane, non-materialistic and humanistic aspects of our day-to-day living as well.

Success, to be truly complete, should always be viewed as a multi-faceted, complex phenomenon that is not dependent solely on wealth, fame or stature, but must include personal satisfaction.  It is also important to recognize that one person’s concept of success does not necessarily apply to, nor match, another person's concept, and as such, they cannot be compared side by side. In truth, success is a totally individual phenomenon that cannot be copied, duplicated or categorized.  This is what Professor Hawking was alluding to in the above quotation.  It is so important that each person must discover what success means to them individually, and then devote their time and effort in achieving it and not merely copying another person’s efforts or results.

     

     Unfortunately, there is  a general tendency in most developed societies to essentially focus on those ‘successful’ people who have achieved public attention and notoriety, such as those in sport and in the entertainment media, and those who are financially successful. To some extent this may be because they are all better able to make full use of the opportunity to project their achievements to the public and they do so without hesitation. But however much these people deserve the recognition and the accolades, let us never believe that true success belongs only to these few.

         Every person who has chosen his road to success and who has set out on the journey and has achieved the results he sought is undoubtedly a success. For in order for him to have achieved his goal, he would, like all successful people, have had to harness his inner desires, expend his energies, confront his failures and move beyond his comfort zone. It can never be achieved by riding on the back of another.

Further, success is always very individual and cannot be quantified. To my mind, the success attained by Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos in building their wonderful business empires, as brilliant, magical and mind-boggling as they may be, is not qualitatively different from that of the small neighborhood pizza shop owner who started his business with an idea and a shoe-string in the hope of obtaining a better life for his family. Or for that matter, is there any fundamental difference between the joy and success experienced between Usain Bolt winner of the 100 meter Olympic sprint gold medal, and the young man who triumphed in the 100 meters sprint finals at the World Special Olympics held in the same venue, shortly after.

        

True Success indeed, must never ever be gauged by the response of the people around. It can only be truly seen in the eyes of the beholder. It has nothing to do with trying to build a bigger ego, and even less in trying to impress more people. This type of success is artificial and egotistic. It has everything to do with the deep-seated desire of the individual to achieve the goal he set for himself, however small or large that may be, and ultimately to achieve satisfaction and the happiness that follows. This to me is the real meaning of success, and as far as I am concerned, anything other than this is inappropriate.  

One of America’s greatest and most respected poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, placed the true concept of genuine success in the following context:

“The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well. And doing well whatever you do, without thought of fame. If it comes at all, it will come because it is deserved, not because sought after.”

It is of note that the he did not stress the need to satisfy public expectation or personal gain but rather it is to be deserved by individual effort.  

The people, who have achieved success, as is to be expected, cover widely varying fields of human endeavor. The following list is small and merely representative of the enormous numbers of people who have sought and achieved success:

 Vince Lombardi, a highly respected leader and one of the most successful professional coaches in NFL history. He is recognized as a national symbol for his determined efforts to succeed in every endeavor he undertook. He was convinced that the price of success was always hard work, as he stated repeatedly:

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task.”

Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a personal worth in excess of 70 billion dollars, accumulated over a span of less than 5 decades, is universally recognized as a very shrewd, successful and honest investor. To him, success came from dedicating himself to a purpose greater than just satisfying his own well-being, and from choosing only to work at something that he loved.

Jeffrey Bezos, a brilliant student who gave up a promising career in finance in New York to chase a dream of starting a bookselling business on the internet. With his wife and a few friends, he started his business in the garage of his home with three computers. He was instantly successful. Within 30 days, he was receiving orders from all over the US as well as from 45 foreign countries. Over the succeeding 10 years, the enterprise grew to become the largest, most diverse and most international retailer in the world. Throughout this period, Bezos has continued to push into new and imaginative fields, unfazed by his enormous record. When asked for the reason for his success, his reply was concise:

“You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.”

Sir Edmund Hillary, the world famous New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist who together with Tenzing Norgay, his Nepalese Sherpa, succeeded to become the first humans to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. He was greeted with world-wide acclaim for the first successful completion of a feat that had eluded countless hundreds of other equally experienced climbers and had taken many lives in the attempts. When asked to explain how this was achieved, he replied simply:

“People do not decide to become extraordinary.

They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”

Lance Armstrong, the American-born former professional road racing cyclist who won the prestigious Tour de France on seven consecutive occasions between 1999 and 2005. But as successful as these achievements have been, they are far overshadowed by the decision he made in 1996 at age 25 to aggressively battle his recently diagnosed: Testicular Cancer with metastatic spread to Lungs, Abdomen and Brain. Even though he was warned by his physicians and others that both his riding career and his life was in serious jeopardy, his indomitable belief in himself carried him during the 12 months of intensive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to achieve ultimate success. This spirit continued to serve to catapult him to the highest pinnacles of success in his chosen field of competitive cycling.  

         

These are but a few examples of the countless numbers of successful people that have crossed my path in my life time. No doubt every single person will readily have their own lists that have equally affected them. The names may be different, the stories will also be different, but in each one of them the message remains the same. A message that was so beautifully incorporated in Lance Armstrong’s personal motto of:

“Looking at every obstacle as an opportunity,

 Always working as hard as you can, and

 never believing that anything is impossible.”

         But in the end, when it is all said and done, perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American essayist, lecturer, poet and philosopher who lived during most of the nineteenth century, deserves to have the last word after recording the following observation:

“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

This to me is the finest description of the successful man I have encountered, irrespective of time, person, place or nationality, and one which we will all do well to emulate.

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