The “Invisible Main” Factor of Success

Nature, the cost-free teacher…

If you have ever had a sight or picture of an iceberg, you would agree with me that the little portion visible on the sea surface has a far bigger support beneath the water, that is not readily visible.

It’s often easy to realize concepts like this in nature, especially while observing non-human aspect of nature. But how simple and wonderful would life be if we could exploit the wonderful school of nature put in place by the Creator, adopt the lessons embedded therein, and apply them to our day-to-day living! How much less struggles we not have to wallow in as we walk through life! As simple and self-evident as the iceberg scenario is, its analogy is the basis for the “invisible main” factor of success.

One Scenario... 

Sometimes we wonder at how some people explain concepts we already know in very simple enough terms that almost any audience would easily understand and could easily apply the knowledge to effectively produce results. They get so appreciated that we feel “what’s so special?” “I know that already!” “I can explain that too!” But in most cases, we really cannot deliver like them as we soon find out if we try. Why is this so? An answer is this: apart from communication skill or any other thing we may think of, the person who explains things simply enough often has deeper knowledge of some intricate underlying details that make the simple explanation of surface issues of the subject possible. This could be from long time experience, as we have in some of our exception teachers of certain subjects, or a result of deep and wide study that often happens behind the scene. Getting in-depth knowledge of the subject matter enhances once ability to communicate it. Estein once said, “if you can’t explain it simply, you really don’t understand it well.”
 

The value of Character…

We often wonder why someone with amazing communication skill and high intellectual ability may sometime not seem to be so inspiring as some other person with not so spectacular communication ability and perhaps of relatively lower I.Q. we wonder why this same kind of things surface even in the lasting success of some organizations or teams headed separately by these two kinds of people(in the aforesaid scenario). This is because there are some behind-the-scene principle-based qualities that are more foundational to a lasting success than mere skills that, when possessed, can so potentiate even limited skills, making the person an amazement even in the sight of the more skilled counterparts who are devoid of these qualities. Of course skills are wonderful, strategies are great things to possess. Two major ingredients of successful leadership are competence and character. But someone once rightly said, “strategy and character are crucial to leadership, but if you must choose one, then choose character”—you of course will most likely never find yourself in such dilemma. These are qualities such as love, integrity, loyalty, honesty, genuine empathy, commitment to knowledge acquisition and balanced personal development, etc. These qualities precipitate success and greatness in their vessels, even when the technical skills possessed are not so spectacular.

Yet, another wonder…

We often wonder why we face the same situations as some other persons, have the same resources at our disposal like them—the same time, money, and the likes—yet they seem to have more composure and acumen in handling the situation and they often get better results—consistently! But the issue is not so much about the situation or the available physical resources. Rather, it is about how prepared you were before the situation arrives—the arrival time of challenges, situations and opportunities alike is usually the latest time to prepare. Consistent blind preparation lies at the root of the heights attained by the great people in history. They were people who kept preparing for life even when they were not yet aware of the time and place to deliver their contents. Yet they kept at it, and waited patiently for the opportune time to show forth their “stuff”. One of the foremost footballers on earth presently is famously known to arrive at the training ground before every other player, and leaves after everyone. His name might be very familiar to you—Christiano Ronaldo! “His success is by luck and sheer talent”—ask any mediocre, that would be his response!

The wealth of ages…

We often wonder why some people go faster in their success journey in life why some other ones go so slowly—and some eventually become complacent and stagnant. It’s because challenges abound on the pathway of anyone who sets out for greatness (this is why many don’t even attempt to start at all). And the magnitude of the speed with which we overcome these challenges is a function of our timely awareness of certain fixed principles of life and our application of and adherence to them. Many of these principles are discovered by experience—usually terrible ones that cast one down for some time before one eventually learn from the failure and move on. The wise ones among us climb on the shoulders of those who have gone ahead. By so doing, they are better able to see afar off before they encounter the various situations, and therefore gather the required resources before hand—they don’t start running around to procure them just when the needs arise. They learnt from the reservoir of knowledge of the elders and are saved of many stress or discomfort in life. These wealth of experience are largely hidden on the pages of books. Happy are they that find them out by being given to voracious reading! These treasures are also accessed by mentoring and attending educative programmes, especially ones outside the four walls of the formal academic class. The less wise ones amidst us neglect this bank of resources. They are too moral to take out of what does not belong to them—what they did not ‘work’ for! They are too honest to reap where they have not sown. So they want learn it all by themselves. They want to learn everything by their own experience. The good thing is that they still learn some things, but the sad thing is that they go slowly and remain battered and scarred from the wound of the “learning process” when they eventually attain a measure of success—and that’s if at all they survive the “learning adventure”, which isn’t very likely.

The conclusion of the matter…

So the whole story behind many outstanding dramas isn’t what we see on stage. The wonderful melodious 10 minutes ministration we get from an orchestra usually has hours of rehearsals invested behind the scene. The true secrete behind many success stories isn’t all the visible, public or obvious things we see in the “main players” in the stories. Majority of the things that make for success are the behind–the-scene efforts and preparations, the not-so-widely-embraced unbreakable principle of life and quality of character which make up the “success armour” of the successful. A man once said, “the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companion slept were toiling ever upward through the night.” 

If thou shall give thyself to understand these things,

 absorb them and get to work with them,

 thou shall be full of plenty, and

 happy shall thou be.

I call you blessed!