The Most Important Thing For Success.
By Anubhav Srivastava (Register for his Confidence Building Workshop Here!)
What is the most important thing for success that is UNDER YOUR CONTROL? Read this article and find out.
Most of want to achieve our dreams and yet if you ask people if they have achieved what they set out to do, most people would say no. Why is it that they fail? Well there are numerous reasons why.
Some people fail because they don’t believe in themselves. So they don’t start in the first place.
Some fail because they are too afraid of ridicule.
Others don’t set goals.
Others lack discipline.
Others lack a burning desire.
The gurus often say that the most important thing for success is having a burning desire. In fact having a burning desire was also the most important element of success mentioned in my movie Carve Your Destiny. However, a burning desire is like a powerful thrust which only works when combined with something else.
If the thrust happens for only a second or too, it is useless and will fizzle out. Similarly if you have a burning desire to succeed in the beginning but if you lose steam after some setbacks, no amount of drive can help you. A burning desire is only a means to the end. The real single most important thing for success, that is under your control, is persistence.
Unfortunately most people don’t have it. They give up too soon and either go back to their old ways or move on to a new thing without trying hard enough in the first one. They set out to mine hoping to strike gold and then when things don’t look as promising as they hoped, they move on to something else. So they start the new thing with excitement, fizzle out and give up. Then they start something new with excitement again, fizzle out again and give up again.
Now I am not one of those people who believes that you should never give up. There are some situations where giving up is actually wise.
For example if you are not talented enough in Football to even play the minor leagues, you are probably not going to make money as a professional football player. In this case it is okay to give up (although you can think about coaching if you are good at strategizing)
If you are trying to do business in a contracting market or obsolete market you should give up. For example if are selling Pagers in a world where smartphones are selling like hotcakes, you should give up. Unless you plan to sell them to a museum 🙂
So there are situations where it is certainly okay to give up. But these situations are exceptions. In most cases, persistence is what will save you. I can personally vouch for the fact that pure persistence is what helped me complete my dream project, Carve Your Destiny, which ended up getting over one million views on Youtube and inspires thousands of people on a daily basis.
In fact the US President Calvin Coolidge said “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Suppose someone wants learn a new skill, say swimming. So they try swimming a couple of times and get overwhelmed. So they give up and move on to trying to learn a piano. But after a few times they get bored and decide they want to become a master at riding bicycles. But the first time they fall and hurt their elbow, it is too much for them and they decide to give up on that too. They set out to be a master of all trades, but couldn’t even become a jack of one trade. Don’t be like them
We see this happening all the times in life. How often has it happened that you set out to do something with tons of excitement. Then when it seems difficult, you give up? Maybe you have given up on your dream university because you failed the first time, maybe you gave up on a relationship just because you too started fighting a lot, maybe you gave up on your childhood dream, just because it seemed too hard. No wonder nothing works out in your life.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the talented Indian film actor who only recently achieved the fame he always deserved had to struggle for 15 years with small roles before he finally made it big. Because he was not particularly good looking he mostly got forgettable roles which no one would really be proud of. Yet he kept at his job with absolute focus and finally made it big.
He was asked he did it and whether he knew he would be successful. He said he did not know what destiny had in store for him in terms of success, but he knew one thing he would either succeed or die trying. After 15 years he finally succeeded became a household name, but he said that even if he continued to fail forever, he was determined to spend the rest of his life trying. No wonder he succeeded, after all fortune favors the brave!
There are no guarantees of success and huge successes often have a healthy dose of luck involved but luck is unpredictable. It may come to you at anytime and it may desert you at anytime as well. If there is one thing above all that will raise your probabilities of success, it is a single minded determination to keep pushing when everyone else quits. Every time you work on something with focus you keep getting better at it and you raise your probabilities of success. Because at the end of the day, success is a game of probabilities and the more you try the higher your chances.
So keep marching forward and keep pushing on. If you succeed you will become a role model to the world and reap all the rewards. If you die trying, you will die as a hero in your own eyes with absolutely no regrets about not having given your best. Not all great dreams can ever be accomplished but it is in the process of trying that we discover our greatness.
About the Author
Anubhav Srivastava is an author, speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.
For one on one consulting or a motivational workshop at your organization please email anubhav101@gmail.com . If you would like to write a guest blog post on Anubhavsrivastava.com you contact me on the same email address. Facebook: http://facebook.com/anubhav981
Watch Carve Your Destiny, the super inspirational movie by Anubhav Srivastava for Free at